Canadian man blocked by US Customs after they read his Scruff profile

U.S. Customs and Border Patrol officers denied a Vancouver man entrance to the States after investigating his phone and scrutinizing his Scruff account.

The reason? According to Canada’s Daily XTRA, they suspected “looking for loads” meant he was soliciting sex for money.

Related: Scruff Founders Defend App’s Ethnicity Filters — “Personal Preference” Or Casual Racism?

André, a 30-year-old set decorator, called the entire experience “humiliating,” which… understatement.

(He declined to give his last name for “fear of retaliation” from US Customs.)

Officers also allegedly perused his profile on BBRT (a hookup site specializing in bareback sex) and personal emails attached to a Craigslist account.

Reportedly, André then requested that the initial interrogation cease and gave up on entering the states.

He tried again a month later, this time bringing evidence of employment and deleting every app from his phone.

He was denied again, because officers said they found the deletions “suspicious.”

Related: So Model Charles-Laurent Marchand’s Scruff Pics Are No Longer Private

According to Daily XTRA:

There are several websites that offer advice to protect the privacy of your data at the border, but ultimately, if US Customs officers want your data, they will either get it or keep you out of the country. You can limit the risk to your privacy by not traveling with your devices or deleting apps, messages and photos from your devices, and logging out of social media sites before you travel.

Scruff CEO Eric Silverberg has plenty to say on the subject:

“For Scruff members traveling to a country that may demand access to profiles and social media apps before entry, simply deleting the app and reinstalling upon re-entry is always an option.

Scruff synchronizes your profile to the cloud, so after reinstalling you may login to regain access to your messages, favorites, albums, etc.

That said, the best defense against unwarranted searches and seizures by the government is to work to elect leaders who share these ideals and values.”

h/t: Towleroad

www.queerty.com/canadian-man-blocked-us-customs-read-scruff-profile-20170221?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+queerty2+%28Queerty%29

Milo Yiannopoulos Resigns from Breitbart News

Milo Yiannopoulos has resigned from alt-right rag Breitbart News in a press release, after remarks surfaced in which he said he was comfortable with men having sex with boys as young as 13.

Said Yiannopoulos in a press release:

“Breitbart News has stood by me when others caved. They have allowed me to carry conservative and libertarian ideas to communites that would otherwise never have heard them. They have been a significant factor in my success. I’m grateful for that freedom and for the friendships I forged there. I would be wrong to allow my poor choice of words to detract from my colleagues’ important reporting, so today I am resigning from Breitbart, effective immediately. This decision is mine alone.”

Break: MILO resigns from Breitbart pic.twitter.com/pSQnJ0b9vA

— Michael M. Grynbaum (@grynbaum) February 21, 2017

The homocon white supremacist is holding a press conference at 3 pm today in New York City but was likely to be forced out anyway, as reports were circulating that fellow Breitbart staffers were threatening a walkout if the toxic troll was not let go.

Simon & Schuster has canceled publication of homocon white supremacist man-boy love enthusiast Milo Yiannopoulos’s book Dangerous “after careful consideration,” according to the publisher.

Simon & Schuster had been under pressure for some time to cancel the book deal.

RELATED: CPAC Speaker Milo Yiannopoulos Defends Men Having Sex with 13-Year-Old Boys: WATCH

Roxane Gay, author of Bad Feminist, last month pulled her forthcoming book, How To Be Heard, from Simon & Schuster’s TED imprint because of the deal the publisher made with Yiannoupoulos.

Simon & Schuster had defended the deal with Milo in a December 30 statement, claiming it did not condone discrimination or hate speech but says it did not bear responsibility for Milo’s opinions.

Yiannopoulos was disinvited from the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) over the weekend.

The post Milo Yiannopoulos Resigns from Breitbart News appeared first on Towleroad.

