Shonda Rhimes Blasts 'Dumbass' Anti-Trans Bills
The Grey’s Anatomy creator had a message for the “dumbasses” who support “bathroom bills.”
www.advocate.com/media/2016/4/28/shonda-rhimes-blasts-dumbass-anti-trans-bills
Daily Archives: April 28, 2016
Curt Schilling and His Family Promise He's Not Transphobic
Curt Schilling and His Family Promise He's Not Transphobic
Schilling, his wife, and their 16-year-old son all spoke out in defense of the former Red Sox pitcher, after ESPN fired him for posting a transphobic meme.
www.advocate.com/media/2016/4/28/curt-schilling-and-his-family-promise-hes-not-transphobic
New Zealand dad’s response is perfect after son comes out to him via text
New Zealand dad’s response is perfect after son comes out to him via text
Back in 2013, Sean Bailey got some media attention in New Zealand when one of his bosses at McDonalds told him not to act too gay – or there would be consequences.
Although the attention resulted in his coming out to his friends and family – and to the world essentially, Bailey had not gotten around to coming out to his dad.
So he recently sent him a text stating in part: ‘Well, dad … for a very long time my mind has been confused but I knew 2 years ago where I stand. I wanted to say that I love you heaps and that well … I am gay. It’s been really hard to tell you as everyone else in the family knows except you because to me it was going to be the hardest thing of my life was to tell you this sort of news.’
The dad’s return text is the kind every gay kid would hope for.
‘I think you under estimate my intelligence son,’ the dad wrote. ‘I’ve known for ages and it doesn’t worry me. As long as you’re happy, that’s all that matters. I still love you (because) you’re my son … unconditionally and never-ending.’
Bailey tells The Huffington Post: ‘I couldn’t stop crying because of what he had said but it was (happy) tears rolling down my face.’
H/T: Towleroad
The post New Zealand dad’s response is perfect after son comes out to him via text appeared first on Gay Star News.
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Charles M. Blow, Scientology, Usher, ‘Lucifer in the Flesh’, HERO, Cameron Dallas: NEWS
Charles M. Blow, Scientology, Usher, ‘Lucifer in the Flesh’, HERO, Cameron Dallas: NEWS
CRUZ FIORINA 2016. NYT columnist Charles M. Blow hilariously dissects this ‘Hail Mary’ move.
TELL ALL. Scientology head David Miscavige may sue his own father to stop tell all book about him from coming out.
SOCIAL MEDIA. Usher gave his followers on Snapchat an eye-full with a rather revealing snap (slightly work-unfriendly).
NORTH CAROLINA. HB 2 repeal bill sent to state Senate committee…that apparently never meets: “[The bill’s] second assigned stop is the Senate Ways and Means Committee – which is something of an inside joke in the Senate. The three-member Ways and Means Committee hasn’t held a meeting in years. It’s widely known as the graveyard of the Senate – the place where Senate Rules Chairman Tom Apodaca sends legislation that he wants to kill.”
DEMOCRATIC PRIMARY. Jane Sanders does some Monday morning quarterbacking: “I think if [Bernie] was running against anybody but Hillary Clinton, who was the anointed one, who is the most well-known person that is running for office in this country and in the world— She has a good relationship with the African-American community that goes back decades. So that hurts us, helps her.”
HOUSTON. Months after HERO’s defeat, new poll shows overwhelming support for equal rights: “The 35th annual Houston Area Survey, from Rice University’s Kinder Institute, also found that 74 percent of Black residents, who voted overwhelmingly against the ordinance Nov. 4, believe it is “very important” for the city to pass a nondiscrimination law. ”
TRUSTED? John Boehner refers to Ted Cruz as “Lucifer in the flesh”: “I have Democrat friends and Republican friends. I get along with almost everyone, but I have never worked with a more miserable son of a bitch in my life.” Audio here:
LOUISIANA. LGBT anti-discrimination bill advances in state senate: “Past efforts to pass related LGBT anti-discrimination state laws have failed, but New Orleans and Shreveport have passed anti-discrimination ordinances. Gov. John Bel Edwards has enacted similar anti-discrimination provisions for state agencies and contractors. At the time of the issuance, the Democratic governor said the order reflected a ‘respective and inclusive’ Louisiana.”
WORLD. Airstrike hits Doctors Without Borders hospital in Syria: “The airstrike killed at least 50 people, according to Pablo Marco, operations manager for Doctors Without Borders in the Middle East. Marco told CNN that at least six of the dead were hospital staff: Two doctors, two nurses, one guard and one maintenance worker. The death toll could still rise. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry condemned the attack and pointed a finger of blame at the Syrian government.”
