Open Question: Why do Christians claim persecution when they have a right to practice their religion?
Christians can go to church to worship God, set up Bible study in colleges and high schools. They can practice their faith openly and without fear of being arrested. This alone means they are not persecuted at all. When Lgbt people gain marriage and adoption rights and are included in non discrimination policies along with religion is it not persecution of the Christian faith. It is simply a group of people who Christians did suppress and deny earlier gaining their rights.
Daily Archives: October 25, 2015
Michigan School Pulls ‘Captain Underpants’ From Book Fair Over Gay Character – VIDEO
Michigan School Pulls ‘Captain Underpants’ From Book Fair Over Gay Character – VIDEO
In a blatant example of anti-LGBT censorship, a Michigan elementary school has banned the latest installment of the popular children’s book series “Captain Underpants” from an upcoming fair because it includes a gay character.
Barry Martin, superintendent of the Monroe School District, says the Parent-Teacher Organization opted to remove the book from the Arborwood Elementary book fair based on a warning from Scholastic Books. However, a panel of experts at Scholastic Books that reviewed the book deemed it appropriate for events like the Arborwood Elementary book fair.
In “Captain Underpants and the Sensational Saga of Sir Stinks-a-lot,” the 12th installment in the series from author Dav Pilkey, the main character Harold travels 20 years ahead in time to meet his adult self and discovers he’s married to a man. Although it’s a relatively minor plotline in the story, it was enough to get the attention of the PTO.
From WXYZ-TV in Detroit:
“Scholastic notified us and the school that there was a book that may be a little controversial,” said Dr. Barry Martin, superintendent of Monroe Public Schools.
“The school decided we’ll make it available online,” said Martin. “But, we won’t make it available in the actual book fair itself.”
Martin says the PTO opted to pull “Captain Underpants” because kids, from kindergarten up, shop at the book fair alone and without parental supervision. But not all parents support the decision, according to WDIV-TV:
“If you’re in this world, they should know about that regardless. I mean, (parents) should have that conversation before it’s brought up,” said Kimberly Rose, a parent who opposes the decision to ban this book from the fair.
In a statement about the book when it was published in September, author Pilkey said:
“When it comes to books, we may not all agree on what makes for a good read, but I hope we can agree that letting children choose their own books is crucial to helping them learn to love reading.”
A review on Amazon.com says the book also refers to GOPs as “grumpy old people.”
But according to the American Library Association, the PTO’s decision could amount to illegal censorship:
“Librarians and governing bodies should maintain that parents—and only parents—have the right and the responsibility to restrict the access of their children—and only their children—to library resources.” Censorship by librarians of constitutionally protected speech, whether for protection or for any other reason, violates the First Amendment.
The ACLU has more on why anti-LGBT censorship is so problematic:
For gay people and their families this type of censorship is not just an abstract philosophical concern. The fact of the matter is that children with same-sex parents attend schools across the country, and blocking websites or removing books from the shelves won’t change that. It only serves to stigmatize these students and their families as something dirty or shameful. Libraries should reflect the diversity of all kinds of ideas — and all kinds of families.
Watch a news report on the controversy below.
The post Michigan School Pulls ‘Captain Underpants’ From Book Fair Over Gay Character – VIDEO appeared first on Towleroad.
John Wright
Michigan School Pulls ‘Captain Underpants’ From Book Fair Over Gay Character – VIDEO
Adam and Stephen (3)
adamwright1989 resident posted a photo:
The bond between Adam and Stephen is strong as they explore an abandoned circus at Halloween.
Vincent Price’s Daughter Confirms Her Famous Father Was Bisexual
Vincent Price’s Daughter Confirms Her Famous Father Was Bisexual
In her book, Vincent Price: A Daughter’s Biography, Victoria Price explored the many facets of her famous father. The Hollywood legend, who died in 1993, enjoyed a career on stage and screen that spanned some 60 years, and the urbane actor remains the preeminent horror icon of our time.
While the younger Price addressed the persistent rumors surrounding her father’s sexuality, she refrained from offering a definitive opinion on the matter. But in an exclusive interview with Boom Magazine promoting her parent’s newly re-released cult-classic cookbook, the Hollywood daughter opens up about the speculation.
“Everybody asks me: was your dad bisexual, was he bisexual,” said Price. “And it was Roddy McDowall who said to me, you know, we didn’t have any idea what bisexuality meant in that sense, and if we didn’t know, then how can we know the answer to that question?”
