Michigan Board of Education Adopts Guidelines Protecting Transgender Students
The board approved a set of recommendations for K-12 schools that advocate for transgender students to have access to facilities comporting with their gender identity and for schools to protect their privacy.
Creepy Russians Hack Out Olympian's Medical History
Elena Delle Donne, the out Olympian and WNBA MVP, says she received official permission to take the medication identified in her hacked records.
www.advocate.com/sports/2016/9/14/creepy-russians-hack-out-olympians-medical-history
Australians Should Not Vote on Same-Sex Marriage
Here’s why a bill that would let citizens vote on marriage equality is a bad idea.
www.advocate.com/politics/2016/9/14/australians-should-not-vote-same-sex-marriage
53 Blowhard Republicans Intervene In Gay Couple’s Divorce
Getting divorced is bad enough — now imagine if a couple dozen Republicans decided that they need to become involved in your breakup too, and prevent you from seeing your kid.
That’s what’s going on Tennessee right now, where a basket of deplorable Republican lawmakers are insisting that a court disregard a lesbian couple’s marriage. The women are named Erica and Sabrina, and they were married in Washington DC in 2014. They conceived a child through artificial insemination, and now they’re ending their relationship and going through the nightmare of paperwork that involves.
But the nightmare got even worse when 53 GOPers joined forces with the loathsome Family Action Council of Tennessee, filing a motion to intervene in these women’s legal proceedings. Imagine if your senator just knocked on your door one day, barged in, and said “hey I know you’ve got problems but I’m here to make them worse.”
At issue is an out of date Tennessee law that only extends parental rights to the “husbands” of women who get artificial insemination. Obviously, the Supreme Court’s Obergerfell decision demands that states revise these sorts of laws to offer due process and equal protection, but many states haven’t caught up yet and now these 53 Republicans are trying to stand against progress, claiming that the state has a vested interest in preventing one of the moms from seeing her child. Ugh.
One judge has already ruled that one of the mothers has no parental rights, and now the case is going to appeal. Hopefully saner judges with preside.
Now then, gay Republicans, remind us one more time why you are not completely insane to support a party that wants to tear your family apart?
Bi Guy Has Too Many Feelings, Isn’t Sure How To Cope
“If I go on a date with a girl and tell her I’m bi, she just thinks I’m gay. But if I go on a date with a guy and tell him I’m bi, he just thinks I’m definitely gay.”
This is just one of many largely unspoken dilemmas bisexual men face on daily basis. At least according to an episode of the new web series The Feels, created by Tim Manley.
Related: Bisexuals Answer Stupid Questions Commonly Asked By Gay People
The quirky and heartfelt series, which launched earlier this month and has quickly become our new favorite thing, is about a bisexual dude named Charlie who has “too many feelings.” The episodes are super-short, with a new one being released every day for the month of September.
Check out the episode “Visibility” below, and see more on the show’s YouTube channel…
feedproxy.google.com/~r/queerty2/~3/OJ7-4uINHXo/bi-guy-many-feelings-isnt-sure-cope-20160914
Tim Kaine’s Bishop: The Catholic Church Isn’t Going to Change Its Position on Same-Sex Marriage
The bishop who presides over Democratic Vice Presidential nominee Tim Kaine’s diocese has responded to comments Kaine made on the campaign trail about gay marriage.
Kaine spoke at a Human Rights Campaign gala over the weekend, saying he believed the Catholic Church will eventually come out in favor of same-sex marriage.
“And I think [the church’s opposition to same-sex marriage is] going to change because my church also teaches me about a creator in the first chapter of Genesis, who surveyed the entire world, including mankind, and said, ‘It is very good. It is very good.’”
In a statement released on Tuesday, Bishop Francis X. DiLorenzo of the Diocese of Richmond said,
“More than a year after the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling on marriage, and despite recent statements from the campaign trail, the Catholic Church’s 2000-year-old teaching to the truth about what constitutes marriage remains unchanged and resolute.”
He added, “Our understanding of marriage, however, is a matter of justice and fidelity to our Creator’s original design.”
DiLorenzo also called same-sex marriage a redefinition of marriage. “Redefining marriage furthers no one’s rights, least of all those of children, who should not purposely be deprived of the right to be nurtured and loved by a mother and a father,” he said.
Kaine’s commitment to the Catholic Church often comes at odds with his progressive politics. Abortion rights activists have often been skeptical of Kaine because he describes himself as personally opposed to abortion like his church but believes in a woman’s right to choose like his party.
Kaine’s Catholic faith and specifically his home church on Richmond’s Northside play prominently in his narrative as a candidate. He even mentioned his church in his first speech after Clinton announced she had selected him as her running mate and attended Mass there the following Sunday.
Like Clinton, Kaine has only relatively recently become an ardent supporter of same-sex marriage. He did not announce that he officially supported the legal rights of gay couples who wanted to marry until 2013.
You can read Bishop DiLorenzo’s full statement, here.
The post Tim Kaine’s Bishop: The Catholic Church Isn’t Going to Change Its Position on Same-Sex Marriage appeared first on Towleroad.
NEW MUSIC: Porches, SubRosa, Angel Olsen, Teenage Fanclub, Of Montreal, La Femme
This week in New Music: Porches (above) release a set of demos from recent album Pool, dystopian doom metal on album number four from SubRosa, Angle Olsen sounds immaculate on My Woman and some albums you may have missed from Of Montreal, La Femme and Teenage Fanclub.
Porches – Water
Water by Porches collects six demos from the band’s recent album Pool along with two new tracks.
