Colton Haynes’ Halloween costume is genuinely mindblowing
Every year he tops himself.
Daily Archives: October 25, 2017
Fats Domino, Masen Davis, The Eagle, Metrocard, Shemar Moore, Tom Morgan, Rian Johnson, Pennywise: HOT LINKS
Fats Domino, Masen Davis, The Eagle, Metrocard, Shemar Moore, Tom Morgan, Rian Johnson, Pennywise: HOT LINKS
RIP. Fats Domino dead. ‘Antoine “Fats” Domino, the jovial New Orleans entertainer whose bluesy singing and boogie-woogie piano style helped launch rock-and-roll in the 1950s with such rollicking songs as “Blueberry Hill,” “Ain’t That a Shame” and “I’m Walkin’,” died Oct. 24. He was 89.’
A VERY INTELLIGENT PERSON. Trump accuses press of making him into someone he isn’t.
Trump says the press creates a different image of who he really is: “I went to an Ivy League college… I’m a very intelligent person.” pic.twitter.com/uBqhxj5Z92
— BuzzFeed News (@BuzzFeedNews) October 25, 2017
FULL DIVA. Mariah Carey ordered the press to shoot her good angle at Karl Lagerfeld bash.
MARK HERRING. Former Virginia Attorney General stands by decision to refuse to defend state’s ban on gay marriage: “As Herring seeks re-election, that decision has become a constant source of criticism from Herring’s Republican challenger, John Adams, an opponent of same-sex marriage. But Herring says he isn’t fazed, noting that his position was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court, which struck down such bans as unconstitutional and effectively legalized gay marriage across the country.”
ARKANSAS. Judge orders state to fix birth certificate issue: “A judge ordered Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge and the head of the state Department of Health on Monday to try to figure out how Arkansas’ birth-certificate law can be modified to meet constitutional standards, absent a legislative rewrite.Arkansas law automatically lists married parents on their children’s birth certificates but only the mother for same-sex couples, a practice the U.S. Supreme Court has determined illegally favors married heterosexual parents.”
FLASHBACK. RuPaul on The Weakest Link.
THE EAGLE. How it became one of the most recognized gay bar names: ‘Amid the homophobia that was not uncommon in the ‘70s, gay men found a respite and place of comfort at The Eagle’s Nest — it was a safe space before the term “safe space” was in the vernacular. And when patrons of The Eagle’s Nest left New York, they took that sense of community with them, and The Eagle’s Nest served as inspiration for other Eagle-named bars that popped up in cities like San Francisco, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C. and even as far as London and cities in Canada.’
FFAA. Masen Davis named new CEO of Freedom for All Americans: “I’m thrilled to join the team at Freedom for All Americans, and to work with all of our partners in the states and across this incredible movement,” said Masen Davis, incoming Freedom for All Americans CEO. “In recent years, the LGBTQ movement has won victories that many people thought would never be possible in their lifetime – from the end of ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ to the advent of marriage equality to the transformative national visibility for transgender people. But there’s a lot of work still to do and there’s so much on the line for LGBTQ people in America today. We have no time to waste in pushing forward in the states, in the courts, and in the halls of Congress with the hard work necessary to ensure every person can live free from discrimination, no matter who you are or who you love.”
NYC. New system to replace the Metrocard.
SOUTH AFRICA. Man recreates balloon scene from Up as he flies for two hours near Johannesburg.
SHEMAR MOORE. Soap star reveals his abs: “I do about 500 sit ups a day, 5 days a week. I’m 47-years-old but the character that I play on S.W.A.T. is 35-years-old so I ain’t going to lie, I gotta paint some greys, I gotta hold my breath a lot more than I used to hold my breath. I wanna see if I can get to sixty with somewhat of 4 pack whatever and then finally once S.W.A.T is a huge hit and you guys get tired of S.W.A.T., I’m finally gonna exhale and let my mini keg live.”
MISSOURI. Court extends protections to LGBT workers: “A Missouri Court of Appeals Western District three-judge panel ruled that while employment discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity is not explicitly prohibited by Missouri law, discrimination based on sex-stereotypes — which may be stereotypes held against LGBTQ individuals — is prohibited as sex discrimination. The decision follows recent federal court opinions that broaden the interpretation of sex discrimination laws to include cases involving both gender identity and sexual orientation.”