In fact, the out designer, art consultant, author, and public speaker has been wrestling for decades with just how much of her father’s private life is public domain, as recounted in this 2012 blog post:
I was standing at the bar in West Hollywood, Calif.’s club of the moment one night in the spring of 1989, talking with a group of hip Hollywood women I hardly knew, when a blond woman with a wry expression came over to me and said, “You’re Vincent Price’s daughter. Your father’s gay, isn’t he?” I don’t remember my mumbled reply–except that, sadly, it wasn’t very witty–“I don’t know” or “He was married three times.” But I do remember that I was shocked. Not because it was the first time someone had suggested that he might be gay or at the very least bisexual, but because, until that moment, I hadn’t really understood the degree to which my 78-year-old father’s sexuality, whatever it might be, had become public property to be discussed, analyzed, bandied about, as one might share a recipe or chat about the weather. I found it a discomforting revelation.
Victoria Price
Price is well aware of America’s fixation with celebrity and the salacious, news-driven, “who had sex with who?” culture in which we live. But she also realizes as a member of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community that there remains a deeply rooted yearning for history and heroes and a personal connection to the past.
“To me, it’s interesting, because as I’ve learned more about my dad’s sexuality, and more than I knew then about different things, I’ve had the choice of what to reveal and what not to reveal,” Price explained. “Since I didn’t hear it from his mouth, I think that everything I hear comes with a measure of hearsay, right?”
“But I would like to say something here because I might as well,” she continued. “I am as close to certain as I can be that my dad had physically intimate relationships with men. I know for 100 percent fact that my dad was completely loving and supportive of LGBT people.”
Growing up in their Hollywood Hills mansion, Price recalls the constant presence of LGBT folks at family gatherings.
“Now, we lived across the street from Rock Hudson and we had a lot of gay friends growing up,” she recalled. “I mean, “Uncle Rupert and Uncle Frank” came to every dinner party and it was very clear that they were together. And while the word [gay] was never mentioned, it was very much the norm.”
“I remember at nine-years-old going to drop something off at Rock Hudson’s house — of course, I was super excited because I was a huge Rock Hudson fan,” Price continued. “So this absolutely beautiful man came to the door and in my nine-year-old mind, I thought, oh, that’s – I don’t know if I had a word for it — but that’s his ‘Uncle Frank or Uncle Rupert’, right?”
Price recalls her father’s 1977 one-man-show where he played the openly gay Oscar Wilde to great acclaim and rebuffed the antigay Anita Bryant efforts of the day. In television interviews, Vincent Price said Wilde had already written a play about Ms. Bryant: A Woman of No Importance. She remembers an early advocate who joined PFLAG as an honorary board member and was one of the first celebrities to do public service announcements quelling public fears of AIDS.
“He married a bisexual woman [British actress Coral Browneand] and everybody assumed their marriage was a fraud,” offered Price. “It wasn’t a fraud. It was a totally sexual relationship but they were two people with very open-minded approaches as to what life should look like. And that to me — people who lived this truth in all aspects of their lives — they should be heroes to every community.”
Yet at the end of the day, what remains important to Victoria Price is how her father loved and the lessons learned from experiencing that first hand.
“The interesting thing for me is that when I came out to him and he said to me, ‘you know, I know just how you feel because I have had these deep, loving relationships with men in my life and all my wives were jealous,’” she recalled.
“In a funny way, and I think I’m going to cry, he understood me at 22 better than I understood myself then,” Price concluded. “Of course, he was in his 70s and lived a hell of a lot longer than I had, and he understood that at the end of the day it’s about who and what and how we love. And I have not been a person who has been very successful at conventional relationships, but loving well and loving deeply has been the most important thing to me.”
Jeremy Kinser
Oklahoma Haters To Rally Against Gay Marriage At State Capitol On Sunday
Oklahoma Haters To Rally Against Gay Marriage At State Capitol On Sunday
Four months after the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Obergefell — and more than a year after it became legal in Oklahoma — opponents of same-sex marriage plan a rally at the state Capitol on Sunday.
The “Protect Life and Marriage Rally” is being organized by the Rev. Paul Blair (right), president of Reclaiming America for Christ, who once compared opposition to same-sex marriage to struggles against Nazi Germany and slavery.
From NewsOK.com:
“This is to remind people that we are not 320 million individuals ruled by five non-elected attorneys on the Supreme Court,” he said. “We are a union of sovereign states who delegated few and defined powers to the federal government in order to handle the general welfare.”
