31 NSFW Folsom Pics to Satisfy Every Fetish
Alexander Cheves
www.advocate.com/arts-entertainment/2015/9/30/31-nsfw-folsom-pics-satisfy-every-fetish
Monthly Archives: September 2015
Kim Davis, Clerk Who Refused To Issue Marriage Licenses To Gay Couples, Claims She Met The Pope
Kim Davis, Clerk Who Refused To Issue Marriage Licenses To Gay Couples, Claims She Met The Pope
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — A Kentucky clerk who went to jail for defying a federal court’s orders to issue same-sex marriage licenses says she met briefly with the pope during his historic visit to the United States.
The Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, didn’t deny the encounter took place but said Wednesday in Rome he had no comment on the topic.
Rowan County clerk Kim Davis and her husband met privately with Pope Francis last Thursday afternoon at the Vatican Embassy in Washington, D.C., for less than 15 minutes, said her lawyer, Mat Staver.
Davis, an Apostolic Christian, spent five days in jail earlier this month for defying a federal court order to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. In a telephone interview late Tuesday, Staver would not say who initiated the meeting with the pope or how it came to be, though he did say that Vatican officials had inquired about Davis’ situation while she was in jail. He declined to name them.
Davis was in Washington for the Values Voter Summit, where the Family Research Council, which opposes same-sex marriage, presented her with an award for defying the federal judge.
Pope Francis did not focus on the divisive debate over same-sex marriage during his visit last week. As he left the country, he told reporters who inquired that he did not know Davis’ case in detail, but he defended conscientious objection as a human right.
“It is a right. And if a person does not allow others to be a conscientious objector, he denies a right,” Francis said.
Also On HuffPost:
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French Muslim deputy mayor sentenced over refusal to marry lesbians
French Muslim deputy mayor sentenced over refusal to marry lesbians
A deputy mayor in the French city of Marseille has been given a five month suspended prison sentence over her ditching her responsibilities when faced with the prospect of having to perform the marriage of two lesbians.
Socialist Party deputy mayor Sabrina Hout performed the marriages of four heterosexual couples on 16 August last year, but when she realized she also had a same-sex marriage to perform that day she claimed she was feeling unwell and asked a colleague to perform the marriage instead
However the colleague was only a borough council member so did not have the legal authority to perform the marriage and so it was later found to be invalid.
As a result the couple had to marry again through a different district mayor.
Hout told the court that she was not prejudiced against gays and lesbians and put the error down to a ‘bad set of circumstances.’
But three witnesses told the court that she had referred to her ‘religious convictions’ as a Muslim as a reason she should not perform the couple’s marriage.
‘I’m really sorry,’ Hout told the court, ‘I’m ashamed of what I did, if it was interpreted as homophobia.’
However the court found the evidence against Hout to be ‘damning.’
‘It is imperative that no citizen, irrespective of age, handicap, race, political opinion and, indeed, sexuality, has reason to doubt the neutrality of … elected officials,’ the court found in its verdict.
The court also ordered Hout to pay damages of €1,200 to each of the women.
If Hout refuses to perform her duties as deputy mayor again she could potentially be jailed for five months.
The post French Muslim deputy mayor sentenced over refusal to marry lesbians appeared first on Gay Star News.
Andrew Potts
www.gaystarnews.com/article/french-muslim-deputy-mayor-sentenced-over-refusal-to-marry-lesbians/
Hillary Clinton appoints LGBTI liaison
Hillary Clinton appoints LGBTI liaison
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has appointed an LGBTI liaison amid questions over her inconsistent record on gay marriage.
Dominic Lowell, 29, joined the Clinton campaign as director of LGBT outreach on Thursday (29 September), the Washington Blade reported.
He previously served as director of strategic partnerships at Rock the Vote, a non-profit organization that aims to engage young people in politics, and is now one of several openly gay men to work for Clinton, including Campaign Manager Robby Mook and Deputy Political Director Brynne Craig.
*tap tap* Is this thing on? Clearing away the cobwebs and getting ready for a great campaign. Thanks for the follows and well wishes, y’all.
