Donald Trump and Angela Merkel Hold Joint Press Conference: WATCH LIVE

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Donald Trump are scheduled to hold a joint press conference shortly. They shared an awkward moment earlier.

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Donald Trump and Angela Merkel Hold Joint Press Conference: WATCH LIVE

New Mexico Legislature Sends Bill to Protect Youth from So-Called “Conversion Therapy” to Governor

Today, HRC hailed the New Mexico legislature for passing a bill banning so-called “conversion therapy” for minors. After clearing the Senate last month, the bill, SB 121, passed through the House this week by a vote of 44-23 and will now head to the governor’s desk.

New Mexico is a majority-minority, primarily Catholic state, and would be the eighth jurisdiction in the nation, including the District of Columbia, to protect youth under the age of eighteen from the harmful and discredited  practice of conversion therapy by state-licensed mental health professionals. There are currently 19 other state legislatures considering similar legislation.

“As a survivor of conversion therapy that occurred here in New Mexico, it’s been both challenging and gratifying to work to end this barbaric practice in my home state,” said Amber Royster, the Executive Director of Equality New Mexico. “I applaud our state legislature for choosing to protect New Mexico kids.”

“Conversion therapy is dangerous and inhumane, and HRC is very pleased to see New Mexico’s lawmakers stand up for the vulnerable children who could be subjected to this completely discredited practice,” said JoDee Winterhof, HRC’s Senior Vice President of Policy and Political. “This action sends a clear message to LGBTQ youth in New Mexico: you do not need fixing. We are grateful to Equality New Mexico and the lawmakers who championed this cause, and we hope the governor signs this bill into law as soon as possible.”

“I am proud of the New Mexico legislature,” said Senator Jacob Candelaria, one of the bill’s co-sponsors. “We joined together, across party lines, to say loud and clear that every New Mexico child deserves to be protected from abuse, to be loved and celebrated for who they are, and for the simple truth that all of our kids are born perfect.”

“As a legislator and a high school teacher, I am pleased the New Mexico legislature voted overwhelmingly to send a message of acceptance to our children and youth,” said Rep. G. Andres Romero, one of the bill’s co-sponsors.

“Conversion therapy,” sometimes referred to as “sexual orientation change efforts” or “reparative therapy,” is a range of dangerous and debunked practices that seek to change an individual’s sexual orientation or gender identity or expression. These practices are based on the false premise that being LGBTQ is a mental illness that needs to be cured, a theory that has been rejected by every major medical and mental health organization for decades.

There is no credible evidence that conversion therapy can change a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity or expression. To the contrary, research has clearly shown that these practices pose devastating health risks for LGBTQ young people. Use of these dangerous practices lead to depression, decreased self-esteem, substance abuse, homelessness and even suicidal behavior, which is why they are universally criticized by the American Psychiatric Association, American Psychological Association, and American Medical Association.

HRC has partnered with the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR) and state equality groups across the nation to pass state legislation ending conversion therapy.​ California, Illinois, New Jersey, Oregon, Vermont, New York and Washington, D.C. currently have laws or regulations ​protecting LGBTQ minors from the dangerous practice.

More information on the lies and dangers of efforts to change sexual orientation or gender identity can be found here.

www.hrc.org/blog/new-mexico-legislature-sends-bill-to-protect-youth-from-so-called-conversio?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss-feed

Find someone who looks at you the way Taron Egerton looks at Hugh Jackman

Collectively, the Internet has an insidious knack for making something out of nothing. This post is testament to that fact.

Related: Hugh Jackman Reveals He Has Sex Dressed As Wolverine — Ouch!

To make a non-story short: people are obsessing over a GIF featuring actor Taron Egerton and Hugh Jackman, and they’re making a big to-do out of it.

It’s easy to see why: it looks like Egerton’s gazing longingly at his Eddie the Eagle co-star Hugh Jackman with something approximating bedroom eyes.

The headline alone is worth the price of admission:

I’ve never seen anyone say choke me daddy with their eyes.

And for once, we recommend reading the comments.

“Find someone who looks at you the way Taron Egerton looks at Hugh Jackman,” says one commentator.

“He is literally staring longingly at his lips,” says another. “That is so hot.”

Another: “He had to close his mouth to stop himself from licking his lips.”

On and on — you get the point.

www.queerty.com/find-someone-looks-way-taron-egerton-looks-hugh-jackman-20170317?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+queerty2+%28Queerty%29

Donald Trump Sent an Anti-LGBT Hate Group as Delegation to Key UN Meetings

Austin Ruse, C-FAM President

The Trump administration sent an SPLC-designated hate group as its delegation to a key UN meeting this week and some fear it’s a signal of what’s to come on LGBT rights.

