The Biggest Wins for LGBT People in 2016’s Blockbusters So Far
We aren’t quite where we should be when it comes to inclusion, but the summer movie season has brought us reasons to celebrate.
www.advocate.com/film/2016/8/04/biggest-wins-lgbt-people-2016s-blockbusters-so-far
How Chicago Dealt With Soccer Fans' Homophobic Chant
The general manager of the Chicago Fire asked fans at Toyota Park to stop using a Spanish slur that many people consider antigay.
www.advocate.com/sports/2016/8/04/how-chicago-dealt-soccer-fans-homophobic-chant
Jared Leto: Hollywood's Antigay Discrimination Must End
The Suicide Squad star said gay actors don’t have the same opportunities to be leading men, and “it shouldn’t be that way.”
www.advocate.com/film/2016/8/04/jared-leto-hollywoods-antigay-discrimination-must-end
Humanity is Falling
adamwright1989 resident posted a photo:
The human boy Adam wonders around, knowing that humanity is falling. Glad he has supernatural friends and family. Taken August 2016.
Joe Biden, Britney Spears, U.S. Navy, Sarah McBride, Tim Kaine, Ning Zetao: HOT LINKS
BFFs. Vice President Biden wishes President Obama a happy birthday in the cutest way possible.
Happy 55th, Barack! A brother to me, a best friend forever. pic.twitter.com/uNsxouTKOO
— Vice President Biden (@VP) August 4, 2016
GEOPOLITICS. Russia and the U.S. are fighting a proxy war over who will be the next Secretary General of the United Nations: “Washington, which is believed to want a woman in the U.N. role, has been backing Argentina’s foreign minister in the secretive selection process, U.N. sources say. Meanwhile, U.N. sources say Russia is angling for a female Bulgarian diplomat with family ties to the Soviet Union, a nod to its desire to see an Eastern European in the job.”
NORTH CAROLINA. Schools in Charlotte have put transgender bathroom rights on hold following Supreme Court’s stay in Gavin Grimm case: “The announcement coincides with a letter-writing campaign launched by the N.C. Values Coalition, which is urging parents to bombard CMS with letters saying the regulations that were announced in June would jeopardize students’ ‘privacy, safety and dignity.’”
HOLLYWOOD PROBLEMS. Olivia Munn is reportedly tearing QB Aaron Rodgers’ family apart.
FLAWLESS. Sarah Jessica Parker may not want to call herself a feminist but Barack Obama is more than happy to own the label.
GODNEY. Britney Spears teases new “Make Me” music video on Instagram stories.
GAY LA. Fortune Feimster, Jimmy Fowlie, and Chris Eckert perform next Tuesday August 9 in The Gale at Los Angeles’ The Groundlings, serving up a ferociously queer night of Improv.
SAN DIEGO. Historic AIDS hospice to be preserved.
IN THE NAVY. No more blue camouflage or “blueberries” for sailors (which they say is a good thing): “They failed to reduce the number of uniforms sailors must maintain. Their threads put sailors at risk for worsening burn injuries by melting. And sailors said they were uncomfortable and that the only camouflage they offered was when someone fell overboard.”
READ TO FILTH. Transgender activist, HRC staff member and DNC speaker Sarah McBride rips Clint Eastwood for defending Trump’s racism.
Clint Eastwood was born in 1930. Let’s start a list of things that weren’t considered racist when he was growing up. pic.twitter.com/xuySp45dZv
— Sarah McBride (@SarahEMcBride) August 4, 2016
MUSIC. Kristin Chenoweth announces new album, The Art of Elegance.
PROUD AND POSITIVE. plus names author Kevin Sessums as #1 most amazing HIV+ person of 2016: “Sessums is a rarity: an HIV-positive journalist who has also written two New York Times bestselling memoirs: Mississippi Sissy and, more recently, I Left It on the Mountain.”
VP VERSUS VP. Tim Kaine goes after Mike Pence for his record on LGBT rights while campaigning in North Carolina: “The vice presidential nominee on the Republican side, Mike Pence, did something like the North Carolina bill,” Kaine added. “Found that immediately, discriminating against LGBT people immediately companies started to pull out. You’re seeing those announcements in North Carolina too, whether it’s the All-Star game or PayPal. Same thing happened in Indiana and he had to kind of do a U-turn.”
PREP. Hillary Clinton releases plan to fight for an AIDS-free generation, endorses expansion of PrEP.
THURSDAY THIRST. Chinese Olympic swimmer Ning Zetao.
The post Joe Biden, Britney Spears, U.S. Navy, Sarah McBride, Tim Kaine, Ning Zetao: HOT LINKS appeared first on Towleroad.
Get Ready for Rio with This Full-Length Documentary on Tom Daley – WATCH
A new documentary on Tom Daley takes a deep dive into his quest for Olympic gold, his experience coming out as a high-profile athlete, and his relationship with Academy Award-winning screenwriter Dustin Lance Black.
Produced by ITV, Tom Daley: Diving for Gold describes itself as “An intimate portrait of one of Britain’s best-loved sporting heroes” that “follows Tom Daley’s four-year journey from London 2012 until now.”
Daley announced that he would be taking part in the documentary last month, though it has been filming for quite some time.
With the Rio Olympics already underway, and the opening ceremonies set to kick off tomorrow, get in the Olympic spirit with this full-length documentary on one of the most famous out athletes in the world.
Watch, below.
The post Get Ready for Rio with This Full-Length Documentary on Tom Daley – WATCH appeared first on Towleroad.
