University president demands pro-gay sign be removed, says it’s a bad influence on minors

The president of the University of Central Arkansas ordered a sign quoting Lady Gaga be removed from the school’s library, claiming it advocated “a personal viewpoint” that could potentially corrupt the minds of young children.

Earlier this month, staff members of the university’s Torreyson Library made a Pride sign that said: “Being gay is like glitter. It never goes away. — Lady Gaga.”

They displayed it on a bulletin board typically used for making special event announcements and activities or to display information such as the library’s hours.

Fun, right?

Wrong!

When University President Houston Davis got wind of it, he demanded it be immediately removed.

In an email to faculty, staff members, and students this week, Davis wrote: “I believe that the intent of the message was to show support for LGBTQ students, faculty, and staff, but it was not okay for the university sign to be used to make a personal statement or advocate for a personal viewpoint. That is the line that the sign itself crossed.”

Davis went on to say that library staff must be “very careful that we walk the fine line between individual freedom of speech and institutional voice.”

Then he brought up a summer band camp currently happening on campus which is attended by impressionable secondary school students from the area.

“We have to be very mindful of the hundreds of minors that are on campus during the summer which further complicates an environment that is normally programmed for adults and our very meaningful conversations about ourselves and our world,” Davis wrote.

“One outgrowth of that perspective on minors has been a start of a good conversation about best practices how to present or represent issues when minors are on the campus.”

Because, evidently, being gay is an “issue,” and God forbid children learn gay people exist in the world!

But University spokesman Amanda Hoelzeman insists Davis’ motivations for having the sign removed had nothing to do with shielding minors from the “issue” of LGBTQ people.

“The issue is not about minors being exposed to the LGBTQ community,” she told Arkansas Online this week. “It is about the university remembering that when we do have minors on campus, we have to be mindful of information and debate that is designed for students, faculty and staff who are 18 and above.”

She continued, “This issue points to the fact that we need to be more aware of how any university signage or platform is used in order to uphold freedom of speech as well as be aware of our institutional voice.”

If that’s the case, why bring minors up at all?

Oh, and can we stop calling being LGBTQ an “issue”? The only “issue” here are the people who seem to take issue with it.

Related: Dean resigns after college refuses to allow Chick-Fil-A on campus, says “I felt it very personally”

www.queerty.com/university-president-demands-pro-gay-sign-removed-says-bad-influence-minors-20190619?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+queerty2+%28Queerty%29

Jake Covers Whitney Houston in a Tribute to ‘The Greatest Gyllenhaal of All’ — WATCH

Jake Gyllenhaal joined James Corden in a surprise appearance on The Late Late Show London edition with a rousing cover of a Whitney Houston classic.

It was announced this week that Gyllenhaal would be in London next summer to reprise his role in the Broadway production of Stephen Sondheim’s Sunday in the Park with George.

The post Jake Covers Whitney Houston in a Tribute to ‘The Greatest Gyllenhaal of All’ — WATCH appeared first on Towleroad Gay News.

Jake Covers Whitney Houston in a Tribute to ‘The Greatest Gyllenhaal of All’ — WATCH

New York City’s ‘Gay Street’ Renamed ‘Acceptance Street’ for Pride

The street in NYC’s historic Greenwich Village is an art installation intended to make everyone feel welcome. 

www.advocate.com/pride/2019/6/19/new-york-citys-gay-street-renamed-acceptance-street-pride

Producers of Broadway adaptation of “The Notebook” forgive Nicholas Sparks for being a racist homophobe

The team behind the upcoming Broadway musical adaptation of Nicholas Sparks’ blockbuster The Notebook say they are “encouraged” by the author’s “strong statement of support of the LGBTQ+ community” after leaked emails exposed him as a total bigot. As for his racism. Well, they’re turning a blind eye to that.

Just to recap: Last week, a series of leaked emails showed that in 2013, Sparks ordered administrators at the Epiphany School of Global Studies, a faith-based prep school he founded in 2006, to ban an LGBTQ student group and threatened at least two bisexual teachers with termination for defending queer students.

Additional emails showed the author making disparaging remarks about African American and tokenizing Jewish children.

