Boy George Addresses Rumor He Slept With Prince

The funny thing about rumors is you never know quite how they started. For instance, the one about Boy George sleeping with Prince.

Oh, actually we know exactly how it started — Boy George blurted it out during a live taping of The Voice U.K.

George boasted, “I have duetted with some of the greatest soul singers in history including Luther Vandross and Smokey Robinson,” prompting Paloma Faith to come back with, “Well OK, if we’re throwing big soul names out there I’ve performed with Prince.”

“Forget that, darling,” George quickly retorted. “I’ve slept with Prince.”

will.i.am high-fived George as the audience laughed in shock at the revelation, but the show’s producers weren’t quite as amused.

They halted taping to have a private conversation with George, and when the show resumed, he announced that he actually hadn’t slept with Prince after all, and had merely had a Prince poster on his wall.

Related: Yoko Ono Settles The Score On John Lennon’s Long-Rumored Gay Love Affairs

But some weren’t entirely convinced.

During a recent appearance on the Wendy Williams Show, Williams asked George about the strange event. Why say you slept with someone when you haven’t? We thought that kind of behavior was relegated to immature teenage boys eager to prove their skills witht the ladies to their classmates.

“Of course that’s not true. It was a joke.” George told Wendy, adding that he only said it to try and convince a contestant to join his team. He then admitted that he did sleep with a poster of Prince under him, though. So there’s that.

“I’m a massive Prince fan. I met him once in Italy and he was suitably eccentric. He was exactly what you’d expect him to be. He was Prince!” he added.

You can watch the full interview below:

feedproxy.google.com/~r/queerty2/~3/wITubikHGcU/boy-george-addresses-rumor-slept-prince-20160526

Republicans Strike Again: Energy and Water Bill Killed Over LGBT Protections

An energy and water bill was killed in the House on Thursday as the result of an ongoing battle in Congress over LGBT rights and so-called “religious freedom.”

Openly gay New York Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney successfully added an amendment onto that bill late Wednesday which would ban federal contractors from discriminating against LGBT people on the basis of their sexual orientation or gender identity. Specifically, Maloney wanted to ensure the enforcement of President Obama’s 2014 executive order that prohibits such discrimination.

However, two Republican representatives, Rep. Joe Pitts (R-Pa.) and Robert Pittenger (R-N.C.), also successfully added a “religious freedom” amendment and an amendment that would have banned the Obama administration from withholding federal funds from North Carolina over HB 2.

The pro-LGBT amendment from Maloney combined with the anti-LGBT amendments from Pitts and Pittenger were enough to kill the bill altogether, as The Hill reports:

Most Democrats voted against the bill due to spending levels and policy riders. Taken together with Republicans who opposed the inclusion of the LGBT measure, the legislation didn’t have enough votes to pass Thursday. It failed 112-305, with 130 Republicans joining all but six Democrats to sink the Energy Department spending bill.

The bill’s failure Thursday marks the second time in two weeks lawmakers waged very public fights over LGBT policies on the House floor. […]

Democrats lambasted Republicans for the maneuver. After adopting the Maloney measure on Thursday, Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Republicans had otherwise “chosen to engage in a systematic campaign of discrimination against LGBT Americans” and “should be ashamed of themselves.”

The $37.5 billion bill provides funding for the Department of Energy and water programs within the federal government. It was the second spending bill to the House floor this year, but leadership aides told The Hill on Thursday the continued LGBT spat could endanger the rest of the appropriations process this session.

[Top photo via CSPAN / Twitter]

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Frank Ocean, Trump Sanders Debate, Sir Thomas Etherton, Eddie Izzard: NEWS

2016 ELECTION. Donald Trump agrees to debate Bernie Sanders for charity. Bernie says, “Game on.”

Game on. I look forward to debating Donald Trump in California before the June 7 primary.

— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) May 26, 2016

SOUTH KOREA. Gay couple appeals ruling refusing to recognize their marriage: “Kim Jho Gwang-soo and Kim Sung-hwan tied the knot in September 2013 but are still seeking to get legal status. They submitted a report of marriage to a Seoul district office, but it was denied by the office on the grounds that “same-sex marriage does not satisfy the definition of husband and wife in civil law.” They made an appeal in May 2014, asking the court to rule on the case. The Seoul Western District Court ruled against the filmmaker couple Wednesday, saying same sex-marriage cannot be recognized as legitimate under the country’s current legal system.”

NOT THIS TIME. Elton John and Vladimir Putin will not meet in Russia: “In November, the singer said he had talked to the Russian President on the phone and was arranging to meet him to discuss his concerns over gay rights in the country. But a Kremlin spokesman has now said that will not happen as there was ‘no appropriate time in the two men’s schedules’. However Dmitry Peskov said that they could still meet at a later date.”

UNDERGROUND. Why subways in the northeast are so troubled: “The subways in New York City and Boston, both more than half a century older than the system in Washington, need billions of dollars to replace aging infrastructure and to meet rising demand. All three cities, home to most of the nation’s busiest subways, are growing and attracting young people, who prefer mass transit but have become frustrated by delays.”

INDIA. Ian McKellen says country is at an LGBT ‘Crossroads’: “It seems to me that India is at some crossroads or another. You have to decide whether you’re going to be stuck in the colonial past or enter the modern world. Join the rest of us, who are simply prepared to accept that we are all born equal, be it the colour of our skin or hair.”

SIR TERENCE ETHERTON. Britain’s first openly gay judge is appointed head of the civil judiciary in England and Wales. “He will be the second most senior judge in England and Wales, outranked only by the lord chief justice, Lord Thomas of Cwmgiedd, and will receive a salary of around £220,000. Educated at St Paul’s school in west London and Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, Etherton has been a judge since 2001 and was the first to become so while publicly declaring his sexuality.”

RECORDS. Beauty and the Beast becomes most-watched teaser in history: “The teaser was watched 91.8m times in the first 24 hours of its release, taking it ahead of the 88m views garnered by the second teaser for The Force Awakens in 2014.”

ATTACKS. Trans comedian Eddie Izzard says he was attacked at a football match last weekend: “I went to the Palace game against Manchester United and someone [verbally] attacked me and was exceedingly horrible – he said I’m a disgrace to the Crystal Palace team. I was wearing a Crystal Palace shirt, he said ‘You’re a fucking disgrace’, and I went … ‘Hey what the bloody hell are you saying,’ and all the other Palace fans came out and said ‘Hey, back off, man’. And I just thought it was actually rather positive, because only one guy was screaming homophobic abuse at me rather than 20 or an entire section of an audience.”

NEXT UP. James Blake has heard Frank Ocean’s new music and says it’s amazing: “His music was a huge influence on the way I was writing the record, the way I was writing melodies.” Intriguingly, Ocean’s Channel Orange was not the record that grabbed Blake’s attention. “I was more of a fan of him when I heard his newer music,” Blake noted. “It’s better. You grow, you improve, you nail a new message to the board. He’s had time to mature. It’s really cool to watch.”

MEMORIES. Adele forgot the lyrics to her song and it was hilarious.

Adele forgot the lyrics to her song and this was her reaction. 😂 pic.twitter.com/n1EyHwXM56

— Pop Crave (@PopCrave) May 25, 2016

THIRSTY THURSDAY. Our Swirl Life couple Jack and Ben, from the UK.

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Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant To Join Lawsuit Over Transgender Students’ Bathroom Use

Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant announced on Thursday that he would join the lawsuit being brought by 11 states against the Obama administration over the administration’s recent guidance on transgender students.

Earlier this month, the administration issued a letter to all public schools calling on them to allow students to use bathrooms and changing rooms in accordance with their gender identity. North Carolina became the first state to challenge that guidance, with 10 others joining a lawsuit filed Wednesday by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.

