South Carolina Lesbian Couple Sues Over Foster Agency’s Discrimination

Eden Rogers and Brandy Welch were rejected as foster parents by a state-funded agency because of their faith and sexual orientation.

www.advocate.com/family/2019/5/30/south-carolina-lesbian-couple-sues-over-foster-agencys-discrimination

First Freddie, Then Elton, Now Boy George Biopic in the Works

MGM is moving ahead with a movie about the Culture Club singer.

www.advocate.com/film/2019/5/30/first-freddie-then-elton-now-boy-george-biopic-works

NYC Monument Will Honor Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera

Transgender activists before the term transgender was used, the two were key figures in the Stonewall riots.

www.advocate.com/transgender/2019/5/30/nyc-monument-will-honor-marsha-p-johnson-and-sylvia-rivera

Celebrating Asian-Led LGBTQ Prides Globally

HRC Global Innovator Fumino Sugiyama is a transgender activist who has been raising public awareness about transgender people since 2006. That’s one of the reasons he became involved in working Pride events in Japan.

“I felt more encouraged by participating in HRC’s Global Innovative Advocacy Summit. I was impressed that there are many advocates with the same motivation as mine across the world,” Sugiyama told HRC. “One of the most important things I learned is being an ally. I am keen on how we can help influential allies to be our supporters.”

In honor of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month and LGBTQ Pride Month, we celebrate LGBTQ API people around the world like Sugiyama who are bringing visibility to the API LGBTQ community through Affinity Prides, which celebrate the visibility of underrepresented communities.

In 2013, Sugiyama became the representative of NPO Tokyo Rainbow Pride after a recommendation from a friend. The turnout of Rainbow Pride in Japan, which started in 1994, grew to 200,000 this year from 4,500 in 2012.

“My mission as one of the co-representatives of Tokyo Rainbow Pride is meeting various actors ranging from the ordinary to experts of nonprofits, government, media or enterprises, expanding the number of advocates for our activity and formulating the ideal society that reflects various opinions from LGBTQ people in Japan,” he said.

Affinity Prides are especially important because they lift up LGBTQ people who live at the intersection of multiple marginalized communities and often face harassment, discrimination, stigma and violence on a number of fronts just because of who they are. Data from HRC Foundation and the University of Connecticut’s “2019 LGBTQ Asian and Pacific Islander Youth Report” showed that API LGBTQ youth are at heightened risk for discrimination.

Increasing visibility through Pride events is important, but advocates including Sugiyama know there’s more work to do. Sugiyama lives with his partner, who recently gave birth to their child through a sperm donor. He is not eligible to be legally recognized as a parent in Japan because marriage equality is not law.

“The understanding of LGBTQ rights varues dramatically recently in Japan,” Sugiyama said. “We would like to gather all of our energy and realize the society that enables LGBTQ and all the citizens to spend their lives freely.”

Learn more about life at the intersections of API and LGBTQ identities here and HRC’s Global work here. 

hrc.org/blog/celebrating-asian-led-lgbtq-prides-globally?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss-feed

Lesbian-Themed ‘Portrait of a Lady on Fire’ Wins Queer Palm at Cannes

Director Céline Sciamma is the first woman to win the Queer Palm prize at Cannes in its 10-year history with her sumptous, period piece lesbian love story. 

www.advocate.com/film/2019/5/30/lesbian-themed-portrait-lady-fire-wins-queer-palm-cannes

Straight police recruit applies for job during LGBTQ diversity drive, isn’t hired, sues, and wins

All 25-year-old Matthew Furlong wanted to do was “follow in his father’s footsteps” and become a police officer.

Two years ago, he applied to join the Cheshire Police Department during a diversity drive. The department was hoping to hire more LGBTQ officers. You know, because diversity is a good thing!

There was just one teensy tiny problem.

Furlong is not L, G, B, T, or Q. He’s straight. 100% hetero. No homo. Got that?

Despite this, he applied for the job anyway and when he didn’t get it, he sued for discrimination. Now, he just won his case in court.

The Telegraph reports:

Cheshire Constabulary, in which Mr Furlong’s father is a serving detective inspector, was found guilty of discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation, race and sex following an employment tribunal earlier this year.

A settlement has now been reached and Mr Furlong will be joining as a student officer in September, his lawyers said.

