Monthly Archives: July 2015
PHOTOS: Best of Pride
PHOTOS: Best of Pride
In our photos from June, these are people from all over the country who made Pride count.
Yannick Delva
LGBTI community rallies in Delhi, calls for repeal of anti-gay law
LGBTI community rallies in Delhi, calls for repeal of anti-gay law
Dozens of activists and members of Delhi’s LGBTI community held a protest in New Delhi today calling for the repeal of Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code which outlaws sexual relations between men, equal treatment and an end to the ‘homophobic’ policies of the central government.
The rally comes just days after Subramanian Swamy, a leader of the Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), called homosexuality a ‘genetic disorder.’ He said that while gay men and lesbians should not be discriminated against for jobs or socially ostracized, ‘we cannot celebrate nor can we publicize it.’
On Tuesday, he tweeted a reply to a user saying, ‘The issue is not about respect. We respect physically challenged persons. Homos are genetically handicapped.’
Following the SCOTUS ruling, Union Law Minister Sadananda Gowda reportedly hinted – then later denied – that the government is considering scrapping the anti-gay law.
Activists at the protest say India should catch up and treat its LGBTI citizens as it would other citizens.
Gautam Bhan said, ‘I think one by one the countries are moving, the map of the world is changing colors. It’s an inevitability because no matter what comes out of the languages of power in everyday life and every Indian city, we can see the changes and the reaction to every rights expansion whether it is in the US or in Mozambique.
‘When will people realize the wind has changed and there’s no going back?’ He told Indian news agency Asian News International (ANI).
In 2013, the Supreme Court of India overturned a Delhi High Court verdict that effectively scrapped Section 377 sparking an international uproar by LGBTI rights advocates.
The apex court later put the onus on the government, saying it is free to bring a legislation to scrap the law.
The post LGBTI community rallies in Delhi, calls for repeal of anti-gay law appeared first on Gay Star News.
Sylvia Tan
www.gaystarnews.com/article/lgbti-community-rallies-in-delhi-calls-for-repeal-of-anti-gay-law/
Marc Jacobs Accidentally Posts Nude Photo On Instagram
Kentucky County Clerk Sued Over Denial of Marriage Licenses
Kentucky County Clerk Sued Over Denial of Marriage Licenses
Two same-sex and two opposite-sex couples filed the suit Thursday against Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis, who had ceased issuing marriage licenses. Meanwhile, a Tennessee county sees an exodus of officials opposed to marriage equality.
Trudy Ring
George Takei Calls Justice Clarence Thomas A 'Clown In Blackface' Over Marriage Equality Dissent
George Takei Calls Justice Clarence Thomas A 'Clown In Blackface' Over Marriage Equality Dissent
George Takei has come under fire this week for calling Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas a “clown in blackface” over the judge’s stance on marriage equality. However, the “Star Trek” actor insists that his comment was not racially motivated.
During an interview with Fox 10 Phoenix, Takei, who is gay, discussed the Supreme Court’s recent landmark ruling to legalize same-sex marriage nationwide. Takei said he was “angry” at Thomas, who dissented to the decision, for his position on the issue.
“He is a clown in blackface sitting on the Supreme Court,” said Takei. “He gets me that angry. He doesn’t belong there.”
In his dissent, Thomas, who is black, wrote that “human dignity cannot be taken away by the government,” adding: “Slaves did not lose their dignity (any more than they lost their humanity) because the government allowed them to be enslaved. Those held in internment camps did not lose their dignity because the government confined them.”
Takei, whose family was held inside a Japanese internment camp during World War II, took issue with this logic.
“For him to say slaves have dignity, I mean, doesn’t he know that slaves were in chains? That they were whipped on the back?” Takei said. “My parents lost everything that they worked for in the middle of their lives, in their 30s. His business, my father’s business, our home, our freedom and we’re supposed to call that dignified?… This man does not belong on the Supreme Court. He is an embarrassment. He is a disgrace to America.”
In the wake of the interview, Takei has been slammed for what has been called a “racist” comment — an accusation that the 78-year-old fiercely rejects.
On Thursday, he wrote on Facebook:
A few fans have written wondering whether I intended to utter a racist remark by referring to Justice Thomas as a “clown…
Posted by George Takei on Thursday, July 2, 2015
Takei elaborated on his thoughts in a op-ed for MSNBC.
“To say that the government does not bestow or grant dignity does not mean it cannot succeed in stripping it away through the imposition of unequal laws and deprivation of due process. At the very least, the government must treat all its subjects with equal human dignity,” he wrote. “It seems odd that Justice Thomas, as an African American, would be an opponent of marriage equality. His own current marriage, if he had sought to have it some fifty years ago, would have been illegal under then-existing anti-miscegenation laws. I cannot help but wonder if Justice Thomas would have felt any loss of dignity had the clerk’s office doors been shut in his face, simply because he was of a different race than his fiancée.”