A collection of demos is something you’d usually expect from repackaged albums from long forgotten acts so what’s going on here? A vanity project of sorts, Water would appear to be Aaron Maine showing off his new production skills of which he was waxed lyrical. From that perspective the album is interesting for fans as it shows how songs are developed from their early stages to sad synth pop on display on Pool.
For non fans, Water in fact stands alone as an album. If you hadn’t come across Porches before you could listen to Water as a straight continuation of previous albums. Pool is better overall but some songs on Water – “Glow” in particular – reveal a depth not evident on the original release.
SubRosa – For This We Fought the Battle of Ages
On their fourth full-length album, doom rock act SubRosa apparently used the 1924 novel We by Russian author Yevgeny Zamyatin as a starting point. We is generally recognized as a major influence on George Orwell’s 1984 and SubRosa are masters of dread so it makes sense that For This We Fought the Battle of Ages is the very embodiment of dystopian paranoia.
“WE tells the story of the minutely organized United State, where all citizens are not individuals but only he-Numbers and she-Numbers existing in identical glass apartments with every action regulated by the ‘Table of Hours.’ It is a community dedicated to the proposition that freedom and happiness are incompatible; that most men believe their freedom to be more than a fair exchange for a high level of materialistic happiness.”
More than one hour of this overwhelming darkness over six tracks will not be everyone’s cup of tea but if you’re searching for a sequel to Deafheaven’s Sunbather, search no further.
Angel Olsen – My Woman
There has been a pleasing number of new releases this year from female artists – stand up Haley Bonar, Tanita Tikaram and Emmy the Great – and to that impressive list we can add Angel Olsen’s third album My Woman.
If like me you find that there is just so much new music these days so freely available, there’s a tendency to go for instant satisfaction. If it doesn’t hit in the first minute or so it’s time to move on. Not so with My Woman which opens with the beautiful, immaculate “Intern.” Followed by the 60s swing of “Never Be Mine” and the brilliant Tanya Donnelly-worthy “Shut Up and Kiss Me.” The loungey “Those Were the Days” is reminiscent of early Joan as Policewoman. Rounded off with the lovely “Pops,” Olsen is plainly paying homage to some of the recent greats (in this case Amanda Palmer?)
Ultimately there’s a lot to explore on this album.
Other Recent Releases of Note
Of Montreal – Innocence Reaches
La Femme – Mystère
Teenage Fanclub – Here
The post NEW MUSIC: Porches, SubRosa, Angel Olsen, Teenage Fanclub, Of Montreal, La Femme appeared first on Towleroad.
North Carolina loses Atlantic Coast Conference championships because of HB2
Photo credit Change.org
Following a Change.org petition, the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) announced that it will move out of North Carolina in response to the discriminatory law, HB2.
The author, South Carolinian Jim Prater, worked with GLAAD and Change.org to call on the ACC to follow in the footsteps of other organizations and businesses that have moved from North Carolina, comparing this situation to one from the ACC’s past. Prater, a graduate of Clemson University in the Palmetto State, wrote in the petition:
As a South Carolina resident, a Clemson University graduate, and a long time ACC supporter, I remember when the ACC moved its tournament out of South Carolina due to the Confederate Flag that flew on our State House grounds. Now, I am calling on the ACC to send a similarly strong signal of its support to all North Carolinians – just as it has done before – and take this tournament to another state, where all citizens are treated fairly and equally under the law.
In response, leadership from the ACC issued three statements to announce that it will be moving championship games and tournaments to “neutral locations.”
The ACC Council of Presidents issued a statement that said:
As members of the Atlantic Coast Conference, the ACC Council of Presidents reaffirmed our collective commitment to uphold the values of equality, diversity, inclusion and non-discrimination. Every one of our 15 universities is strongly committed to these values and therefore, we will continue to host ACC Championships at campus sites. We believe North Carolina House Bill 2 is inconsistent with these values, and as a result, we will relocate all neutral site championships for the 2016-17 academic year. All locations will be announced in the future from the conference office.
President James P. Clements, the president of Prater’s alma mater, Clemson University, and chair of the ACC Council of Presidents also issued a statement:
The ACC presidents engaged in a constructive, wide-ranging and vigorous discussion of this complex issue over the past two days. The decision to move the neutral site championships out of North Carolina while HB 2 remains the law was not an easy one but it is consistent with the shared values of inclusion and non-discrimination at all of our institutions.
ACC Commissioner John Swofford also spoke out:
The ACC Council of Presidents made it clear that the core values of this league are of the utmost importance, and the opposition to any form of discrimination is paramount. Today’s decision is one of principle, and while this decision is the right one, we recognize there will be individuals and communities that are supportive of our values as well as our championship sites that will be negatively affected. Hopefully, there will be opportunities beyond 2016-17 for North Carolina neutral sites to be awarded championships.
The announcement will affect Women’s Soccer, Football, Men’s and Women’s Swimming and Diving, Women’s Basketball, Men’s and Women’s Tennis, Women’s Golf, Men’s Golf, and Baseball. ACC schools include Boston College, Georgia Tech, NC State, Virginia, Clemson, Louisville, Notre Dame, Virginia Tech, Duke, Miami, Pitt, Wake Forest, Florida State, North Carolina, and Syracuse.
North Carolina’s HB-2 has been actively opposed by businesses, performers, advocates, and organizations because of its discriminatory nature. HB-2 asserts that state law overrides local nondiscrimination ordinances for LGBT people, and forces people to use the bathroom of the sex listed on their birth certificate rather than their actual gender identity, along with overriding all local ordinances addressing employment, wages, or public accommodations.
www.glaad.org/blog/north-carolina-loses-atlantic-coast-conference-championships-because-hb2
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