Blair said it’s important to note that in 2004, Oklahoma voters overwhelmingly approved a state constitutional question banning same-sex marriage and recognition of same-sex marriages performed in other states. He said Oklahoma is not the only state that approved such a ban before the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in June that same-sex marriage has 14th Amendment protection, making it a national right.
From Blair’s website:
Join thousands of fellow Oklahomans on the south side of the Capitol on Sunday, October 25 at 4:00 p.m. for a rally to Protect Life and Marriage in Oklahoma. Congressman Jim Bridenstine, Representative Dan Fisher, Pastor Kevin Clarkson and Pastor Blake Gideon will be among those speaking.
Troy Stevenson, executive director of Freedom Oklahoma, slammed the rally:
“I think the folks that are saying that are grasping at straws. This is the United States of America and our constitution is the law of the land. It is the job of the U.S. Supreme Court to interpret that law,” Stevenson said.
“It is literally a bunch of people hearkening back to the days of (Alabama Gov.) George Wallace, and history will remember them that way.”
For more on Blair, check out Right Wing Watch.
The post Oklahoma Haters To Rally Against Gay Marriage At State Capitol On Sunday appeared first on Towleroad.
John Wright
Oklahoma Haters To Rally Against Gay Marriage At State Capitol On Sunday
These Action Figures Have A Lot To Say About Gay Culture
These Action Figures Have A Lot To Say About Gay Culture
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For over twenty years, artist and photographer William Giancursio has created storylines about men who have sex with men through photos, drawings and paintings — all on a remarkably miniature scale.
Much of his work uses action figures to represent gay men and Giancursio places them in environments and scenarios familiar to the queer community, including Fire Island and other typically gay vacation spots. So far, he has published six books using these action figures for his work.
“The paintings are allegorical and symbolic and portray various aspects of gay culture, such as sexual liberation, love and loss, cruising and the AIDS crisis,” Giancursio told The Huffington Post. “I staged the action figures, photographed them and then used the photos as reference material to do the paintings. As the photos became more conceptually complex and intricately detailed, they evolved into storylines and gay-play storybooks.”
The Huffington Post talked with Giancursio this week about his work over the years and what he tries to accomplish with each piece he creates.
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The Huffington Post: How did you begin using action figures to depict different aspects of gay culture? How did your work evolve?
Bruce Dean: When I grew up, if boys played with dolls they were considered sissies. When Ken, G.I. Joe and all of the rest of the action figures came along, I was too old to play with toys, but the appeal of playing with these toys and all of their clothes and accoutrements remained. What better way to secretly embrace childhood once again? As children, life was so enchanting in our imaginary world of playful escapism. And so the idea of using toys to represent gay men was born, and evolved from simple and carefree, to serious and thought-provoking. The toys, once considered elements of carefree play, took on different meanings when faced with the reality of life’s complexity. The ambiguity of a grown up reality disguised as carefree play became the impetus for my work for many years to come.
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Prior to the Stonewall riots and the beginning of the LGBTQ movement, Judy Garland was a profound gay icon. Because of Judy Garland’s strong connection to the gay community, the phrase “is he a friend of Dorothy?” became a code phrase gay people used to identify each other. Back in 1990 I did a large oil painting titled “Friends of Dorothy.” The painting was meant to be a political statement about President Ronald Reagan’s failure to address the AIDS crisis during his administration. I used action figures to represent the men who were sick and dying of AIDS. They are depicted flanking a doll of Judy Garland’s character, Dorothy Gale, from the Wizard of Oz. Across the sky the words “help them” appear. Superficially, the painting was playful and cute. Upon closer inspection, the serious intent of the painting became apparent.
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For many years afterwards I used action figures in my paintings to represent gay men. The paintings are allegorical and symbolic and portray various aspects of gay culture, such as sexual liberation, love and loss, cruising and the AIDS crisis. I staged the action figures, photographed them and then used the photos as reference material to do the paintings. As the photos became more conceptually complex and intricately detailed, they evolved into storylines and gay-play storybooks. All of them using action figures to represent the lives and times of gay men.
Do you consider your work a commentary on gay culture?
As an artist who is gay, it is often difficult to separate my identity from my work. I take chances with the issues that I portray without fear of societal homophobia. My work is very much a commentary on gay culture. My paintings and photo books are thought-provoking, and are designed to portray a miniature world of make believe, as well as to elevate gay awareness. My first gay-play photo book, Our Gay Wedding Day (2007), was politically motivated by the early Supreme Court case, pending in Hawaii, regarding the legality of gays to marry. Hard (2008), my second gay-play book, is about our obsession with working out at the gym and body image. Gaycation (2008), Gaycation 2 (2010) and Fire Island Pines (2014) follow a group of gay men to exotic and erotic places where gay men vacation. Brush Burn (2010) is about the libertarian elements of nudity and sexual desire among men who choose to celebrate their sexuality.
