Sam Smith Joins Disclosure for SNL ‘Omen’ Performance: WATCH

Disclosure were the musical guests on last night’s Saturday Night Live and Sam Smith joined them to perform the hit single “Omen”. They were also joined by Lorde for a performance of their newer track “Magnets”.

Watch:

“Magnets”:

The post Sam Smith Joins Disclosure for SNL ‘Omen’ Performance: WATCH appeared first on Towleroad.

Andy Towle

Sam Smith Joins Disclosure for SNL ‘Omen’ Performance: WATCH

Boy Stars in New Barbie Commercial

The new Moschino Barbie is a huge hit (currently sold-out!), and its commercial is breaking boundaries by featuring a young boy in it.

“Moschino Barbie is so fierce!” the boy screams as he and two female friends laud the doll, done up in designer Jeremy Scott’s sleek glamour. Barbie’s cellphone goes off and the male child says, “It’s for you, Moschino Barbie,” before winking at the camera. Watch the ad below.

The strict gender lines of toys and children’s accessories have slowly been breaking down, with Target moving to make its signage more gender-neutral.

Neal Broverman

www.advocate.com/youth/2015/11/15/boy-stars-new-barbie-commercial

SNL mocks people opposed to trans rights

Hopefully the residents who voted down Houston’s anti-discrimination proposal watched this weekend’s episode of Saturday Night Live. Earlier this month, the city’s Equal Rights Ordinance (HERO) failed at the ballot box.

Campaigns against the ordinance focused on the fact that it would bar discrimination in public accommodations – allowing transgender people to use bathrooms in fitting with their gender identity. Campaigners for repeal dubbed it the ‘bathroom ordinance’ and said that it would allow predatory men to use female washrooms.

During a Weekend Update segment, Pete Davidson took the comical axe to the hysteria.

‘The theory is that men, in their relentless quest to watch women go to the bathroom, are going through years of hormones, surgery, changing their name, their wardrobe, coming out to their family. All for that big payoff of peeing in a room without urinals.’

Watch the whole thing. It will make your night.

The post SNL mocks people opposed to trans rights appeared first on Gay Star News.

James Withers

www.gaystarnews.com/article/snl-mocks-people-opposed-to-trans-rights/

First Person: Susie Bright on the Sex-Obsessed Paris ISIS Manifesto

Our friend, Susie Bright, weighed in on the just released Paris terrorist manifesto on her Facebook page. A best-selling author and the country’s preeminent feminist sex writer, Susie is one of the worlds most respected voices on sexual politics, as well as an award-winning author, activist, editor.  In light of the significant role of sexuality in the short document, Susie’s lifelong body of work make hers an interesting voice to check in with. All opinions expressed are those of the author.

Voila, the “manifesto” of the Paris suicide bombers, in their own words (see below).

Their obsession with sexual revenge, the revenge of the sexually rejected, is intense : They referred to the Bataclan nightclub as a place where where hundreds of “apostates” had gathered in a “profligate prostitution party” — that means a rock concert.

Bohemian Paris is on top of ISIS’ target list because it is the country of “obscenity and perversity.” Again, it’s Paris’ mythic reputation for the libertine, for free sexual exchange, for romance and unashamed ecstasy.

This “faith army,” this death cult built on sexual repression masked as religious purity– has a detailed manual about how to run a sex-slave market of their war captives, including rules of inheritance. Essentially, you can’t be a soldier in their army unless you buy into the faith that beautiful women everywhere are taunting and rejecting you, but you will teach them all a lesson by enslaving and raping them all day long — same with young boys. Everything “depraved” is holy when you’re inflicting it upon a slave — makes perfect sense, right?

At some point your Grand Wizard arranges a marriage with an appointed virgin your parents picked out for her dowry. She is of no erotic interest; she is a nonperson except as your baby-receptacle and income source. Siring sons is her husbandry.

Meanwhile, you monitor all the women’s menstrual cycles and the puberty of the young boys and girls in your slave pen so you can be sure to rape the right person on the most advantageous day, repeatedly shouting God’s name when you come.

