San Diego Gay Men's Choir 'Humiliated' at Padres Game
Instead of the male choir singing the national anthem, a recorded woman’s voice was broadcast and the singers were heckled as they left the field.
www.advocate.com/sports/2016/5/22/san-diego-gay-mens-choir-humiliated-padres-game
MLB Ambassador for Inclusion Billy Bean Reacts to Padres’ Gay Chorus Incident
Out former Padres player Billy Bean, now Major League Baseball’s vice president of social responsibility and inclusion, has released a statement regarding the unfortunate incident which took place on Saturday night at Petco Park.
As you may have read earlier, The San Diego Gay Men’s Chorus was at the center of a disturbing incident that happened at Petco Park on Saturday night. Called upon to sing the Star-Spangled Banner, their singing was replaced by a recording of a woman (reportedly the anthem singer from the night before), nobody stopped it, and they were led off the field afterward while being taunted with “you sing like a girl” taunts from fans in the stands.
Said Bean:
“This past Saturday night, it was very unfortunate that there was a technical error during the National Anthem at Petco Park. However, I want to convey that my former team, the San Diego Padres, has supported our inclusion message at MLB without hesitation, even before my return to baseball in 2014. They have led by example by inviting me, numerous times, to speak with their players and employees. I have also worked very closely with their owner, Ron Fowler, and team CEO Mike Dee, and I can assure you that they have made every effort to include the LGBT community and champion equality in MLB for each and every one of us. I’m so proud of the Padres organization for hosting an LGBT Pride event during the season, and I would hope that our community recognizes that error and intent are not related.”
Yesterday in SD. @Padres @SDGayMensChorus pic.twitter.com/n5jmCSLPEc
— Billy Bean (@billybeanball) May 22, 2016
The Padres have reportedly extended another offer to perform and have reached out to meet with the group.
@kimberlyloveee we have extended the offer.
— San Diego Padres (@Padres) May 22, 2016
The post MLB Ambassador for Inclusion Billy Bean Reacts to Padres’ Gay Chorus Incident appeared first on Towleroad.
Demi Lovato wears support for trans community during Billboard Awards performance
Getty Images for GLAAD
Multi platinum-selling recording artist Demi Lovato wore her support for the transgender community during the 24th Annual Billboard Music Awards on Sunday, once again taking a strong stand against North Carolina’s anti-LGBT law known as HB2. During her performance, the GLAAD Vanguard Award recipient wore a T-shirt featuring an inclusive bathroom symbol. A replica of the T-shirt will be sold during Lovato’s Honda Civic tour: Future Now and the proceeds will be donated to LGBT organizations in North Carolina, GLAAD announced today.
“Demi Lovato continues to be a fearless ally for LGBT equality and acceptance,” said GLAAD President & CEO Sarah Kate Ellis. “By wearing her support for the transgender community, Lovato is raising critical visibility for vulnerable LGBT North Carolinians and sending an invaluable message of support to transgender people everywhere.”
Proceeds from the equality-affirming T-shirt will benefit Equality NC, the state organization working to secure equal rights and justice for LGBT North Carolinians, as well as Time Out Youth, a Charlotte-based community center that provides support and services for LGBT youth.
In April, Lovato and Nick Jonas cancelled their North Carolina tour dates over the state’s anti-LGBT law and in a statement released to GLAAD, they said in part:
North Carolina’s discriminatory HB2 law is extremely disappointing, and it takes away some of the LGBT community’s most basic rights and protections. But we will not allow this to stop us from continuing to make progress for equality and acceptance.
GLAAD presented Lovato with the Vanguard Award at the 27th Annual GLAAD Media Awards in April in recognition of her work to advance equality and acceptance of LGBT people.
www.glaad.org/blog/demi-lovato-wears-support-trans-community-during-billboard-awards-performance
Antigay Venom Spewed at Rally for Alabama's Suspended Chief Justice
“I ask you God to stand against this militant homosexual movement that’s invading our land,” a pastor said at the Saturday gathering.
www.advocate.com/religion/2016/5/22/antigay-venom-spewed-rally-alabamas-suspended-chief-justice
2016.05.21 Capital TransPride Washington DC USA 0408
tedeytan posted a photo:
Capital Trans Pride 2016 will be held at the Reeves Municipal building (14th & U St NW) on Saturday, May 21st, 9:30 am – 4:00 pm, see: capitalpride.org/events/capital-trans-pride/ for a complete list of events and sponsors
Renewed Concerns about Privacy on Grindr, Hornet, and Similar Gay Hookup Apps
After claims that Egyptian police used gay hook-up apps to track down gay people and arrest them in 2014 (penalty for same-sex sexual activity in Egypt can lead to imprisonment for up to 17 years), Grindr, the mother of all sex hookup apps, took measures to keep its users safe.
The company revealed that “any user who connects to Grindr in these countries will have their distance hidden automatically by default, which include Russia, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, Liberia, Sudan and Zimbabwe.” It also added a feature in which users from all other countries can hide their location by going to “settings” and turning the “show distance” feature off, in case they wish to hide their location data.
The incident was brought to light by security firm Synack on a 2014 case-study exposing Grinder’s vulnerabilities. The report showed how easy it was to pinpoint the location of an app user, by a method called trilateration, which of course, affects all mobile social networking apps with geo-location functionality, like Scruff, Jack’d and Hornet. Trilateration is the “process of determining absolute or relative locations of points by measurement of distances using the geometry of circles,” and it can be done by just about anybody with a little high-school geometry.
