Freeheld: Love In the Time of Cancer
Ellen Page and Julianne Moore make Freeheld more than just a true story about a dying lesbian detective, her mechanic girlfriend, and the legal battle that changed New Jersey. It’s a surprisingly tender love story.
Diane Anderson-Minshall
www.advocate.com/arts-entertainment/film/2015/09/01/freeheld-love-time-cancer
Some Promising News When It Comes To Mental Health Stigma
More people are starting to see mental health as a crucial part of staying well. Nearly 90 percent of American adults value mental and physical health equally, according to a new survey.
The findings were part of a nationwide analysis on mental health and suicide conducted by the Anxiety and Depression Association of America, the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention and the National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention. Experts surveyed more than 2,000 respondents and are pleased with the results, given the stigma that’s generally associated with mental health disorders.
“Progress is being made in how American adults view mental health … and the importance that mental health plays in our every day life,” said Christine Moutier, chief medical officer for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, on a conference call with reporters. “A greater understanding is occurring with the American people, which is very encouraging.”
An overwhelming majority of respondents — 93 percent — said they’d intervene if they discovered someone close to them was contemplating suicide. Young adults in particular seem to be taking the conversations about mental illness in a more positive direction.
“The younger generation is more likely to seek help and to have a greater understanding that mental health is a very valid and real aspect of their health,” Moutier said. “[They’re] going to progress into middle age and the older generation before long and those attitudes can spread.”
93 percent of American adults said they’d intervene if they knew someone was contemplating suicide.
However, it’s not all good news. While the findings are indeed heartening, there’s still a long way to go when it comes to recognizing mental health risks and seeking treatment. Approximately half of respondents said they believed they had a mental health condition, yet fewer than two in five people have received treatment.
Perhaps most alarmingly, the survey found that men are significantly more likely to hide thoughts of suicide — a worrying statistic given that the highest rate of suicide in the U.S. occurs in middle-aged men.
“In general, we’re glad to see that Americans are starting to recognize the importance of mental health as part of their overall wellness, but with over 40,000 Americans committing suicide every year … it remains a significant concern that many Americans don’t seek help,” said Mark Pollack, president of the Anxiety and Depression Association of America.
Previous research conducted by the Association for Psychological Science suggests that stigma prevents people from seeking mental health care. After analyzing this survey’s results, Moutier, Pollack and other experts also noticed another obstacle: inaccessibility. Approximately one third of people surveyed said finding proper help is a challenge, and four in 10 people said they view cost as a barrier to treatment.
Social support is also a large factor when it comes to suicide, according to Doryn Chervin, director of the National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention. Most respondents realized how important their role is when it comes to helping a loved one who is experiencing harmful thoughts.
“People want to do something — they’re willing to do something — and the more we as a field help them know what to do, the more likely loved ones can play a role in helping to prevent suicide,” she said.
Most survey respondents realized how important their role is when it comes to helping a loved one who is experiencing harmful thoughts.
The findings do offer some refreshing insight into an apparent uptick in society’s understanding of mental illness. The common belief that someone can just “suck it up,” or “get over it” is a negative stereotype that plagues many sufferers of mental health conditions, which could lead to dangerous consequences, but experts believe the survey’s findings suggest that people are beginning to promote a greater acceptance of mental health issues.
“I believe [the results] are a reflection of this change that’s happening in terms of increased awareness and stigma going down,” Moutier said. “There’s certainly more work to be done, but I believe this does reflect a trend in the right direction.”
If you — or someone you know — need help, please call 1-800-273-8255 for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. If you are outside of the U.S., please visit the International Association for Suicide Prevention for a database of international resources.
Also on HuffPost:
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These 7 garden jobs, to be finished in Septemer, will help you get ready for fall
Rainy, gusty days are becoming more frequent, at least here in the UK, and with the leaves slowly starting to turn orange, there’s no denying that autumn is on its way.
Whether you enjoy pottering around in your own garden, have an allotment or keep plants on your balcony, now’s the time to start getting ready for the colder months while also slowly setting your sights on spring.
To give you some orientation and a point from which to start, we’ve collected the seven things you need to do in September to make sure everything garden-related goes smoothly once the cold really hits.
