Monthly Archives: April 2017



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NBA Legend’s Gay Son Reveals He Was Raped Twice, Once by Man He Met on Grindr: VIDEO

NBA Legend’s Gay Son Reveals He Was Raped Twice, Once by Man He Met on Grindr: VIDEO

zeke thomas sexual assault awareness month

Aiming to raise awareness of sexual assault, Zeke Thomas, the son of NBA star Isiah Thomas has revealed that he has been raped on two occasions.

DJ and producer Thomas said he was first raped at just 12 years old and again last year.

Said Thomas in an interview that aired yesterday on Good Morning America:

“At first I didn’t realize what had happened, what had transpired. I knew that it was wrong, I knew that I did not want it. I did not seek it out. I hadn’t let my family know until much later that this had happened. It was definitely hard for them to hear, and even more hard for them to hear that it happened again.”

Thomas added that he was “terrified” when he was raped again last year and felt “that my manhood had been taken from me.” He explained that he did not press charges in either case because he “just wasn’t ready” and did not want to be labeled a “victim.”

However, he added that if he could go back he would undoubtedly report the assailant.

Thomas told New York magazine about the horrific second experience:

“We had chatted on Grindr, and I had invited him to come by my studio since he was a singer,” he says. “Nothing against Grindr. I’ve met great people on Grindr, I’ve had sex with great people on Grindr. I can’t blame an app. But you don’t know shit about people you meet on it.” In any case, they’d not hooked up right away. “He seemed like a great guy. We hung out at the recording studio. And then a couple of days later he said, let’s go to Boys Town,” the gayborhood in Chicago, “for a drink.”

He felt safe there: He’d had DJ gigs there. He knew bartenders. But by the time he realized something was wrong it was too late. “All I remember is … getting in the cab. I know that I got drugged. I knew probably the moment that it happened because something didn’t taste right. But I didn’t think about it. I just didn’t think about it.” The next thing he knew it was the next morning. “It was literally like with Bill Cosby. When those women were like: ‘I woke up and he was fixing me breakfast or whatever.’” He pauses for a while, and then continues, quietly. “I woke up and he was handing me a glass of water and saying, ‘That was great let’s hang out again.’” He noticed that his dog was shut outside on his balcony, barking. And the guy leaves.

“My ass was destroyed. Destroyed. I’m bleeding,” Thomas recalls. “And I’m just like — terrified. I can’t move. I didn’t move from my apartment for two days. I didn’t move. I didn’t talk to anybody. I froze.” When he went to find the guy on Grindr, he either had blocked him or removed himself from the app.

RELATED: Hall of Famer Isiah Thomas’s Gay Son is DJ for the NBA All-Star Game

In an effort to raise awareness, Thomas is appearing in a new PSA for National Sexual Violence Resource Center (NSVRC) for Sexual Assault Awareness Month.

An NSVRC ambassador, he hopes to “give the voiceless a voice.”

His latest single “I’m Dealing With It” includes the lyrics:

“I’m not beggin’ for forgiveness but tonight I’ve come undone.

Let my spirit leave this palace, I can’t find the strength to run.”

“It was really through the process of, you know, I’m blaming myself, and I’m coming undone, and I’m trying to take my power back.”

Watch the NSVRC PSA below.

The post NBA Legend’s Gay Son Reveals He Was Raped Twice, Once by Man He Met on Grindr: VIDEO appeared first on Towleroad.


NBA Legend’s Gay Son Reveals He Was Raped Twice, Once by Man He Met on Grindr: VIDEO

NEWS

HRC in Maine for Congressional Recess

HRC in Maine for Congressional Recess

Post submitted by Lindsey Clark, HRC Senior Regional Field Organizer

To help fight a wave of hate and misinformation at the state and federal level, HRC spent last week on the ground in Maine for the Congressional recess. I spent the week attending marches, town halls and meetings with our coalition partners on a host of issues that intimately affect the LGBTQ community.

I witnessed a remarkable grassroots resistance spanning the state that is working to combat the messages of hate and misinformation that have plagued the current administration at both the state and federal level.

