Yoko Ono Settles The Score On John Lennon’s Long-Rumored Gay Love Affairs

Yoko Ono Settles The Score On John Lennon’s Long-Rumored Gay Love Affairs

John-Lennon-Yoko-OnoIn a candid interview from her apartment at the iconic/infamous Dakota Building in New York City’s Upper West Side, Yoko Ono shared her thoughts on art, equality, her husband’s murder on the sidewalk below, and John’s sexuality.

You can read the full piece on The Daily Beast.

Here are a few highlights:

Her thoughts on LGBTQ equality:

The existence of prejudice is “incredible,” she says, and marriage equality is “really great, we shouldn’t be so thankful. It’s just normal.”

Prejudice, she thinks, “goes both ways, I’m sure gays feel straights are really dumb. There’s more freedom being gay probably, that’s good.”

LGBTs should have true equality, Ono says, “and you’ll get it. Equality is people having to create their own future. That’s what they’re [gay people] doing. They should be very, very positive.”

“Equality under the law and equality in real life is slightly different,” says Ono. “People are different from how the law can control them. We have a very complex life called the human life. There’s more than equality in life.”

On her own sexuality, and John Lennon’s:

“Well, that’s another thing. John and I had a big talk about it, saying, basically, all of us must be bisexual. And we were sort of in a situation of thinking that we’re not [bisexual] because of society. So we are hiding the other side of ourselves, which is less acceptable. But I don’t have a strong sexual desire towards another woman.”

So did Lennon have sex with other men?

“No, I don’t think so,” says Ono. “The beginning of the year he was killed, he said to me, ‘I could have done it, but I can’t because I just never found somebody that was that attractive.’ Both John and I were into attractiveness—you know—beauty.”

Dan Tracer

feedproxy.google.com/~r/queerty2/~3/n9tQJJ5qMeY/yoko-ono-settles-the-score-on-john-lennons-long-rumored-gay-love-affairs-20151014

Newark Archbishop Bans Catholics Who Support Gay Marriage From Receiving Communion

Newark Archbishop Bans Catholics Who Support Gay Marriage From Receiving Communion

MyersNewark, New Jersey Bishop John J. Meyers has issued new guidelines outlining who among his parishioners should not receive holy communion–a list that includes any Catholic who supports gay marriage.

Meyers’ “memo” to priests under his jurisdiction comes as Pope Francis’ synod on the family convenes in Rome, discussing, among other things, how the Church should treat the LGBT community.

Religion News Service reports:

[Myers] says Catholics, “especially ministers and others who represent the Church, should not participate in or be present at religious events or events intended to endorse or support those who reject or ignore Church teaching and Canon Law.” […]

The memo is titled “Principles to Aid in Preserving and Protecting the Catholic Faith in the Midst of an Increasingly Secular Culture.” It is dated Sept. 22 and was sent to priests this week, according to a source who provided a copy to Religion News Service.

In the memo, Myers writes: “The Church will continue to cherish and welcome her members and invite them to participate in her life to the degree that their personal situation permits them honestly to do so.

“Catholics,” he continues, “must be in a marriage recognized as valid by the Church to receive Holy Communion or the other sacraments. Non-Catholics and any Catholic who publicly rejects Church teaching or discipline, either by public statements or by joining or supporting organizations which do so, are not to receive the Sacraments.”

Read the memo below:

The post Newark Archbishop Bans Catholics Who Support Gay Marriage From Receiving Communion appeared first on Towleroad.


Sean Mandell

Newark Archbishop Bans Catholics Who Support Gay Marriage From Receiving Communion

22 Halloween Costumes For Grownups Who Are Big Kids At Heart

22 Halloween Costumes For Grownups Who Are Big Kids At Heart

Hey, just because you’re an adult doesn’t mean you have to grow up! 

Seriously, let’s face it — though many of us are attempting to adult, we all know that we’re really just big kids at heart. So why not show off your fun and kooky side this Halloween with some costumes inspired by kids’ shows, movies and books?

