Gay Couple Gets Engaged with Madonna’s Help: WATCH
Things got romantic at Madonna’s Edmonton concert last night when Madge facilitated a gay couple’s engagement by offering one of them the chance to propose.
Said Madonna to Jan and Chad from Calgary:
“Hey you forgot the most important part. You didn’t catch the bouquet!”
Watch:
The post Gay Couple Gets Engaged with Madonna’s Help: WATCH appeared first on Towleroad.
Andy Towle
Chicago School Will Violate Federal Law To Discriminate Against Transgender Student
This week, the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights (OCR) informed District 211, Illinois’ largest school district, that it was in violation of federal law by refusing to allow a transgender student to use the locker rooms that match her gender identity. The school has responded by declaring that it will continue to discriminate against the student.
The student, whose name has been kept private, first filed a complaint with support from the ACLU of Illinois in early 2014. She was already living as a girl and was playing sports, but was forced to change in a separate room a long hallway away from the gym. Following precedent in two similar cases in California, OCR informed District 211 in a not-yet-public decision that depriving the student of equal access to facilities violates Title IX’s sex nondiscrimination protections, calling such treatment “inadequate and discriminatory.”
The school responded by doubling down. At a press conference, Superintendent Dan Cates insisted, “This is about matters of student privacy.” Promising not to abide by OCR’s pending decision, he explained, “What they are asking us to do is have opposite sex students in the same open area of the locker room and that we do not do. This is a matter we take very seriously and this policy would undo that.”
A statement issued by the district asserts that it “supports” transgender students, but is drawing the line at open locker rooms. “After serious and lengthy consideration, the District will continue to provide private accommodations for transgender students to ensure a respectful school environment, and will not allow unrestricted access to its locker rooms as directed by OCR.” The statement notes that violating the OCR’s decision could lead to litigation, enforcement action, and the potential loss of federal education funds.
John Knight of the ACLU of Illinois, who represents the student, told ThinkProgress that she finds it incredibly “painful to be singled out.” Having to use the separate changing room has resulted in her being late for class on some occasions. “It sends a strong message to her,” he explained, “that she’s not like other students,” describing her as feeling like a “pariah.” A press release from the ACLU further described that “being separated from her classmates and teammates stigmatized the student and made her feel different.”
Knight rebuked the school for its announcement to continue discriminating against the student. “It is puzzling that the school district has decided to elevate its misguided interpretation of ‘privacy’ over the fundamental principle of non-discrimination,” he said in a statement. “The school leadership’s decision is a poor reflection on the community they represent.”
What happens next won’t be determined until OCR issues its opinion and then assesses how to respond if the school refuses to comply.
The post Chicago School Will Violate Federal Law To Discriminate Against Transgender Student appeared first on ThinkProgress.
Zack Ford
thinkprogress.org/lgbt/2015/10/13/3711878/illinois-school-transgender-discrimination/
How WWII Started The Modern Gay Rights Movement
We often attribute the 1969 Stonewall Riots as being the birthplace of the modern gay rights movement. But the first time gay people started coalescing was during World War II, according to USC gender studies professor Chris Freeman.
In honor of October’s lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) history month, Freeman explained to HuffPost Live’s Alex Miranda that after the draft started in the early 1940s, the army started screening people for homosexuality. It was a word many had never heard before.
“It helped in a certain way to solidify an identity, or it gave a name to an identity, that they just had feelings for,” Freeman said. “And then, through the context of being in the all-male or all-female environments that they wound up in, they found each other.”
After the war, Freeman explained, many of those homosexual relationships remained, and as people resettled in cities rather than “going back to the farm,” early gay communities were created.
“Public sex and gay people meeting each other for that purpose has been perpetual, forever,” Freeman said. “But forming organizations and forming community around it as a modern identity and a modern community village is really a post-WWII phenomenon.”
Watch the full HuffPost Live conversation on gay history here.
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Open Question: What do you think about Christian churches accepting gays and lesbians in their congregations ?right or wrong?