WAPT reports: 

“We have spoken to the Texas Attorney General’s Office, and Gov. Bryant, as soon as possible, intends to join the lawsuit against this latest example of federal overreach,” Bryant spokesman Knox Graham said in an email.

The lawsuit announced Tuesday also includes Oklahoma, Alabama, Wisconsin, West Virginia, Tennessee, Maine, Louisiana, Utah and Georgia. The challenge follows a federal directive to U.S. schools this month to let transgender students use the bathrooms and locker rooms that match their gender identity. […]

The lawsuit accuses the Obama administration of “running roughshod over common-sense policies” that protect children. It asks a judge to declare the directive unlawful.

Developing…

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Donald Trump Can’t Decide Whether Transgender People Should Have Protections Or Not

Trump told Jimmy Kimmel he “doesn’t know” right from wrong with regard to transgender protections.

The post Donald Trump Can’t Decide Whether Transgender People Should Have Protections Or Not appeared first on ThinkProgress.

thinkprogress.org/lgbt/2016/05/26/3782177/donald-trump-republican-party-line-transgender-protections/

New Guide on Transgender-Affirming Hospital Policies

Last year, my friend and colleague Beck Bailey wrote about his experiences with the healthcare system after he took a bad fall while skiing.  While no one relishes the idea of having to receive emergency medical care or spend time in a hospital, this is an experience that is particularly dreaded by transgender people who frequently face discrimination in healthcare settings.  In fact, Lambda Legal’s landmark 2010 survey, When Health Care Isn’t Caring, found that 70 percent of transgender and gender-nonconforming people had experienced discrimination in healthcare.

To help combat this discrimination, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recently finalized rules confirming that transgender and gender nonconforming people are protected against health care discrimination under Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act.  These rules apply to both insurance coverage as well as most healthcare providers, including hospitals like the one where Beck was treated.   

While Beck experienced incidences of misgendering and other types of discrimination, he also found that many providers truly wanted to be supportive, but lacked any training in LGBT patient-centered care. Furthermore, the hospital did not have any policies or procedures in place to provide welcoming and affirmative care to transgender patients. To provide guidance to hospitals and other healthcare facilities that are seeking to improve healthcare for transgender patients, HRC Foundation, Lambda Legal and the LGBT Rights Committee of the New York City Bar Association, with pro bono assistance from Hogan Lovells US, LLP, and Proskauer Rose LLP, have released an updated version of our guide, “Creating Equal Access to Quality Health Care for Transgender Patients: Transgender-Affirming Hospital Policies.”

When first released in November 2013, “Creating Equal Access to Quality Health Care for Transgender Patients: Transgender-Affirming Hospital Policies” was a pioneering document designed for all hospital personnel seeking to align themselves with best practices in transgender care. It answered their questions about transgender patients, showed them how to reduce bias and insensitivity, and addressed key issues such as confidentiality, room assignments, bathroom access, and admitting/registration procedures. The guidance also included unique model policies that could be adapted to meet the needs of individual hospitals.

The intervening years have seen a significant change in the legal landscape concerning transgender rights in the healthcare context, including victories in court, new state insurance bulletins and evolving policies and best practices, culminating in the finalized Section 1557 rules. The revised publication incorporates those changes, adds new policies and updates existing ones.

The revised guide includes new information about:

• Access to hormone therapy;
• Access to personal items that assist gender presentation;
• Collection of gender identity data in electronic health records;

HRC Foundation’s Healthcare Equality Index (HEI) is the national LGBTQ benchmarking survey and report that helps healthcare facilities provide more equitable care to their LGBTQ patients.  This year we found that only twenty-one percent of hospitals participating in the HEI 2016 had specific policies outlining procedures and practices to eliminate bias and insensitivity toward transgender patients.  This revised publication will go a long way in helping more hospitals adopt crucial policies and practices to ensure that transgender patients like Beck are welcomed and treated with appropriate care.

www.hrc.org/blog/new-guide-on-transgender-affirming-hospital-policies?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss-feed

Muslim Organization Teaches LGBTQ Inclusion Through Storytelling

Over 70 people gathered at HRC’s Equality Forum on Saturday night to watch “Coming Out Muslim: Radical Acts of Love,” a faithful and moving play that captures stories and experiences of being at the intersections of Islam and queerness and its relationship to family, lovers, one’s sense of self and relationship with our faith.