CELEBRATE WITH US. The Babadook and Pennywise are engaged.
THE LAST JEDI. A featurette on the making of…and director Rian Johnson.
HUMP DAY HOTTIE. Deepanshu Narwal.
The post Fats Domino, Masen Davis, The Eagle, Metrocard, Shemar Moore, Tom Morgan, Rian Johnson, Pennywise: HOT LINKS appeared first on Towleroad.
White House Spin Goes Into Overdrive As Trump Describes Republican ‘Love Fest’
White House Spin Goes Into Overdrive As Trump Describes Republican ‘Love Fest’
Donald Trump has sought to negate the damage done by two Republican senators who yesterday both gave scathing assessments of the state of his Presidency.
Dismissing comments made by Jeff Flake and Bob Corker, the President said the pair only spoke out because they have “zero chance of being elected” in next year’s midterm elections and that the Republican party is actually a “love fest” currently.
The reason Flake and Corker dropped out of the Senate race is very simple, they had zero chance of being elected. Now act so hurt & wounded!
The meeting with Republican Senators yesterday, outside of Flake and Corker, was a love fest with standing ovations and great ideas for USA!
Jeff Flake, one of Trump’s most outspoken critics, said the President has engaged in “reckless, outrageous and undignified” behaviour, and has trafficked in resentment in a speech on Tuesday on the Senate floor. Flake announced he will not seek re-election when his term ends in 2018.
“Privately a number of my colleagues have expressed concern about the direction of our politics and the behaviour of the president,” Flake said in an interview with CNN on Wednesday.
“I think the cumulative weight of all of this, there comes a tipping point where you realise we just can’t continue to normalise this kind of behaviour, so I do think we’ll have more people stand up in the coming months,” he added
Corker meanwhile has been engaged in a long feud with Trump, culminating this week with his saying Trump “lowers himself to such a low, low standard and debases our country”.
Trump immediately proved Corker right in a series of tweets.
Bob Corker, who helped President O give us the bad Iran Deal & couldn’t get elected dog catcher in Tennessee, is now fighting Tax Cuts….
…Corker dropped out of the race in Tennesse when I refused to endorse him, and now is only negative on anything Trump. Look at his record!
Trump faces a tough few weeks ahead – despite control of the White House, the House of Representatives and the Senate, the Republicans have yet to deliver any major legislative victories on priorities like tax reform, healthcare and immigration.
Republican Senators John McCain and Corker have also spoken out sharply against Trump. Corker is also not seeking re-election, while McCain is fighting brain cancer.
But most Republicans in Congress have remained silent as the president has attacked politicians from his party and threatened North Korea and the media on Twitter.
Trump’s tax plan also faces opposition from the public – fewer than a third of Americans support Donald Trump’s tax-cut plan, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Tuesday, as the President went to Capitol Hill looking for Republican backing for his proposal to slash tax rates for individuals and companies.
As the 2018 midterm congressional election campaigns grow nearer, the poll found that more than two-thirds of registered voters said reducing the U.S. federal budget deficit is more important than cutting taxes for the wealthy or for corporations.
Trump’s plan would balloon the deficit and add to the $20 trillion national debt, according to critics and independent analysts, but Republicans say the tax cuts proposed in the plan would be offset by economic growth that would generate new tax revenue.
www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/white-house-spin_uk_59f08c68e4b0cf6334a02c3a
Megyn Kelly’s most awkward moments as a morning host in one amazing supercut
Megyn Kelly’s most awkward moments as a morning host in one amazing supercut
To say Megyn Kelly has had a rocky start to her morning television career would be an understatement.
California Billionaire Launches $10 Million Campaign Pushing for Trump Impeachment: WATCH
California Billionaire Launches $10 Million Campaign Pushing for Trump Impeachment: WATCH
California billionaire Tom Steyer has launched a new $10 million ad campaign pushing for the impeachment of Donald Trump with a hard-hitting ad that warns of the threats he presents to the nation.