In Augusta, Mainers from across the state came together to rally in the hours leading up to a committee hearing on several bills taking aim at the immigrant community in the state. In Portland, about a thousand people came together to march in support of scientific research in policy making.

At town halls and forums across the state, Mainers were forced to ask their questions of empty chairs as several key congressmen refused to attend a single public forum during their in-state recess. At a town hall in Thomaston hosted by Midcoast Maine Indivisible, one-by-one the 165 attendees stepped up to the microphone to speak to a range of issues facing Maine including environmental conservation, health care, transgender equality, and immigration. In Bangor, a forum on health care hosted by the Together for Medicaid coalition was again marked by a conspicuously empty lawmaker’s chair as attendees lamented what they saw as high stakes gambling on health care with seniors in Maine caught in the crossfire.

In response to one such absent lawmaker, the Planned Parenthood Maine Action Fund hosted a social media campaign with #wheresbruce and folks from around the state chimed in with all the places statewide that Representative Bruce Poloquin was nowhere to be seen. In Oakland, Suit Up Maine also hosted a march to highlight Poloquin’s absence.

The makeup of Maine’s population and landscape have left the state uniquely at the mercy of a wave of conservative policies at all levels. Everywhere I went the response seemed to be the same: “We’re all in this together, with or without our lawmakers.”  

Live in Maine and want to get more involved in our fight against hate and misinformation? Contact HRC Senior Regional Field Organizer Lindsey Clark for more info.

www.hrc.org/blog/hrc-in-maine-for-congressional-recess?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss-feed

NEWS

Late Football Star Aaron Hernandez’s Lawyers Deny Gay Prison Romance Rumors: VIDEO

Late Football Star Aaron Hernandez’s Lawyers Deny Gay Prison Romance Rumors: VIDEO

aaron-hernandez

kyle-kennedy-aaron-hernandezRepresentatives for the late football star Aaron Hernandez (above) have denied rumors that he was involved in a prison romance with fellow inmate Kyle Kennedy (right).

In 2013, Hernandez was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the murder of Odin Lloyd.

He was found dead in his cell at the maximum security Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center in Massachusetts last week.

RELATED: Aaron Hernandez’s Hidden Bisexuality Fueled Murder: Sources

According to the Daily Mail, Hernandez left three suicide notes beside his bible. One was addressed to his fiancée Shayanna Jenkins-Hernandez, the second to their four-year-old daughter Avielle and the third to Kennedy who has since been released from suicide watch.

Aaron Hernandez’s loved ones attend private funeral, suicide notes released to family t.co/15IMymtAlY pic.twitter.com/JsZ9W2AiPA

— Telos Saldana (@telos_saldana) April 26, 2017

Kennedy, who had previously served drug-related sentences, was arrested in January 2015 for armed robbery and received a sentence of three to five years.

However, the late athlete’s attorney, Jose Baez, denied rumors of a romance to TMZ Sports.

“Rumors of letters to a gay lover, in or out of prison, are false,” he said. “These are malicious leaks used to tarnish somebody who is dead.”

According to Inquisitr, Kennedy’s attorney, Lawrence Army Jr., also shared a statement with press which read in part:

“My client is obviously saddened by the loss of his friend, Aaron Hernandez. I met with him briefly today at the Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center and I am just learning the facts surrounding the situation.

“A letter was left to me client but neither I, nor my client, have seen the letter. We will be requesting that the letter be turned over to my client as soon as possible.”

In a statement, Hernandez’s family asked for privacy and declined to comment on the rumors.

According to the Guardian, lawyers Hernandez are formally asking that his first-degree murder conviction be dismissed in Massachusetts now that he has died.

Watch an OK! Magazine report on Hernandez’s death below.

The post Late Football Star Aaron Hernandez’s Lawyers Deny Gay Prison Romance Rumors: VIDEO appeared first on Towleroad.


Late Football Star Aaron Hernandez’s Lawyers Deny Gay Prison Romance Rumors: VIDEO

NEWS

United Methodist Church to Decide on Appointment of Lesbian Bishop

United Methodist Church to Decide on Appointment of Lesbian Bishop

HRC calls on the Judicial Council of the United Methodist Church (UMC) to support the appointment of openly lesbian Rev. Karen Oliveto as Bishop, the highest office for an ordained elder. Oliveto’s appointment was challenged earlier this year by the South Central Jurisdiction of the Church.

