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2015 LGBT Pride @ CKS Memorial Hall, Taipei
Daily Archives: November 5, 2015
Singer Hozier: The Catholic Church 'Provides a Justification for Homophobia'
Singer Hozier: The Catholic Church 'Provides a Justification for Homophobia'
In late 2014, Irish singer-songwriter Hozier found his footing on the global stage with his rousing single “Take Me to Church,” and before long, the song and its video railing against LGBT oppression in Russia were both bona fide hits. Eventually the single even earned a Grammy nomination for Song of the Year.
This week Hozier gave his first longform American interview to Kelly Osbourne, who was filling in for host Larry King on Ora TV’s Larry King Live. During their chat, the singer spoke passionately about the plight of LGBT people worldwide and called out the Catholic Church for its centuries-long role in LGBT persecution.
Hozier told Osbourne writing ‘Take Me to Church” was a “human rights thing.”
“What is frightening about Russia is it is not that far from home. Especially if you are in Europe, and cultures like that cross borders. They have done in the past. This kind of scapegoating of and othering of one group in society, that has happened before in the past in Europe not that long ago.”
Hozier also said he wasn’t impressed with Pope Francis’s stance on homosexuality:
“This is one of the paradoxes and weird hypocrisy of that organization. [Pope Francis] came out last year and said, ‘Who am I to judge with regards to somebody’s sexual orientation?’ I think it is important to differentiate between lip service towards something and actually making change. I think it’s hopeful, but saying that in 2015, ‘Who am I to judge?’ is something that you should be saying 100 years ago. It shouldn’t have never been said at all, really.”
He also called out the Catholic Church for institutionalizing homophobia:
“[The Catholic Church] is undeniably an organization that has institutionalized an aversion to homosexuality. One that has institutionalized gender inequality also, dangerous policy over contraception, and in this case, it still harbors an irrational aversion to homosexuality. Which, in my view, I think that is why I was driven to write ‘Take Me to Church.’ I think the church provides a justification for homophobia.”
Watch Hozier’s interview with Osbourne below:
Gina Vivinetto
www.advocate.com/music/2015/11/05/hozier-says-catholic-church-provides-justification-homophobia
A Majority of Christians Are Pro-LGBTQ
A Majority of Christians Are Pro-LGBTQ
The Pew Research Center’s latest polls released Tuesday reveal a reality that is sure to shock many: a majority of Christians in the United States support LGBTQ acceptance in our society.
That’s right, 54 percent of all American Christians as of 2014 believe that sexual and gender minorities should be accepted and normalized in American society. For those, like me, who work as an LGBTQ activist and advocate among conservative Christians communities, these numbers only add further proof to a reality that I have been seeing among Christians for the past few years. But to many these numbers are likely to be shocking because a majority of the most prominent Christian religious denominations still have official stances in opposition to LGBTQ inclusion and equality. What is going on here?
What we are seeing is one of the most dynamic shifts in the religious landscape in American history. We are seeing a stark divide between the leaders of religious denominations and the laypeople who fill the pews every Sunday. We are seeing a stark contrast between the official doctrines of a particular denomination and the lived experience of it’s members. The reality is that nearly 4 percent of the American population identifies as LGBTQ, about 10 million people. This means that it’s likely that everyone knows someone who is LGBTQ. Also, the stories of LGBTQ people have found their way into mainstream media, which has demystified the so-called “gay lifestyle” and shown us as average human beings.
When it comes to the state of Christianity in the U.S., the LGBTQ Christian movement has gained significant traction over the past two years, with dozens of theological books being published on the topic, a number of prominent new pro-LGBTQ ministries have been launched, and LGBTQ affirming Christian churches and leaders stories are being widely covered in the national news media.
A shift is happening and it’s happening quickly. It’s happening because LGBTQ people are demonstrating both our humanity and our faithfulness in very public ways. Religious leaders can no longer stand in a pulpit and proclaim that one cannot be gay and Christian with credibility, because hundreds of thousands of gay Christians are making ourselves visible in our denominations, religious schools, and in broader society. We’re no longer see faith in opposition to our sexual orientation or gender identity. In fact, a recent Pew poll revealed that over 50% of LGBTQ people identify as “Religious”, 48% identifying as Christians.
So what does this mean for the future of Christianity in the United States? It’s hard to say. But what seems clear is that lay Christians are no longer dependent on their denominational leaders for their theological and political views. Instead, they are using the wide array of resources available to them to ask the hard questions and seek the truth about sexuality and gender identity. More than that, they are entering in to relationships with LGBTQ people. We are no longer mythological figures that can easily be demonized; we are your children, friends, co-workers, and religious leaders. As we continue to do life with our straight brothers and sisters, their personal experience is challenging their disembodied theology and the experience is winning. If Christianity is anything, it’s incarnational. It’s about the enfleshed experienced of life lived in community with one another. And it’s in these incarnational communities that transformation and redemption is occurring.
