6 Gay Men You Never Want to Meet — Part III
Just when you thought it was safe to go on a blind date again …
Tyler Curry
www.advocate.com/commentary/2015/08/21/6-gay-men-you-never-want-meet-part-iii
Monthly Archives: August 2015
Hawaii tourism officials brainstorming ways to attract your LGBTI travel spend – will you be going?
Hawaii tourism officials brainstorming ways to attract your LGBTI travel spend – will you be going?
Some of Hawaii’s top travel movers and shakers met in Waikiki this week to brainstorm new ways to attract LGBTI tourists.
The meeting follows the formation of the LGBT Hawaii Tourism Association in June, comprised of over 40 stakeholders. The group’s founding members include Marriott Hawaii Resorts and Discover Hawaii Tours.
The activity follow the legalization of gay marriage throughout America in June.
However, some have questioned whether the government authorities are doing enough to welcome LGBTI travelers.
Questioning whether the state can make it as a hot new LGBTI destination, Jack Law, owner of Hawaii gay bars Hula’s Bar and Lei Stand, told Hawaii Public Radio-HPR2: ‘Hawaii [the state tourism agency] has done hardly any kind of reach out to this community. We’re simply not in the game.’
The Hawaii Tourism Authority told the outlet: ‘As an island community of diverse cultures, customs and backgrounds, Hawaii is a place of mutual respect and aloha for all. We welcome all visitors that want to experience and embrace the aloha spirit that makes our Hawaiian Islands so special.’
According to official figures, 767,408 people visited the 50th state in June 2015.
For more information on Hawaii, click here.
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Jamie Tabberer
50 Years of Transgender Models
50 Years of Transgender Models
Recently, a sister brand of H&M, called & Other Stories, launched a new campaign for their fall collection that features transgender models. In celebrate of this milestone, The Advocate compiled a 50-year history trans beauties that have been breaking barriers in the fashion industry. Take a look.
Daniel Reynolds
www.advocate.com/transgender/2015/08/21/50-years-transgender-models
I may get stoned to death for gay sex, says Saudi man outed in Ashley Madison leak
I may get stoned to death for gay sex, says Saudi man outed in Ashley Madison leak
A reddit user claiming to be a gay man from Saudi Arabia has said he could be stoned to death after he was outed in the the Ashley Madison leak.
Earlier this week, hackers published the personal data of millions of the infidelity site’s users, including those in countries where adultery is a crime.
Users of Ashley Madison’s Down Low site – which caters to ‘married men seeking other men for casual, no-strings fun’ – have also been put in danger.
‘I am from a country where homosexuality carries the death penalty. I studied in America the last several years and used Ashley Madison during that time,’ the man wrote.
‘I was single, but used it because I am gay; gay sex is punishable by death in my home country so I wanted to keep my hookups extremely discreet. I only used AM to hook up with single guys.’
Gay sex is illegal in Saudi Arabia and punishable by up to life in prison, fines and/or whipping/flogging, castration, torture and even death. Adultery also carries a death sentence.
‘I BEG you all to spread this message,’ the man continued.
‘Perhaps the hackers will take notice of it, and then, I can tell them to (at the very least) exercise discretion in their information dump (ie leave the single gay Arab guy out of it). As of now, I plan on leaving the kingdom and never returning once I have the $ for a plane ticket. Though I have no place to go, no real friends, and no job.’
Commenters recommended he apply for asylum in the West, while others questioned the authenticity of the man’s post.
‘A bunch of people are accusing me of lying because “AM is only for married people,”‘ he wrote.
‘AM is actually about “discreet hookups,” and hence its main appeal is to married people, since premarital sex isn’t stigmatized in the West.
‘But it also appeals to gays from regressive cultures, and their website has an option specifically for gays, as you can figure out if you do 5 minutes of research.
‘The idiots who claim I’m lying are projecting from personal experience, and forgetting that, for many gay people around the world, being outed is a life-threatening experience. The risks for us are greater than the risks for married Westerners cheating on their spouses. That’s why AM’s promise of discretion appeals to us.
In an update, the man said he had got enough money together to hire a car to the capital Riyadh and buy a plane ticket to the US.
Read the full post here.
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Darren Wee
Survey: One third of young Americans say they aren’t 100% straight
Survey: One third of young Americans say they aren’t 100% straight
Nearly a third of Americans under 30 do not identify as 100% straight, a new survey has found.
Following a similar study in the UK, YouGov asked 1,000 American adults to place their sexuality on the Kinsey scale, where 0 is exclusively straight and 6 is exclusively gay.
Overall, 78% of respondents say they are completely straight, while 4% say they are completely gay.
Sixteen percent say they fall somewhere in between: 10% more straight than gay, 3% in the middle and another 3% predominantly gay.
However, younger Americans were noticeably less likely to put themselves in a firm category, with only 66% of under-30s identifying as completely straight or gay; 29% say they are bisexual on some level.
The research noted that ‘a large number of Americans who classify themselves as heterosexual still admit to having had same sex experiences.’
Fifteen percent of straight women and 8% of straight men say they have had a sexual experience with someone of the same sex.
The survey was conducted between the 12 and 13 August, and has a margin of error of 4.2%.