Says Steyer in the ad:
“He’ brought us to the brink of nuclear war, obstructed justice at the FBI, and in direct violation of the Constitution he’s taken money from foreign governments and threatened to shut down news organizations that report the truth. If that isn’t the case for impeaching and removing a dangerous president, then what has our government become? … A Republican Congress once impeached a president for far less. And today, people in Congress and his own administration know that this president is a clear and present danger who is mentally unstable and armed with nuclear weapons. And they do nothing.”
Steyer may be relatively unknown to the public, but he loomed large in the 2016 campaign. He was the single biggest spender in 2016 election, after spending more than $75 million to “mobilize millennials for progressive causes,” CBS reported.
Steyer is nothing if not an overachiever. According to Men’s Journal, he graduated first in his class at Phillips Exeter Academy, then summa cum laude from Yale, where he was also captain of the soccer team. He graduated from Stanford business school, and went on to spend two years at Goldman Sachs. He then founded Farallon Capital, using a multi-faceted, debt-shy approach to make it one of the most successful hedge funds ever created. Forbes puts Steyer’s current net worth at $1.61 billion.
The post California Billionaire Launches $10 Million Campaign Pushing for Trump Impeachment: WATCH appeared first on Towleroad.
California Billionaire Launches $10 Million Campaign Pushing for Trump Impeachment: WATCH
Michael Fallon Wants MPs To Stop Criticising Saudi Arabia So We Can Sell Them Weapons
Michael Fallon Wants MPs To Stop Criticising Saudi Arabia So We Can Sell Them Weapons
Michael Fallon has berated MPs who criticise Saudi Arabia, claiming their comments are making it more difficult to sell fighter jets to the country.
The Defence Secretary said instead “we need to do everything possible to encourage” the country to move forward on a deal on Eurofighter Typhoon jets currently being brokered by BAE and the British Government with Riyadh.
He added: “We’ve been working extremely hard on the batch two deal. I’ve travelled to Saudi Arabia back in September and discussed progress on the deal with my opposite number, the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia – and we continued to press for a signature or at least a statement of intent as we’ve done with Qatar.
£1.1 billion worth this year alone but draws criticism for its abysmal human rights record.
The oil-rich country is currently engaged in a conflict in Yemen which has killed upwards of 10,000 people and displace three million others, leading some to accuse the UK of “shameful profiteering” from the misery.
Andrew Smith of Campaign Against Arms Trade said:
“These comments from the Secretary of State for Defence are disgraceful. He is calling on other parliamentarians to join him in putting arms sales ahead of human rights, democracy and international humanitarian law.
“The Saudi regime has one of the most appalling human rights records in the world, and has inflicted a terrible humanitarian catastrophe on Yemen. Fallon should be doing all he can to stop the bloodshed and end UK complicity in the suffering, not urging his colleagues to willingly ignore the abuses in order to sell even more weapons.
“Arms sales to human rights abusing regimes like Saudi Arabia would not be possible without the support of Ministers like Fallon. If the government’s main concern is jobs then it should be shifting that support into more positive areas like renewable energy and low carbon technology, and other industries which are not dependent on war and conflict for profit.”
The comments come as Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman promised to “end extremism” and return the country to “moderate Islam.”
The 31-year-old, who was placed first-in-line to the throne in June following an unexpected reshuffle by King Salman, made his remarks at the Future Investment Initiative (FII) in Riyadh on Tuesday.
In comments reported by the Saudi Gazette, he said: “We are returning to what we were before – a country of moderate Islam that is open to all religions and to the world.
“We will not spend the next 30 years of our lives dealing with destructive ideas. We will destroy them today. We will end extremism very soon.”
www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/michael-fallon-saudi-arabia_uk_59f0c9ace4b0d094a5b6cafa
Ethics of Reciprocity: UN Dialogue of LGBTI Religious Leaders
Ethics of Reciprocity: UN Dialogue of LGBTI Religious Leaders
On September 29, 2017, Yvette Abrahams, an indigenous religious leader from Cape Town, South Africa who served as the country’s Commissioner For Gender Equality for five years, gasped when she learned that South Africa had just voted in favor of United Nations Human Rights Council resolution condemning the death penalty for those found guilty of committing consensual same-sex sexual acts. She could not believe that the United States had not.
