The GLAAD Wrap: Ira Sachs' MoMA exhibit,'Supergirl' casts Maggie Sawyer, new music from Elton John and more!

www.glaad.org/blog/glaad-wrap-ira-sachs-moma-exhibitsupergirl-casts-maggie-sawyer-new-music-elton-john-and-more

LGBT History Classes Are Coming to California Schools

In a groundbreaking move, the California State Board of Education voted to comprehensively expand its LGBT curricula.

www.advocate.com/youth/2016/7/15/lgbt-history-classes-are-coming-california-schools

Donald Trump Clearly Didn’t ‘Ask the Gays’ About Mike Pence

Indiana’s governor famously signed a law that would let businesses refuse service to LGBT customers.

www.advocate.com/election/2016/7/15/donald-trump-clearly-didnt-ask-gays-about-mike-pence

Newt Gingrich: Deport Every Muslim Who Believes in Sharia – WATCH

“Western civilization is in a war,” former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich told Sean Hannity on Thursday night after the terrorist attack in Nice, France.

Gingrich said that all Muslims in the United States, American citizens or otherwise, should be tested to see if they believe in “sharia.” If they do, Gingrich says they should be deported immediately.

NBC News reports:

“Every person here who is of a Muslim background” should be tested to determine whether he or she believes in Shariah, a legal code based on the Quran and other Islamic scriptures.

If they do, he said, they should be deported — even if they’re U.S. citizens. Gingrich added that anyone who simply visits any website “favoring ISIS or al Qaeda or other terrorist groups” should be guilty of a felony, “and they should go to jail.”

Gingrich added,

“Everyone who watches this video, this is the fault of western elites who lack the guts  to do what is right, to do what is necessary, to tell us the truth, and that starts with Barack Obama.”

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) National Executive Director Nihad Awad said of Gingrich’s comments,

“When former House Speaker Newt Gingrich suggests that American Muslims be subjected to an Inquisition-style religious test and then expelled from their homes and nation, he plays into the hands of terror recruiters and betrays the American values he purports to uphold.”

Watch, below.

The post Newt Gingrich: Deport Every Muslim Who Believes in Sharia – WATCH appeared first on Towleroad.

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It’s Official: Donald Trump Picks Indiana Governor Mike Pence as Running Mate

Donald Trump has picked Indiana Governor Mike Pence as his running mate:

I am pleased to announce that I have chosen Governor Mike Pence as my Vice Presidential running mate. News conference tomorrow at 11:00 A.M.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 15, 2016

They’ll hold a joint news conference tomorrow:

The pick sets up a stark clash in styles: a brash presumptive nominee with a tendency to freelance into controversies alongside a cautious former congressional leader who’s stuck close to conservative orthodoxy since starting his career in talk radio.

The Saturday event will take place Bedminster, New Jersey, CNN has learned.

…

Pence’s selection gives Trump a running mate with strong ties to the Republican base — particularly social conservatives. He was among the first Republicans to embrace the tea party on Capitol Hill. And as governor of Indiana, he faced major political backlash over his decision to sign into law a “religious freedom” measure that infuriated major businesses that saw it as anti-LGBT.

In tapping Pence, Trump adds to the GOP ticket a politician with ties to the Koch brothers and other influential donors who have so far stayed away from Trump.

NBC’s @ChuckTodd: “Mike Pence represents everything Donald Trump ran against,” like conservative orthodoxy t.co/t0FYaIe4Qb

— Bradd Jaffy (@BraddJaffy) July 15, 2016

The post It’s Official: Donald Trump Picks Indiana Governor Mike Pence as Running Mate appeared first on Towleroad.

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Out Pro Boxer Orlando Cruz to Honor Victims of Pulse Shooting at Fight Tonight in Florida

Orlando Cruz, the first professional boxer to come out as gay while active who is currently ranked at No. 4 among featherweights by the World Boxing Organization, will honor victims of the Pulse Orlando nightclub shooting at a match tonight in Kissimmee, Florida.