VOMIT. Vomit. Vomit.

Every fundamentalist religion today is running on the fumes of sexual psychosis. They are huffing and huffing and huffing until they annihilate everything including themselves.

The post First Person: Susie Bright on the Sex-Obsessed Paris ISIS Manifesto appeared first on Towleroad.

Susie Bright

First Person: Susie Bright on the Sex-Obsessed Paris ISIS Manifesto

WATCH: Thousands Quit Mormon Church In Wake of Antigay Policy

Thousands of LGBT Mormons quit the Church following its new policy that calls those in same-sex relationships “apostates” and denies their children baptisms.

It was an emotional scene in downtown Salt Lake City on Saturday, where thousands of LGBT Mormons from dozens of states gathered. With 1,000 letters of resignation already submitted online, attorneys received an additional 1,500 letters at the Salt Lake event, which were placed on the lawyers’ letterhead to expedite the process. Some ceremoniously walked to mailboxes to send off their final communication with the church.

“I do feel a sense of relief,” former Mormon Kyler McGhee told KUTV on his decision to leave LDS. “Unfortunately, the Church decided to slam their doors in our face.” 

Many of the participants at Saturday’s event told KUTV they long ago left the church; about five percent of people taking part at the event were believed to be recently active members of LDS.

Nontheless, the Church released the following statement on the event:

“We don’t want to see anyone leave the Church, especially people who have been struggling with any aspect of their life. The Church exists to build people and help them heal, and there isn’t one of us who doesn’t need help at some point in our lives. We hope that today’s guidance from Church leaders and the additional commentary will help provide understanding and context to some who may be considering resigning their membership. It’s extremely important that our members read what leaders have said, and do not rely on other sources or interpretations or what people think they have said.”

The new Church policy characterizes a same-sex relationship as a “serious transgression” and labels those in them as “apostates,” something reserved for those who commit crimes like murder and rape. It bans children of such couples from taking part in the Church and refuses them baptisms. “The policy also marks the first time a Christian church has enshrined a baptismal ban on children of same-sex couples,” according to the HRC.

“Thousands of the Mormon faithful standing with the LGBT community sends a powerful message that love will always win,” Mary Beth Maxwell, HRC’s Senior Vice President of Programs, Research and Training, said in a statement. “Turning children away, asking them to disavow their parents, and devaluing the lives of same-sex couples and their families is shocking to people of faith committed to welcoming all God’s children. We hope that church leaders will reconsider this hurtful and deplorable policy.”

Neal Broverman

www.advocate.com/religion/2015/11/15/watch-thousands-quit-mormon-church-wake-antigay-policy

Ted Cruz vows to fight marriage equality

Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz will not rest until marriage equality is no longer nationwide. In a South Carolina campaign stop. the Texas senator railed against the Supreme Court and its ruling on marriage rights.

‘This is not settled,’ Cruz said yesterday, 14 November, during a speech at Bob Jones University, according to Greenville Online. ‘It’s not the law of the land. It’s not the Constitution. It’s not legitimate, and we will stand and fight.’

The conservative candidate reminded the audience marriage is ‘left to the states and left to the people.’

Yesterday’s event was called the Rally for Religious Liberty  and showcased numerous anti-LGBTI speakers, including Kevin Swanson. The pastor has called for the death of gays and lesbians and for the US to repent because of the sexuality of Dumbledore, the fictional character in the Harry Potter series. This past summer, as Right Wing Watch notes, Swanson insisted ‘the homosexual borg, is the power in the principality of the demonic world itself.’

Cruz exhorted the audience to get out and make a difference in the upcoming election for the White House.

‘When we stand together the truth is mightier than the lies,’ Cruz said, according to Greenville Online. ‘The light is stronger than the darkness. And let me give you the fact that absolutely terrifies them: There are more of us than there are of them.’

According to a 4 November Quinnipiac University poll, Cruz is holding steady in the crowded GOP field. Donald Trump gets 24% of Republican votes. Ben Carson, the former neurosurgeon is at 23%. Coming in third is Marco Rubio, Florida’s senator, at 14%. Cruz takes 13%.

