Prominent Catholic Cardinal Mocks ‘Demonic’ Transgender Rights Laws: WATCH

Prominent Catholic Cardinal Mocks ‘Demonic’ Transgender Rights Laws: WATCH

Cardinal_Robert_Sarah_(cropped)

A high-ranking Catholic cardinal has said that god “is being eroded, eclipsed, liquidated” by laws “promoting transgender equality.”

Speaking at the 12th annual National Prayer Breakfast, Cardinal Robert Sarah, prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, also condemned same-sex marriage as a “demonic” attack on the traditional family. He also had it in for divorce, cohabitation, contraception….everything really.

– High-ranking Catholic Cardinal Robert Sarah spoke out against homosexuality and mocked legislation promoting… t.co/cNd6xkZcxX

— MICHAEL CAPUTO (@PAT_CO0PERS_son) May 26, 2016

RELATED: The Cardinal, The Ambassador, and ‘the Little Faggot’

According to Christian Daily, Sarah said:

“Should not a biological man use the men’s restroom? How simpler can that concept be?

“In the name of tolerance, the Church’s teaching on marriage, sexuality and [the] human person are being dismantled. The legalization of same-sex marriage, you’re beginning to accept contraception within healthcare programs and even bathroom bills that allow men to use the women’s restroom and locker rooms.

“The rupture of the foundational relationship of someone’s life through separation, divorce or distorted imposters of the family such as cohabitation or same-sex unions is a deep wound that closes the heart to self-giving love into death, and even leads to cynicism and despair. These situations cause damage to the little children through inflicting upon them deep existential doubt about love.”

Intolerance and evangelization: Thoughts on Cardinal Sarah at the National Prayer Breakfast | t.co/O4SzUFcuuG

— Christoph Sperling (@pfarrer39387) May 25, 2016

Ramond BurkeLast year, Cardinal Raymond Burke (right) said that Irish people who voted in favor of same-sex marriage are “worse than pagans.”

(Top image via Wikimedia)

Watch Sarah’s comments below (starting at 75 minutes).

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Young Transgender Activist in Pakistan Dies after Hospital Delays Treatment

Young Transgender Activist in Pakistan Dies after Hospital Delays Treatment

alesha pakistan

The young transgender activist who was shot on Sunday in Pakistan died Wednesday morning, after a local hospital refused to give her proper treatment.

alesha Alesha, the 23-year-old district coordinator for TransAction Khyber Paktunkha, an activist organization in northern Pakistan which fights for “protection needs for trans population, ending transphobia, improving interaction, promoting equality,” was shot eight times, during an altercation between a group of men and several transgender people, The Telegraph reported.

Her friends took her to Lady Reading Hospital, the biggest hospital in the Khyber Paktunkha province, where she had to wait for over one hour, as hospital management decided whether to take her to the male or female ward. When Alesha was finally taken o the women’s ward (where female patients complained about the situation), doctors told her friends she was in critical condition and that she needed to stay in ICU, as the following nine hours would be crucial.

One again, the hospital refused to move her and she was placed in a curtained-off bed in a corridor next to a lavatory before eventually being given a private room, according to The Telegraph.

Qamar Naseem, coordinator of Blue Veins, a transgender advocacy group in Pakistan, told The Express Tribune that staff at the hospital “failed to provide her with urgent care or necessary facilities as she was transgender.”

“We blame LRH authorities for not giving Alesha urgent care or providing facilities to her even after her story was highlighted in the media and government officials took action,” Naseem said.

Hate crimes targeting the trans community are common in Pakistan. The Los Angeles Times reported that at least five transgender activists have been attacked in recent months in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, a socially conservative province next to the country’s northern tribal areas.

aleshaPhotos: Trans Action Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Facebook Page

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#LoveTrumpsHate: HRC Brings Post-it Wars to the Nation’s Capital

#LoveTrumpsHate: HRC Brings Post-it Wars to the Nation’s Capital

Today, HRC brought the famous Post-it Wars in New York City to the nation’s capital, helping to ring in this 2016 pride season with a message crafted from over 3,500 neon Post-its: #LoveTrumpsHate.