Morning 🌎 World I have the official T-shirt in support of the families of the victims at the Pulse Bar. pic.twitter.com/oYg2PtdOYv

— The Phenom Cruz (@ElFenomenoCruz) July 14, 2016

The Orlando Sentinel reports:

Three days after the one-month anniversary of the June 12 shooting that claimed 49 lives and injured many others at Pulse, a gay nightclub in Orlando, Cruz will return to a familiar surrounding. Cruz (23-4, 11 knockouts) and Alejandro “Alex” Valdez (26-7, 20 KOs) are scheduled for a lightweight bout that will be the main event of a fight card Friday night at the Kissimmee Civic Center (201 E. Dakin Ave.).

Middleweight Moises Carasquillo Jr. and junior middleweight Anthony Arvelo, both from Orlando, and junior welterweight Jovan Perez of Kissimmee are part of the undercard.

“The healing process is so delicate and so tough,” said Perez, a picture of Jesus visible among the tattoos on his right arm. “This is us showing our appreciation toward them and showing them that we care. There is not one single thing that is going to help them heal.

Cruz was close friends with one of the shooting victims, 50-year-old Franky Jimmy Dejesus Velazquez.

He got this tattoo a few weeks ago in honor of the shooting victims:

Said Cruz to Buzzfeed: “It really affected me and made me angry to see that among so many dead was my close friend. Gay people have rights just like everybody else and everyone needs to realize that we deserve to live openly and happy.”

A días de su combate, que dedicará a mártires y héroes de Orlando, @ElFenomenoCruz visitó el lugar de la tragedia. pic.twitter.com/oOU5w6Rxve

— Pedro Julio Serrano (@PedroJulio) July 12, 2016

The Sentinel reports on some of what will go down at tonight’s fight:

Ruben De Jesus, director of operations for the event’s promoter, All Star Boxing, said plans for this card started earlier this year because of television. (Some of the fights will be televised on Telemundo, beginning at 11:35 Friday night.) Cruz already was on board, but after the Pulse massacre, arrangements shifted to honor victims.

The bell will be rung 49 times — once for each of those killed four weeks ago — and an #OrlandoStrong banner will be prominent in the arena. Some Pulse victims and their families are expected to attend, De Jesus said.

Special trunks are being designed for Cruz, 35.

“It is a surprise,” he said.

The card has a promotionally appropriate name, too.

Tribute.

“At first, I was sad [after the shooting],” Cruz said. “Second, angry. I am very angry because people are homophobic, so they attacked my community. They attacked me.”

Nuestro @ElFenomenoCruz visitó hoy la discotecta Pulse en conmemoración del primer mes de la tragedia en Orlando. pic.twitter.com/q1b6mq0wuv

— Pedro Julio Serrano (@PedroJulio) July 12, 2016

Cruz also launched a Latino voting awareness campaign this week, according to Buzzfeed:

The campaign, a venture between All Star Boxing, Inc. and Mi Familia Vota, will include advertisements on the corners of the fighting ring and on clothing worn by boxers shown on Boxeo Telemundo, a leading boxing show on Spanish-language television, through the summer.

“Through the campaign we hope Latinos in the U.S. will go out to vote in large numbers without fear and make their voices heard,” Cruz told BuzzFeed News. “It’s important because as immigrants, many of whom who come here to look for stability, we have to advocate for our rights.”

The fight will be aired tonight at 11:35 pm on the Spanish language Telemundo network (NYC channel 47).

The post Out Pro Boxer Orlando Cruz to Honor Victims of Pulse Shooting at Fight Tonight in Florida appeared first on Towleroad.

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With Pence Pick, Trump Doubles Down on Anti-LGBTQ Agenda

HRC blasted Donald Trump for doubling down on his anti-equality agenda by choosing as his running mate Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, who has made virulent anti-LGBTQ activism a cornerstone of his political career.

“Donald Trump just doubled down on his agenda of hate and discrimination by choosing the notoriously anti-LGBTQ Mike Pence for his ticket,” said HRC President Chad Griffin. “Mike Pence has never left any question about his animus toward LGBTQ people, from peddling a hateful and damaging ‘right to discriminate bill’ in Indiana last year, to his longstanding opposition to marriage equality — positions shared by Donald Trump.”

