Open Question: Why are most stores so scared of supporting LGBT rights?
Daily Archives: October 31, 2015
WATCH: Fan-Made Video of Madonna’s Entire ‘Rebel Heart’ Concert
WATCH: Fan-Made Video of Madonna’s Entire ‘Rebel Heart’ Concert
Thanks to a loyal Madonna devotee, you can now watch the entire Rebel Heart concert without leaving home.
A new video created by YouTube channel ‘Madonna Videos’ cobbles together footage from Madge’s Rebel Heart Tour performances in Chicago, Montreal plus “a few other cities.”
Hopefully this will tide you over until Madonna releases an official DVD of the tour. Watch below:
The post WATCH: Fan-Made Video of Madonna’s Entire ‘Rebel Heart’ Concert appeared first on Towleroad.
Sean Mandell
www.towleroad.com/2015/10/watch-madonnas-rebel-heart-concert-in-full/
Open Question: Should heterosexual marriage be banned?
Open Question: Should heterosexual marriage be banned?
I feel that heterosexual marriage is offensive and demeaning to the LGBT community.
Andy Cohen Says He and Anderson Cooper Aren’t F**king: VIDEO
Andy Cohen Says He and Anderson Cooper Aren’t F**king: VIDEO
On What What Happens Live! Friday, guest Amber Rose asked host Andy Cohen a question that may have been on your mind: “Are you and Anderson Cooper f**king?”
Everyone on set seemed thoroughly amused by the question–including Cohen. Regaining his composure, Cohen explained,
“No, we’ve never done a thing. We’ve never even kissed…We were set up on a blind date over 20 years ago in the early 90s and it never took. We spoke on the phone once and I thought the call went great. But he said he could picture me wildly gesticulating and it turned him off. And so we never went out but we became great friends…We’ve never done a thing – never seen each other naked or anything.”
Andy didn’t seem to mind Amber’s inquisitiveness, telling her, “Good question.”
Watch Andy get flustered by Amber’s question and then check out a few photos of the two ACs below:
The post Andy Cohen Says He and Anderson Cooper Aren’t F**king: VIDEO appeared first on Towleroad.
Sean Mandell
Andy Cohen Says He and Anderson Cooper Aren’t F**king: VIDEO
Christian Petition Targets Chick-fil-A For 'Going Gay,' Sponsoring LGBT Film Fest
Christian Petition Targets Chick-fil-A For 'Going Gay,' Sponsoring LGBT Film Fest
Eater, a popular foodie website, has outed Chick-fil-A as a sponsor of an LGBT film festival in Nashville, TN.
The Vox-owned foodie website seemed understandably surprised that Chick-fil-A’s logo would appear on the sponsors page of “Level Ground,” and that its name would be associated with what is “billed as the world’s first faith-based LGBT film festival.”
That would be the biggest turnaround ever since it ceased donations of $5 million to antigay groups, when CEO Dan Cathy publicly stated his corporation would steer clear of social issues last year. That kind of support would be unprecedented, almost too good to be true.
Which it is.
Just hours after the article went live, a spokesperson for the Southern Baptist, family-owned fast food chain swiftly issued a clarification, telling Eater Chick-fil-A itself was never a sponsor of “Level Ground.” The actual sponsor is a franchise owner in Nashville. A similar case happened last November when a Hollywood franchise donated 20 percent of its one-day proceeds to the LGBT student group, Campus Pride.
A Chick-fil-A representative told Eater, “The operators make decisions on local sponsorships.”
That news came too late, however, to a concerned Christian and Chick-fil-A patron named Steven Policastro, who last week started a petition on change.org, declaring, “CFA Goes Gay, Corporate Needs To Know!” His petition states:
“Per our research and findings, Chick-fil-A is a sponsor of “On Level Ground” (www.OnLevelGround.org) which is “a movement” that “creates space for dialogue about faith, gender, and sexuality through the arts.” And upon further inquiry, your sponsorship of this organization supports pro-gay organizations such as:
-The Christian Closet (gay-affirming Christian counseling) -The Center For Lesbian and Gay Studies in Religion and Ministry (promoting the gay agenda in Christian ministry)
-Therapists 4 Equality (LGBTQ Affirmative Therapy)
-The Reformation Project (an attempt to bring the gay agenda into the church’s theology)
-Believe Outloud (an organization to promote gender equality to Christian clergy) and many other groups that promote an agenda which is contrary to Chick-fil-A’s corporate stance on Christian values regarding marriage and stewardship.”
At press time, the petition had more than 330 supporters, and caught the eye of Baptist Global News, which published an article this week that reported on the sponsorship and examined the restaurant’s deeply-held religious roots.
Read more about the “Level Ground” festival here, and about the petition here.
Dawn Ennis
Open Question: Can a straight person join an LGBT Community?
