Tom Daley Models Nearly Nonexistent New Speedo For The Olympics

With just under 100 days to go until the Olympics kick off in Rio, team Great Britain has released the looks for their athletes’ various states of dress, all designed by Stella McCartney in association with Adidas.

Or, in Tom Daley‘s case, undress.

The 21-year-old diver looked to be the chilliest participant on stage as he stood proudly in his Team GB speedo.

Related: Tom Daley Pumps Iron Half-Naked And Soaking Wet In Brand New 2015 Calendar

Track star Jessica Ennis-Hill said of the outfits, “It’s an amazing design and I think it will give British athletes a massive sense of pride and give us an edge in Rio.”

We’re not sure Tom’s speedo will give him any sort of competitive edge — it looks like the piece of fabric used for it was no bigger than a dinner napkin — but there’s no arguing whether or not he’s doing his country proud just by existing in it.

Also, if someone could please tell us who is standing on the left in the above photo we’d be much obliged.

Here a short video from the unveiling event:

Team GB and ParalympicsGB kit for Rio pic.twitter.com/Xcuxrd9PeT

— Matt McGeehan (@mattmcgeehan) April 27, 2016

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Six Yale Athletes Come Out Together To Change The Game For Homophobia In Sports

Out Yale rugby player Luc Ryan-Schreiber

We often commend the bravery of college athletes choosing to come out publicly, noting that the spotlight they sometimes-awkwardly receive does wonders for their fellow students as well as the next generation of athletes, gay and straight.

So with the news that six athletes at Yale have decided to come out together and form a support group for LGBTQ athletes on campus, those commendations go double.

According to Outsports, in addition to two athletes who are not fully out to their families (but are to their peers), the four founding members of the group are:

• Timothy Cox, running, ’17
• Jake Leffew, golf, ’19
• Luc Ryan-Schreiber, rugby, ’17
• Wayne Zhang, diving, ’18

Ryan-Schreiber has previously said that while he encountered support from his teammates, his freshman season coach regularly used homophobic language with the team. That coach is no longer active at the school.

Related: College Swimmer Parker Camp Told Everyone He’s Gay. The Reaction He Got Will Inspire You

“Flash forward to my junior year and I have a great new rugby coach, the team is awesome,” Ryan-Schreiber told Outsports. “When I got connected with Jake, who was struggling with the identity of a gay athlete, we talked it out and afterwards I realized there was no resource around currently.

“So I met with the athletic department to discuss this. After my first meeting with [senior associate athletic director] Brian Tompkins, he asked if I knew any other gay athletes. So I went to find them and we started the group with the hope of improving the reality for LGBT athletes here at Yale.”

We absolutely love the idea. Not only does the collective coming out strategy take the focus off any one individual athlete (NFL — are you listening?), but by forming an official group to help others, the focus becomes the system and what can be done moving forward.

Related: College Baseball Star Matt Kaplan Comes Out To The Fury Of…Nobody

“Our end goal is to create an infrastructure and a social and institutional culture where any athlete feels comfortable coming out and being a queer athlete at Yale,” diver Wayne Zhang told Yale Daily News.

These students have created the opportunity to meaningfully impact their campus, and that could reverberate to other campuses once the idea takes root. Congrats to them all!

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Tennessee Gov. Signs Law Allowing Therapists to Turn Away Clients for Being Gay

Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam has signed an anti-LGBT bill that will allow counselors and therapists in the state to turn away clients based on “sincerely held principles.”

The bill is yet another piece of legislation targeting LGBT citizens under the guise of so-called ‘religious freedom.’

The AP reports: 

Republican Gov. Bill Haslam told The Associated Press on Wednesday that he signed the bill after talking to numerous counselors, including those who were in favor and those opposed.

The American Counseling Association called the legislation an “unprecedented attack” on the counseling profession and said Tennessee was the only state to ever pass such a law.

NBC4i adds: 

Senator Jack Johnson, who sponsored the bill, previously told News 2 “it’s not anti-anybody, it’s not anti-anything; it’s just pro-religious liberty.”