Net your pond
A net over your pond doesn’t just protect fish from predators but helps keep the water’s balance.
Ideally, a net should be covering your pond by the time the leaves start to fall, to make sure they don’t end up in the water.
It doesn’t only look not all that nice, but when leaves sink to the bottom of the pond and start to decompose, they release compounds changing the water’s balance, potentially harming (or even killing) fish and encouraging algae growth.
Once the net has gone over your pond, all you need to do is remove the leaves regularly, or they may rip and damage the net when they get wet and heavy.
Prune shrubs and climbing roses
Pruning roses and shrubs helps them grow healthily – and bigger.
Now’s the time to cut back late-summer flowering shrubs, like rock roses (Helianthemum), and climbing roses.
Make sure your plants, especially the roses, have finished flowering – leave them if they’re repeat flowering – and you know how to correctly cut back your plants, before you end up accidentally killing them instead of ensuring a nice re-growth.
Keep harvesting
Carrots can stay in the soil until the first frost hits, but other crops should be harvested continuously.
If you’ve got fruit and veg, either on a large scale or in the form of just a few plants, keep harvesting your hard-earned crops; it would be a shame to let them go to waste.
Keeping on top of harvesting also means your plants may be more productive – cucumbers, peppers of all varieties and peas, for example, will keep growing crops for a long time after your first harvest.
In case you can’t eat everything right away, try pickling or blanching and freezing the vegetables and turn fruit into jellies and jams – they’re also perfect as small gifts for family and friends, either for Christmas or just as a nice gesture.
Clean out nesting boxes
Give nesting boxes a quick sweep to make sure next year’s tenants stay happy and healthy.
By September, all chicks should have flown out, so it’s time to get nesting boxes ready for the new tenants looking to move into a clean (and, most importantly, parasite-free) home next spring.
It doesn’t need to match a human’s definition of squeaky clean: giving the box a good sweep will do. If you’re unsure if that’s enough, don’t use disinfectants – they’ll do more harm than good – but rather warm water or, in hard cases, some lye made with (baking) soda.
And don’t forget to knock on the box before opening it up – the birds may have left, but small rodents, bumblebees or bats like to climb in while seeking refuge from cold nights.
Divide your herbaceous perennials
As you prune roses and shrubs, it’s also time to think about dividing perennials, like
Turn one into two: dividing anemones and other perennials encourages healthy growth – and adds more plants to your garden.
anemones, asters or peonies, to encourage a vigorous growth in the following year – with the bonus that you’re also multiplying your plants.
Once you’ve divided and replanted your plants, make sure they get enough water – allowing them to dry out will slow down the re-establishing process and can potentially kill the new additions to your garden.
Get started on the planting
Early planting is key if you want your spring garden to be as colorful as this one.
Spring may be a long time away, but September is when you should start thinking about, and planting, the flowers you want to see in your garden once winter is over.
Planting daffodils, crocus other spring flowering bulbs now ensures they’ll be ready next year; to have some color in time for Christmas, now’s also the time to plant hyacinth and amaryllis bulbs you want to force into blooming.
Other plants may also be planted now, especially biennials and perennials but also trees and shrubs, as the soil is still warm (and will stay warm for a bit longer), but September is generally less dry, with rainfall starting to increase.
This also extends to lawn: not only should it be mown down in September (in preparation for winter), it’s also the perfect timing to patch up bald spots and sow out new lawns.
Give hedgehogs a home
It doesn’t take much to turn a corner of your garden into a hedgehog’s winter residence.
As it’s starting to get colder, hedgehogs and other mammals get ready to hibernate during the winter months.
To make it easier for them, leave a corner of your garden ‘wild’, with leaves and branches heaped together – they attract not just hedgehogs, who’ll appreciate the chance to build a nice nest there, but also slugs and beetles (so the buffet is sorted).
If you like your garden looking tidy and well-kept all year, artificial homes can easily be built (a board leaning against a wall might already be enough) or bought in garden centers; they’ll do an equally good job, without creating a ‘messy’ corner.
