Should Sex Work Still Be Considered A Crime?

Things only seem to be getting worse for the folks over RentBoy. On Tuesday, the company’s headquarters were raided by Homeland Security and the NYPD, who arrested CEO Jeffrey Hurant and six others for allegedly running an “internet brothel.”

Related: RentBoy CEO And Six Others Arrested In Prostitution Ring Bust

Tuesday morning’s sting operation came just days after an announcement by several major LGBT rights advocacy organizations–Transgender Law Center, Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders (GLAD), Lambda Legal, National Center for Lesbian Rights, and National Center for Transgender Equality–would be joining Amnesty International in calling for decriminalization of sex work.

With the website officially shut down, it remains to be seen what will to happen to the men who relied on RentBoy as a way of making a living–or paying their way through school.

All this begs the question: Isn’t sex work the classic victimless crime? Should sex work still be considered a crime? Sound off in the comments below…

Graham Gremore

feedproxy.google.com/~r/queerty2/~3/T2oU4GXi20c/should-sex-work-still-be-considered-a-crime-20150828

60 Music Videos That Raised LGBT Visibility

LGBT artists and allies have been creating compelling music videos about our lives for decades.

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Gina Vivinetto

www.advocate.com/arts-entertainment/music/2015/08/28/60-music-videos-raised-lgbt-visibility

Warsaw’s Tolerance Rainbow taken down

Warsaw’s iconic rainbow art installation – a symbol of LGBTI tolerance – has been taken down.

Several hundred people watched Wednesday (August 26) night as the plastic flowers were plucked and the metal support structure dismantled.

The 9m Tolerance Rainbow started in 2012 as a celebration of Poland’s EU presidency in Brussels. It was moved to Savior Square in 2012, where it became a symbol of tolerance – and one of controversy.

Politician Stanisław Pięta complained that the ‘hideous rainbow had hurt the feelings of believers’ – it is located next to a Catholic church –  and Priest Tadeusz Rydzyk described it as a ‘symbol of deviancy.’

It was torched seven times in the three years it was in the square, most recently in December.

Warsaw’s Tolerance Rainbow after it was burned in a riot in 2013. (Wikipedia)

‘No other art piece in the country has triggered such a nationwide debate, nor polarized society to such extent in decades,’ Radio Poland noted.

‘I think the Rainbow was a mirror [for our society],’ artist Julita Wojcik told the station.

‘That’s why I actually started to be a voice for the LGBT community. These groups told me the Rainbow did more than they tried to do for years in Poland.’

City authorities, previously supportive, did not extend the rainbow’s contract, which was due to end in December.

Ownership of the controversial work of art has now been assumed by the Centre for Contemporary Art.

The post Warsaw’s Tolerance Rainbow taken down appeared first on Gay Star News.

Darren Wee

www.gaystarnews.com/article/warsaws-tolerance-rainbow-taken-down/

Two more trans murders reported in US

The murders of two more black transgender women were reported in the US this week.

The women were slain earlier in the year but were initially misgendered in police and news reports.

Jasmine Collins, 32, was stabbed to death in Kansas City in June during an argument with a woman over a pair of Vans shoes, according to KCTV.

Tia Townsel was been arrested and charged with second-degree murder.

Collins’ death only came to light this week following the murder of another transgender woman of color, Tamara Dominguez, in the city.

Keyshia Blige, 33, was shot in the shoulder on 7 March while driving with a friend in Aurora, Illinois. She continued to drive but ran into a Jeep and died later in hospital.

Police said the killing was ‘definitely not a hate crime’ and no arrests have been made.

The Chicago Tribune initially misgendered Blige, though later reported that she had been taking hormones since January.

The post Two more trans murders reported in US appeared first on Gay Star News.

Darren Wee

www.gaystarnews.com/article/two-more-trans-murders-reported-in-us/

Ellen Page: It’s ‘borderline offensive’ to call straight actors ‘brave’ for playing gay

Ellen Page has said it is ‘borderline offensive’ to call straight actors ‘brave’ for taking on gay roles.

In an interview with Time, it was suggested that the openly gay actress was ‘brave’ to play a lesbian dying of cancer in her upcoming film Freeheld.

‘Maybe this is a bad thing to say, but I have a hard time when people call actors brave,’ she responded.

‘I don’t really get that, because our job is to read something on a page.’

The 28-year-old added: ‘When people are [called] brave in regards to playing LGBTQ people, that’s borderline offensive.’

‘I’m never going to be considered brave for playing a straight person, and nor should I be.’

Page recently confronted Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz about his discrimination of LGBTI people in the name of ‘religious freedom,’ and she addressed the debate in the interview.

‘The tricky thing about religion is you can’t even have a conversation. You just cannot have a conversation. It doesn’t affect me: For me it goes in one ear and out the other,’ she said.

‘But when you think of young people who are potentially being preached to by said person and their parents believe it, and they happen to be gay or trans or what-have-you, they’re going to have a really, really challenging time.

‘And that’s what’s so sad about it. Getting infused with that amount of shame into your body and into your mind. Potentially getting kicked out of your house. Potentially in a place where you’re homeless and every night of your life is life-or-death. That’s when I have no time for this religious argument.

‘I don’t understand being part of a religion where your religious liberty or your religious freedom is based on other people not being treated equally. I don’t understand that – I really don’t.

Page said she is often told that she will find God and be with a man.

Her response: ‘Well, not gonna happen, but you enjoy your time in heaven. I’ll be down in hell.’

The post Ellen Page: It’s ‘borderline offensive’ to call straight actors ‘brave’ for playing gay appeared first on Gay Star News.

Darren Wee

www.gaystarnews.com/article/ellen-page-its-borderline-offensive-to-call-straight-actors-brave-for-playing-gay/

South Dakota Keeps Trans-Inclusive School Sports Policy

However, legislators may challenge it — even trying to require genital exams.

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Trudy Ring

www.advocate.com/transgender/2015/08/27/south-dakota-keeps-trans-inclusive-school-sports-policy