Via BuzzFeed: 

After the Tennessee legislature passed the bill earlier this month, LGBT groups pressured Haslam to block it. However, their efforts were minimal compared to the crush of corporate lobbying faced by governors of Mississippi and Georgia, where legislatures this year passed broad religious freedom bills that critics said allowed services and products to be denied to LGBT people. […]

House Bill 1840 provides counselors and therapists immunity from liability if they turn away a client whose goals, outcomes, or behaviors conflict with their beliefs. Counselors who decline clients would need to refer them to a provider who will see them.

It was originally introduced to protect sincerely held religious beliefs, but lawmakers widened it slightly. As passed, it would instead protect counselors acting on “sincerely held principles.”

BREAKING: Tennessee gov signs bill allowing counselors to refuse treatment based on religious beliefs.

— The Associated Press (@AP) April 27, 2016

The post Tennessee Gov. Signs Law Allowing Therapists to Turn Away Clients for Being Gay appeared first on Towleroad.

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The Backlash Against HB2 Hasn’t Convinced North Carolina’s Lawmakers To Change It

The Republicans responsible for HB2 see the backlash against their discriminatory law — and don’t care.

The post The Backlash Against HB2 Hasn’t Convinced North Carolina’s Lawmakers To Change It appeared first on ThinkProgress.

thinkprogress.org/lgbt/2016/04/27/3773242/north-carolina-republicans-double-down/

Teachable Moment: Turing Should Listen to Pharma Company, Reverse Price Hikes on Daraprim

Today HRC released the following statement after the CEO of Valeant Pharmaceuticals indicated in testimony before the Senate Aging Committee that its strategy to hike drug prices was a mistake.

“Today’s testimony is a reminder that too many people living with HIV still face far too many barriers when it comes to accessing the care they need,” said HRC Government Affairs Director David Stacy. “Today, the CEO of Valeant said what Martin Shkreli refused to — that massive overnight price hikes for vulnerable patients are completely indefensible. Because when companies like Turing jack up the price of drugs, it means reduced access and higher costs for patients and taxpayers. Turing needs to restore the price of Daraprim across the board for all patients and other pharmaceutical companies should take note”

NPR News reported earlier this year how executives inside Turing celebrated their decision to hike the price of Daraprim — which is used by pregnant women and people living with HIV. NPR reported that, “Company officials went into celebration mode,” according to emails uncovered by congressional investigators. The emails also show how Turing plotted to cynically pit insurance companies against HIV/AIDS patients in order to maintain the 5000 percent cost increase.

HRC has called for Turing to restore the price for all patients to the previous price of $13.50. At HRC’s urging, the the New York attorney general began investigating whether Turing Pharmaceuticals may have violated antitrust laws by limiting distribution of a drug that is essential to the lives of medically vulnerable people.

In addition, HRC sent letters to Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN), Chair of the Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions; Rep. Fred Upton (R-MI), Chair of the Committee on Energy and Commerce; and Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT), Chair of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, seeking an investigation into the actions of Turing Pharmaceuticals, which increased the price of Daraprim overnight from $13.50 to $750 per tablet.

The letters also called for an inquiry into Turing’s acquisition of Daraprim, the pricing strategy for the drug, investments made to bring the drug to market, the impact of that strategy on patient access, and the increased cost to federally-funded health programs. And they requested a hearing on formulary and tiering structure for prescription medications offered through health exchanges.

www.hrc.org/blog/teachable-moment-turing-should-listen-to-pharma-company-reverse-price-hikes?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss-feed

Tennessee governor signs bill allowing refusal of mental health care for LGBT people

www.glaad.org/blog/tennessee-governor-signs-bill-allowing-refusal-mental-health-care-lgbt-people

TCM Film Fest: Divas, Closets, and Politics

A conversation with Faye Dunaway, glimpses of a closeted era, and strangely prescient films about politics and media are among the highlights of this year’s fest.

www.advocate.com/film/2016/4/27/tcm-film-fest-divas-closets-and-politics

Dennis Hastert sentenced to 15 months in jail – sex abuse victim speaks out

The former Speaker of the US House of Representatives was sentenced in Chicago today to 15 months in prison for a multi-million dollar hush money scheme created to cover up allegations of sexual abuse.