HRC Strongly Condemns Ugandan Police Raid of LGBTQ Pride Event
Today, HRC strongly condemned the police raid of a peaceful LGBTQ pride event in Kampala, the country’s capital. While events continue to unfold, police arrested several participants, including activists Frank Mugisha and Pepe Onziema of Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG).
“The violent raid and arrest of LGBTQ leaders attending a Uganda Pride event is an affront to the universal freedom to peaceably assemble and to the basic dignity of LGBTQ Ugandans,” said HRC President Chad Griffin. “Ugandan authorities must stop targeting and persecuting LGBTQ people. The victims of the raid deserve an apology from their government and police force. The world is watching.”
The raid was carried out shortly after a Ugandan tribute to the 49 victims of the deadly shooting in Orlando. The event marked the second evening of Uganda Pride 2016. HRC and other partners sponsored Uganda Pride’s opening reception the previous night. HRC is monitoring the situation closely and working with partners in Uganda to help in any way that we can.
“The reaction to the raid highlighted the ever-growing global movement for LGBTQ equality,” said Ty Cobb, Director, HRC Global. “Within minutes after the raid began, activists from around the world joined forces to condemn the incident and call for the release of those who were in custody. We are stronger together.”
Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, in office since 1986, signed the country’s infamous Anti-Homosexuality Bill in February 2014. Though the Constitutional Court subsequently invalidated it in August the same year, the law created a violent backlash against the LGBTQ Ugandan community that persists today. President Museveni won re-election in February with 62 percent of the vote, however international electoral observers asserted that the election “fell short of key democratic benchmarks,” noting the arrest of opposition party members and the government’s shutdown of social media sites.
Another recent law affecting the LGBTQ community and activists is the Non-Governmental Organizations Act. Passed in November 2015, it requires all non-government organizations to apply for a permit in order to operate and gives authorities the ability to jail leaders of organizations if their message is “against public interests.” The measure threatens to stop the work of organizations including SMUG, as well as the work of other international NGOs operating in Uganda. Under President Museveni’s authoritarian rule, the situation remains grim for LGBTQ groups and activists and they are unable to advocate peacefully.
Read more about LGBTQ rights in Uganda here.
Ugandan Pride event raided, LGBT leaders arrested
GLAAD
This evening, Ugandan police raided a Uganda Pride event being held at a club called “Venom” in the city of Kampala.
Among those arrested are Dr. Frank Mugisha and Pepe Julian Onziema, leaders of Sexual Minorities Uganda. Police had initially blocked access to the club, preventing others from leaving — at this moment it is unclear whether they have or if people are still being held inside.
Mugisha and Onziema have posted to social media, notifiying the global community of the raid and arrest.
I am arrested by Ugandan police
— Dr. Frank Mugisha (@frankmugisha) August 4, 2016
Arrested
— TheNilote (@Opimva) August 4, 2016
“People are not criminals for who they are or who they love. All people, no matter where they are in the world, should be able to live their life with dignity and respect and without fear,” said Ross Murray, GLAAD’s Director of Programs, Global and US South. “We stand with Frank, Pepe, and all our Ugandan friends who are detained and call for their immediate release.”
Pepe Julian Onziema was at the 26th Annual GLAAD Media Awards in New York, accepting the Award for Outstanding Talk Show Episode for his episode of HBO’s Last Week Tonight with John Oliver.
This story is breaking and ongoing. We’ll have more information soon. For more information on the larger context in Uganda, check out Human Rights Watch’s report on the broader human rights situation that this raid is occurring in.
www.glaad.org/blog/ugandan-pride-event-raided-lgbt-leaders-arrested
HB 2 Takes Center Stage at Tim Kaine's North Carolina Rally
The energetic rally was punctuated by chants of “vote, vote, vote!”
www.advocate.com/election/2016/8/04/hb-2-takes-center-stage-tim-kaines-north-carolina-rally
Coming Soon: A Classy London Café That Serves Men Coffee… With Benefits
“Would you like a side of oral copulation with your coffee?”
That’s what patrons who enter Bradley Charvet’s “fellatio café” in London will soon be greeted with when they stop in for their daily cup of joe.
Related: Barilla Launches New Restaurant In NYC And The Reviews Aren’t Good
According to the Evening Standard, the small business owner is teaming up with the app BumPix to launch a coffee shop where escorts-turned-baristas administer oral sex on male customers as they sip their morning espressos.
Classy!
Now, we know what you’re thinking: Wouldn’t that be considered prostitution? And isn’t that illegal? The answer: Yes and no.
Running a brothel is against the law in the U.K., but Charvet and BumPix believe they’ve found a loophole in the law.
“We are happy this will be a legal business in the UK, which is nice because it will be organized and controlled,” he said. “We need to fix some details to avoid trouble. It’s on the way. The project is in progress. At the moment, our lawyer is doing the job to get the right stuff done.”
Related: Can This ‘Golden Girls’-Themed Cafe Lure Fans To Washington Heights?
A cup of coffee would start at £50 (that’s $65 U.S.).
“If the fellatio is long, over 15 minutes, extras are going to be added,” Charvet explained. “£10 per 15 minutes.”
The cafe will mostly cater to straight men, but, Charvet says, “we’re thinking about offering gay services as well.”
“We know that the gay community is important,” he tells GayStarNews. “That’s why we’re thinking about offering gay services as well.”
When asked if he felt the coffee shop may cross ethical lines, Charvet said, “I would say no one is forced to work in this coffee shop. It’s a normal job.”
“You do your job,” he added. “Eight hours per day, if they decide to work in full time.”
Eight hours… a day?!
Yeesh.
Related: Coffee Shop Owner Bans Antigay Lawmakers Unless They’re Accompanied By An LGBT Person
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