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Daily Archives: November 13, 2015
Twitter Fills With LGBT People Joining World in Sympathy for France
Twitter Fills With LGBT People Joining World in Sympathy for France
LGBT people everywhere are joining in sending sympathy to the residents of Paris, where more than 100 people were killed in terrorist attacks Friday night.
Most of the deaths were at a concert venue where gunmen had held audience members hostage, The New York Times reports, but there were shootings and bomb blasts at several other locations around the city, including near a stadium (pictured above) where French and German teams were playing a soccer match. Police eventually stormed the concert hall and reportedly killed two of the attackers.
Here is a sampling of LGBT reactions from Twitter; check back in for updates as we get them.
Prayers for our French neighbors.
— josh kilmer-purcell (@joshkp) November 14, 2015
Trudy Ring
www.advocate.com/world/2015/11/13/twitter-fills-lgbt-people-joining-world-sympathy-france
Sam Smith, Stephen Fry, Boy George and more express support for Paris after attacks
Sam Smith, Stephen Fry, Boy George and more express support for Paris after attacks
Horrified by the terrorist attacks in Paris that have left more than 150 people dead, several LGBTI celebrities took to social media Friday to express their support.
‘Praying For Paris,’ wrote singer Sam Smith. ‘Sitting here staring at the news. My thoughts and my heart is with all the family and friends of the victims and to everyone in Paris and France tonight. Please all stay at home and stay safe.’
There were multiple coordinated attacks in several locations in the French city including a soccer stadium and at least two restaurants. Most of the deaths occurred in the Bataclan theater where US rock band Eagles of Death Metal was scheduled to perform in concert, according to CNN.
Ellen DeGeneres simply tweeted an image of the French flag and a heart.
Other reactions:
Stephen Fry: ‘Oh #Paris – there are no words. Thoughts with you.’
Matt Bomer: ‘Thoughts and prayers with Paris right now.’
Boy George: A prayer for Paris. My heart breaks! xxx
George Takei: ‘They cannot destroy what we keep in our hearts.’
Dustin Lance Black: ‘All my thoughts and prayers are for the people of #Paris tonight.’
Ricky Martin: #JeSuisParis #PrayforParis
Dan Bucatinsky: ‘Thoughts are with Paris. Vraiment.’
Christopher Rice: ‘Heartbroken over the news coming in from Paris. Heartbroken. Sending love to all those directly impacted by these terrible events.’
The post Sam Smith, Stephen Fry, Boy George and more express support for Paris after attacks appeared first on Gay Star News.
Greg Hernandez
Make love, not hate…
antwerpenR posted a photo:
The Tangle Over Chelsea Manning Growing Her Hair Out
The Tangle Over Chelsea Manning Growing Her Hair Out
The Department of Justice is coming to the defense of the Defense Department in fighting a lawsuit filed by Chelsea Manning, the convicted intelligence officer who is undergoing a government-funded and approved gender transition.
As she made clear in a letter she wrote while behind bars, published in Truthout in September, she wants to grow her hair as long as that of female prisoners, who are housed separately from Manning and her fellow inmates at the military penitentiary in Fort Leavenworth, Kan. Men — and Manning — are required to keep their hair no longer than two inches off the scalp.
But prison officials forced her to cut her hair in September. Manning explained on Medium.com why she claimed in her lawsuit that her military haircut makes her feel like a “freak” and a “weirdo”:
“I felt gross — like Frankenstein’s monster wandering around the countryside avoiding angry mobs with torches and pitchforks.”
According to Gay Star News, she wrote she was left feeling “humiliated, hurt and rejected.” Manning said she “cried and cried and cried and sniffled a little bit, and then cried some more” and felt like giving up.
“Chelsea’s demand is simple,” said Chase Strangio, Manning’s lawyer from the American Civil Liberties Union’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Project. “That she be treated with her medically necessary treatment and like all other women in military custody. Her fight is central to the pursuit for justice for transgender people and for those who are incarcerated and we are honored to fight alongside her.”
Manning is currently serving a 35-year sentence for leaking sensitive documents to WikiLeaks.