In response to the leak, Sparks issued a lengthly apology to the LGBTQ community, claiming to be “an unequivocal supporter of gay marriage, gay adoption, and equal employment rights and would never want to discourage any young person or adult from embracing who they are.”

Absent from his apology, however, was any reference to the other minority groups he disparaged.

But apparently that was enough to satisfy the creative team of the Broadway musical adaptation of his breakout novel. Because just the other day, the entire team–producers Kevin McCollum and Kurt Deutsch, composer Ingrid Michaelson, book writer Bekah Brunstetter, and director Michael Grief–issued joint response praising Sparks for his words:

We are encouraged that Mr. Sparks has made a strong statement of support of the LGBTQ+ community today. The Notebook musical team has been given complete freedom to create a very new piece of art from the source material of the book and our mission for the past 3 years has been and continues to be to create a story of love and humanity that reflects our core values of diversity and inclusion.

And here’s where it gets especially awkward.

Because the show’s composer, Ingrid Michaelson, who is perhaps best known for her hit song “Girls Chase Boys,” has long identified as a feminist and LGBTQ ally and recently hinted at being queer herself.

Just last month, she posted an photo of herself and friend Kristin Russo, who identifies as bisexual, to Instagram along with the caption: “one full gay, one partial.”

View this post on Instagram

One full gay one partial

A post shared by Ingrid Michaelson (@ingridmichaelson) on May 11, 2019 at 11:17am PDT

Queerty reached out to Michaelson for additional comment but did not hear back by press time. We will update this story if/when one becomes available.

The joint statement also makes zero reference to the racist component to Sparks’ emails, particularly the part where he said Black too poor to attend his school, nor would they be a good cultural fit, then claimed his beliefs had “nothing to do with racism or vestiges of Jim Crow.”

“Regarding diversity, I’ve now told you half a dozen times that our lack of diversity has NOTHING to do with the school or anyone at the school,” Sparks wrote. “It’s not because of what we as a school has or hasn’t done. It has nothing to do with racism or vestiges of Jim Crow. It comes down to 1) Money and 2) Culture.”

The joint statement also makes no reference to allegations made by former Epiphany School headmaster Saul Benjamin that Sparks told him Black students were “too poor and can’t do the academic work,” and that when Benjamin appeared at an event alongside the president of the local NAACP chapter, Sparks allegedly pulled him aside to say it brought “disrepute to Epiphany.”

Seriously, why aren’t more people talking about this or the fact that Sparks hasn’t addressed any of this? The only thing he’s addressed are the antigay remarks. There’s a whole lot of other bigotry happening that’s being swept under the rug.

A reading of Broadway musical adaption of The Notebook will take place later this month in New York with Vanessa Hudgens starring as the female lead.

Related: Twitter drags Nicholas Sparks for his pathetic non-apology for leaked homophobic emails

www.queerty.com/producers-broadway-adaptation-notebook-forgive-nicholas-sparks-racist-homophobe-20190619?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+queerty2+%28Queerty%29

Sean Cody Under Fire for Model Sporting Confederate Flag Tattoo

Gay adult studio Sean Cody is under fire for welcoming back a model with a Confederate flag tattoo. The model, Zack, had been featured in a solo scene but was brought back for another scene with the studio’s model Jax. In both scenes, the studio blurred out the tattoo, and photoshopped it in the promotional photos. What was under the blur was discovered after the studio accidentally released a trailer with the tattoo uncovered last week.

Wrote Zachary Sire on the website Str8Up (wk-unfriendly site): ‘The model, “Zane,” having a Confederate Flag tattoo is bad enough, but you know what’s actually worse? Sean Cody being fully aware that the flag is considered a racist symbol, choosing to put the guy in their videos anyway, and then haphazardly trying to hide it from viewers. If Sean Cody really believed in their content, they should’ve just released this scene without blurring the racist symbol. What are they afraid of? While this video could’ve just been dumped in the trash, the studio must be so short on content, they couldn’t bear to scrap even one scene.’

RELATED: Trump Defends Charlottesville Response by Praising ‘Great’ Confederate General Robert E. Lee: WATCH

Commenters to the site agreed.