The event began with the adhan — the traditional Islamic call to prayer. But it wasn’t your typical male-led muezzin, an appointed reciter. It was beautifully recited by Ani Zonneveld, founder of Muslims for Progressive Values (MPV) and a member of HRC’s Religion Council, who has been working towards building an inclusive Islamic practice for Muslims worldwide, one that is inclusive of women and LGBTQ people.

The event, co-sponsored by HRC Foundation and funded by the E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation, is on three-city tour and part of MPV’s strategy to elevate LGBTQ Muslim voices through storytelling.

“Sharing a story with someone and making a personal connection is the the crux of how we shift and change perspectives,” said Wazina, one of two performers of “Coming Out Muslim”.

In 2015, HRC Foundation released Coming Home to Islam and to Self, a guide to help LGBTQ Muslims who are seeking to reconnect with their faith and build more inclusive communities.

To learn more about Islam’s position on LGBTQ issues, go to www.hrc.org/muslim.

www.hrc.org/blog/muslim-organization-teaches-lgbtq-inclusion-through-storytelling?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss-feed

New Chinese Bus is Designed to Eat Traffic Jams for Lunch: WATCH

Traffic is a huge problem in most urban areas but China’s is legendary. Now, a Beijing company has designed this futuristic bus which would take the place of up to 40 conventional buses, and glides over the top of traffic jams on rails. It’s still conceptual at this point.

The Guardian reports:

The “straddling bus”, which owes more to Blade Runner than China’s car-clogged highways, is supported by two legs that run along rails laid along the roadside.

Those legs allow the TEB’s giant frame to glide high above the gridlock at speeds of up to 60km per hour. Equally, vehicles that are less than two metres high will be able to drive freely underneath the bus, even when it is stationary.

“The biggest advantage is that the bus will save lots of road space,” Song Youzhou, the project’s chief engineer, told Xinhua, China’s official news agency.

Song claimed his buses, capable of transporting up to 1,400 commuters, could be produced for 20% of the price of an underground train and rolled out far more quickly since the supporting infrastructure was relatively simple.

Mashable adds:

However, questions still remain as to how safe the TEB will be, considering the scale model at the expo used only cars and not tall and heavy vehicles such as trucks and vans, to demonstrate how it would work.

The demo model also lacked safety barriers that separated the cars from the bus, raising safety concerns on traffic collisions which are already common throughout the country’s roads.

Watch:

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YouTuber’s Dad Confesses He Considered Suicide When His Son Came Out as Gay: WATCH

Gay YouTuber RiyadhK sat down with his parents Lorraine and Sam to talk about his coming out but had no idea that his father was about to confess that he tried to kill himself over his son’s revelations.

The clip manages to be devastating, heartbreaking, and instructive all at once. For parents hoping to get some guidance on dealing with kids who are gay, this one is a must-watch.

RELATED: Watch Gay Vlogger Riyadh K Call And Confront His Childhood Bully – VIDEO

Said Sam about a note his son had left him, explaining that he is gay:

“I read it and I was like, waiting to sink in. ‘Really? No, it can’t be. Is it?’ It was just so confusing, because something just hits you like, bang! And you’re not really expecting it, and you’ll be thinking of what to do…and the family…”

Collecting himself, Sam added, “What I’m thinking is for every mother and father, if they love their kid, you have to stand by them.”

“I remember it was tough for you,” added Riyadh.

Riyadh’s statement seemed to push Sam to open up further:

‘I actually got up that night at  – after you all went to sleep – about 3 or 4 in the morning, and I was looking for a tablet to commit suicide. That’s why I say it was so stupid.”

Watch:

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