The ACLU today released a copy of the brief filed by DOJ in support of the Pentagon and Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter. The brief endorses the motion filed by the DOD to dismiss the lawsuit, claiming Manning’s case has no merit.
The DOJ made a case for how the federal prison is run and what might happen if Manning were to have a feminine hairstyle to match her changing appearance as a result of hormone treatment:
“Manning is not similarly situated to the female military inmates to which Manning compares herself. … Those female inmates are confined in different facilities with different grooming standards, whereas Manning is confined at the [United States Disciplinary Barracks], a military prison for men that has a uniform rule of no hair longer than two inches. Making an exception to the USDB’s generally applicable hair restriction would pose a significant security risk, and would undermine the USDB’s important military mission. “
The brief states that the colonel in charge of the prison — who in February approved Manning’s hormone treatments — was given a “recommendation that the wear of a feminine hairstyle is medically appropriate.” But after considering “all associated safety and security risks presented,” Col. Erica Nelson determined that “permitting Inmate Manning to wear a feminine hairstyle is not supported by the risk assessment and potential risk mitigation measures at this time.”
Justice officials wrote in their brief that Nelson’s decision to refuse her to let her grow out her hair “is substantially related to important governmental interests — i.e., ensuring safety and security within a military prison environment.”
The DOJ did not respond to The Advocate’s request for comment or to confirm its role in the Manning case.
The ACLU issued a press release including a quote from Manning:
“I believe that defining ourselves in our own terms and in our own languages is one of the most powerful and important rights that we have as human beings. Presenting myself in the gender that I am is about my right to exist. What the government is basically telling me is ‘you cannot exist,’ that ‘you are wrong,’ and that ‘you do not exist.’ What they are doing is taking away our right to exist. I think this is the kind of situation that justifies all kinds of terrible things like ignorance, maltreatment, torture, murder, and genocide.
“Nobody knows your gender more than you do. No—one. You do not know my gender better than I do. A doctor doesn’t know it better than me. My parents don’t know it better than me. No one experiences my gender in the way that I experience it. Gender presentation should reflect the person that you are. When you lose control of your gender presentation you lose an important aspect of your identity and existence.”
Read the Justice Department’s full brief, as provided by the ACLU, here.
Dawn Ennis
www.advocate.com/transgender/2015/11/13/tangle-over-chelsea-manning-growing-her-hair-out
Mormon Church Clarifies Position After LGBT Ban Sparks Outrage
Mormon Church Clarifies Position After LGBT Ban Sparks Outrage
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has clarified its position on LGBT couples and their children, a week after ruling same-sex couples were subject to excommunication and their children could be banned from being baptized.
In a public letter released Friday, the church sought to soften the blow of last week’s decree, though stopped short of actually reversing the decision.
Mormon officials clarified that children who have already been baptized won’t necessarily be penalized if they live with a same-sex couple, instead leaving that decision to local leaders who are instructed to act in the “best interests of the child.”
Children who have a gay parent, but do not live with the parent in their “primary residence,” are also exempt.
“We are obligated to act… for the welfare of both adults and children,” the letter explains. “Adults who choose to enter into a same-gender marriage or similar relationship commit sin that warrants a Church disciplinary council.”
NBC reports hundreds of people have formally withdrawn from the Mormon church in protest since last week. Utah lawyer Mark Naugle, who offered his services for free to families needing assistance to do the same, says he’s been contacted by 1,700 people.
“All children are to be treated with utmost respect and love,” the letter concludes. “They are welcome to attend Church meetings and participate in Church activities. All children may receive priesthood blessings of healing and spiritual guidance.”
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NCIS star Pauley Perrette, staunch LGBTI ally and activist, attacked in Hollywood
NCIS star Pauley Perrette, staunch LGBTI ally and activist, attacked in Hollywood
Actress Pauley Perrette was attacked on the street outside her Hollywood home on Thursday by a homeless man who threatened to kill her.
The staunch LGBTI activist and star of TV’s NCIS took to Twitter early Friday (13 November) to share details of the horrific attack.
‘I almost died tonight,’ she wrote.
The actress said she was walking to a guest house she recently bought to meet with an architect when she was jumped by a man who she described as ‘very psychotic.’