At the May 2016 General Conference, the gathering of UMC’s top policy-making body, the Council of Bishops established the Commission on a Way Forward. The purpose of the Commission is to develop a complete examination and possible revision of every paragraph regarding human sexuality in the Book of Discipline, the formal collection of United Methodist doctrine, beliefs and policies that outline the roles and responsibilities of local churches. The Council of Bishops charged the Commission with addressing LGBTQ issues and exploring options to maintain and strengthen the Church as a whole. According to its mission, the Commission’s work is intended to “inform deliberation across the whole church and to help the Council of Bishops in their service to the next General Conference,” which will take place during a special session in early 2018.

In the interim, the South Central Jurisdiction of the Church asked the church’s high court to review Oliveto’s elevation.  It alleges Oliveto’s election violates the Book of Discipline. This review is one of seven similar cases scheduled to go before the church court from April 25-28, in direct conflict with church’s previous position that such LGBTQ-related deliberations would be held in abeyance until the 2018 special session.

In a statement issued by President Bishop Ough at its last General Conference, the United Methodist Church celebrated unity as a gift from God: “We share with you a deep commitment to the unity of the church in Christ our Lord.” For the Judicial Council to consider this complaint and for it to move forward reneges on the promise of unity.

“I know there are many who are lamenting my election. Our task is to love deeply, which means standing before those who are angry, anxious, or fearful and be a witness to all they are feeling, and to remain in relationship through the power of Christ’s love,” Oliveto wrote in an open letter addressing the concerns of the South Central Jurisdiction. “The best of our United Methodist tradition is when we can hold the tension of our differences for the sake of our mission: To make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. God has called us for such a time as this. Can we do it? ‘Lord, we are able!’”

On Easter, more than 170 LGBTQ clergy members also issued an open letter to the Church “in support of every clergy person threatened by unjust actions, and our sibling, Bishop Karen Oliveto, as her standing is being challenged before the Judicial Council.”

LGBTQ religious leaders deserve the recognition of their peers, and the opportunity to lead the faithful in the same way non-LGBTQ leaders do. The Western Jurisdiction of the Church saw fit to recognize, elevate and celebrate Bishop Oliveto. The UMC would be best served by honoring their congregants’ decision.

People look to their faith as a source of guidance and inspiration — and LGBTQ people are no different. HRC Foundation’s Religion and Faith Program is working to create a world where nobody is forced to choose between who they are, whom they love and what they believe. Learn more at www.hrc.org/explore/topic/religion-faith.

www.hrc.org/blog/united-methodist-church-to-decide-on-appointment-of-lesbian-bishop?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss-feed

NEWS

After GLAAD exposes his anti-LGBTQ history, Trump Nominee Mark Green comes out for LGBTQ equality in the U.S. Army

After GLAAD exposes his anti-LGBTQ history, Trump Nominee Mark Green comes out for LGBTQ equality in the U.S. Army

Yesterday Mark Green, Donald Trump’s nominee for Secretary of the Army, took to Facebook to address the anti-transgender statements he made in a radio interview last year. In fact, Mark Green’s response was an about-face statement as he voiced his support for LGBTQ equality in the U.S. Army.

“4) I believe that every American has a right to defend their country regardless of race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, and religion. It’s the radical left that won’t allow the latter,” Mark Green said on his Facebook page.  

Green’s statement comes a week after GLAAD uncovered an unedited audio interview between the state senator and “The Hotwash with CJ and Alex” on June 3, 2016 and shared it on twitter and with Huffington Post.

“GLAAD unearthed and shared the full, unedited audio interview in which Mark Green called transgender Americans an ‘evil’ that must be ‘crushed,’” said Sarah Kate Ellis, President and CEO of GLAAD. “While this change of heart is a step in the right direction, Green’s anti-LGBTQ history still makes him unfit to be the next Army Secretary, and he has shown that he often forgets what he says.”

Mark Green’s original comments can be found below.