Just the month before, waves of concern arose in her as she read the text of the Nashville Statement, an anti-LGBTIQ document authored by the conservative Christian Right in the US, with the aim of equipping pastors with a consolidated justification for excluding LGBTIQ people in both spiritual and civic life. Abrahams herself has lived through the effects of US based anti-LGBTIQ efforts that are are exported to Africa, leading to deaths, rapes, and beatings. Working against anti-LGBTIQ violence in South Africa and across the continent has been her life’s work, so Abrahams immediately noted that many of the Nashville Statement signers had also funded anti-gay legislation across Africa.
This is why she decided to travel to the UN Headquarters in New York on October 26th for the Ethics of Reciprocity dialogue, to begin a meaningful and healing conversation with her religious opponents. Abrahams is joined by LGBTIQ faith leaders around the world – including supporters of the Nashville Statement – for the first expert-level international discussion by interfaith LGBTIQ religious leaders at the UN about how to work together to end abuses, violence, beatings, and murders of LGBTIQ people, often because of religiously sanctioned beliefs.
Present at the high-level meeting will be:
UN Assistant Secretary General for Human Rights, Andrew Gilmour
Representatives from UN Member States
The Chair and Members of the NGO Committee on the Family
Several UN agencies
UN Special Rapporteur in Cultural Rights, Karima Bennoune
UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief, Ahmed Shaheed
Dozens of religious NGOs and LGBTIQ faith-based organizations
Many are attending an event on LGBTIQ rights for the first time.
Yvette Abrahams knows that this dialogue can save lives. She was a key player during End Hate Campaign in the South African West Cape, working to highlight hate violence against LBGTIQ people. “As late as 2008 there were no monitoring mechanisms or reporting systems for such crimes, and political leaders did not even recognize this as a problem. She recalls a conversation she had with a Ugandan activist:
“We realized we were both dealing with criminalization, and then police abuse, which made reporting almost impossible. In Uganda, the arrests of LBT/Kuchu people weren’t always recorded because the police were using sexuality to extort money instead of pressing charges – making it difficult to track police abuse. She explained to me how if you’re arrested in Uganda, the police lock you up and intimidate you, and because they steal your money, they won’t report the arrest. This violence has been made invisible.”
Abrahams is joined by an LGBTIQ Baptist minister from Uganda named Brian Byamukama, a Baptist minister from Uganda, who has seen first-hand how the efforts of the Christian Right at the UN have rippled out to his community. In Uganda, same-sex acts are punishable by death.
Abrahams and Byamukama recount the story of a Ugandan lesbian woman who was raped:
“So many people – church people and members of my own family – told me that this was God’s way of punishing me for being a lesbian. Because I was unwilling to ‘change’, they said, God was using this method to teach me a very hard lesson…I was hurt in two ways; firstly I was dealing with the pain and humiliation of the rape, and secondly I suffered because of my people’s judgement.”
Both leaders say that rape as an ‘instrument of God’ is common in South Africa and Uganda.
Explaining the role of religion in anti-LGBTIQ violence, Byamukama says that:
“The love that Jesus Christ demonstrated has been replaced with hate and death at the hands of many religious leaders, who have become agents of division, and judgement – limiting God’s ability to create us diversely. Religious leaders who impose homophobia are responsible for violating fundamental freedoms and rights of every person in the name of religion.”
Abrahams said,
“This is where we stand together or fall apart. We cannot afford to waste energy fighting each other. The UN is the closest thing we have to a world government. It is where conversations about love and justice should happen on a planetary scale.”
