Samantha Allen Explores the Growing LGBTQ Population in Red States

The author discusses her book, Real Queer America, on the LGBTQ&A podcast.

www.advocate.com/transgender/2019/6/14/samantha-allen-explores-growing-lgbtq-population-red-states

Chick-fil-A owner arrested after admitting she repeatedly molested an underage girl

www.queerty.com/chick-fil-owner-arrested-admitting-repeatedly-molested-underage-girl-20190614?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+queerty2+%28Queerty%29

HRC Mourns the Loss of Zoe Spears

HRC is deeply saddened to learn of the death of Zoe Spears, a Black transgender woman killed in Prince George’s County, Maryland, on June 13.

She was found lying in the street with signs of trauma near Eastern Avenue in Fairmount Heights, just outside Washington, D.C., and later pronounced dead, according to local reports. Prince George’s County’s homicide department is leading the investigation into her death.

While officials have not yet released her name, transgender advocate Ruby Corado, the founder and executive director of Casa Ruby, identified Spears as the victim. The organization is Washington, D.C.’s only bilingual, multicultural LGBTQ community center providing life-saving and affirming services and support to many of the most vulnerable members of the area’s LGBTQ community.

“She was my daughter — very bright and very full of life,” Corado told HRC. “Casa Ruby was her home. Right now, we just want her and her friends and the people who knew her to know that she’s loved.”

In March, Ashanti Carmon, who was also a Black trans woman, was killed in the same area of Fairmount Heights. TransGriot’s Monica Roberts reported that Carmon was shot multiple times and pronounced dead at the scene. Earline Budd, a long time D.C. resident and staff member at HIPS, a community health and advocacy organization, shared with reporters that other transgender people have been assaulted and attacked at this same place in the past.

“It hurts,” Corado said in an emotional Facebook video during which she spoke about Spears’ death . “I want to make sure that people see what happens when our people are gone. I want you to see that this is real consequences, that when these people get killed…they had somebody that loved them.”

“My Zoe had a lot of people who loved her, and I was the main one,” Corado continued. “I was her number one fan. I love her so much.”

Tragically, Spears’ death is the tenth known case of deadly violence against the transgender community in 2019, all of whom were Black transgender women. Last year, advocates tracked the deaths of at least 26 transgender people in the U.S.

In November, ahead of Transgender Day of Remembrance, HRC Foundation released “A National Epidemic: Fatal Anti-Transgender Violence in America in 2018,” a heartbreaking report honoring the trans people killed and detailing the contributing and motivating factors that lead to this tragic violence.

It is clear that fatal violence disproportionately affects transgender women of color, and that the intersections of racism, transphobia, sexism, biphobia and homophobia conspire to deprive them of necessities to live and thrive.

This epidemic of violence that disproportionately targets transgender people of color — particularly Black transgender women — must cease.

To learn more about Casa Ruby’s work to support the transgender community in the Washington, D.C. area, visit casaruby.org. For more information about HRC’s transgender justice work, visit hrc.org/Transgender.

www.hrc.org/blog/hrc-mourns-the-loss-of-zoe-spears?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss-feed

Billy Porter, Sufjan Stevens, Internal Trump Polls, 5B, Melania T, Teachrock, Wilson Cruz, Tan France: HOT LINKS

DOUBLE DIGIT LOSSES. Internal Trump polls leak, show Trump losing to Biden by double digits in battleground states.

ALAN DERSHOWITZ. I’d support Biden over Trump in 2020: “If Bernie Sanders is nominated, that would present a real dilemma for me. I don’t think under any circumstances I could vote for a man who went to England and campaigned for a bigot and anti-Semite like Jeremy Corbin. I don’t think I could do it, I couldn’t pull that lever.”

THE NEW JACKIE O. Melania T?

TEACHROCK. Teachrock, the standards-aligned, arts integration curriculum that uses the history of popular music and culture to help teachers engage students, has released a collection of lessons that complement the CNN Soundtracks “Out Loud and Proud” episode.

JIFGA VS JONAH. Jewish anti-gay group forbidden from operating under different name: “What they do hurts people, so we are extremely pleased at this court’s ruling and hope that it will finally put a stop to the fraud that they have perpetrated for more than a decade.”

NICHOLAS SPARKS. Emails show author objecting to pro-gay “agenda”. ‘The emails, published Thursday by the Daily Beast and filed as exhibits in federal lawsuit in North Carolina, show Sparks complaining in 2013 about “an agenda that strives to make homosexuality open and accepted.” The emails are part a case between Sparks and former headmaster Saul Hillel Benjamin, who alleges that Sparks defamed him. Benjamin headed the college-prep K-12 school for a few months before being forced out.’

ALABAMA. Florence fire department quickly removes rainbow crosswalk painted on street by local residents: “If it was this group or any other group taking action to paint our streets without permission, we are just not going to do it,” said Mayor Steve Holt. “I’m happy to talk to them about any perception of miscommunication on their part. We didn’t have any perception on our part that it was miscommunication the permit was denied.”

