5 Things LGBT People Should Know About Guam

With North Korea threatening the island, all eyes are on the tiny territory, which is surprisingly LGBT-friendly.

www.advocate.com/politics/2017/8/09/5-things-lgbt-people-should-know-about-guam

‘Big Brother’ housemates shouldn’t get a pass for openly mocking trans woman
Ignorance on full display.

www.queerty.com/big-brother-housemates-shouldnt-get-pass-openly-mocking-trans-woman-20170809?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+queerty2+%28Queerty%29

NEW MUSIC: Sivu, Belle and Sebastian, St. Vincent

This week in New Music: Sivu‘s (above) sophomore album is sweet, experimental and beguiling; Belle & Sebastian somehow continue to remain relevant; and St. Vincent offers a beautiful, straightforward ballad on “New York”.

Sivu – Sweet Sweet Silent

Sivu, aka James Page, showed great potential on his debut album Something On High. Songs on that album suggested comparisons with the likes of Mick Flannery on “Love Lives In This House” while “Miracle (Human Error)” recalled the best of late 80s and early 90s indie pop.

Follow-up album Sweet Sweet Silent essentially follows the template set up in 2014 but there’s more willingness to experiment.

Page’s voice is his main weapon, a quavering, gentle instrument that belies the serious content of much of the album. Between the threatening sounds of songs like “Lonesome” you’ll also find a bombastic chorus on “Flies” and acoustic love songs like “My Moon River.”

Belle and Sebastian – “We Were Beautiful”

Scotland’s twee pop mainstay Belle & Sebastian are remarkable for two reasons – they are still around after more than 20 years and almost as many albums and they have remained relevant while always sounding more or less the same.

Their latest track “We Were Beautiful” is more uptempo than a lot of their previous work but the overall effect is unmistakably due to the band’s self production and Stuart Murdoch’s still remarkably lovely voice.

St. Vincent – “New York”

On her last self-titled breakthrough album, St. Vincent aka Annie Clark was submerged in production and surrounded by performance whenever she ventured out of doors. That’s not a criticism. Clark is rarely less than inventive and generally excellent both recorded and live.

However, on her latest track “New York” Clark’s songwriting and wonderful voice come to the fore in a ballad.

Fans will wonder to whom she is referring when she sings “I have lost a hero, I have lost a friend, but for you darling I’d do it all again.”

She could be singing to Cara Delevingne but as much she could be concerned with New York or her guitar or who knows what. Either way, if you’re alive she’ll be singing to you.

The post NEW MUSIC: Sivu, Belle and Sebastian, St. Vincent appeared first on Towleroad.

NEW MUSIC: Sivu, Belle and Sebastian, St. Vincent

Reading the Right Wing: Trans Acceptance Will Lead to Robot Army

This week’s greatest hits include Alex Jones’s assertion that acceptance of transgender people will lead to implantation of computer chips in humans.

www.advocate.com/media/2017/8/09/reading-right-wing-trans-acceptance-will-lead-robot-army

Wealthy Democratic donor accused of deadly fetish for getting young Black men high
LaTisha Nixon claims the wealthy liberal activist has a fetish for getting young Black men high, and he used her son to meet other guys.

www.queerty.com/wealthy-democratic-donor-accused-deadly-fetish-getting-young-black-men-high-20170809?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+queerty2+%28Queerty%29

Gay Russian Journalist Threatened with ‘Death Sentence’ Deportation Gets Temporary Reprieve

Russian journalist Khudoberdy Nurmatov won a temporary reprieve from a Moscow appeals court today as he sought to block his impending deportation to his native Uzbekistan, where human rights groups said he faced a near-“death sentence.”

Nurmatov, who is openly gay and writes under the pen name Ali Feruz, has worked for the investigative Novaya Gazeta newspaper since 2011, reporting on hate crimes, migrant worker rights, and LGBT discrimination. The newspaper has garnered much international attention of late for exposing mass human rights violations against gay men in in the Russian republic of Chechnya earlier this year.

Nurmatov is currently undocumented, having fled Uzbekistan, where he was tortured for being gay, and has had multiple bids for asylum in Russia denied. He was arrested last week en route to work and threatened with deportation. The European Court of Human Rights intervened on Friday, issuing a preliminary injunction against Nurmatov’s deportation, but it had remained to be seen whether Russia would abide by the decision.

ABC News reports:

The imminent expulsion of the journalist, Khudoberdy Nurmatov, to Uzbekistan, ranked by rights groups as one of the most repressive countries in the world and where homosexuality is illegal, has attracted international criticism and appeals to Russia to halt it. On Friday, the European Court of Human Rights ordered an emergency stay on Nurmatov’s deportation.

The judge at the Moscow City Court today responded to that order, ruling that no deportation will take place until Nurmatov’s case has been examined by the European Court.

Nurmatov will now likely remain in a migrant detention center until the European Court ruling, one of his lawyers said. That could take between a year and 18 months, the lawyer, Tatiana Glushkova, told ABC News by phone.

Amnesty International (AI) has raised concerns that Russian courts are colluding with Uzbekistan’s notorious security services to deport hundreds of people to the Asian country, where sex between men is a criminal offence with a maximum sentence of three years in prison.

The deportation order is “as close to a death sentence as it can be”, AI’s Europe and Central Asia deputy director, Denis Krivosheev, told the site.

Nurmatov had previously said “I’d rather kill myself” and said he’d face a “long, slow death” if deported. Russia has claimed that the case is simply about migration violations, but it now appears that Nurmatov may have until September to issue a fresh asylum application.

The post Gay Russian Journalist Threatened with ‘Death Sentence’ Deportation Gets Temporary Reprieve appeared first on Towleroad.

Gay Russian Journalist Threatened with ‘Death Sentence’ Deportation Gets Temporary Reprieve

NCLR, GLAD File Suit Against Trans Military Ban

Other groups are preparing lawsuits as well.

www.advocate.com/military/2017/8/09/nclr-glad-file-suit-against-trans-military-ban