More HRC Staff Land in Houston for Final GOTV
More HRC Staff Land in Houston for Final GOTV
HRC staff from across the country have converged on Houston in what is now the largest mobilization of staff for a campaign in our organization’s history.
HRC.org
The Force Awakens in Neil Patrick Harris, David Burtka and Kids for Halloween: PHOTO
The Force Awakens in Neil Patrick Harris, David Burtka and Kids for Halloween: PHOTO
Neil Patrick Harris, David Burtka and twins Gideon and Harper are celebrating Halloween in intergalactic style.
The family is known for dressing up in themed costumes each year, last year going as the denizens of Gotham City and the year before as a Monster family.
For Halloween 2015, Harris, Burtka and the kids channeled the excitement surrounding the new Star Wars film, The Force Awakens. Harris dressed up as Obi-Wan Kenobi, Burtka as Han Solo, Harper as Princess Leia and Gideon as Luke Skywalker.
Harris captioned the photo simply, “A long time ago in a Halloween far, far away….”
The force is strong with this family.
The post The Force Awakens in Neil Patrick Harris, David Burtka and Kids for Halloween: PHOTO appeared first on Towleroad.
Sean Mandell
The Force Awakens in Neil Patrick Harris, David Burtka and Kids for Halloween: PHOTO
What It's Like To Be A Gay Priest
What It's Like To Be A Gay Priest
On the eve of the Roman Catholic holy day of All Saints Day, which this year falls on a Sunday, the TV network Al Jazeera America produced a report examining the lives of gay Catholics titled “What It’s Like To Be Queer In the Church.”
The report cited a report that’s more than a decade old by the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York, which claimed that anywhere from 15 to 58 percent of priests and seminarians are gay. The report came out in 2004, the same year the Rev. Fred Daley, now the pastor at All Saints Parish in Syracuse, N.Y., came out.
Daley, who has been a priest more than 40 years, says he was inspired by what he called the “scapegoating” of gay priests during the church sex abuse scandal. He had previously been removed as a speaker at a September 11th observance in 2002.
In March 2004, he was awarded the “Real Hero” of the year by the United Way for his volunteer work in Utica, N.Y.
Daley said he decided he was ready for his community to know he was gay, and came out to a reporter interviewing him about the award, as a means to defend other gay priests.
“To be honest,” he told Al Jazeera, “growing up as a kid in high school, I had no inkling of being gay.” It wasn’t until three or four years after being ordained into the priesthood that he says he realized his truth.
“I became in touch with a sort of ache within me that was really my sexuality sort of bubbling forth, and I began to be in touch with sexual attractions, and I was horrified. I thought this was terrible and I’m going to go to hell.”
A Jesuit spiritual adviser helped Daley, he said, begin “a journey of recognizing my orientation, accepting it and ultimately rejoicing in who God created me to be.”
That journey ultimately took a decade before he could admit to himself his true nature.
“I was freely able to choose celibacy, because I really continued to feel the strong call to ordained ministry. But I discovered that I had the capacity for intimacy.”
Daley’s revelation did not end his priesthood, and the Sunday after he came out, his congregants gave him a standing ovation at mass. Four years later he established a new parish in Syracuse, All Saints, where he says the goal is to show everyone they are welcome.
He has not always found himself welcome, however. In 2006, he was not allowed to participate in a Catholic mission to Africa to spread HIV awareness, and he said it was because he’s gay.
Pope Francis famously addressed the issue of gay priests in 2013, telling reporters: “If someone is gay and he searches for the Lord and has goodwill, who am I to judge?” That statement — which earned Francis the Person of the Year cover from The Advocate — is nothing like what his predecessor Benedict XVI, believed. In 2005, Benedict signed a document that said men with “strong gay tendencies” should not be priests and, as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger in 1986, authored a letter, approved by Pope John Paul II, calling homosexuality “intrinsically disordered.”
This month’s synod of bishops encapsulated the battle between Pope Francis and the church’s conservative bishops, 60 percent of whom are said to oppose his views, according to a report in The Tablet, a Catholic newspaper.
“I would say a considerable number of the clergy have not updated themselves on what is the contemporary understanding of what is sexual orientation,” Daley told Al Jazeera. “They’re mouthing what they learned 30 or 40 years ago, which is a real problem.”
At the conclusion of the synod, Francis said he saw some bishops had ‘closed hearts.’ Daley remains hopeful.
“What Francis has done, which I think has affected gay people as well as everyone else, is he has a different sense of priorities. Doctrine is important, but it’s not No. 1. Mercy, compassion, understanding come before doctrine. And he also makes it clear that, ultimately, we have to follow our consciences.”
Read the full report from Al Jazeera, here.
Dawn Ennis
Open Question: What's it called when you're intolerant towards LGBT as a whole?
Open Question: What's it called when you're intolerant towards LGBT as a whole?
I know there’s homophobia and transphobia, but what’s the term for being intolerant towards LGBT as a whole?