Griffin Continued: “Hillary Clinton has laid out the most ambitious agenda for LGBTQ equality that our nation has ever seen from a presidential candidate. She will not only protect the gains we have made over the last eight years, but fight for full federal equality day in and day out in the White House.”

Pence became a national disgrace in 2015, for his “license to discriminate” bill that could have allowed businesses to deny service to LGBTQ people — and subsequently defending the bill over an outcry from the business community and a majority of Hoosier voters. In a now notorious interview with ABC last year, Pence refused to answer eight separate times when asked whether businesses should be able to discriminate against LGBTQ people.

Pence’s discriminatory bill had enormous consequences for the business and economic health of Indiana after a flood of companies spoke out against his bill. Indianapolis’s nonprofit tourism agency estimated that in their city alone, Pence’s anti-LGBTQ bill cost up to 12 conventions and $60 million in lost revenue. Polling conducted by HRC after the 2015 fight found that 75 percent of Hoosiers said the debate was bad for the state’s economy and 70 percent of those surveyed said they opposed to the law.

Hoosiers continue to have strongly negative feelings toward Pence. In a recent poll, only 36 percent said that Pence deserved re-election, and they gave their governor a net negative job disapproval rating. Only 40 percent approved of his job performance and 42 percent disapproved.

Pence also opposes marriage equality and Department of Education guidelines supporting transgender students. When serving in Congress, he voted against the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” and the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, calling it a “radical social agenda.”  

In recent weeks, Trump has reaffirmed his opposition to transgender equality, appeared alongside Tony Perkins — leader of SPLC-designated hate group the Family Research Council — and delusionally bragged about fictional support from the LGBTQ community in the wake of the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando. His false claims about his own support are belied by his own long record of opposing LGBTQ equality.

Here’s a snapshot of where the two align in their pursuit of undermining LGBTQ equality:

On Marriage Equality

• Trump: Vowed to roll back nationwide marriage equality by appointing justices to the Supreme Court who would reverse nationwide marriage equality.
• Pence: Pence opposed the Supreme Court’s nationwide marriage equality ruling, saying, “Like many Hoosiers, I believe marriage is the union between one man and one woman…” After the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which barred legally married same-sex couple from having their marriages recognized by the federal government, was ruled unconstitutional, he urged amending the state of Indiana’s constitution to outlaw marriage equality.

On Non-Discrimination Protections

• Trump: Trump has committed to signing the so-called “First Amendment Defense Act,” a bill to enable taxpayer-funded discrimination against LGBTQ people in the federal government. Trump said at the Iowa Faith and Family Coalition, his priority as President would be to “preserve and protect our religious liberty.”
• Pence: While in Congress, Pence voted against the Employment Non-Discrimination Act. He opposed the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” by saying it would turn the military into “a backdrop for social experimentation.” He voted against the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, calling it a “radical social agenda.” As governor, his “right to discriminate” bill could have allowed businesses to discriminate and deny service to LGBTQ people because of who they are or whom they love.

On Transgender Equality

• Trump: When asked about laws like North Carolina’s deeply discriminatory HB2, Trump said he supported the law, saying, “I’m going with the state. The state, they know what’s going on, they see what’s happening and generally speaking I’m with the state on things like this. I’ve spoken with your governor, I’ve spoken with a lot of people and I’m going with the state.” Trump previously told Sean Hannity that when it comes to laws like North Carolina’s HB2, Trump said he would “leave it up to the states.”
• Pence: Opposed guidance from the Department of Education that clarifies that transgender students have a right under Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 to access restrooms consistent with their gender identity, saying, “The federal government has no business getting involved in issues of this nature.”

www.hrc.org/blog/with-pence-pick-trump-doubles-down-on-anti-lgbtq-agenda?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss-feed

PHOTOS: Brutes, Blokes And Bad Boys Misbehave In London

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