Researchers at the Graduate School of Informatics of Kyoto University in Japan have recently tweaked the trilateration method and were able to track down Grindr users even if their “show distance” feature was disabled, as they wrote in a paper entitled “Your Neighbors Are My Spies: Location and other Privacy Concerns in GLBT-focused Location-based Dating Applications,” and published last week.
The new, fancier name of the method is colluding-trilateration, and it is just as simple: to calculate users positions, researchers used two fake accounts on two different Android OS-running machines and created “fake-GPS so that their positions can be freely set to any corner of the world.”
To prove their point, they were able to tell, within 15 minutes, the exact Brooklyn location from where Wired Magazine’s Andy Greenberg was using the app, as he reported for the magazine. Greenberg then reached out to Grindr to let the company know about the new findings, but said the response was vague, and that the spokesperson to the largest gay mobile app community in the world (two million daily active users in 196 countries) simply told him that “Grindr takes our users safety extremely seriously, as well as their privacy,” and that “we are working to develop increased security features for the app.”
Greenberg also contacted representatives of Jack’d and Hornet, which were also mentioned on the Kyoto researcher’s papers, and who said they take different measures to ensure their users privacy, although “neither of the companies’ obfuscation techniques prevented [Kyoto University researcher] Hoang from tracking WIRED’s test accounts.”
Another popular app also acknowledges the limitations of location-based apps, and the problems they might bring to users in countries where sex between gay men is criminalized. SCRUFF, considered by many as the bear version of Grindr, launched the SCRUFF Gay Travel Advisory (GTA) earlier this year, a guide for men living in or traveling to those countries. As of its last update in April of 2016, GTA had 86 countries listed.
Privacy concerns are hardly a new issue. In 2013 a study called “Grindr Application Security Evaluation Report” conducted by the Graduate School of Informatics at the University of Amsterdam reported that “serious flaws were discovered, which threaten the privacy and account security of Grindr’s users.” But with the increase in popularity of GPS-based hook-up apps, failure in protecting users can sometimes mean a jail sentence, or even death, for gay men who are just looking for some quick fun.
The post Renewed Concerns about Privacy on Grindr, Hornet, and Similar Gay Hookup Apps appeared first on Towleroad.
Must-See LGBT TV 5/22-28: 'The Real O'Neals' season finale, 'Nashville' series finale, and more!
Photo Credit: ABC/Ron Batzdorff
Grab the remote, set your DVR or queue up your streaming service of choice! GLAAD is bringing you the highlights in LGBT on TV this week. Check back every Sunday for up-to-date coverage in LGBT-inclusive programming on TV.
On The Real O’Neals season finale, Kenny tries to come up with the perfect guy to ask to be his date to prom and he and Jimmy scramble to come up with amazing “prom-posals” for their prospective dates. Meanwhile, Shannon thinks the idea of prom is absurd and wants to skip it, but her parents pressure her to go after they find out she was asked to attend with someone. The Real O’Neals: Tuesday, 8:30pm on ABC.
Dancing with the Stars wraps its’ 22nd season with episodes airing on back-to-back nights this week. On Tuesday’s two-hour show, the final three couples compete and one will be named the winners. Model, actor, and deaf advocate Nyle DiMarco has made it to the finals with his partner Peta Murgatroyd. Dancing with the Stars: Tuesday, 9pm on ABC.
Country music drama Nashville ends this week with the series finale airing Wednesday night after four seasons. In the finale, Will decides to step up and use his platform for good as much as he is able. Rayna resorts to drastic measures to protect Maddie, Juliette deals with the truth of Jeff’s death, and Scarlett and Gunnar consider breaking up as bandmates. Nashville: Wednesday, 10pm on ABC.
Sunday May 22: Call The Midwife (8pm, PBS); Fear the Walking Dead (9pm, AMC); Game of Thrones (9pm, HBO); Penny Dreadful(10pm, Showtime)
Monday: Love & Hip Hop Atlanta (8pm, VH1); Dancing with the Stars (8pm, ABC); Person of Interest (10pm, CBS)
Tuesday: The Real O’Neals (8:30pm, ABC); Dancing with the Stars (9pm, ABC); Person of Interest (9pm, CBS); Person of Interest (10pm, CBS); The Mindy Project (Hulu)
Wednesday: Rosewood (8pm, FOX); Arrow (8pm, The CW); Heartbeat (8pm, NBC); Nashville(10pm, ABC)
Thursday: The Real World: Go Big or Go Home (10pm, MTV); Orphan Black (10pm, BBC America)
Friday: Wynonna Earp (10pm, Syfy)
On daytime, check your local listings for information about LGBT-inclusive talk shows: Ellen,The Meredith Vieira Show, The Talk (CBS), The Gossip Table (VH1), The View (ABC) and The Chew (ABC). Daytime Dramas (all feature out characters): Days of Our Lives on NBC, The Bold and the Beautiful on CBS, and General Hospital on ABC. (check local listings)
Justice for Women Arrested, Assaulted for Kissing in Hawaii
The Honolulu Police Department reaches a settlement after one of their cops allegedly harassed and assaulted a Los Angeles lesbian couple on holiday.
www.advocate.com/crime/2016/5/22/justice-women-arrested-assaulted-kissing-hawaii
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