Milo Yiannopoulos Resigns from Breitbart News

Top Investors Representing $11T in Assets Speak Out Against Texas’ SB 6

Today, HRC hailed a new letter to Texas lawmakers from top global investors speaking out against the discriminatory, anti-transgender Texas bill SB 6. This group represents the first coordinated group of global investors to speak out against the anti-LGBTQ bill.

“As we have seen in states like North Carolina, business leaders are decidedly opposed to anti-LGBTQ discrimination — both as a workplace matter and because it’s simply the right thing to do,” said JoDee Winterhof, HRC Senior Vice President for Policy and Political Affairs. “Discrimination is costly. We are pleased to see this group of investors forcefully telling Texas lawmakers — including bill sponsors Dan Patrick and Sen. Lois Kolkhorst — that SB 6 will negatively affect Texas’ future.”

In the letter, the undersigned write, “As long-term investors in companies doing business in Texas, we are concerned that any form of legislation that allows or facilitates discrimination against LGBT people may make it difficult for our portfolio companies to attract and retain top talent to work in their Texas-based operations.” The signatories include investors in companies that “employ hundreds of thousands of people” across the state of Texas.

SB 6 is a discriminatory, anti-transgender bill, and one of the many egregious anti-LGBTQ bills introduced in Texas this legislative session. The bill would overturn non-discrimination ordinances currently providing critical protections in several major Texas cities; further, it would force state agencies, municipalities, public schools and public universities to discriminate against transgender people. By making it illegal for transgender people in Texas to be afforded access to facilities consistent with their identity, it opens them up to increased discrimination and harassment as they simply live their everyday lives. It also exposes Texas to tremendous risk of the kind of financial, legal, and political blowback that North Carolina has continued to reckon with after the passage of HB2.​

www.hrc.org/blog/top-investors-speak-out-against-texas-sb6?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss-feed

Resources for immigrants/Recursos para inmigrantes

www.glaad.org/blog/resources-immigrantsrecursos-para-inmigrantes

Reading the Right: Swedish Crime, Pagan Gods, and Milo

We perused the far-right websites so you don’t have to.

www.advocate.com/media/2017/2/21/reading-right-swedish-crime-pagan-gods-and-milo

Suicide rates among LGBTQ teens are at an all-time low. Here’s why.

Scouring for good news these days can feel like a fruitless task, but there are still a few glimmers of hope out there for anyone willing to do a little digging.

Case in point: New research out of John Hopkins University, Harvard and Boston Children’s Hospital suggest the legalization of gay marriage may be at the root of a sudden drop in suicide attempts among LGBTQ teens, currently at an all-time low in the U.S.

Related: Straight guys confess their same-sex sexual encounters in candid new study

Dazed and Confused reports:

The study, carried out across 17 years over 47 U.S states, saw the biggest drop among gay, lesbian and bisexual young people, with 14 percent less suicide attempts. It translates to roughly 134,000 fewer teens.

Julia Raifman, who co-authored the research, has plenty to say about her findings:

“I would hope that policymakers and the public would consider the potential health implications of laws and policies affecting LGBT rights.

This study was really motivated by evidence that there are large disparities across domains of health that affect LGBT adolescents. I was interested in whether larger structural issues were potentially leading to those disparities.”

In 2004, Massachusetts became the first state to legalize same-sex marriage. 36 other states followed suit before it ultimately became federal law in 2015.

The research heavily replied upon data collected for the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System every two years; date which included over 760,000 students between 1999 and 2015.

Related: Study: Beautiful Women Are Much More Likely To Choose Gay Friends

Researchers compared suicide rates between states that had legalized same-sex marriage and those that hadn’t by January 2015. They found a 0.6 drop in the states that had legalized it, which has interesting implications.

“We found that the effects of legalization persisted two years after legalization, suggesting that social and political backlash does not have the effect of worsening mental health outcomes in this window,” Raifman writes.

“Our results build on prior research indicating that state same-sex marriage bans were associated with increased rates of psychiatric disorders and that health expenditures decreased following implementation of a same-sex marriage policy in Massachusetts.”

Of course, the potential correlation still needs to be examined further.