The post These 7 garden jobs, to be finished in Septemer, will help you get ready for fall appeared first on Gay Star News.
Stefanie Gerdes
PHOTOS: Eric Angelo Fills 8 Black Briefs
Everyone looks good in black, and men look good in briefs – whether that’s their go-to underwear style or not. Keep it sleek with a few accents and you get effortless elegance; make it narrow and revealing, and your black brief becomes something dark and sexy for date night; or you can keep it right in the middle for a casual, everyday pair of underwear that won’t disappoint if you get lucky.
Model and YouTube personality Eric Angelo models 8 black briefs below:
Photo Credit: Jerrad Matthew Exclusively for The Underwear Expert
Underwear Expert
feedproxy.google.com/~r/queerty2/~3/Tv6jSekyxwM/photos-8-black-briefs-filled-by-eric-angelo-20150901
Op-ed: It's Hard Out There for a Femme
The married couple known as Wegan explain why they created a “femme” dating site for lesbians.
Megan Evans and Whitney Kay Bacon
www.advocate.com/commentary/2015/09/01/op-ed-its-hard-out-there-femme
The death of Lord Montagu and why his notorious gay trial was a turning point for Britain
Lord Montagu of Beaulieu has died at the age of 88. The name might not mean much nowadays, except that it became synonymous with one of the most notorious gay trials of the 20th century.
In March 1954 he, the journalist Peter Wildeblood and another aristocrat, Michael Pitt-Rivers, were convicted – on sketchy evidence at best – of gross indecency and sentenced to terms of imprisonment of one year to 18 months.
‘People can’t understand it now,’ Montagu said in an interview with the Evening Standard in 2007. ‘They can’t imagine the furtiveness. As someone said at the time, the skies over Chelsea were black with people burning their love letters.’
It all boiled down to what did or didn’t happen during a party in a beach hut in Beaulieu, on the south coast of England, one summer night. The prosecution embroidered a lurid tale aimed at the nation’s press of all-night male orgies and vice-laden drunkenness.
Wildeblood, in his account published the year after the trial, demurred, pointing out the party was rather boring and, furthermore, throughout the whole time the hut was surrounded by girl guides, apparently engaged in birdwatching.
But gross indecency was a very easy offence to commit, essentially a catch-all for any form of intimacy. Montagu himself confessed to having kissed one of the men present, which would have been enough without press-fuelled fables of Bacchic excess.
This was, in any case, a show trial, part of a concerted effort, truly a witch hunt, to ‘rid England of this plague’ of homosexuality, in the words of the then British Home Secretary David Maxwell Fyfe. It was a hunt which saw over a thousand men imprisoned at any one time for consensual same-sex sexual activity.
The year before his more famous trial, Montagu had been the subject of another police investigation based on earlier supposed gay Beaulieu shenanigans, allegations he always denied and which were eventually thrown out of court because of forged evidence. A high profile figure, clearly, the authorities had him in their sights.
To that end the police made every effort to secure a conviction this time round and to make sure the trial was as well publicized as possible.
‘There was this crash-bang bang-bang on the door,’ Montagu remembered. ‘The press had been tipped off and were already there,’ a point corroborated by Wildeblood, himself a newspaper man.
Lurid headlines followed, of rampant homosexual wickedness threatening the very lifeblood of the nation – headlines, as it happens, towing the government line; an all-too familiar tale.
The defendants were denied access to lawyers for hours after their arrests, the police bungled their own accounts and the three men’s convictions were secured on the statements of two witnesses, young airmen present at the beach hut, who gave evidence in exchange for immunity from prosecution.
All the publicity, however, backfired. Despite their convictions, the mood among the public was sympathetic.
They were cheered when they left the court to begin their sentences. The injustice of it all became a key factor in the move towards decriminalisation of homosexuality.
Wildeblood, who had openly confessed his sexuality during the trial, became a key witness to the Wolfendon Committee – that committee’s report would later help secure the decriminalization of homosexuality in Britain.
Montagu, understandably perhaps, wanted none of this. We may require victims of these brutal laws to become poster boys and girls for the cause, but few ever want to. Montagu was just one of the many who didn’t.
