Watch How These Commuters React To Public Acts Of Homophobia

In a crowded subway train during rush hour, how many passengers would dare to stand up to a homophobic aggressor?

That’s what Julius Dien wanted to find out when he took to the London streets and tubes, staging a social experiment that gauges various responses to public acts of homophobia.

Related: Two Men Walked The Streets of Moscow Holding Hands As A Social Experiment. Things Did Not End Well.

The experiment involves two of Julius’s friends, Adam Ward and Josh Green, holding hands and openly making out in public.

That’s when Julius enters the picture, shouting homophobic slurs.

The rest of the performance all depends on whichever unsuspecting mark happens to be sitting nearby.

Related: What Happens When A Straight Guy Hits On Other Unsuspecting Straight Guys?

As you can see in the below video, most responses are encouraging. Quite a few people stand up for the couple, and some people tell Julius to leave the area or even threaten to “knock him out.”

Not surprisingly, there is one little asshole who decides to join Julius in the abuse: “If you gonna do that,” he says, “do it somewhere else. They got more rights than we have nowadays.”

Watch the clip below: 

feedproxy.google.com/~r/queerty2/~3/4KZlgqHDZps/watch-commuters-react-public-acts-homophobia-20160630

When In The South, Charm His Pants Off

If confidence is key, then dressing to your personal style is crucial. You might be edgy and dark, favoring black and sleek pairs of underwear, or you may be bright and playful with a love for patterns. But today, we’re focusing on a little southern charm, and that requires a style that is easy-breezy, with a restrained sex appeal. This week’s Style Guide is for those men – like our model this week, a southern gentleman turned Hollywood hunk.

Model and actor Derek Yates steps outside and into some casual yet sexy pairs of underwear. Derek recently moved from Tennessee to Hollywood, placing his style somewhere between sweet tea and cold pressed juice.

For more information, visit The Underwear Expert.

Photo Credit: Jerrad Matthew

feedproxy.google.com/~r/queerty2/~3/9U4KKZhFkso/south-charm-pants-off-20160630

Active Shooter Reported at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland: LIVE VIDEO

Joint Base Andrews in Maryland has been placed on lockdown and personnel have been directed to shelter in place following reports of an active shooter.

JBA is currently on lockdown due to a report of an active shooter. All personnel are directed to shelter in place. More info as it comes.

— Joint Base Andrews (@JBA_NAFW) June 30, 2016

Confusion has clouded early reports of the incident as an active shooter drill was scheduled at the same time of the reported incident:

Joint Base Andrews confirmed to News4 that it had planned an active shooter exercise for 9 a.m. this morning. However, at the same time as the exercise, first responders received reports of an active shooter at the medical facility. The base says it investigating the incident as an ongoing active shooter situation.

Watch a live feed from NBC4 Washington:

The post Active Shooter Reported at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland: LIVE VIDEO appeared first on Towleroad.

feeds.towleroad.com/~r/towleroad/feed/~3/TY086ohKDJs/

Davey Wavey Followed a Recovering Meth Addict on the AIDS Ride and Finished Strong: WATCH

Luke is a recovering crystal meth addict who had been off the drug for 12 days after a relapse when he allowed vlogger Davey Wavey to follow him on the AIDS/Lifecycle ride and chronicle his journey. They had been planning the trip for some time, but hadn’t counted on the relapse.

Davey wrote about the trip in a message to Towleroad:

If riding a bike 545 miles from San Francisco to Los Angeles sounds challenging enough – imagine doing it 12 days after a crystal meth binge. And then imagine having the courage to share the story with the world.

This is the part where I introduce you to Luke. He’s a handsome 20-something personal trainer from Texas whose big smile and blue eyes hide a lot of pain and struggle. Luke is a recovering addict. And after more than two years of sobriety – and just days before the AIDS/LifeCycle bicycle ride and fundraiser – he relapsed.

Luke told me about his relapse over text.

For a month, I had been planning to interview him on the ride. It was a story of victory. It was the story of someone who triumphed and turned their life around. Suddenly, this was a very different narrative.