Thomas is married to attorney Virginia Thomas, who is white.
William Shatner, who has been known to “feud” with Takei online, defended his “Star Trek” co-star on Twitter.
I am positive that George is not a racist. Let’s stop the spin doctoring. t.co/LiolPBqufN
— William Shatner (@WilliamShatner) July 2, 2015
In October 2008, a few months after California became the first state to legalize same-sex marriage (and a few weeks before Proposition 8 made it illegal again), Takei and his longtime partner Brad Altman tied the knot in Los Angeles.
The couple have been together for almost 30 years.
Watch Takei’s interview with Fox 10 below:
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Ricky Martin also dumps Trump
Ricky Martin also dumps Trump
You can add Ricky Martin to the quickly growing list of those who have dumped Donald Trump.
Martin is outraged by Trump’s comments two weeks ago that immigrants from Mexico are ‘bringing drugs, they’re bringing crime, they’re rapists.’
So much so that the openly gay singer is moving the annual Ricky Martin Foundation charity golf event away from Trump’s International Golf Club Rio Grande in Martin’s native Puerto Rico.
A new location has not yet been announced.
Helga García, a spokesperson for Martin, said in a statement: ‘This decision corresponds to the commitment of solidarity from our founding president to human rights and the Latino community.’
Martin had taken to Twitter last week to say he thinks Trump’s heart is filled with ‘hate and ignorance.’
Trump made his controversial remarks when he announced that he is a candidate for the Republican Party’s presidential nomination.
Since then, NBC-Universal has cut business ties with Trump including the airing of his Miss USA and Miss Universe pageants and removing him as the force behind the reality competition The Apprentice.
Macy’s department store chain, which carried a line of Trump menswear, also dumped the real estate mogul.
Trump has refused to apologize for his comments and he has been surging in several national polls of Republican candidates.
The post Ricky Martin also dumps Trump appeared first on Gay Star News.
Greg Hernandez
PridefolkLauncher
Paradise Almost Lost
Paradise Almost Lost
The fallout from the Ted Cruz dinner, hosted by a pair of gay real estate magnates, washes onshore at the Fire Island Pines.
Chadwick Moore
Oregon Bakery Fined For Refusing To Make Wedding Cake For Lesbian Couple
Oregon Bakery Fined For Refusing To Make Wedding Cake For Lesbian Couple
The owners of an Oregon bakery must pay a $135,000 fine for refusing to make a wedding cake for a lesbian couple, a state official ruled on Thursday.
Oregon Labor Commissioner Brad Avakian agreed with a preliminary ruling that Sweet Cakes by Melissa illegally discriminated against a Portland couple in 2013 by turning down their request based on their sexual orientation, The Oregonian reported.
A judge had ordered owners Aaron and Melissa Klein to pay $75,000 in damages to Rachel Bowman-Crye and another $60,000 to her wife, Laurel Bowman-Cryer.
The Kleins had argued it was against their Christians beliefs to participate in a same-sex marriage. Supporters raised money for them earlier this year after an administrative law judge imposed the penalty.
The Bowman-Cryers, through their attorney Paul Thompson, said in a statement they were glad Avakian sent “a clear message that discrimination will simply not be tolerated in our state.”
“This has been a terrible ordeal for our entire family. We never imagined finding ourselves caught up in a fight for social justice,” they said.
“We endured daily, hateful attacks on social media, received death threats and feared for our family’s safety, yet our goal remained steadfast. We were determined to ensure that this kind of blatant discrimination never happened to another couple, another family, another Oregonian,” the statement continued. “Everyone deserves to be treated as an equal member of society.”
An email to HuffPost, the bakery said the decision was wrong, adding, “Americans should tolerate diverse opinions, not use the government to punish fellow citizens with different views. This case has become a poster for an overpowered elected official using his position to root out thought and speech with which he personally disagrees.”
The owners vowed in a Facebook post to appeal the decision:
“The final ruling has been made today. We have been charged with $135,000 in emotional damages, But also now Aaron has been charged with advertising. (Basically talking about not wanting to participate in a same-sex wedding) This effectively strips us of all our first amendment rights. According to the state of Oregon we neither have freedom of religion or freedom of speech. We will NOT give up this fight, and we will NOT be silenced. We stand for God’s truth, God’s word and freedom for ALL americans. We are here to obey God not man, and we will not conform to this world. If we were to lose everything it would be totally worth it for our Lord who gave his one and only son, Jesus, for us! God will win this fight.
The Sweet Cakes website features quotations from Biblical passages, such as, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight” from the book of Proverbs. It also explicitly states the bakery is interested in baking for weddings between a man and a woman.
“We here at Sweet Cakes strongly believe that when a man and woman come together to be joined as one, it is truly one of the most special days of their lives,” the homepage said. “We feel truely [sic] honored when we are chosen to do the cake for your special day.”
— 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.