So while it may remain easy for denominational spokespeople and religious leaders to sit high in their office buildings proclaiming non-inclusive theology and bolstering their opposition to LGBTQ rights, their people on the ground are actually doing life with real people in the real world, and that is changing everything.
That’s why Pew’s findings are unsurprising to me. They simply demonstrate the rapidly growing trend that will soon completely dismantle how Christian’s think about sexuality and gender identity.
A growing number of Christians are realizing that queer love is real love, and that to deny the power of love is to deny something fundamental to our faith. When reality and theology clash, reality will always win out. This is what is fundamentally transforming the way Christians view LGBTQ relationships and this is what will fundamentally reshape the positions of our religious institutions forever.
— 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.
Open Question: Conservatives and liberals what can we do to limit Lgbt rights?
Open Question: Conservatives and liberals what can we do to limit Lgbt rights?
We need to limit and suppress Lgbt people As they are ruining America. We should have power over them and their disgusting attitude.
Out Rugby Stud Keegan Hirst Heads Down To The Basement For Steamy Photo Shoot
Out Rugby Stud Keegan Hirst Heads Down To The Basement For Steamy Photo Shoot
Freshly-out rugby star Keegan Hirst is no stranger to suggestive photo shoots.
It was just a few days after the athlete revealed he is gay that someone dug up a past shoot he’d done wearing nothing but a well-positioned ball.
Related: Rugby Star Comes Out, Talks Years Of Struggle: “I Tick Every Macho Box. How Could I Be Gay?”
In a new shoot for Attitude, Hirst reveals more than just skin — as an out professional athlete, he’s a symbol of hope to LGBTQ youth and closeted athletes that homophobia can and will by pried away from sports.
Of course, the skin is nice, too.
Here’s a behind-the-scenes preview of the shoot:
Dan Tracer
Politicians Condemn Palm Springs Attack on Gay Couple
Politicians Condemn Palm Springs Attack on Gay Couple
On the eve of the city’s Pride Weekend, messages of support are pouring in as are calls of condemnation of the attack on two prominent gay residents of Palm Springs, Calif., reports The Desert Sun.
George and Chris Zander were assaulted in downtown Palm Springs around 8 p.m. Sunday, police said. Chris Zander suffered a concussion and lacerations to his head. His husband, George, broke a hip. George has been active in the Palm Springs LGBT community for decades and currently works as a field manager with Equality California.
Congressman Raul Ruiz and out Palm Springs Mayor Steve Pougnet are calling on police to swiftly investigate the incident and arrest the two men responsible.
“Hate crimes against an LGBT individual — or anyone in our community — is a hate crime against our entire community and it will not be tolerated,” Ruiz wrote in a statement issued Monday night.
“This kind of discrimination will not be tolerated,” said Mayor Pougnet. “We have worked very hard to make sure our residents and visitors feel safe as they work and play in our city.” Organizers of Greater Palm Springs Pride expect as many as 175,000 people in their typically gay-friendly city starting Friday.
“We feel so safe here, and it’s a wake-up call that we are not as safe as we think,” said Ruth Debra, chair of the Desert Stonewall Democrats, a local LGBT advocacy group in which George Zander has been active. “This was very specifically a hate crime.”
Palm Springs are indeed investigating the incident as a felony hate crime, since detectives believe the men were targeted because they are gay, according to a statement from spokesman Lt. Mike Kovaleff.
UPDATE ON FELONY BATTERY- HATE CRIME- The Palm Springs Police Department understands the significance of this…
Posted by Palm Springs Police Department on Wednesday, November 4, 2015
This is the second time this year criminals have targeted LGBT people.
Chris Zander told the Sun he and his husband were holding hands as they left Hunters Nightclub, a popular gay bar, Sunday evening.
He said a man bumped into them on their way out and shouted a slur at them. Chris remembered replying, “That’s totally uncalled for.” He said the man responded by pulling him down by his shirt before running away.
The Zanders went on their way, but Chris told the paper that man returned with at least one other man, and one of them hit him on the head with an object, possibly a bottle. He blacked out and later learned that George was pushed to the ground and fractured his hip.
“It was complete anger, it was just anger,” said Chris, who choked up as he recounted the incident Monday to the Sun. “I don’t understand why somebody would push a 71-year-old man over. It makes me want to cry every time I talk about it.”
Police don’t have much to go on. The attackers are described as a white male adult with a stocky build and red hair, the other only as a white male adult. They drove from the scene in a sedan-type vehicle, according to a statement issued by police.