Bob Jones University was founded in 1927 but did not admit black students until 1971. In the 1970s and 1980s the school used the Bible as justification for its racially discriminatory policies (the school banned interracial dating).

In 2000 the university’s third president, Bob Jones III, called Catholicism and Mormonism ‘cults which call themselves Christian.’

The post Ted Cruz vows to fight marriage equality appeared first on Gay Star News.

James Withers

www.gaystarnews.com/article/ted-cruz-vows-to-fight-marriage-equality/

Paris Attack Survivor’s Viral Facebook Post is Both Terrifying and Hopeful

Isobel Bowdery, a survivor of the attacks at the Paris Bataclan concert hall, wrote a Facebook post about her experience that has been shared more than half a million times since its posting yesterday, and liked by more than two million.

For good reason. Bowdery played dead while dozens were murdered around her, but she already has a wise perspective on the tragedy and she’s sharing it with the world.

Wrote Bowdery on Facebook, in a post accompanied by a photo of her blood-stained shirt:

you never think it will happen to you. It was just a friday night at a rock show. the atmosphere was so happy and everyone was dancing and smiling. and then when the men came through the front entrance and began the shooting, we naiively believed it was all part of the show. It wasn’t just a terrorist attack, it was a massacre. Dozens of people were shot right infront of me. Pools of blood filled the floor. Cries of grown men who held their girlfriends dead bodies pierced the small music venue. Futures demolished, families heartbroken. in an instant.

Shocked and alone, I pretended to be dead for over an hour, lying among people who could see their loved ones motionless.. Holding my breath, trying to not move, not cry – not giving those men the fear they longed to see. I was incredibly lucky to survive. But so many didn’t. The people who had been there for the exact same reasons as I – to have a fun friday night were innocent. This world is cruel. And acts like this are suppose to highlight the depravity of humans and the images of those men circuling us like vultures will haunt me for the rest of my life. The way they meticoulsy aimed at shot people around the standing area i was in the centre of without any consideration for human life. It didn’t feel real. i expected any moment for someone to say it was just a nightmare.

But being a survivor of this horror lets me able to shed light on the heroes. To the man who reassured me and put his life on line to try and cover my brain whilst i whimpered, to the couple whose last words of love kept me believing the good in the world, to the police who succeded in rescuing hundreds of people, to the complete strangers who picked me up from the road and consoled me during the 45 minutes I truly believed the boy i loved was dead, to the injured man who i had mistaken for him and then on my recognition that he was not Amaury, held me and told me everything was going to be fine despite being all alone and scared himself, to the woman who opened her doors to the survivors, to the friend who offered me shelter and went out to buy new clothes so i wouldnt have to wear this blood stained top, to all of you who have sent caring messages of support – you make me believe this world has the potential to be better. to never let this happen again. but most of this is to the 80 people who were murdered inside that venue, who weren’t as lucky, who didnt get to wake up today and to all the pain that their friends and families are going through. I am so sorry. There’s nothing that will fix the pain. I feel priviledged to be there for their last breaths. And truly beliving that I would join them, I promise that their last thoughts were not on the animals who caused all this. It was thinking of the people they loved.

As i lay down in the blood of strangers and waiting for my bullet to end my mere 22 years, I envisioned every face that I have ever loved and whispered I love you. over and over again. reflecting on the highlights of my life. Wishing that those i love knew just how much, wishing that they knew that no matter what happened to me, to keep belieivng in the good in people. to not let those men win. Last night, the lives of many were forever changed and it is up to us to be better people. to live lives that the innocent victims of this tragedy dreamt about but sadly will now never be able to fulfil. RIP angels. You will never be forgotten.

The post Paris Attack Survivor’s Viral Facebook Post is Both Terrifying and Hopeful appeared first on Towleroad.

Andy Towle

Paris Attack Survivor’s Viral Facebook Post is Both Terrifying and Hopeful