She wrote that he ‘repeatedly’ punched her in the nose and forehead and told her that he was going to kill her.
‘I was alone, terrified and trapped,’ Perrette wrote. ‘There was an empty garage behind me and I knew if he got me in there I was dead.’
The man repeatedly told Perrette that his name is William and only stopped the attack when she said to him: ‘William is a beautiful name. I have a little nephew named William.’
She collapsed on a sidewalk after he let her go and was able to text a neighbor who followed the man until police could arrest him.
The Los Angeles Police Department arrested a 45-year-old man on suspicion of felony battery. He is being held on $100,000 bail.
Perrette, 46, has played the brilliant but offbeat forensic scientist Abby Sciuto on the CBS drama NCIS since 2003.
Last weekend, she was one of the presenters at the Los Angeles LGBT Center’s Vanguard Awards. She is one of the most visible straight allies of the community with high-profile participation in the Los Angeles AIDS Walk each year as well an many other events.
The post NCIS star Pauley Perrette, staunch LGBTI ally and activist, attacked in Hollywood appeared first on Gay Star News.
Greg Hernandez
President Obama Speaks in Wake of Paris Terrorist Attacks: WATCH
President Obama Speaks in Wake of Paris Terrorist Attacks: WATCH
President Obama spoke to the nation and the world this evening in the wake of the horrific terrorist attacks in Paris.
Watch our continuing coverage of the attacks and their aftermath HERE.
Said Obama:
“Once again we’ve seen an outrageous attempt to terrorize innocent civilians. This is an attack not just on Paris, not just on the people of France, but this is an attack on humanity and the universal values we share. We stand prepared and ready to provide whatever assistance that the government and the people of France need to respond…”
Watch:
The post President Obama Speaks in Wake of Paris Terrorist Attacks: WATCH appeared first on Towleroad.
Andy Towle
President Obama Speaks in Wake of Paris Terrorist Attacks: WATCH
Far-Right Leader: Move Texas GOP Confab From Dallas Because of Trans Protections
Far-Right Leader: Move Texas GOP Confab From Dallas Because of Trans Protections
One of the leaders of the campaign to repeal the LGBT-inclusive Houston Equal Rights Ordinance now wants the Texas Republican Party to move its convention from Dallas, which has enacted a similar law.
The Dallas City Council this week clarified the city’s nondiscrimination ordinance by explicitly banning discrimination based on gender identity. Dallas’s long-standing ban on sexual orientation discrimination had been interpreted to cover gender identity, but activists pointed out the difference between the two characteristics and worked with the city to update the law.
But right-wing activist Jared Woodfill, using the same tactics that helped lead voters to rescind the Houston ordinance, is calling the Dallas measure “an aggressive and dangerous bathroom ordinance that allows men into women’s bathrooms” and urging the Texas GOP to find a different location for its 2016 convention, set for May 12-14 in Dallas.
In an email to his supporters, posted on his website and linked by Towleroad, Woodfill offers the same false information about the Dallas ordinance that Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick has, saying it was adopted in closed session without public input. Woodfill also calls it “a threat to safety and freedom,” claiming it will facilitate sexual predators’ access to women’s restrooms and locker rooms — a totally discredited argument.
“We as a Republican Party now have an opportunity to send a message to the Mayor of Dallas and its City Council who are willing to sacrifice the safety of our wives, daughters and mothers on the altar of political correctness,” Woodfill writes. “We as a Republican Party have an opportunity to send a loud and clear message to the radical left by moving our 2016 Republican Party of Texas Convention from Dallas to another city. We should not reward Dallas with our business when its leaders brazenly reject the principles embodied in our 2014 Republican Party of Texas Platform.”
That platform endorses so-called reparative therapy, designed to change a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity; says “homosexuality must not be presented as an acceptable alternative lifestyle”; and defines marriage as “a God-ordained, legal and moral commitment only between a natural man and a natural woman.”
Woodfill, an attorney, also made news this week in a report that despite raising the specter of male predators in women’s bathrooms as a reason to oppose equal rights for transgender people, he is representing a man being sued for clandestinely photographing women changing during a pool party. He also voiced opposition to Houston Mayor Annise Parker’s efforts to bring back her city’s ordinance and said 300,000 calls have gone out to mobilize resistance to reviving the law.