“Even in the most accepting of places, hate crimes are committed against LGBT people,” Mike Thompson, CEO of the LGBT Community Center of the Desert, said in an email to the Sun. “George has worked tirelessly throughout his career to ensure that those who are most marginalized in our communities are protected.”
Dawn Ennis
www.advocate.com/crime/2015/11/05/politicians-condemn-palm-springs-attack-gay-couple
A Letter to the Christians in Houston Who Opposed HERO
A Letter to the Christians in Houston Who Opposed HERO
Dear Christians Voters in Houston who opposed HERO,
I am writing to you today with a deeply grieved heart. Deep in my spirit, I can hear the words of Jesus as he gave his life on the cross saying, “Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they’re doing.” (Luke 23:34) In a very real sense, you have chosen to reject Christ and have stood for his oppression and marginalization in your city, because Christ is found not behind the mighty pulpits of your churches or in the faces of the politicians you admire, but in those who your society marginalizes and fears the most — sexual and gender minorities. These are hard words, to be sure, but they are words that I feel must be spoken.
As your brother in Christ and as a queer-identified individual, I look on at the decision you have made to reject the HERO Proposition and see it as a wholesale rejection of the Gospel of Christ. Jesus said that his Gospel was “good news to the poor, recovery of sight to the blind, liberation to the captive, and jubilee for all people.” (Luke 4:18-19) He spent his time raising up those who the religious leaders viewed as unclean. He spoke harsh words, words about hellfire and judgment, not about the minorities in his society, but about the religious elite who felt they had a commission from God to keep those minorities oppressed.
Your choice to reject the HERO was a choice to side with power, privilege, and the religious elite. It was a choice to side against the Kingdom of God that Jesus proclaimed.
Now, I know that you believe that this ordinance was more about your religious freedoms than it was about human rights or equality. I know that your pastors and politicians have convinced you that it is part of a broader agenda to force Christians to conform to the desires of the secular society or face persecution at the hands of the government. I know that you think this ordinance was part of a plan that would jeopardize the safety of your children. I know that this victory feels like a win for your “Judeo-Christian values.” I really do understand your perspective.
But I also want you to know that much of what you have been told is patently false. There has been misinformation spread to your pastors and religious leaders by politicians who are less interested in opposing equal rights and more about making a political statement. We live in a day where politicians regularly deceive religious leaders in order to further their own agendas and it is clear that this is what’s happened in Houston. This is why as citizens (and even more so as Christians), we must be thoughtful with our voting. We must not simply accept what others tells us from pulpits or on television, but from actually taking time to understand the issues, so that we can make decisions with integrity, based on fact and not based on political misinformation.
Here are some facts: (I’d encourage you to do the work to verify this information!) Texas is one of a number of states that doesn’t offer protections to sexual and gender minorities from discrimination. However, a number of major cities around your state have chosen to extend protections against discrimination that the average citizen is afforded to LGBTQ citizens. These protections aren’t “special protections.” They’re basic, fundamental rights that you would want for yourself and anyone you cared about. Rights to not be fired from your job because someone didn’t agree with your religious beliefs or political views. Rights to not be refused housing because someone is prejudiced against your ethnicity or faith. These are rights that all citizens should have. But in Houston, LGBTQ people arent explicitly protected and therefore face the possibility of discrimination because of their sexuality or gender identity.
The HERO was meant to extend these explicit protections to sexual and gender minorities. (As well as everyone who lives in Houston, for that matter) That’s it. Nothing more and nothing less. It simply means that buisnesses and government agencies are not permitted to discriminate against anyone. But now that you have voted HERO down, there is a greater possibility that discrimination can occur in your city with little to no legal consequence. And that is simply not right. It doesn’t align with Christian values nor does it align with American values.
Yet, because many of the citizens of Houston have been deceived, believing that this legislation was meant to allow men to enter women bathrooms for whatever reason they desired. That’s simply not the case, and shows a fundamental lack of understanding about transgender identity. Many believed that this was meant to make it easier for the government to harass churches and pastors who didn’t employ or endorse same-sex relationships. That’s also not the case. This ordinance was simply and truly a human rights ordinance extending protection and dignity to the vulnerable. But, in the minds of many Houston voters, it was turned into just another issue in a culture war against “the liberals.”
Today is a sad day for the city of Houston. It’s a sad day for our nation. Today, the fundamental dignity and humanity of sexual and gender minorities has been desecrated by a number of Houston voters, many of whom identify as followers of Jesus. As I think about this sad reality, I hear the words of the Prophet Isaiah, who said:
You don’t know how to live in peace or to be fair with others. The roads you make are crooked; your followers cannot find peace… Injustice is everywhere; justice seems far away. Truth is chased out of court; honesty is shoved aside. (Isaiah 59:8 & 15)
We are that wicked nation who does not know how to be fair. We are the ones walking a crooked road. Injustice in the name of our God is indeed everywhere. May all followers of Jesus heed the words of our God, spoken afresh to us today. May we turn from our ways of injustice and from our crooked paths to the way of righteousness. The way of justice and truth for all people. That is our only hope.