A similar study in the UK found that British people are even more likely to be sexually fluid than Americans. One in two British people under the age of 25 said they were bisexual on some level.
The post Survey: One third of young Americans say they aren’t 100% straight appeared first on Gay Star News.
Darren Wee
www.gaystarnews.com/article/survey-one-third-of-young-americans-say-they-arent-100-straight/
Limit(less) Project: Carol Chibueze
WATCH: Christian Man Recounts Year Pretending to Be Gay in Ted Talk
WATCH: Christian Man Recounts Year Pretending to Be Gay in Ted Talk
Timothy Kurek pretended to be gay for one year in order to test his religious beliefs. The experience made him an ally.
Daniel Reynolds
Illinois Bans Gay Conversion Therapy For LGBT Youths
Illinois Bans Gay Conversion Therapy For LGBT Youths
Illinois’ Republican governor on Thursday signed a law banning mental health therapists from trying to change a young person’s sexual orientation or gender identity.
The measure signed by Gov. Bruce Rauner outlaws the controversial practice of “gay conversion therapy,” sometimes called “reparative therapy,” on people younger than 18. Once the law takes effect on Jan. 1, violators will face discipline from their state licensing board, according to the text of the measure.
The law makes Illinois the fourth state to ban gay conversion therapy for minors. California, New Jersey, and Oregon — as well as the District of Columbia — also have outlawed the practice.
But the Illinois measure is the first to include language linking conversion therapy to consumer fraud, according to its sponsor, state Rep. Kelly Cassidy, a Chicago Democrat who is an openly gay member of the State House.
“Our version of this legislation is the most comprehensive bill in the nation, barring health providers from engaging in this practice and affording survivors access to consumer fraud action against the perpetrators of this abuse,” Cassidy said in a statement.
Critics of conversion therapy say the practice is ineffective, because sexual orientation is not a choice, and is harmful to minors in particular. The Council of Representatives of the American Psychological Association condemned the practice as far back as 1997.
“Every major scientific organization has dismissed conversion therapy as harmful,” Cassidy said. “The Illinois Psychological Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the National Association for Social Workers, and so many more have not only disproven its utility, but they have decried its effects.”
Cassidy noted that children who are rejected by their communities based on sexual orientation are six times more likely to suffer from depression and eight times more likely to attempt suicide.
Jim Bennett, Midwest regional director for the LGBT rights group Lambda Legal, applauded the governor’s signing of the measure, telling The Huffington Post the law “puts the best interest of our young people first.”
“A more accurate name for conversion therapy is child abuse,” Bennett said. “Our LGBT young people deserve to be embraced for who they are.”
President Barack Obama this year called for an end to gay conversion therapy in response to a White House petition brought after the suicide of transgender Ohio teen Leelah Alcorn.
Alcorn, 17, walked in front of a truck in December after leaving a note in which she described how her conservative Christian parents forced her to undergo conversion therapy in order to change both her sexual orientation and gender identity. In a note posted to Tumblr, Alcorn wrote:
“The only way I will rest in peace is if one day transgender people aren’t treated the way I was, they’re treated like humans, with valid feelings and human rights.”
Also on HuffPost:
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Civil Rights, Religious Groups Ask Obama: Fix Bush-Era Changes to Religious Freedom Act
Civil Rights, Religious Groups Ask Obama: Fix Bush-Era Changes to Religious Freedom Act
The act was signed into law by President Clinton in 1993, then reinterpreted in a 2007 memo by Bush administration lawyers to offer protection to religious organizations that discriminated in hiring.
Dawn Ennis
Illinois becomes fifth state in US to protect LGBTI youth from dangers of conversion therapy
Illinois becomes fifth state in US to protect LGBTI youth from dangers of conversion therapy
Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner signed a bill into law on Thursday (20 August) that protects LGBTI youth from the dangers of conversion therapy.
The state follows in the footsteps of California, New Jersey, the District of Columbia, and Oregon.
House Bill 217, approved by the Illinois House of Representatives and General Assembly, protects youth from mental health providers attempting to change their sexual orientation or gender identity.
Such therapy has been linked to substance abuse, extreme depression, and suicide.
Human Rights Campaign President Chad Griffin calls it ‘a dangerous and appalling practice based on junk pseudoscience that amounts to nothing less than child abuse.’
Griffin also points out that conversion therapy uses fear and shame to tell young people the only way to find love and acceptance is to change the very nature of who they are.
‘We thank Governor Rauner, as well as members of the state legislature on both sides of the aisle, for putting politics aside and the well-being of children first,’ Griffin stated. ‘We will continue to work with our allies to secure these crucial protections in every state across the nation.’
HRC teamed with the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR), Illinois Caucus for Adolescent Health, Equality Illinois, and other groups in drumming up support for the bill.
‘Illinois families can now have confidence that the mental health professional they turn to in times of uncertainty may not use their state license to profit from their children’s pain,’ said
said NCLR staff attorney Samantha Ames.
Last year, NCLR launched its #BornPerfect campaign to stop conversion therapy across the country by 2019 by passing laws, fighting in courtrooms, and raising awareness. Illinois is the third state to pass such a law in 2015 alone.
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Greg Hernandez