— Dominic Lowell (@dominiclowell) September 29, 2015
The creation of this new role comes days after Clinton was questioned about her inconsistent record on gay marriage on NBC’s Meet the Press.
‘On same-sex marriage, like a lot of people, including our president, I did evolve,’ she said. ‘And I was not raised to even imagine this.’
Clinton officially declared her support for gay marriage in 2013.
Philip Dufour, former LGBTI liaison for former Vice President Al Gore, said Lowell ‘has a deep understanding of the challenges the LGBTQ community faces.’
‘Working with him over the years, I am confident he will be an amazing asset and tireless force for change as our community seeks full equality under the law,’ he added.
Elizabeth Birch, former executive director of the Human Rights Campaign, praised both the Clinton campaign and Lowell.
‘More than ever before, the LGBT vote is a potent one – not just in terms of that critical edge that is required in close elections, but because LGBT people are now a mature and experienced organizing force,’ she said.
‘This is a critical position for the Hillary Clinton campaign and they have filled it with a proven, dynamic talent in Dominic.’
The post Hillary Clinton appoints LGBTI liaison appeared first on Gay Star News.
Darren Wee
www.gaystarnews.com/article/hillary-clinton-appoints-lgbti-liaison/
Watch: Gay marriage proposal on Beijing subway goes viral
Watch: Gay marriage proposal on Beijing subway goes viral
A gay marriage proposal that took place the evening of Mid-Autumn Festival (27 September) on the Beijing subway has gone viral in China.
Videos posted on the Twitter-like service Weibo show a young man kneel in the middle of a rainbow-colored carriage and propose to his boyfriend with a watch.
‘Today, I invite all the people we know and do not know to bear witness,’ he says.
He then takes the watch out of its box and puts it on his boyfriend’s wrist, and they embrace to applause.
The happy couple are surrounded by commuters who filmed the proposal on their phones.
One uploaded a clip and commented: ‘As usual, I was taking the subway home, but contrary to what I was expecting, I encountered a couple’s love… I think this is really incredible.
‘I believe the road they walk in this way they go a is certainly not a simple one. As a spectator, I can only give my sincere blessings.’
Shouts of ‘kiss’ and ‘disgusting’ can both be heard in the video, but most of the thousands of comments on were supportive and the hashtag ‘Mid-Autumn Festival man proposes to his boyfriend’ is a trending topic.
One commenter wrote: ‘Those who say it’s disgusting, you should admire their courage.’
Watch the proposal below:
The post Watch: Gay marriage proposal on Beijing subway goes viral appeared first on Gay Star News.
Darren Wee
www.gaystarnews.com/article/watch-gay-marriage-proposal-on-beijing-subway-goes-viral/
Pope Met With Kim Davis, Say Her Lawyers
Pope Met With Kim Davis, Say Her Lawyers
Pope Francis met privately with renegade Kentucky county clerk Kim Davis when he was in the U.S. last week, according to her lawyers from the right-wing group Liberty Counsel. The pope, who said little about marriage equality during his visit, did make a reference to the right of “conscientious objection,” even by government officials, when duties conflict with their religious beliefs. Davis says issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples conflicts with hers. When meeting with Davis and her husband, Joe, last Thursday, Francis encouraged her to “stay strong,” according to a Liberty Counsel press release.
This story is developing. Check back for updates.
Trudy Ring
www.advocate.com/religion/2015/9/29/pope-met-kim-davis-say-her-lawyers
US Senator Tammy Baldwin introduces bill to improve access to HIV/AIDS care
US Senator Tammy Baldwin introduces bill to improve access to HIV/AIDS care
US Senator Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin wants people with HIV/AIDS to have better access to health care.
So on Tuesday (29 September), the first out lesbian to be elected to the US Senate introduced the HIV Clinical Services Improvement Act aimed at helping clinics deliver high-quality care to those living with the disease.