Reuters reports:

The Center for Family and Human Rights (C-FAM) was named this week by the U.S. State Department to attend the U.N.’s Commission on the Status of Women, an annual set of high-level meetings on women’s equality and empowerment.

C-FAM has been listed as an anti-LGBTQ hate group by nonprofit civil rights group the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) for at least five years, said Heidi Beirich, director of the SPLC’s Intelligence Project.

“The way you get on our anti-gay hate list is basically if you demonize the gay population,” Beirich told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. “That’s how they ended up on the list.

“The move comes as decisions by President Donald Trump’s new administration raise fears of a rollback of LGBTQ rights.

Wrote SPLC in 2014:

Ruse and C-FAM have been lobbying against sexual and reproductive rights, abortion, and LGBT people at the UN and abroad for years. In 2012, Ruse and C-FAM even helped block a UN treaty protecting the rights of people with disabilities because, the groups claimed, it was “pro-abortion.” The wording of the document stated that people with disabilities should have access to healthcare, including “in the area of sexual and reproductive health and population-based public health programmes.”

C-FAM is an offshoot of the hardline anti-abortion group Human Life International (HLI, founded in 1981), whose ties to violent anti-abortionists and extreme tactics made it too controversial for the UN. Its founder, Paul Marx, a DC-based Catholic priest, also had a history of claiming that the pro-choice movement was full of Jews, who in his words, were perpetrating another Holocaust. HLI was denied consultative status in 1993, so it set up C-FAM in 1997 as its UN lobbying arm, and the organization shifted its rhetoric to include vague terminology like “traditional values” and “respect for sovereignty” (useful for countries that employ repressive policies and wish to avoid scrutiny for human rights violations).

This year C-FAM was approved for consultative status at the UN’s Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), which is concerned with the world’s social, economic, and environmental issues. ECOSOC will review the organizations in July and in most cases, will approve consultative status. Non-governmental organizations that are granted this status then have access to ECOSOC and its subsidiary bodies and the various human rights mechanisms of the UN and various special events organized by the President of the General Assembly.

If C-FAM is approved, expect even more international outreach and anti-LGBT propagandizing from Ruse. Over the years, he has railed against abortion and voiced support for laws criminalizing homosexuality. Last year, he voiced support for Russia’s anti-gay propaganda law (which criminalizes free speech with regard to homosexuality). Ruse called the law a noble quest for “human rights” and signed a joint statement (along with other anti-LGBT groups) in support of it.

Top image: Austin Ruse, C-FAM President.

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Donald Trump Sent an Anti-LGBT Hate Group as Delegation to Key UN Meetings

Seth Meyers Rips Trump’s Cruel Budget Cuts: ‘How Dead Inside Do You Have to Be?’ – WATCH

Seth Meyers ripped Donald Trump for his draconian and cruel budget cuts which capped his latest dreadful week as being president of the United States.

Said Meyers:

“So Trump had his travel ban blocked, his health care bill is collapsing, and members of his own party say there’s no proof for his wiretapping claim. How could Trump make things worse for himself? Well today, he unveiled a budget blueprint that proposes drastic cuts to almost every federal agency including the Environmental Protection Agency, the National Endowment for the Arts, and a Community Development Block Grant that funds, among other things, Meals on Wheels.”

But first, Meyers blasted Trump for bragging that he’s done more in his first 50 days than any other president:

“Trump has done more in office the way a toddler helps out in the kitchen. He may be trying, but by the time he leaves there’s snot on the fridge and a shoe in the dishwasher.”

And then he mocked Trump’s interview with Tucker Carlson:

“No one knows what you’re talking about. You’re so paranoid about wiretapping that you talk like a mafia don afraid that the Feds are listening.”

Trump keeps losing, but doesn’t understand why. Meyers tracked his dissonance on the travel ban, the health care bill, and his finally, his budget cuts that seem targeted to hurt his own voters.

“Meals on Wheels? How dead inside do you have to be to not want old people to get food? Your heart is so small it makes your tiny hands look like catcher mitts. Old people voted for you. They believed you when you said you care about them. There’s nothing more low-life than lying to the elderly. You should know that. You’re 70.”

Watch:

The post Seth Meyers Rips Trump’s Cruel Budget Cuts: ‘How Dead Inside Do You Have to Be?’ – WATCH appeared first on Towleroad.

Seth Meyers Rips Trump’s Cruel Budget Cuts: ‘How Dead Inside Do You Have to Be?’ – WATCH

Women Who Paved the Way: Mercedes De Acosta

To mark Women’s History Month, The Advocate will feature a different queer woman from history each day. Today we remember novelist, playwright, and lover of many famous women, Mercedes De Acosta. 

www.advocate.com/women/2017/3/17/women-who-paved-way-mercedes-de-acosta