Speaking to reporters after his court victory this week, Furlong said: “My dad has served more than 20 years with Cheshire Police and I had always wanted to follow in his footsteps, ever since school. Not just anywhere but in the place I grew up.”

Furlong added that if he had “lied on my interview form and said I was bisexual” then he knows he would have gotten the job and that the whole thing has “completely shattered my confidence in the police force recruitment system.”

Deputy Chief Constable Julie Cooke said the diversity drive was created “with the best of intentions” and was never intended to be discriminatory against straight people.

Furlong, she added, will be welcomed as a new member of the Cheshire Police with no hard feelings.

“We accept the findings of the tribunal,” she said, “and have looked very carefully at our entire recruitment practice.”

But chances are this means there will be no more LGBTQ diversity drives.

Jennifer Ainscough, an employment lawyer, tells the Telegraph: “Positive action is an incredibly important tool to aid diversity in the workforce but this case is a reminder that it must be applied correctly to ensure that employers still recruit candidates based on merit above all else.”

Related: Straight white rapper releases song about how oppressed he is on the eve of Pride month

www.queerty.com/straight-police-recruit-applies-job-lgbtq-diversity-drive-isnt-hired-sues-wins-20190530?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+queerty2+%28Queerty%29

Trump and Russia, Ansel Elgort, Jane Fonda, Gillette, Electoral College, Bruce Springsteen, Kim Petras, Gus Kenworthy: HOT LINKS

RUSSIA HELPED ME. Trump deleted tweet admitting that Russia helped him get elected. “In a remarkable development, however, it appears that Trump is publicly admitting, for the first time at least, that Russia interference helped get him elected president, as has been stated repeatedly by numerous U.S. intel and Justice Department investigations, including the office of Special Counsel. That is until he deleted the tweet.”

MUG MOSAIC. Ansel Elgort posts 17 shirtless selfies in a row.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Ansel Elgort (@ansel) on May 28, 2019 at 8:25pm PDT

NEVADA. Governor Steve Sisolak vetoes bill that would have rejected electoral college for popular vote. ‘AB186, sponsored by the late Democratic Assemblyman Tyrone Thompson, proved a divisive one in the Legislature that elicited some of the closest votes in the session. Proponents argued that it would ensure every vote counted equally, while opponents said they feared it would diminish the relevance of Nevada and other small states.’

SOUTH CAROLINA. LGBT advocates sue Trump HHS for discriminating against gay foster parents: “Lambda Legal, the ACLU, ACLU of South Carolina, and South Carolina Equality Coalition are suing the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the state of South Carolina on behalf of a married lesbian couple, Eden Rogers and Brandy Welch, who were turned away by a government-funded foster care agency for failing to meet the agency’s religious criteria, which exclude prospective foster parents who are not evangelical Protestant Christian or who are same-sex couples of any faith.

EQUALITY ACT. Religious-right hate machine fired up: “The intensely alarmist religious freedom rhetoric suggests that Religious Right political strategists will once again use fear-mongering of liberals’ supposed desire to “criminalize Christianity” to motivate turnout of conservative evangelical voters in 2020.”

LONG ISLAND. LGBT billboard vandalized. “It is fresh, it is new, it was targeted,” Kilmnick said. “No question about it.”

NERVOUS BREAKDOWN. Jane Fonda said she suffered one during Grace & Frankie. “I discovered it’s because the very first episode our husbands tell us that they are going to leave us after 40 years and marry each other and that triggered abandonment.”

TERRIFYING MENACE OF THE DAY. Mike Pence.

GETTING POLITICAL. Taylor Swift says it’s her next move: “I’m not planning to stop encouraging young people to vote and to try to get them to talk about what’s going on in our country. I think that’s one of the most important things I could do.”

NEW AD OF THE DAY. Gillette.

MUSIC VIDEO OF THE DAY. Bruce Springsteen “Tucson Train”.

LYRIC VIDEO OF THE DAY. Kim Petras “Do Me”.

THIRSTY THURSDAY. Gus Kenworthy.

The post Trump and Russia, Ansel Elgort, Jane Fonda, Gillette, Electoral College, Bruce Springsteen, Kim Petras, Gus Kenworthy: HOT LINKS appeared first on Towleroad Gay News.

Trump and Russia, Ansel Elgort, Jane Fonda, Gillette, Electoral College, Bruce Springsteen, Kim Petras, Gus Kenworthy: HOT LINKS