Trudy Ring
A Look Back at an Out-Standing Year for LGBT Advocacy
A Look Back at an Out-Standing Year for LGBT Advocacy
Each year, OUT Magazine honors 100 lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals who have made our world a more just and equal place. And on Wednesday, I had the privilege of accepting OUT’s “Ally of the Year” award on behalf of President Obama. We also celebrated the other 99 people who have changed our society for the better through art, politics, culture, sports and advocacy.
Since President Obama’s election seven years ago, he and his Administration have partnered with many on our journey toward a more perfect union, insuring equality for all, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity. Increasingly, our progress is part of a larger, global movement for LGBT equality that counts the United States as one of its leaders.
In 2009, President Obama signed the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act. The same year, he also lifted the 22-year HIV/AIDS travel ban.
In 2010, the Affordable Care Act became law and less than a month later, the President signed a Presidential Memorandum extending hospital visitation rights for LGBT Americans. And at the end of that year, the President eagerly signed the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t tell” into law, remarking after ending the policy’s 17-year existence: “This is done.”
In 2011, the Department of Justice (DOJ) took the position that a central provision of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) was unconstitutional and would no longer defend it in court.
In 2012, the President hosted the first International AIDS Conference in more than a generation and became the first sitting President to publicly support marriage equality.
In 2013, the Supreme Court agreed with the Administration’s position on DOMA and struck down a key part of that law.
In 2014, the President signed an executive order barring employment discrimination against LGBT individuals by federal contractors and subcontractors.
In June of 2015, the United States Supreme Court delivered a momentous victory by recognizing a constitutional right for same-sex couples to marry — making marriage equality the law of the land — a position the President and Justice Department vigorously supported. We joyously celebrated the victory by lighting up the White House in rainbow colors. With our belief that love means love, there is now no such thing as same sex marriage; just marriage. And on Tuesday, the President was proud to announce his support for the Equality Act, a historic bill that would ensure comprehensive civil rights protections for millions of LGBT Americans.
Of course, none of these advances would have been possible without the efforts of the brave individuals recognized at the OUT 100 Gala and the many more who have worked to change hearts, minds and laws in favor of equality here and around the world. My dear friend Evan Wolfson, the former Executive Director of Freedom to Marry whom I met early in the President’s first term when marriage equality was the law in only four states, was honored for his decades of pursuing marriage equality litigation and advocacy that helped pave the way for this year’s Obergefell decision. Edie Windsor, whom I first met the day the Supreme Court argued Windsor and without whom marriage equality would not have been possible, was also honored. As was Abby Wambach, the recently retired captain of the U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team, who after winning the World Cup, shared a kiss with her wife.
As hard as President Obama and his Administration have worked to expand opportunity and make this a more equal country, these accomplishments would not have been possible without the advocates, allies, activists and ordinary people doing extraordinary things, to change our culture every single day. In addition to using their voices and platforms to foster dialogue, understanding and legislative change, these honorees have also helped shape, for the better, how the LGBT community is perceived around the world — and how LGBT people see themselves. At the Out 100 event, with tears streaming down his face, a young man told me that seeing the President on the cover of Out Magazine gave him the courage to come out to his mother earlier that day.
In the American tradition of perfecting our union, they have followed in the footsteps of civil rights champions from generations past. As the President said in his second inaugural address, “We, the people, declare today that the most evident of truths — that all of us are created equal — is the star that guides is still; just as it guided our forebears through Seneca Falls, and Selma and Stonewall.”
After a fun evening that capped an exciting seven years, I was also reminded of the President’s words following the Supreme Court’s marriage equality decision in June: “Progress on this journey often comes in small increments, sometimes two steps forward, one step back, propelled by the persistent effort of dedicated citizens. And then sometimes, there are days like this when that slow, steady effort is rewarded with justice that arrives like a thunderbolt.” It was an honor to help celebrate those who continuously strive to make the world a safer, more accepting and equal place for us all, and it is with excitement that we all rededicated ourselves to the important work that lies ahead.
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