Baldwin points out that more than 50,000 Americans become newly infected with HIV. In her home state of Wisconsin, there are an estimated 8,200 people living with HIV.
‘HIV/AIDS remains a public health crisis in our country and despite medical advances, people living with HIV still face significant physical, emotional, and financial burdens to quality health care,’ Baldwin stated.
If passed into law, the bill would strengthen Ryan White Part C clinics which provide comprehensive HIV care to over 275,000 people a year.
White was an Indiana teenager who became a national poster child for HIV/AIDS after being expelled from middle school because of his infection. He died in 1990 at the age of 18.
Baldwin made history in January 2013 when she became the first openly gay person to be sworn into the US Senate. She was previously the first non-incumbent gay person elected to the US House of Representatives and had also been the first lesbian elected to the Wisconsin Assembly.
Late last year, Baldwin led a coalition of federal lawmakers who called on the US government to end its lifetime ban on gay men donating blood.
The post US Senator Tammy Baldwin introduces bill to improve access to HIV/AIDS care appeared first on Gay Star News.
Greg Hernandez
Pope Francis Met with Kim Davis and Told Her ‘Stay Strong’, Report Lawyers
Pope Francis Met with Kim Davis and Told Her ‘Stay Strong’, Report Lawyers
Pope Francis met with Kim Davis at the Vatican Embassy in Washington D.C., according to her lawyers at the Liberty Counsel:
During the meeting Pope Francis said, “Thank you for your courage.” Pope Francis also told Kim Davis, “Stay strong. He held out his hands and asked Kim to pray for him. Kim held his hands and said, “I will. Please pray for me,” and the Pope said he would. The two embraced. The Pontiff presented Kim and Joe Davis each with a Rosary that he personally blessed. Kim’s mother and father are Catholic, and Kim and Joe will present the Rosaries to her parents. Kim’s mother was the elected Clerk of Court for Rowan County for 37 years until her retirement in 2014.
Kim Davis said, “I was humbled to meet Pope Francis. Of all people, why me?” Davis continued, “I never thought I would meet the Pope. Who am I to have this rare opportunity? I am just a County Clerk who loves Jesus and desires with all my heart to serve him.” Kim said, “Pope Francis was kind, genuinely caring, and very personable. He even asked me to pray for him. Pope Francis thanked me for my courage and told me to ‘stay strong.’”
“The challenges we face in America regarding the sanctity of human life, marriage, and religious freedom are the same universal challenges Christians face around the world. Religious freedom is a human right that comes from God. These values are shared in common by people of faith, and the threats to religious freedom are universal. Kim Davis has become a symbol of this worldwide conflict between Christian faith and recent cultural challenges regarding marriage,” said Mat Staver, Founder and Chairman of Liberty Counsel.
CBS News is also reporting the meeting and has reached out to the Vatican to confirm.
Here’s the original ‘Inside the Vatican’ report referred to by the Liberty Counsel if you can reach it. The site went down shortly after the Liberty Counsel’s claim went up. Here’s a pastebin posting of the text in the report.
Developing…
The post Pope Francis Met with Kim Davis and Told Her ‘Stay Strong’, Report Lawyers appeared first on Towleroad.
Andy Towle
Pope Francis Met with Kim Davis and Told Her ‘Stay Strong’, Report Lawyers
STUDY: NYPD Harming Homeless LGBT Youth
STUDY: NYPD Harming Homeless LGBT Youth
The New York City Police Department is again being accused of anti-LGBT harassment, as a new study indicates that homeless LGBT youth are are being repeatedly harmed by NYPD officers.
The Urban Institute surveyed 283 homeless LGBT youth in New York City who currently engage in survival sex — sex in exchange for shelter and food — and found that 71 percent have had interactions with the NYPD, most of them negative and often turning physical.
Seventy percent of the youth said they had been arrested at least once, usually for crimes like fare evasion. Of those arrested, 49 percent said they felt “unsafe” in the patrol car after the arrest, and had experienced violence at the hands of officers.