TEASER OF THE DAY. 5B, a documentary opening this weekend about the first AIDS ward in the nation, at San Francisco General Hospital.  

FAKE VIRAL THEME PARK RIDE OF THE DAY. This is not a real ride.

PHOTOS. Jussie Smollett driving to pick up brothers for “run-through” of staged attack.

ON THE RAG. This week on the gay magazines.

THE FRENCH TUCK. Tan France explains the key to wearing a T-shirt.

WHAT WOULD IT BE? Adam Lambert asked about the possibility of Bohemian Rhapsody sequel.

LOVE YOURSELF. Sufjan Stevens quotes RuPaul and scripture in new essay: “And so this is our duty at every moment. To love without compromise and without equivocation. To give it our all, to the end, until we have nothing left to give. The message here isn’t very deep. So why does it feel so impossible? We are called to do one simple thing called love. We need to try harder. Do the work. My song is love. My prayer is peace. My head is full of questions but my heart is full of love!”

PRIDE SINGLE OF THE DAY. “Love Yourself” by Billy Porter.

NEW TUNE OF THE DAY. Kaskade and Meghan Trainor “With You”.

MUSIC VIDEO OF THE DAY. Elton John and Taron Egerton “(I’m Gonna) Love Me Again”.

FRIDAY PRIDE. Wilson Cruz.

View this post on Instagram

I was going to keep this one off the feed and just keep it in the story. Got shy about it for some reason. Then I thought, meh, it’s #Pride and also, when I’m 90, I’m going to appreciate I was able and willing to put the work in to get myself there. Here’s hoping. In the meantime, this present moment is lovely and I’m grateful for it. #BrownBoyInBerlin #berlin #viktoriapark

A post shared by Wilson Cruz (@wcruz73) on Jun 13, 2019 at 10:20pm PDT

The post Billy Porter, Sufjan Stevens, Internal Trump Polls, 5B, Melania T, Teachrock, Wilson Cruz, Tan France: HOT LINKS appeared first on Towleroad Gay News.

Billy Porter, Sufjan Stevens, Internal Trump Polls, 5B, Melania T, Teachrock, Wilson Cruz, Tan France: HOT LINKS

An Open Letter to Bisexual People This Pride Month

Pride can be a hard time for those who fall within the bisexual, pansexual, queer and sexually fluid community.

Studies show that bi people make up nearly 50% of the LGBTQ community, but too often it can feel like we’re all alone, walking a line between being “too queer” or “not queer enough.”

Bisexual people often face skepticism, harmful stereotypes and can be ignored and excluded from LGBTQ spaces. Bi people are often invisible to each other — all things that can make going to your first Pride feel incredibly daunting.

As a bisexual person, this Pride Month, I want you to know that your experiences are valid and that you are queer enough.

People frequently make assumptions about our identities based on the gender of our past or current partners, and we often find ourselves having to come out over and over again to correct those assumptions. Pride can sometimes feel like the center of all this erasure and invisibility.

Wherever you are in your journey with bisexuality is exactly where you’re supposed to be — and Pride is a celebration of your identity, too.

I attended my first Pride when I was 22. It was just weeks after I had come out as bisexual to my family, and I was planning to celebrate with other queer and bisexual friends, who then couldn’t make it because of bad weather.

My father knew I was disappointed and asked if he could borrow one of my HRC T-shirts and go with me to the festival. We ended up having an incredible time, and he’s one of my biggest champions to this day.

Part of empowering ourselves as bisexual people this Pride Month starts by building a community around us of people who accept us exactly as we are — whether it’s friends, family or a chosen community.

Whether you’re wearing a bisexual or pansexual flag as a cape, Pride is a celebration for you, too. Bisexual people come from all backgrounds, racial and ethnic groups, faith communities, socioeconomic levels and gender identities. Together, our visibility helps us find each other.

After all, Brenda Howard, the “mother of Pride,” credited for organizing the 1970 Christopher Street Gay Liberation Day Parade on the one-year anniversary of the Stonewall riots, was actually bisexual. With iconic bisexual figures like Howard and others, the bisexual community has and continues to make signifcant contributions to LGBTQ history.

Bring your visibility and find HRC at a Pride near you by visiting hrc.org/Pride.

www.hrc.org/blog/an-open-letter-to-bisexual-people-this-pride-month?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss-feed

Fans Celebrate on Twitter After Taylor Swift Shouts Out GLAAD and LGBTQ People in New Pride-Themed Anthem ‘You Need to Calm Down’

www.glaad.org/blog/fans-celebrate-twitter-after-taylor-swift-shouts-out-glaad-and-lgbtq-people-new-pride-themed

Gina Gershon and Jennifer Tilly on Bound’s Landmark Lesbian Sex Scenes

The actresses reminisce about how it was easy to “objectify” one another and how the ratings board forced the Wachowskis to deromanticize the film’s big sex scene. 

www.advocate.com/film/2019/6/14/gina-gershon-and-jennifer-tilly-bounds-landmark-lesbian-sex-scenes