The Post-it Wars has gone viral on the streets on NYC, displaying fun and creative messages through colorful Post-it notes. HRC decided to bring the effort to DC with a political twist, sending a pointed message aimed at anti-LGBT Republican candidate Donald Trump, whose divisive campaign has targeted women, people of color and others who are part of the LGBT and allied community. 

Trump, now the presumed candidate for the Republican Party, remains dangerously out of step with the majority of fair-minded Americans who believe that LGBT people should be treated equally under the law. Trump has not only promised to use the Supreme Court to roll back nationwide marriage equality, but he’s supported a bill that would lead to more Kim Davis-style discrimination, and said that he would allow states like North Carolina violate federal civil rights laws.

He has said that if elected president he would rescind the Obama Administration’s historic directives protecting transgender people from discrimination and has refused to support the Obama Administration’s ground-breaking guidance that public schools and schools receiving federal money must ensure that transgender students are treated with dignity and allowed equal access to facilities, such as restrooms, consistent with their gender identity.

While Trump continues to spew anti-LGBT rhetoric, it is clear he is on the wrong side of history. A survey by the HRC Foundation found that three-quarters of transgender students feel unsafe in school settings. A report by the Williams Institute found that half of transgender adults who were bullied in school had attempted suicide. These startling numbers can only be expected to rise if the North Carolina law, and other similar bills proposed in other states, continue to target these young people.

Watch the video below to see our building’s transformation and get your own Love Trumps Hate t-shirt at hrc.org/shop.

 

Paid for by Human Rights Campaign PAC. Not authorized by any candidate or candidate’s committee. 

www.hrc.org/blog/lovetrumpshate-hrc-brings-post-it-wars-to-the-nations-capital?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss-feed

High School Footballers Accused Of Sexually Assaulting Disabled Teammate With Coat Hanger

High School Footballers Accused Of Sexually Assaulting Disabled Teammate With Coat Hanger

sadistic-footballers

Well, this is disturbing beyond belief.

Three white high school football players in southern Idaho have been charged with sexually assaulting a disabled black teammate.

According to court documents, the incident occurred in the male locker room of Dietrich High School last October. 18-year-old John R.K. Howard, 17-year-old Tanner Ward, and a third student, age 16, are accused of luring the victim, who suffers “mental disorders including learning disabilities,” over to them then restraining him as they “physically forced a coat hanger into the plaintiff’s rectum.”

Howard then proceeded to kick the coat hanger over and over and over again while it was inside the boy. The injuries were so severe they required medical treatment.

“It was terrible–a pain I’ve never felt,” the victim said during a preliminary hearing last month. “I screamed. I was pretty upset. I felt really bad. A little bit betrayed and confused at the same time.”

Just in case all that isn’t disturbing enough, court documents also allege that before the attack the victim was “taunted and called racist names by other members of the team, which names included ‘Kool-Aid.’ ‘chicken eater,’ ‘watermelon,’ and ‘n*****r’,” as well as subjected to wedgies, simulated anal sex and “aggressive humping.”

The victim’s family is seeking $10 million from the school and the 11 employees, including administrators and coaches, who they say “ignored or were deliberately indifferent to the behavior of Mr. Howard, which included aggression, taunting and bullying of the plaintiff and other students in the district.”

“With deliberate indifference, the defendants did nothing to curb the vicious acts of Mr. Howard who brought with him from Texas a culture of racial hatred towards the plaintiff,” the lawsuit reads.

Howard is scheduled to appear in court on June 10. Hearing dates for the other alleged attacks have yet to be announced.

h/t: Huffington Post

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Boy George Addresses Rumor He Slept With Prince

Boy George Addresses Rumor He Slept With Prince

boy-george-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:

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

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

LGBT energy water

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

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

Kim Jho Gwang-SooSOUTH 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.”

Elton John Vladimir Putin prankedNOT 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.”

subwayUNDERGROUND. 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.”

Ian McKellenINDIA. 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.”

EthertonSIR 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.”

Instagram Photo

 

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.

Instagram Photo

Instagram Photo

Instagram Photo

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

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

phil bryant

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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