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What can we come to understand about ourselves as queer people through these fictional depictions?
What we can come to understand about ourselves as queer people is that we are very much a positive part of the fabric of society, not only as adults but as children who grow up to be gay. In the mid 1970’s, thanks primarily to the feminist movement, the concept of sexism and the manner in which children are indoctrinated made many of us question the nature of play, and the toys which reinforce play. Feminism made us think twice about the trucks and war toys we gave to little boys that strengthened masculine stereotypes of aggression, while baby-dolls instilled maternal behavior in every little girl. As a male child, I was denied the joy of playing with dolls, little people, friends who could give me endless hours of play scenarios. Today, my work is more like play, but it is more conceptually about the nature of gay play. In my gay play strategy, though, Ken kisses GI Joe, not Barbie. My work is also a serious and lyrical look at who we are, what we do and some of our aspirations. It is a visual journal of gay culture and the natural order of things from a gay perspective — boys with boys, and girls with girls. Because I am not ashamed of my gay orientation, I take pride in portraying the culture it represents through my artwork. I hope every LGBTQ person who sees my work will identify with it in some manner, and come to understand that queers create, inspire and perpetuate a culture of beauty, awareness and diversity.
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What do you want people to take away from your work?
A smile. A sense of joy and pride. A reason to question. A reason to be. Instead of wasting your life wondering how you fit in, create a place where you do. I believe that the intrinsic nature of art is neutral. Art is a catalyst which speaks to us on many levels. These levels are variable depending on the unique understanding or lack thereof on the part of the viewer. This “truth” to me is absolute, so in the best sense, what one brings to the experience of viewing art, as in all things, determines what one will come away with. At its best my art is ambiguous and ironic, because in every painting and photograph lies the co-existence of truth and falsehood. My paintings and photographs also reflect a central truth about the lives of gay men; things are not only as they appear to be, but they also appear to be other than what they are. To inform, communicate and enlighten is what my art is all about.
Check out some more images from Giancursio below. Curious to see more or purchase his work? Head here.
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I'm 19 and have always considered myself to be gay. I'm attracted to a girl for the first time in my entire life and I don't know how to feel.
I'm 19 and have always considered myself to be gay. I'm attracted to a girl for the first time in my entire life and I don't know how to feel.
So I’ve considered myself to be gay for the longest time. I’ve been open and comfortable with myself for a while. Last year I met a new group of friends, and long story short I met this girl who was dating another friend of mine and we’ve been best friends ever since. She’s beautiful, intelligent, and we get along perfectly. We have the same views, humor, etc.
She split up with my friend and she’s been dating around for the past couple of months after they were together for 2 years. She’s been on my mind a lot lately and I’ve just never felt this way about a girl before. I’m still not 100% sure how I’d react to having sex with her since I’ve never really done anything with a girl before either. I don’t know if I could do it or not. All I know is that I’m extremely attracted to her right now. I think about her all the time. Every time she texts me I get a massive amount of butterflies in my stomach and she just makes me extremely happy. I really do want to be with her.
I don’t know what to do. We’ve got such a good friendship. She knows I’m gay and I can talk to her about anything and she knows she can do the same with me. I haven’t mentioned anything to her about how I feel lately though.
I just figured I’d see how other LGBT people would react to this. What would you do in this situation?
submitted by Zuzzyy
[link] [16 comments]
I’m 19 and have always considered myself to be gay. I’m attracted to a girl for the first time in my entire life and I don’t know how to feel.
byu/Zuzzyy inlgbt
Colton Haynes’ Halloween Costume Will Leave You Stunned
Colton Haynes’ Halloween Costume Will Leave You Stunned
Never let it be said that Colton Haynes doesn’t go all out for Halloween. Last year the star of Arrow and Teen Wolf went out on the town dressed as Shrek’s paramour Princess Fiona.
So freakin excited about Halloween this yr…gonna be hard to top my costume from last yr but I think it’s about to happen 🙂 #tbt #PrincessFionaMissesYall #ThisWkndWillBeEpic
A photo posted by Colton Haynes (@coltonlhaynes) on
Jeremy Kinser
