#turnOUT 2016: HRC’s Chad Griffin on the Road for Equality

#turnOUT 2016: HRC’s Chad Griffin on the Road for Equality

What we do between now and Election Day will determine the kind of America we wake up to November 9th. That’s why I’ve hit the road to fire up support for HRC’s #turnOUT the vote efforts!

We’ve activated our grassroots army of nearly 2 million supporters to make sure voters across the country know exactly who will fight for the equal rights and protections of LGBTQ people and who will stand in our way.

Our ground game is stronger than ever. But we’ve also dedicated significant resources to actionable and effective online organizing efforts — from tweet-ups, and Snapchat filters, geo-targeted ads, and more, HRC is fighting to ensure the voice of our community is heard loud and clear this November.

In key states, we’ve found that the number of LGBTQ eligible voters alone exceeds the average margin of victory over the last three presidential elections. With everything on the line for our community, mobilizing the equality vote is crucial.

Thursday, I joined volunteers who took time off from work and school, to fight to elect Hillary Clinton and pro-equality candidates up and down the ballot. Arizona’s early vote begins October 12th and there’s not a second to waste.

 

Yesterday, in Minnesota I visited with HRC supporters who beat the sunrise to be first in line on the first day of early voting!

.@HRC President @ChadHGriffin greeted voters with bagels & coffee as early voting kicked off today in the North Star State! #turnOUT pic.twitter.com/hu6dD4tmx0

— HumanRightsCampaign (@HRC) September 23, 2016

 

In the weeks ahead, I’ll hit Florida, Virginia, Ohio, and other states to campaign with our members, organizers, and pro-equality supporters.

This moment is our moment and we can’t trade our progress for complacency. HRC is shifting into a higher gear and we’re answering the call on all fronts.

Let’s #turnOUT the vote!

www.hrc.org/blog/turnout-2016-hrcs-chad-griffin-on-the-road-for-equality?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss-feed

Lincoln Pride 2016 and Believe Theatre Performance

Lincoln Pride 2016 and Believe Theatre Performance

Sophie Lavender Photography posted a photo:

Lincoln Pride 2016 and Believe Theatre Performance

Photos from Lincoln Pride 2016. Celebrating LGBTP people and bringing visibility to the community; love is love and love wins.

This album also contains photos from the Rocky Horror tribute performed on the Pride stage by the fabulous Believe Theatre Company.

Please check out these on my facebook page at www.facebook.com/sophielavenderphotos/

If you would like a professional print of a photo please email me on [email protected]

Prices are £20 for an A4 print, £10 for an A5 print, and the P+P on top.

Lincoln Pride 2016 and Believe Theatre Performance

NOM’s Latest Protest Draws A Whopping Eleven People

NOM’s Latest Protest Draws A Whopping Eleven People

nom-mexican-embassy

Can you believe the National Organization for Marriage still even exists? Of course, these days they’re mostly focused on trans bathroom policies and other countries, which makes them neither “National” nor “for Marriage.”

And now it looks like they aren’t even organized, either.

NOM just organized a rally at the Mexican embassy in Washington DC, a show of solidarity with anti-gay protesters in Mexico. Turnout in DC was … let’s say it was light. At one point there were five people, at another point it was eleven. Thirteen if you count babies.

If you’ve been following the latest gay-marriage news, you’ve probably heard that Mexico is deliberating whether or not to legalize marriage equality. There were some huge rallies last week against the freedom to marry; but it seems pretty clear from what just happened in DC that once the laws are changed, citizens lose interest pretty fast.

Brian Brown, who still runs NOM, wasn’t even present. That’s maybe a good thing, considering his track record at rallies — a few years ago, one of his public events took on a sinister tone when a white supremacy group called “The White Wolves” showed up.

But Brown did at least have time to put out a statement. “This truly represents a global pro-family movement that is underway,” he said, “and it is only going to continue growing in size and strength.”

Ha! Well, of course he’d say that it’s growing in size. If it got any smaller, it wouldn’t even exist.

www.queerty.com/noms-latest-protest-draws-whopping-eleven-people-20160924?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+queerty2+%28Queerty%29

Woman Claims She Was Threatened, Spat Upon, And Bullied At Work For Being Heterosexual

Woman Claims She Was Threatened, Spat Upon, And Bullied At Work For Being Heterosexual

cassandra-liebeknecht

“I’ve been spat on, I’ve had people scare me, I’ve had people contact me at work anonymously, saying ‘I know where your children go to school’,’” Cassandra Liebeknecht says. “There was also a gentleman who continues to this day to slander me for my sexuality.”

Liebeknecht is the general manager of the Feast Festival, a popular queer arts event held each year in October in Adelaide, Australia. She is also heterosexual. But when word got out that she wasn’t actually a member of the LGBTQ community, she says, people became “vicious.”

Related: Gay Man Can’t Sue For Unbelievable Homophobic Harassment He Endured At Work

“There’s a lot of stuff on Facebook,” she laments. “In regards to discrimination, being the general manager of Feast … it has not been easy.”

Coincidentally, at the same time Liebeknecht says she was being harassed for her heterosexuality, she was also accused of “professional misconduct” allegedly involving the mismanagement of finances. As a result, she has been placed on paid leave while the board investigates.

“I’ve sought legal advice,” she says. “There’s been enough slander against me. I’m very concerned in regards to any further slander. I’m concerned about my future and my family and what this might do to me.”

She also says that it shouldn’t matter what her sexual orientation is as long as they are the best qualified person for the job.

Related: Antigay Christians Fear Losing Their Jobs For Being Homophobic At Work

But not everyone agrees.