“There are a number of potential mechanisms,” Raifman says.

Those include whether the policies themselves reduce perceived stigma among adolescents – and that may drive reductions in suicide attempts – but it is also possible that same-sex marriage policies drive social change among parents, teachers and peers of sexual minority adolescents. It is also possible that the campaigns around same-sex marriage policies are responsible for changing the experiences of LGB adolescents.

Learn more about the study here.

www.queerty.com/suicide-rates-among-lgbtq-teens-time-low-heres-20170221?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+queerty2+%28Queerty%29

Gay Man a Favorite To Become Ireland’s Next Prime Minister

According to polls released yesterday, there is a strong likelihood that Leo Varadkar (above) will become Ireland’s first openly gay Taoiseach (Prime Minister).

Currently serving as Minister for Social Protection in Taoiseach Enda Kenny’s increasingly unpopular government, Varadkar is seen by many as a frontrunner in the current leadership race along with Simon Coveney.

Leo Varadkar is the people’s favourite for next Fine Gael leader t.co/kumC5D8QAz pic.twitter.com/ZL4EWXffAe

— MSN Ireland (@msnireland) February 21, 2017

In one poll released yesterday, 35 percent of respondents said they would prefer Varadkar as the next leader of the Fine Gael party while 23 percent opted for Coveney. However, another poll showed Coveney with 40 percent of the vote with Varadkar trailing on 33 percent.

RELATED: Ireland’s First Openly Gay Minister Blasts Mike Pence: ‘I Don’t Like What He Stands For’

Varadkar and Coveney will meet Kenny today for the first time since both lawmakers commented on his leadership, reports RTE.

Kenny has been urged to ensure he “settle the matter” quickly. It is thought the deeply unpopular Taoiseach will resign on his return from Washington, D.C. where he will present Donald Trump with the traditional St. Patrick’s Day bowl of shamrock.

The post Gay Man a Favorite To Become Ireland’s Next Prime Minister appeared first on Towleroad.

Gay Man a Favorite To Become Ireland’s Next Prime Minister

You've Never Seen 'Not My President's Day' Before (Photos)

www.advocate.com/politics/2017/2/21/youve-never-seen-not-my-presidents-day-photos

Guess what Dear Abby thinks you should do with your antigay wedding guests

Should guests who are known to be antigay be allowed at your wedding anyway?

That’s the quandary pitched to Dear Abby in a letter from a worried bride who doesn’t know what to do about a somewhat sticky situation.

Related: Dear Abby Comforts Lesbian Grannie With Jerk Son

It’s led to a very memorable answer.

“My fiancé and I are getting married in a year,” writes Bride For Marriage Equality: “MThe question from “Bride for Marriage Equality”:

We have some very close gay friends, and I have gay family members on my mom’s side. The majority of our family is gay-friendly, but a few of them on my father’s side are very open about their dislike of the LGBT community.

Our ceremony will be at a Unitarian Universalist church because we love that they are supportive of the LGBT community and want everyone to feel comfortable and accepted on our big day. I’m terrified that my family members will do or say something to hurt or offend guests at our wedding who have same-sex partners.

I am considering putting a note on my wedding website that our wedding will be a celebration of love, and to please set aside political and personal beliefs and accept every one of our guests during this happy occasion.

Would this be appropriate? I don’t know how else to convey the message that we will not tolerate any hateful or offensive remarks or actions against our loved ones.

Abby, much to her credit, is having none of it:

“Do not post that message on your website,” she writes.

Your message should be delivered via a telephone conversation with the people you think may have a problem. A way to phrase it would be to tell them you are planning your wedding and that some of the guests in attendance will be same-sex couples.

Ask if this would make them uncomfortable, and if the answer is yes, do not invite them.

Of course, she could print out copies of the column and include one with every invite. That would also get the message across.

www.queerty.com/guess-dear-abby-thinks-antigay-wedding-guests-20170221?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+queerty2+%28Queerty%29