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) affirming religious groups (also called gay-affirming) are religious groups that welcome LGBT members and do not consider homosexuality to be a sin. They include entire religious denominations, as well as individual churches and synagogues. Some are composed mainly of non-LGBT members and also have specific programs to welcome LGBT people, while others are composed mainly of LGBT members
The Abrahamic religions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, have traditionally forbidden non-heterosexual and non-vaginal sexual intercourse (both of which have been variously labeled as sodomy), believing and teaching that such behavior is sinful and derived from the behavior of the residents of Sodom and Gomorrah.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBT-affirming_religious_groups en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Christian_denominational_positions_on_homosexuality Homosexuality and Roman Catholicism
Homosexual sexual activity, by contrast, is viewed as a “moral disorder”and “homosexual acts” as “contrary to the natural law what the bible says about it ?
Leviticus 18:22
Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination
Fortune 500 Company Announces Support for Houston Equal Rights Ordinance
Yesterday, the Houston Chronicle issued an op-ed from the Vice President of The Dow Chemical Co. in support of the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance (HERO).
HRC.org
Aussie Bobsledder Simon Dunn Is “Like A Virgin” As He Gets Ready To See Madonna
Bitch, everyone thinks he’s Madonna these days, even Aussie bobsledder Simon Dunn. The athlete was in Edmonton, Alberta and while prepping to see the pop icon’s Rebel Heart concert he got into the groove by dancing and lip syncing to one her early hits “Like a Virgin.” Been there. Simon was kind enough to record it for us all to enjoy.
Getting ready for the @Madonna concert #masc4madonna pic.twitter.com/Kpuw0YHP7U
— Simon Dunn (@bobsleighsimon) October 13, 2015
Watch Dunn warm up below.
Jeremy Kinser
Vloggers Will and R.J. Show You How To Striptease for Your Man: WATCH
Vloggers Will Shepherd and R.J. Aguiar, a former contributor here at Towleroad, have taken on the daunting task of learning how to striptease for each other–and it turns out it’s a voyage of discovery.
Taking lessons from a striptease instructor, Will and R.J., along with two other couples, learn a few tricks of the trade. For instance, when dry-humping the air, “try not to hump the air, more so caress the air.” Also, whisper something into your lover’s ear. R.J. tries that one out, cooing into Will’s ear, “I like burritos.”
Which moves do you want to steal?
Get ready for some first-time striptease, below:
The post Vloggers Will and R.J. Show You How To Striptease for Your Man: WATCH appeared first on Towleroad.
Sean Mandell
Vloggers Will and R.J. Show You How To Striptease for Your Man: WATCH
10 Powerful Photos Reveal The ‘Unseen Scars’ Emotional Abuse Leaves Behind
“Just because you aren’t being hit — doesn’t mean you’re not being abused.”
That’s the message behind Sarah Hosseini‘s new photo essay titled “Unseen Scars.” As a survivor of domestic abuse, Hosseini created the series to reveal the emotional trauma that victims are often left with after leaving their abuser.
Although Hosseini’s abuser never physically hit her, she said that he abused her through manipulation, lying and verbally attacking her. The series represents the “unseen scars” that so many survivors of abusive relationships carry, but often go untreated because they’re not physical scars.
Hosseini and photographer Melanie Mercogliano created a series of 10 photos featuring Hosseini and her experiences as a survivor. Each image is paired with Hosseini’s personal testimony of her everyday struggles with PTSD over a decade after her abusive relationship.
“I know many women who also suffer with these after effects of abuse — even if their abuser never physically touched them,” Hosseini told The Huffington Post. “The threats are damaging. The manipulation is monstrous.”
“Domestic violence can take many forms — physical abuse, sexual abuse, rape, emotional abuse, intimidation, economic deprivation, threats of violence.”
“While physical scars heal, the unseen hurt in a person is what affects them for the rest of their lives,” Mercogliano told The Huffington Post. “There is no ER visit where the nurses stitch you up, there are no flowers and presents and there is no therapy afterwards.”
Hosseini wanted to capture the trauma of emotional abuse in the same way physical abuse often is illustrated — through photographs. So she drew from her own experience and created images from the thoughts that run through her head every day.
She said that creating the series was “absolutely therapeutic” as a survivor. “The project gave me power — power over my abuser, power over my past and power in the dialogue about domestic violence,” she said.
Scroll below to read Hosseini’s intimate and powerful struggle as a survivor of domestic abuse.
Head over to Hosseini and/or Mercogliano‘s websites to read more about them.
Need help? In the U.S., call 1-800-799-SAFE (7233) for the National Domestic Violence Hotline or visit the National Sexual Assault Online Hotline operated by RAINN. For more resources, visit the National Sexual Violence Resource Center’s website.
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