“For me, the issue is more about, does the person have the knowledge, the trust, the networks and the skills, to engage and represent that community?” Karen Bryant, a lesbian artist, says.

Bryant believes that any group that is supposed to represent minorities “should be doing everything it can to ensure that leadership comes from those communities.”

Meanwhile, officials from the festival say Liebeknecht’s heterosexuality had nothing to do with her suspension from work, saying: “Feast’s view is–and always has been–that someone’s sexuality or gender should never be discriminated against. We support and celebrate all sexualities and gender identities.”

The organization declined to comment on the current internal investigation surrounding Liebeknecht.

www.queerty.com/woman-claims-threatened-spat-upon-bullied-work-heterosexual-20160924?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+queerty2+%28Queerty%29

‘New York Times’ Endorses Hillary Clinton, Plans to Eviscerate Trump on Monday

‘New York Times’ Endorses Hillary Clinton, Plans to Eviscerate Trump on Monday

Hillary Clinton Dallas Morning News Clinton

The New York Times endorsed Hillary Clinton in a lengthy op-ed today, promising to explain in another editorial on Monday “why we believe Mr. Trump to be the worst nominee put forward by a major party in modern American history.”

Writes the NYT:

We’re aiming instead to persuade those of you who are hesitating to vote for Mrs. Clinton — because you are reluctant to vote for a Democrat, or for another Clinton, or for a candidate who might appear, on the surface, not to offer change from an establishment that seems indifferent and a political system that seems broken.

Running down the other guy won’t suffice to make that argument. The best case for Hillary Clinton cannot be, and is not, that she isn’t Donald Trump.

The best case is, instead, about the challenges this country faces, and Mrs. Clinton’s capacity to rise to them.

The next president will take office with bigoted, tribalist movements and their leaders on the march. In the Middle East and across Asia, in Russia and Eastern Europe, even in Britain and the United States, war, terrorism and the pressures of globalization are eroding democratic values, fraying alliances and challenging the ideals of tolerance and charity.

The 2016 campaign has brought to the surface the despair and rage of poor and middle-class Americans who say their government has done little to ease the burdens that recession, technological change, foreign competition and war have heaped on their families.

Over 40 years in public life, Hillary Clinton has studied these forces and weighed responses to these problems. Our endorsement is rooted in respect for her intellect, experience, toughness and courage over a career of almost continuous public service, often as the first or only woman in the arena.

Read the full endorsement here.

In related news, the Cincinnati Enquirer endorsed Clinton on Friday, the first Democrat the Ohio newspaper has endorsed for president since Woodrow Wilson in 1916.

The post ‘New York Times’ Endorses Hillary Clinton, Plans to Eviscerate Trump on Monday appeared first on Towleroad.


‘New York Times’ Endorses Hillary Clinton, Plans to Eviscerate Trump on Monday

LGBT Activists Defiant After Police Shut Down Uganda Pride Parade: ‘The Spirit is Still Alive’

LGBT Activists Defiant After Police Shut Down Uganda Pride Parade: ‘The Spirit is Still Alive’

Richard Lusimbo Uganda Pride

Police in Uganda today shut down a Gay Pride Parade in two locations outside the capital of Kampala after a government minister said they were staging an illegal activity.

The AP reports:

More than 100 LGBT people turned up for the event Saturday at a beach on Lake Victoria. Most were later ordered into minibuses and escorted by police to Kampala, apparently for questioning, the reason one young man jumped off a moving minibus and injured himself, Mugisha said.

“They are traumatized,” he said.

The LGBT people who had traveled in the mini-buses were later set free, he said.

Homosexuality is a crime in Uganda, as in many African countries. A colonial-era law proscribes homosexual sex acts “against the order of nature.” Gay rights leaders say the LGBT community faces discrimination, violence and extortion.

2_lusimboSpeaking from a car on Entebbe Road, activist Richard Lusimbo posted a live Facebook video explaining what happened and saying that the LGBTI community there is strong and will not give up in the face of this oppression.

Lusimbo was traveling with Dr. Frank Mugisha, executive director of Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG), Kelly Daniel Mukwano of the i Freedom Uganda network, and two additional activists.

Said Lusimbo:

“It’s about our human rights as people. We are allowed by the constitution of Uganda as LGBTI community to congregate and we went through all the procedures…we informed the police and requested security so there is no way that anyone can say we are breaking the law. The most important thing I want to share with the rest of the world is that Pride Uganda is still alive and still going strong. The LGBTI community stands very firm and they are not giving up. The rainbow flag flies high alongside the Ugandan flag.”

Watch:

 

The post LGBT Activists Defiant After Police Shut Down Uganda Pride Parade: ‘The Spirit is Still Alive’ appeared first on Towleroad.


LGBT Activists Defiant After Police Shut Down Uganda Pride Parade: ‘The Spirit is Still Alive’

Lancashire Encounter & Preston Pride

Lancashire Encounter & Preston Pride

William Matthews Photography posted a photo:

Lancashire Encounter & Preston Pride

Lancashire Encounter is a weekend to discover, experience and become immersed in a bold and imaginative spectacle of performance, music, street theatre and art surrounding Preston Pride on Saturday and Run Preston on the Sunday. From large scale interactive projections to mass salsa dance off, burlesque to henna, puppet making workshops to a giant revolving life boat; guests will be invited to participate in, interact with or just enjoy a great Lancastrian weekend of fun.

Preston Pride 2016 5th annual LGBTI celebration of diversity supporting the local community – Theme sport free family friendly festival in preston city centre. Uniting all under one rainbow.

Lancashire Encounter & Preston Pride