Sincerely,
Brandan Robertson
— 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.
Teacher Lost His Job After Showing Anti-Bullying Video
Teacher Lost His Job After Showing Anti-Bullying Video
Tom Leahy
A Conway Springs, Kansas teacher who tried to teach his students about intolerance is now out of a job.
Tom Leahy, a social studies teacher at Conway Springs Middle School, was inspired to show his class the anti-bullying short film Love Is All You Need?, after some students exhibited antigay behavior.
Leahy told The Wichita Eagle that when students separated into colonies as a part of a learning exercise, at least one colony wanted to exclude gays, which upset some of the other students in the class.
I was expecting fairly positive kinds of colonies: ‘Do things we think are right, and be nice.’ But it just kind of got twisted around, and it became a place where certain people weren’t allowed.
The film is a parable about a fictionalized world where heteros, not gays, are subject of sexual orientation-based discrimination, but Leahy admits that he didn’t get permission from parents or the principal to show the film.
After outraged parents contacted the school board and superintendent, Leahy found himself in hot water. Though he was set to retire at the end of the current school year, the school board is expected to accept his resignation when they meet next week. Leahy seems surprised by the outrage, but hopes that the community can find a way to move beyond the debacle:
Now I’m just really hoping this community can heal and maybe find some peace. These are people I’ve known my whole life, and I didn’t mean for this to happen.
It’s an unfortunate situation all around, but we’re sure that at least some of his students appreciated the message, and it’s good to know we have allies in the classroom where they’re needed the most.
Watch the short film he showed students below.
Rob Smith
An excellent point
An excellent point
submitted by rainbow_llama_dragon
[link] [6 comments]
News: Annise Parker, The Bushes, Alex Minsky, Pyramids, Pizza and Anal
News: Annise Parker, The Bushes, Alex Minsky, Pyramids, Pizza and Anal
> Annise Parker wins Twitter with response to transphobic Tea Party-er.
> Justin Bieber says he doesn’t know who Bette Midler is: “‘This Britt Meddler,’ says Justin, unintentionally mangling the stage-and-screen legend’s name. ‘I don’t even know who that is, honestly.’”
> Star Wars star John Boyega cleans up nicely for The Hollywood Reporter.
> President Obama says bomb is a “possibility” in downing of Russian jet over the Sinai peninsula in Egypt: “Whenever you’ve got a plane crash, first of all you’ve got the tragedy, you’ve got — making sure there’s an investigation on site. I think there is a possibility that there was a bomb on board. And we are taking that very seriously.”
> Ancient Greek fort discovered underneath Israeli parking lot: “This sensational discovery allows us for the first time to reconstruct the layout of the settlement in the city, on the eve of the Maccabean uprising.”
> New trailer for Quentin Tarantino’s new film The Hateful Eight drops.
> If you steal Serena Williams’ phone, she will hunt you down and find you.
> The Advocate names The Supreme Court as its people of the year.
> War vet Alex Minsky gets the pin-up calendar treatment.
> Bush clan publicly quarrels: George H.W. Bush calls out Donald Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney and son George W. over the Iraq war. Rumsfeld hits back: ““Bush 41 is getting up in years and misjudges Bush 43, who I found made his own decisions.” Jeb tries to clean up the mess.
> Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright is definitely backing Hillary Clinton’s bid for the White House.
> Noomi Rapace rumored to play Amy Winehouse in biopic of the ill-fated singer’s life.
> Justin Trudeau is your paper doll.
> The Department of Education proposes changing curtains in school locker rooms for transgender students.
> Archaeologists to Ben Carson: the pyramids were not built to store grain: “We know what the pyramids were built for because the ancient Egyptians tell us what they were built for.”
> Flawless diamond so rare it’s described as the “once in a blue moon” diamond could fetch $55 million at auction.
> Center for American Progress pushes for LGBT national monuments: “Not a single unit of the National Park System has a primary focus on the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender, or LGBT, community…Both Congress and the executive branch have an opportunity to recognize the contributions and impact of the LGBT community through the selection of new sites that celebrate its population and history. These designations also would provide an economic benefit to areas where they are located.”
> After The Rapture Pet Care will take care of your cat…after the rapture.
> Pizza and anal is the new Netflix and chill thanks to Hillary Clinton and Twitter mobile.
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Sean Mandell
News: Annise Parker, The Bushes, Alex Minsky, Pyramids, Pizza and Anal