SOAKED. 21-year-old Vine star Cameron Dallas stars in new Calvin Klein ads.
THURSDAY THIRST. Brought to you by Tony Brown.
The post Charles M. Blow, Scientology, Usher, ‘Lucifer in the Flesh’, HERO, Cameron Dallas: NEWS appeared first on Towleroad.
Log Cabin Republicans Explain How They Balance Being Gay and Conservative (Video)
Log Cabin Republicans Explain How They Balance Being Gay and Conservative (Video)
Neil Patrick Harris asks: ‘Why aren’t we talking about HIV/AIDS?’
Neil Patrick Harris asks: ‘Why aren’t we talking about HIV/AIDS?’
Neil Patrick Harris, Nathan Lane, Tituss Burgess, and Daniel Franzese are all part of a new Public Service Announcement that focuses on the fight against HIV/ AIDS not being over.
But the biggest star on the video is the late Elizabeth Taylor whose famous speech at the 1992 Freddie Mercury Tribute concert is featured to give context to the ongoing fight against a disease for which there are life-saving treatments but still no cure.
‘…The world needs you to live,’ says Taylor who spent the last 25 years of her life as an HIV/AIDS activist.
Lane points out in the video that in major US cities, one in five gay men are living with HIV.
‘HIV infection rates are up 133% in last decade among young gay men,’ says Joel Goldman, managing director of The Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation who did the video with GLAAD.
‘It’s troubling that 1 in 3 gay men have never had an HIV test,’ Goldman adds. ‘We must find new ways of raising awareness in order to reach this community and inform them of the tools available to prevent new infections.’
GLAAD President and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis has high hopes for the PSA.
‘This campaign will help bring more awareness HIV and AIDS and remind everyone that we have the power to end this epidemic in our lifetime.’
The post Neil Patrick Harris asks: ‘Why aren’t we talking about HIV/AIDS?’ appeared first on Gay Star News.
www.gaystarnews.com/article/neil-patrick-harris-among-stars-asking-arent-talking-hivaids/
As If By Magic, Another Harry Potter Actor Grew Up To Be A Hunk
As If By Magic, Another Harry Potter Actor Grew Up To Be A Hunk
It was widely reported that Matthew Lewis, the English actor who played the goofy, semi-awkward Neville Longbottom in the Harry Potter series, had been treated pretty nicely by puberty and basically turned into a certified dreamboat overnight.
But now it’s a more villainous HP character turning heads across the web — 28-year-old Josh Herdman, who played Slytherin bully Gregory Goyle.
Here he is from the film:
And here he is now, covered in tattoos and ready to kick some ass:
Hello, shorts.
He’s gone from beating people up at Draco Malfoy’s behest to doing it for himself as an MMA fighter, and while we hardly condone pummeling someone to a pulp inside a cage, he’s apparently quite good at it.
Here he is in action:
And here he is surprising Draco with his literacy:
House Republicans Move to Undo Obama’s LGBT Executive Order Against Job Bias with a ‘Religious Freedom’ Amendment
House Republicans Move to Undo Obama’s LGBT Executive Order Against Job Bias with a ‘Religious Freedom’ Amendment
A House Republican panel is trying to sneak a “religious freedom” amendment into a major defense bill that would undermine President Obama’s 2014 executive order prohibiting anti-LGBT workplace discrimination among federal contractors, the Washington Blade’s Chris Johnson reports:
The amendment, introduced by freshman Rep. Steve Russell (R-Okla., pictured), would require the federal government when contracting with religious organizations to afford them exemptions consistent with the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the American with Disabilities Act. Since neither of those laws prohibit anti-LGBT bias, the amendment would enable religious organizations doing business with the U.S. government to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity.
Because the measure would have the force of law, it would overrule the executive order signed by President Obama in 2014 prohibiting contractors doing more than $10,000 a year in business with the U.S. government from engaging in anti-LGBT discrimination against employees. The president included no religious exemption in his order, although he left in place a Bush-era exemption allowing religious organizations contracting with the U.S. government to favor co-religionists in hiring practices.
The amendment provides an exemption for “any religious corporation, religious association, religious educational institution or religious society” contracting with the U.S. government. All of those terms are undefined in the amendment, but the lack of definition for “religious corporation” could allow courts to construe the term broadly to any federal contractor — not just religious organizations — in the aftermath of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2014 decision in the Hobby Lobby case.