This audio, in fact, follows what is a long anti-LGBTQ history by the state senator. Mark Green has insisted that being “transgender is a disease,” was the lead sponsor of a Tennessee bill that would give companies license to discrimination against the LGBTQ community, and backed another Tennessee bill that would allow therapists to refuse service to LGBTQ clients.

Green’s new comments voicing support for LGBTQ equality in the army and open transgender military service are welcomed, but in case he forgets this Facebook post (because he seemed to forget this radio interview), GLAAD will be watching what happens next, alongside LGBTQ service members who have and are serving our country honorable and deserve leaders who support them.

BACKGROUND: Full Transcript of Mark Green’s Anti-LGBTQ Comments

HOST: “I usually do not touch on the subject of religion on the radio show very often. I believe that you know–you know how my religious faith is and my background. But I can definitely say that there are a lot of people up in arms, both on the religious side and the– you know, unreligious side about the transgendered bathroom issue. And, a lot of people, you know the die hard Christians want to say ‘oh, you are not being Christ-like if we turn them away.’ And–and I, before I clear you on a run like I know you are getting ready to cut loose on with this issue.”

GREEN: [laughs]

HOST: “I have, I have debated this issue with several people. I have debated it with, you know, strong Christians, people who are somewhat think they are Christian or who, you know have some religion in their life, people who are atheists. I have debated it with homosexuals, you know, from the gay community to the lesbian community. And, my core issue with this is issue is just anybody can go into a bathroom and say associate with being a woman or they felt like they should have been a woman. And any pervert or predator can waltz right into the bathroom and they are in there with my wife, my daughter, my sister, my mother, and this has been forced down our kid’s throats in school. So that’s–that’s why I have a huge problem with it.” 

GREEN: “There’s two reasons to have a big problem with it. One is simply the states’ rights issue. There’s no place in the US Constitution that says that the federal government can’t impose on the state of Tennessee and tell us how we are to use our bathrooms. Even in our school systems. The only mention of education in the US Constitution is that it’s a local thing. This notion that the federal government can come in and the state of Tennessee how to do that is just absolutely unconstitutional. It’s a massive overstep of the federal government. Quite frankly, we got to start standing up to this. The states have just been walked all over.

The other side of the issue is that there are 300,000 rapes in the United States every year. 300,000 women who are sexually assaulted by predators. We know this. It’s documented. It’s factual. To think that some young guy isn’t going to take advantage of the system where we’re going to allow guys to go into the bathroom – the women’s bathroom – to think that it’s not going to happen is just ridiculous. Further, if 300,000 women are raped every year, that means in the course of 10 years that there’s 3,000,000 women in America who are struggling with that issue. In 20 years, there’s 6,000,000. So that means there are millions of women who potentially could be suffering the PTSD of having been raped, and they are sitting in a bathroom and they are seeing a guy come walking in, how incredibly insensitive is that of the political left to think that this should just be OK.

The political left often times beats up on the political right and accuses us of having some war on women. Well, I’m going to tell you. This is a war on women as far as I’m concerned, but it’s coming from the left, and it’s ridiculous. And as far as the religious argument goes, and this applies to the issue of Syrian refugees as well. There’s a big fuss about whether or not that we should sue the federal government over having to take refugees from Syria to the State of Tennessee, I believe we should sue the federal government in that case because Romans 13 is pretty darn clear, this is the passage where it tells people to submit to the authorities – meaning, basically if you’re in the government, you should do what the government tells you to do. You know, don’t speed, all that kind of stuff. Obey the laws is basically what the passage says. But what it goes on to say is that because the government exists for two purposes. The government exists to honor those people who live honorable who do good things – to reward people who behave well and to crush evil. So that means as a state senator, my responsibility very clearly in Romans 13 is to create an environment where people who do right are rewards and the people who do wrong are crushed. Evil is crushed. So I’m going to protect women in their bathrooms, and I’m going to protect our state against potential infiltration from the Syrian ISIS people in the refugee program. And whoever wants to stand up and take me on that, I’m ready to fight.”

###

April 26, 2017
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www.glaad.org/blog/after-glaad-exposes-his-anti-lgbtq-history-trump-nominee-mark-green-comes-out-lgbtq-equality-us

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