The terrible fear the state had imposed on gay and bisexual men in the post-War period took its toll. A public trial, the humiliation of conviction and the cruelty of imprisonment, the sense, as he confessed, of having let his family down somehow, induced him to deny everything.
It was only in his 2000 autobiography that he came out as bisexual, and only in 2007 that he felt able to talk publicly about the trial.
In the interim he’d married, thrown himself and his estate into the world of classic racing cars and went back to, as he saw it, a world of normality. In one of the interviews he gave, Montagu did make a belated claim for recognition as a sort of LGBTI hero.
‘Maybe I’m being very boastful about it,’ he told the Evening Standard, ‘but I think because of the way we behaved and conducted our lives afterwards, because we didn’t sell our stories, we just returned quietly to our lives, I think that had a big effect on public opinion.’
Maybe it did, although Wildeblood’s published account rather suggests that he, at least, did not return quietly to his life. It was his more active role before the Wolfendon Committee that almost certainly had a greater impact on the change in the law.
But Montagu’s long silence is entirely understandable. In the context of the 1950s he was supposed to be a pillar of the community, to take his punishment and carry on, not to make a fuss – to offer a veneer, at least, of respectability.
When, eventually, in 1967 the law was changed, one of the sponsors of the Sexual Offences Act, Lord Arran, warned gay men against any form of ostentatious behavior which might ‘make the sponsors of the Bill regret that they have done what they have done’.
Montagu’s enforced quiet would have conformed perfectly to this demand. But it’s Wildeblood who, I think, had the last word, concluding his account of the trial and his imprisonment with a plea for understanding, a demand for a more honorable sort of quiet.
‘The right which I claim for myself, and for all those like me, is the right to choose the person whom I love… to choose a partner and, when that partner is found, to live with him discreetly and faithfully.’
Kevin Childs can be followed on Twitter here.
The post The death of Lord Montagu and why his notorious gay trial was a turning point for Britain appeared first on Gay Star News.
Kevin Childs
Why Are We Gay?
Centuries of studies have tried to examine the value of homosexuality to human beings as a species.
Brenden Shucart
www.advocate.com/print-issue/current-issue/2015/09/01/why-are-we-gay
Russia cancels its only LGBTI film festival
Russia has abruptly cancelled the country’s only LGBTI film festival, only to replace it with a ‘positive, youth-oriented’ alternative.
Organizers of Moscow Premiere received the news days before the 13th edition of the festival was scheduled to kick off on 2 September, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
‘Due the difficult economic conditions, the culture department of Moscow has to limit the use of budgetary resources in 2015 and cancel funding of several events, including Moscow Premiere,’ a letter from city’s culture committee read.
Funding was diverted to the new Youth Festival of Life Affirming Film.
The move comes two years after the introduction of a gay ‘propaganda’ law, which bans the ‘promotion’ of homosexuality to minors.
Moscow Premiere is a week of free screenings of films not given wide release in the country, such as Russia 88 and Winter Journey, a mockumentary about neo-Nazis and a gay-themed debut feature.
Festival head Vyacheslav Shmyrov said it was too late to save this year’s event and that they would not would not affiliate with the new festival for their ‘self-esteem.’
The post Russia cancels its only LGBTI film festival appeared first on Gay Star News.
Darren Wee
www.gaystarnews.com/article/russia-cancels-its-only-lgbti-film-festival/
Here's How Religious Exemption Laws Can Hurt Women And The LGBT Community
Forty-three prercent of Americans live in a state with religious exemption laws, which can potentially harm women and the LGBT community, according to a new report.
For its “LGBT Policy Spotlight” report released Tuesday, the Movement Advancement Project broke down the history of religious freedom laws, including recent Supreme Court rulings like Burwell v. Hobby Lobby that play a role in how state and federal religious freedom laws are interpreted.
“The original federal RFRA may have been passed with good intentions, but the Supreme Court’s interpretation of the law in Hobby Lobby — alongside states’ ever-increasing roster of religious exemptions, both broad and targeted — raise serious concerns about how these vague exemptions are being used to harm others, interfere with law enforcement, and undermine the rule of law,” the report says.