The Human Rights Campaign denounced the move:
“Rep. Russell’s harmful amendment would strip away existing protections for LGBT workers by undermining President Obama’s executive order on LGBT non-discrimination protections in federal contracting,” said HRC Government Affairs Director David Stacy. “Evidently some House Republicans want to emulate their state legislative colleagues in undermining legal protections for LGBT Americans. House Republican Leadership must get this language out of the bill.”
The Russell amendment was approved by a vote of 33-29 early this morning. It would allow sweeping, taxpayer-funded discrimination in an attempt to promote anti-LGBT religious-based discrimination in the Department of Defense and other federal agencies. With far-reaching intended and unintended consequences, the vague amendment could even undermine existing nondiscrimination provisions that protect workers, and perhaps even beneficiaries, against discrimination on the basis of race, religion, sex, pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity, and more.
Johnson adds:
The next opportunity to remove the amendment will be through a floor amendment when the full House considers the measure, but the House Rules Committee would first have to approve the measure, which would be challenging because the panel is stacked heavily in favor of Republicans. If not a House floor vote, the next opportunity to remove the measure will be the conference committee when the House and Senate lawmakers hammer out the different versions of their legislation.
The post House Republicans Move to Undo Obama’s LGBT Executive Order Against Job Bias with a ‘Religious Freedom’ Amendment appeared first on Towleroad.
Congress Urges Questions on Sexual Orientation & Gender Identity Added to American Community Survey
Congress Urges Questions on Sexual Orientation & Gender Identity Added to American Community Survey
Yesterday, Congressman Raúl Grijalva (D-AZ) and Senator Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) sent a bipartisan letter to U.S. Census Bureau Director John Thompson requesting that the Census Bureau include questions regarding sexual orientation and gender identity on the American Community Survey (ACS). An additional 70 Representatives and nine Senators signed the letter.
The ACS is an ongoing survey of roughly 3.5 million people that provides important information on people living in the U.S. The survey plays a key role in determining how more than $400 billion federal and state funds are distributed. Currently, the ACS collects information about respondents’ race, ethnicity, sex, marital status and other demographic information, but fails to collect information on sexual orientation or gender identity. The lack of data on the LGBT population is a significant barrier to improving services and programs that impact the LGBT community and addressing the LGBT populations’ unique challenges.
HRC has long advocated for better data collection regarding the LGBT population. Several U.S. agencies have already taken steps to do so including the Department of Education, which has added sexual orientation and gender identity questions to the 2016 School Survey on Crime and Safety (SSOCS); the Department of Health and Human Services, which added sexual orientation and gender identity data collection to its requirements for Electronic Health Records (EHRs) certified under the Meaningful Use program; and the FBI, which collects statistics on hate crimes committed based on sexual orientation and gender identity, among other characteristics, in its annual Hate Crimes Statistics reports.
HRC applauds Congressman Grijalva and Senator Baldwin’s letter and calls on the Census Bureau to add questions regarding sexual orientation and gender identity on the ACS.
George Takei thanks a diverse Broadway community – blasts Hollywood
George Takei thanks a diverse Broadway community – blasts Hollywood
Star Trek icon George Takei has some harsh words for the movie industry as he praises Broadway for having such a diverse year.
In a Facebook post today, Takei writes: ‘…Thanks to the Broadway community – for not being Hollywood. ‘In a year when the movie industry celebrated only white actors for awards, then used gross stereotypes of Asians during the (Academy Awards) broadcast to gain cheap laughs, Broadway celebrated its most diverse year ever.’
Takei pointed to such shows as Hamilton, The Color Purple, On Your Feet, Shuffle Along and his own Allegiance as examples of Broadway’s diversity this season.
The openly gay actor pointed out that these shows ‘brought not only underrepresented voices to the stage, but critical employment opportunities for minority actors as well as many new communities and audiences to New York theaters.’
For Takei, performing on Broadway for the first time is deeply personal.
Allegiance is a musical based on his own family’s experiences as Japanese-Americans forcibly relocated to internment camps during World War II after the bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.
‘I am especially thankful I have had the opportunity, at the age of 78, to fulfill a lifelong dream to tell the story of the Japanese American internment,’ he writes.
‘Our Broadway production was able to reach 120,000 audience members, the same number as those who were unjustly imprisoned out of base fear and prejudice. Each of those audience members are now part of our story. They will help ensure that we never forget the difficult lessons of the past.’
Takei also takes a swipe as Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump who has touted severe anti-immigration policies during his campaign.
‘Indeed, our show could not have had more contemporary resonance, as certain politicians once again stoke public fears, and call for profiling and surveillance of whole groups of innocent people.’
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www.gaystarnews.com/article/george-takei-thanks-diverse-broadway-community-not-hollywood/