This is the first time LGBTIQ faith leaders will be formally addressing communities at the UN. Religious leaders participating at the Ethics of Reciprocity dialogue hail from various countries and faith traditions:
Yvette Abrahams – South Africa – Indigenous African
Murilo Araujo – Brazil – Christian
Tusina Ymania Brown – Samoa – Christian
Bishop. Pat Bumgarder – USA – Christian
Rev. Brian Byamukama – Uganda – Christian
Rev. Martin Kalimbe – Malawi – Christian
Kochava Lior Lilit – Australia – Jewish
Shuhrat Saidov – Tajikistan – Muslim
Abubakar Sadiq Yussif – Ghana – Muslim
Pearl Wong – Hong Kong – Christian
Jason Carson Wilson – USA – Christian
Bishop. Pat Bumgarder – USA – Christian
A number of conservative, moderate, and progressive religious organizations such as C-Fam, The Salvation Army, The Lutheran Church, numerous Catholic religious orders in consultation with the UN including Sisters of Mercy, Franciscans, Augustinians, and Big Ocean Women, many other are attending. Noticeably absent from the consultation will be the Office of the Holy See at the UN, the Vatican. Father Roger Landry, Attaché, has stated he “doubts they will attend.”
Ethics of Reciprocity’s organizer, Rev. Patricia Ackerman, an Episcopal Priest in the Diocese of New York who also serves as the UN Representative with the International Fellowship of Reconciliation, also cited the US’s recent affirmative vote in the UN resolution on a ban on the death penalty for homosexuality as a renewed call for religious leaders to commit to end to criminalization and violence of LGBTIQ people.
“The death penalty for consensual same-sex acts currently exists in 13 countries, but the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is clear that all of us are born free and equal. It’s time for faith leaders to come together where we agree, which is to treat others the way we would like to be treated – free from violence. The golden rule of do unto others is something we can all agree on.”
Rev. Jason Carson Wilson, M.Div is a minister at the Plymouth Congregational United Church of Christ in Washington, D.C. who says that being a gay person of color in the US has also meant dealing with “mental, physical, psychological and verbal violence.” He explains how
“Sermons, in a predominantly white conservative evangelical church sanctuary, showered me with homophobia and racism. So, I tried forcing my Black and gay identities into a closet. I’ve been harassed and threatened on subway in Chicago, and just a few days ago, someone called me a faggot and knocked off my hat while riding the Washington, D.C. subway.”
Rev. Wilson is among the US religious leaders who are welcoming this group of leaders, along with the Rev. Elder Pat Bumgardner, who pastors and provides food, medical care, and social services to several hundred LGBTIQ and allied people in New York City at the Metropolitan Community Church just around the corner from Penn Station. Bumbgardner is thrilled to welcome these leaders to her church, MCCNY for a celebration and press conference after the UN luncheon on the evening of October 26th.
Committed to interfaith advocacy, Bumgardner points to Pope Francis’ pastoral statement on LGBTI people in 2013 when he famously said:
“If a person is gay and seeks out the Lord and is willing, who am I to judge that person?”
###
Ethics of Reciprocity is directed by the the Rev. Patricia Ackerman in partnership with the International Fellowship of Reconciliation.
Cosponsored by Auburn Seminary, GLAAD, GIN-SSOGIE (The Global Interfaith Network on Sex, Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity, and Expression) Global Faith & Justice Initiative, ILGA (International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association), Muslims for Progressive Values, Political Research Associates, Outright Action International, and Soulforce.
October 25, 2017
www.glaad.org/blog/ethics-reciprocity-un-dialogue-lgbti-religious-leaders
Sail the Mediterranean with Celebrity Cruises’ Reflection
Sail the Mediterranean with Celebrity Cruises’ Reflection
Gay Star News sent Addison on a wine tasting cruise experience with Celebrity Cruises. This is his journey.
Follow Gay Star News: twitter.com/gaystarnews
What’s the definition of sex? New study aims to find the answer.
Hackers Can Exploit Your Vulnerability on Dating Apps – Are Grindr and Scruff Users at Risk Too?
Hackers Can Exploit Your Vulnerability on Dating Apps – Are Grindr and Scruff Users at Risk Too?
Online dating—is there any other kind?—can prey on people’s insecurities. And lately it seems like hackers can too. Gizmodo reports that the Kapersky lab in Moscow— embroiled in its own controversy— has found a number of potential weaknesses across a long list of dating apps including Tinder and Bumble. (As Gizmodo points out, queer apps like…
The post Hackers Can Exploit Your Vulnerability on Dating Apps – Are Grindr and Scruff Users at Risk Too? appeared first on Towleroad.
Hackers Can Exploit Your Vulnerability on Dating Apps – Are Grindr and Scruff Users at Risk Too?