From “The Powerpuff Girls,” to Darla from “Finding Nemo,” these getups will make you feel like a kid all over again — without the pain of braces or awkward school pictures. 

Check out the costumes below! 

Also on HuffPost:

— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.



feeds.huffingtonpost.com/c/35496/f/677065/s/4aac6aca/sc/28/l/0L0Shuffingtonpost0N0C20A150C10A0C140Ckid0Ehalloween0Ecostumes0Efor0Egrownups0In0I8295590A0Bhtml0Dutm0Ihp0Iref0Fgay0Evoices0Gir0FGay0KVoices/story01.htm

Open Question: Why are LGBT people so sensitive?

Open Question: Why are LGBT people so sensitive?
Lol they call me a homophobic just because I told them to stop complaining about their lives. I think it makes me laugh when they say people in other countries around the world are discriminating against LGBT people daily I think that is true but so are other groups of people being persecuted even killed around the world. Lol being a LGBT is not that bad it doesn’t give you some disadvantage in life they can still have a successful life and make good friends. . I also find it hilarious when they think I would hit on a lesbian or bisexual women. I don’t care about gay women dumbasses. I don’t take the time to look at a gay woman when she is walking by in real life. What I am trying to say is people who have genetic disabilities are usually more discriminated against than gay people are. The news doesn’t bother to say people with genetic disabilities are being persecuted the most because the public could care less about people with genetic disorders.

answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20151014082354AAM7tiH

Married Congressional Aide Attacks Male Lover With Shovel In Front Of Wife

Married Congressional Aide Attacks Male Lover With Shovel In Front Of Wife

craftsman-shovel-xlAn aide for Democratic Rep. Sander Levin of Michigan was arrested after allegedly choking his male lover, threatening to stab him with a knife and then whacking him with a shovel, authorities said.

Related: Straight Man Seeks Advice After Sleeping With His Married Boss

Tim Foster is, er, was the online communications director for Rep. Levin. That is, until last Thursday when he allegedly got into a heated verbal altercation with a man who identified himself as Foster’s boyfriend.

Roll Call reports the argument occurred at around 12:30 a.m. on October 8 in Baltimore. It’s unclear what sparked the blowup, but, according to police, Foster allegedly put the other man in a chokehold then yelled, “I want to kill you! Die dirty faggy!”

The boyfriend managed to break free. That’s when Foster grabbed a stainless steel kitchen knife and began waving it around in the air, threatening to stab him.

Related: “Straight” Married Man Feels Guilty After Messing Around With Another Guy

Things took an even more dramatic turn moments later when Foster’s wife — that’s right, he’s married to a woman — jumped between the two men in an effort to break up the fight. Foster dropped the knife then grabbed a shovel, hitting his boyfriend in the back as he fled for the safety of his car.

The boyfriend managed to escape and immediately drove to a nearby hospital where he was treated for abrasions and bruises on his upper back, neck and torso, police said.

Rep. Levin’s office says the issue is “a completely private matter” and it would not be commenting other than to say Foster has since been placed on unpaid leave.

A trial is scheduled for November 10.

Related: STUDY: At Least 5% Of American Men Are Gay, Millions Closeted, Many Married To Women

Graham Gremore

feedproxy.google.com/~r/queerty2/~3/__rIT1TaivM/married-congressional-aide-attacks-male-lover-with-shovel-in-front-of-wife-20151014

Gay Adult Film Star Blue Blake Has Died

Gay Adult Film Star Blue Blake Has Died

blue blake

Gay adult film actor Blue Blake has died in London at 52. The cause of death is not yet known. Blake, née Glenn Marsh, was also a producer and director of gay adult films, who eventually started his own adult film company. He was inducted into the GayVN Hall of Fame in 2005.