“This abuse consisted of verbal harassment, physical assault such as beating and choking, sexual assault including being propositioned for sex in exchange for release from custody and rape, denial of help when reporting a crime against police, and destruction or theft of personal property,” the report says. “In addition to physical injury, youth identified police violence as leading to psychological injury, including post traumatic stress disorder.”
Meredith Dank, senior research associate at the institute, says that although this sample was specific to homeless LGBT youth in New York City, such experiences are not unique to them. “This is happening on a national level,” she told Newsweek. “LGBTQ youth are experiencing police discrimination and abuse, especially those who are engaging n survival sex to have their basic needs met.”
Homeless LGBT youth are seven more times likely to trade sex than heterosexual youth, according to an earlier study conducted by the Urban Institute titled “Surviving the Streets of New York.”
The True Colors Fund, an organization that supports homeless LGBT youth cofounded by singer and activist Cindy Lauper, cites “family conflict” as the most common cause of LGBT youth homelessness. “For LGBT youth in particular, the conflict tends to be over their sexual orientation or gender identity,” the organization’s website notes. “Half of all teens get a negative reaction from their parents when they come out to them. More than one in four are thrown out of their homes.”
LGBT youth are disproportionate represented among homeless youth in the United States. According to the study, LGBT youth make up five to seven percent of the overall youth population but 20 to 40 percent of the homeless youth population.
The study is the latest example of accusations that the New York police mistreat LGBT people. In August, Jacob Alejandro filed a federal lawsuit against the NYPD alleging that officers held him down, broke his ribs, and used antigay slurs against him as he tried to leave the city’s Pride celebration in 2014. In July, Louis Falcone, a gay black man, reported being beaten by police outside his Staten Island home the previous month. The department has also often been criticized for transphobia.
Alexander Cheves
www.advocate.com/youth/2015/9/29/study-nypd-harming-homeless-lgbt-youth
Freeheld star Ellen Page admits: ‘I’m embarrassed to say how closeted I was’
Freeheld star Ellen Page admits: ‘I’m embarrassed to say how closeted I was’
It’s been 19 months since Ellen Page stood on a stage in Las Vegas at a Human Rights Campaign event and told the large crowd that she is gay.
Since then, the actress has become an outspoken LGBTI activist and even recently confronted Republican presidential hopeful Ted Cruz on his anti-gay views.
But for Page, who plays a lesbian in the new film Freeheld, it is still painful when she thinks of her former closeted self.
‘I’m embarrassed to say how closeted I was,’ she tells BuzzFeed News in an interview posted Tuesday (29 September).
‘I get sad thinking about it, honestly, because it was painful. And painful for people I was in relationships with. Just all-around destructive. Intolerance and closetedness is just a ripple effect of shit.’
Page, 28, was still a teenager when she was thrust into the limelight with an Oscar-nominated performance in the 2007 film Juno. After that, she made an effort to hide the women she was dating by, for example, leaving a hotel by a different entrance and ‘noooo public interaction.’
She remembers, with disgust, saying things like: ‘Go in the bathroom when room service comes’ or ‘This is my friend.’
She says now: ‘I feel bad about it. And I did start feeling really guilty about it. And I think that I should feel guilty about it.’
Page came out shortly before filming of Freeheld, a film close to her heart which she is also producing.
It tells the true story of police detective Laurel Hester (Julianne Moore) who finds out she has terminal lung cancer and seeks to leave her benefits to her partner Stacie Andree (Page).
The prospect of making the film helped Page come out publicly.
‘First of all, I didn’t want to be a closeted person anymore,’ she says. ‘But then also: “What, are you going to not be an out gay actor when you shoot a movie like that?” Of course not. And it is people like Stacie and Laurel that inspire you.’
She found making the film to be freeing.
‘It was a special experience for me personally: what it represented in my life. It was nice to play a gay person. I’m gay! It was nice to fall in love with a person onscreen who is the kind of person that you’d fall in love with.’
The post Freeheld star Ellen Page admits: ‘I’m embarrassed to say how closeted I was’ appeared first on Gay Star News.
Greg Hernandez