Earlier in 2015, both Indiana and Arkansas passed religious freedom laws that drew criticism nationwide over concerns that they could be used as legal justification for discrimination against LGBT individuals. A Reuters/Ipsos poll from April showed a majority of Americans believe businesses should not be allowed to refuse services based on their religious beliefs.
The Movement Advancement Project’s report examines how much of the U.S. population lives under potentially harmful religious freedom laws:
(Click the map to view a larger image)
The report says the increase in these laws across the U.S. is “no coincidence,” arguing the legalization of same-sex marriage and and the coverage of contraception under the Affordable Care Act are among the reasons people are fighting to pass more religious freedom legislation.
Read the full report below:
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BREAKING: Supreme Court Rules Against Kentucky Anti-Marriage Equality Clerk Kim Davis
The Supreme Court on Monday ruled against the Kentucky county clerk who has refused to issue same-sex marriage licenses, and the clerk will face her moment of truth.
Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis will have to choose whether to issue marriage licenses, defying her Christian conviction, or continue to refuse them, defying a federal judge who could pummel her with fines or order that she be hauled off to jail.
“She’s going to have to think and pray about her decision overnight. She certainly understands the consequences either way,” Mat Staver, founder of the right-wing law firm representing Davis, said on Monday, hours before a court-ordered delay in the case expired. “She’ll report to work tomorrow, and face whatever she has to face.”
A line of couples, turned away by her office again and again in the two months since the U.S. Supreme Court legalized gay marriage across the nation, plan to meet her at the courthouse door.
Related: Kentucky County Wants To Fire Kim Davis, Clerk Who Won’t Issue Marriage Licenses To Same-Sex Couples
Davis stopped issuing all marriage licenses in the days after the landmark decision. Two same couples and two opposite sex couples sued her, arguing that she must fulfill her duties as an elected official despite her personal religious faith. A federal judge ordered her to issue the licenses, and an appeals court upheld that decision. Her lawyers with the Liberty Counsel filed a last-ditch appeal to the Supreme Court on Friday, asking that they grant her “asylum for her conscience.”
Justice Elena Kagan, who oversees the 6th district, referred Davis’ request to the full court, which denied the stay without comment. Kagan joined the majority in June when the court legalized gay marriage across the nation.
Meanwhile, a couple that had been turned away went to Rowan County Attorney Cecil Watkins to ask that she be charged with official misconduct, a misdemeanor defined by state law as a public official who “refrains from performing a duty imposed upon him by law or clearly inherent in the nature of his office.” The crime is punishable by up to a year in jail.
Watkins cited a conflict of interest and forwarded the complaint to Kentucky Attorney General Jack Conway, whose office will decide whether to appoint a special prosecutor, generally a county attorney from a surrounding jurisdiction, who would decide whether to file charges.
As the clock wound down for Davis on Monday, the tension intensified between dueling groups of protesters outside her office window on the courthouse lawn.
Hexie Mefford has stood on the lawn waving a flag nearly every day for more than two months. The flag is fashioned after Old Glory, but with a rainbow instead of the red and white bars.
Mike Reynolds, a Christian protesting in Davis’ defense, shouted at her that he found the flag offensive: He is an Army veteran, he complained, and they had desecrated the American flag. The two groups roared at each other. The Christians called on the activists to repent; the activists countered that their God loves all.
It was a marked difference from the cordial protests that unfolded there every day since Davis declared she would issue no licenses.
Rachelle Bombe has sat there every day, wearing rainbow colors and carrying signs that demand marriage equality. One particularly hot day, Davis, the woman she was there to protest against, worried Bombe would get overheated and offered her a cold drink. In turn, Bombe said she’s checked in on Davis, whose lawyer says she’s received death threats and hate mail, to make sure she’s holding up despite the difficult circumstances.
“She’s a very nice lady, I like her a lot,” Bombe said of Davis. “We’re on the opposite sides of this, but it’s not personal.”
On Monday, the Christians stood on the grass and sang “I am a Child of God.”
The marriage equality activists chimed in after each refrain: “So are we.”
By CLARE GALOFARO /Associated Press
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This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Chris Bull
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