SouthFloridaGayNews.com reports:

Blake, who reportedly died in London, performed in several gay porn scenes between 1993 and 2003 before taking a more active role behind the scenes, according to the website. Blake, whose real name is Glenn Marsh, ran his own studio, Big Blue Productions, and in 2008 published an autobiography “Out of the Blue; Confessions of an Unlikely Porn Star.” […]

Blake was a former Royal Marine (the U.K.’s amphibious light infantry force) and hailed from Nottingham, England, according to Al’s Gay Porn Stars directory, which also notes he studied at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts and appeared on stage in the U.K.

Below, watch an interview with Blake from 2009:

[Photo via Facebook]

 

The post Gay Adult Film Star Blue Blake Has Died appeared first on Towleroad.


Sean Mandell

www.towleroad.com/2015/10/gay-adult-film-star-blue-blake-has-died/

Walmart Sued By Transgender Woman Who Says She Was Harassed And Then Fired

Walmart Sued By Transgender Woman Who Says She Was Harassed And Then Fired

Walmart and one of its managers in a New Jersey store have been hit with a lawsuit alleging that a transgender employee was harassed and then fired over her gender identity.

Samantha Azzarano began working at Walmart store in Deptford, New Jersey as a service associate in September of 2012. In January of the next year, she informed a manager that she is transgender. Later that year, she began outwardly expressing her gender identity and had her name badge changed to Samantha. The lawsuit says that there were no problems with her coworkers or performance.

That is, until another manager, Sheena Wyckoff, joined Azzarano’s team in January of 2014. “That’s when the trouble began,” Azzarano’s lawyer, Kevin M. Costello, told ThinkProgress.

According to the complaint, Wyckoff referred to Azzarano as “Samantha, Robert [her birth name]…he/she…whatever,” “that fucking tranny,” and told Azzarano that “we are always walking on eggshells for you.” The use of the slur tranny is particularly troubling to Costello. “If we were at all uncertain about some of Ms. Wyckoff’s very obvious discriminatory remarks before that…this kind of put the nail in the coffin,” he said. “The word ‘tranny’ is not a word that acceptable to use to describe a trans person. It’s as unacceptable as a racial epithet to describe a black person.”

The complaint also alleges that Wyckoff directed an inordinate amount of criticism at Azzarano, raised her voice and yelled at her, and eventually started writing Azzarano up and coaching her on her performance, none of which was done to other workers who weren’t transgender.

“Clearly she had a problem with Samantha being Samantha,” Costello said.

The incidents culminated in Wyckoff firing Azzarano in June of 2014. Walmart did not respond to a request for comment on the lawsuit.

Azzarano told her legal team that she wanted to bring the lawsuit on behalf of herself, given that the law protects her from discrimination, and any other transgender people at Walmart who may have experienced similar abuse. The lawsuit seeks to stop any ongoing abuse of transgender people at Walmart and the reinstatement of Azzarano’s job plus backpay.

She’s right that she should be protected from workplace discrimination as a transgender woman. Thanks to a provision in New Jersey’s Law Against Discrimination that stipulates protections based on gender identity and expression, hers is one of just 19 states and Washington D.C. where transgender people are explicitly covered by anti-discrimination laws. Federal law doesn’t enumerate protections for gender identity in the workplace, although the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has ruled that it violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, which bans sex-based discrimination.

The landscape would be clearer and more uniform, however, with an explicit ban. The Equality Act, a bill introduced in Congress this summer, would explicitly ban employment discrimination against all LGBT people. Among surveyed transgender people, 90 percent say they have experienced harassment or mistreatment at work or had to take actions to avoid it, while about half have been fired, not hired, or denied a promotion because of their gender identity. They also experience an unemployment rate double that of the general population.

The post Walmart Sued By Transgender Woman Who Says She Was Harassed And Then Fired appeared first on ThinkProgress.

Bryce Covert

thinkprogress.org/economy/2015/10/14/3712270/walmart-transgender-lawsuit/