Dennis Hastert was called a ‘serial child molester’ by Judge Thomas M. Durkin who also ordered the former lawmaker to undergo sex offender treatment and imposed a $250,000 fine which will go to crime victims fund.

Hastert, 74, admitted to agreeing to pay his one-time student $3.5 million then lying to federal authorities about the bank withdrawals related to the payments.

Hastert apologized in court and said he accepted the sentence, according to the Associated Press.

The former student, known only as Individual A is legal filings, had received $1.7 million in payments from Hastert and this week sued the former high school teacher and wrestling coach for the balance.

Four victims in all are part of the federal complaint against Hastert who could not be prosecuted for the molestation because of statute of limitation laws.

Another of the four victims in the criminal and the sister of a victim spoke at the sentencing.

Scott Cross, identified only as Individual D by prosecutors, said he decided to speak out because Hastert had reached out to his lawmaker brother – former Illinois House Republican leader Tom Cross – for a letter of support.

Scott Cross, 53, was on the Yorkville High School wrestling team in the 1970s and said in court that Hastert fondled him on a locker room table after practice.

Tom Cross released a statement Wednesday saying the family is proud Scott had ‘the courage to relive this very painful part of his life” so justice could be done.’

Hastert was the longest-serving Republican speaker and was second in the line of succession to the US presidency.

The post Dennis Hastert sentenced to 15 months in jail – sex abuse victim speaks out appeared first on Gay Star News.

www.gaystarnews.com/article/dennis-hastert-sentenced-15-months-jail-sex-abuse-victim-speaks/

Firm With Rainbow Logo Refuses To Design Rainbow Logo For Gay-Friendly Church

When St. Mark’s Lutheran Church, an LGBTQ-friendly congregation in Fargo, contacted Custom Graphics, Inc. about creating a custom logo for them, they weren’t expecting the response they received.

“Everyone was on board,” Adam Johnston, a member of the church, tells the Bismark Tribune. “They were really excited about it. And then within a week, we get an email saying, ‘Nope, we’re done. We’re not doing it.’”

Related: Arkansas Man Freaks Out At NBC Rainbow Logo, But The Joke Is On Him

The church had requested the logo be in rainbow colors, which Custom Graphics’ general manager Zach Paxton found inappropriate.

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Missouri Lawmakers Defeat Anti-LGBT ‘Religious Freedom’ Bill

Missouri’s anti-LGBT ‘religious freedom’ bill has been defeated in the state legislature.

Senate Joint Resolution 39 (SJR 39) failed to get a majority in favor of advancing it out of the Emerging Issues Committee.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports: 

Republican Reps. Anne Zerr of St. Charles, Caleb Rowden of Columbia and Jim Hansen of Frankford joined with the committee’s three Democrats. With a tie 6-6 vote, the measure’s tumultuous journey through the Missouri Legislature is probably over.

The resolution, if approved by voters, would have granted greater legal protections under the Missouri constitution to clergy and wedding vendors who decline to participate in a same-sex wedding.

Sen. Bob Onder, R-Lake Saint Louis, who sponsored the proposal, issued a statement indicating the measure was dead.

“I am deeply disappointed that Missourians will not have the opportunity to vote on protecting religious freedom. Seven weeks ago, the Missouri Senate stood strong through the longest filibuster in state history and voted 23–7 to advance SJR 39. Today, House members caved to pressure from special interests and killed the religious freedom amendment.  It is wrong that Missouri voters will be denied a voice in the decision-making process.”

PREVIOUSLY: Missouri Senate Passes Heinous Anti-Gay Religious Freedom Bill After 39.5 Hour Filibuster

House Minority Leader Jacob Hummel (D) said of the bill’s defeat,

“The ultimate issue here is whether our state constitution protects all Missourians or grants special rights to some to detriment of others. In the years to come, I am confident today’s action will be remembered as being on the right side of history.”

The post Missouri Lawmakers Defeat Anti-LGBT ‘Religious Freedom’ Bill appeared first on Towleroad.

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