Luke didn’t want to back out of the ride – or the interview. He wanted to press on. He wanted to get up and push forward and do what no one thought he could do.

And so I filmed his journey. For seven days, we biked. And each afternoon, we sat down with the camera and talked. It’s still a story of victory, in a way, but also a story of the human experience. Life isn’t simple. We don’t just pick ourselves up and move on. We fall down. We struggle. We get up and fall again. It’s messy. It’s difficult. It’s what it means to be human. And that’s Luke. That’s all of us.

Watch their journey:

The post Davey Wavey Followed a Recovering Meth Addict on the AIDS Ride and Finished Strong: WATCH appeared first on Towleroad.

feeds.towleroad.com/~r/towleroad/feed/~3/2GMe0xT-fz4/

Anti-Gay Congressman to Be Publicly Shamed by Airplane Banner Over Jersey Shore

New Jersey Rep. Scott Garrett, who told Republicans last July that he would not pay dues to the RNC because the organization was supporting gay candidates, will be publicly shamed over the weekend by an airplane banner by The Democratic group House Majority PAC, the Huffington Post reports.

Garrett has since clarified that he doesn’t oppose gay people running for office, but he believes the GOP should not support candidates who back same-sex marriage.

“I said I support anyone’s right to run for public office and will support those people who support positions that’s in the Republican platform,” Garrett said, referring to the platform’s line that the “union of one man and one woman must be upheld as the national standard.”

An airplane with the banner “SCOTT GARRETT: ANTI-GAY BIGOTRY WONT FLY” will fly above Jersey Shore beaches from Belmar to Sandy Hook on Sunday and Monday, the Independence Day holiday.

In April we reported that Garrett’s anti-gay stance appeared to be causing him fundraising woes.

The plane banner is part of a campaign which includes the Stop Scott Garrett website.

The post Anti-Gay Congressman to Be Publicly Shamed by Airplane Banner Over Jersey Shore appeared first on Towleroad.

feeds.towleroad.com/~r/towleroad/feed/~3/u2fZyb4YvQM/

HRC Foundation Attends FosterClub Event in Nation’s Capital

Post submitted by Ashley Jeffrey, HRC Foundation Coordinator

Last month, HRC attended Shadow Day, a FosterClub initiative that brought dozens of foster youth and alumni of care to Washington, D.C., allowing them to shadow Congressional members.

On behalf of HRC’s All Children – All Families (ACAF) project, I co-facilitated a workshop on the experiences of being an LGBTQ youth in foster care and key issues these young advocates could address with the members they shadowed. The intersection is important because many LGBTQ youth are over-represented in the foster care system and have an added layer of trauma that comes with being rejected or mistreated because of their sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression.

After an initial ice breaker, the youth opened up about their personal experiences and those of their LGBTQ friends and family. One attendee shared that her best friend, who identified as gay, disappeared from school having been sent to “conversion therapy.” She attended our workshop for tips to talk to her Congressional representative about “conversion therapy” and how she could advocate against the practice and its harmful effects.

Another youth attended to ask his congressional representative if the foster care system could do more to protect his transgender sister during her transition. Several youth in the room cited foster-family rejection because of their sexual orientation and advocated for more LGBTQ-friendly families.

The workshop reaffirmed the importance of the work we do in the ACAF project. It is imperative that we aid in building foster care agencies’ capacity to provide inclusive services and resources for LGBTQ youth – many of whom are often forced out of their homes, or will run away, becoming homeless or entering the foster care system. ACAF gives me hope that one day LGBTQ youth will always be uplifted and affirmed in the foster care system. Until then, we keep working.

To see a video with more information on the All Children – All Families project, click here. For more information on the dangers of “conversion therapy,” please click here.

Photo c/o/FosterClub

www.hrc.org/blog/hrc-foundation-attends-fosterclub-event-in-nations-capital?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss-feed

101 Times Women Showed Their Pride Around the World

www.advocate.com/pride/2016/6/30/101-times-women-showed-their-pride-around-world

This Is a Protest: The 24th Annual NYC Dyke March

www.advocate.com/pride/2016/6/30/protest-24th-annual-nyc-dyke-march