Wrote one commenter: “This is just pure nonsense all around. It’s one thing that they hired, filmed and released these scenes and to also treat its members like idiots after knowing that we know what they’re blurring airbrushing out of the pics and videos. I think porn may be one of the last safe spaces for racists to work openly without any repercussions for being openly racist and having racist symbols tattooed on their bodies.”

Added another: “They’ve vaulted scenes for lesser, petty reasons. But they decided this scene needed an audience? A model with a symbol which conjures up imagery of bigotry, discrimination and degradation is getting f**ked by another southerner? During Pride month? That’s not even the worst of it. They released this s**t on Juneteenth. That can’t be a coincidence.”

Wrote another: “The symbol is deeply routed in racism. What someone’s individual interpretation is of the symbol, due to their ignorance, is no excuse for the racist symbol itself. You don’t get to walk around brandishing hate–when anyone under the age of 50 knows that flag is nothing if not racially controversial at it’s core–and then be surprised when there is backlash.”

The post Sean Cody Under Fire for Model Sporting Confederate Flag Tattoo appeared first on Towleroad Gay News.

Sean Cody Under Fire for Model Sporting Confederate Flag Tattoo

WATCH: Utah high school football players burn Pride flag while saying “All gays die!”

Two football playing students from Utah’s Kearns High School have been suspended for sharing a video of them giggling and burning a rainbow flag while saying “All gays die!” Police are also investigating.

The video was first posted on Snapchat by a 15-year-old incoming freshman and it was shared by another current student.

Granite School District spokesman Ben Horsley told ABC News, “We want to make sure every student who walks through our doors feels safe and secure in the environment that they’re in. Looking at the video, whether if it was intended as a joke or as a serious and broad threat against LGBTQ individuals, it’s still a reprehensible act. We need to condemn hatred and bigotry wherever we see it.”

Related: Students Welcomed Back To School With Burned Pride Flag And A Note: “F*gs Get AIDS More Often”

He added that while it’s unclear what discipline the students will face, penalties could range from suspension to mandatory community service. Other community members have called for the football program to be cancelled, but that’s unlikely considering that only two team members were implicated and football generates lots of money for both individual schools and school districts.

The school district also said they’ve contacted LGBTQ community leaders to suggest future empathy exercises and educational opportunities so hateful little meat-heads won’t do something stupid like this ever again. (Though the district spokesperson didn’t use those exact words.)

Matt Rickards, head coach of the Kearns High School team told Salt Lake City Fox affiliate KSTU, “There’s no place for that in our program at all, and it won’t be tolerated. It’s potentially a hate crime, so it sickens me.”

He added, “We have one rule in our program and that is not to embarrass yourself, your family or your team and, obviously, that rule was broken. So, there’s got to be consequences for that.”

Here’s a video which shows footage of the burning flag:

Burning Pride flags seems to have become a recent trend among antigay haters. Earlier this month, a vandal burned a rainbow flag outside of New York City’s only black-owned gay bar; in May, someone burned a rainbow flag outside of a Philadelphia boutique; and in April, someone burned a straight couple’s rainbow flag in Charleston, South Carolina.

What these haters don’t realize that burning our flag only makes our community even louder and more united in the face of hate, whether that hate comes from dumb high schoolers, random vandals or spiteful bigots.

www.queerty.com/watch-utah-high-school-football-players-burn-pride-flag-saying-gays-die-20190619?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+queerty2+%28Queerty%29

‘Queer Eye’ Renewed for Seasons 4 and 5, and the Fab 5 Will Be Headed Somewhere New

Queer Eye has been renewed by Netflix for a fourth and fifth season. The fourth season will debut on July 19 with eight new heroes and again take place in Kansas City. For the show’s fifth season, which starts production on June 24 and will debut in 2020, they’ll be headed to Philadelphia.

View this post on Instagram

Have you missed us? (We missed you too. ) We’re back in Kansas City for Season 4, July 19.

A post shared by Queer Eye (@queereye) on Jun 18, 2019 at 9:30am PDT

The post ‘Queer Eye’ Renewed for Seasons 4 and 5, and the Fab 5 Will Be Headed Somewhere New appeared first on Towleroad Gay News.

‘Queer Eye’ Renewed for Seasons 4 and 5, and the Fab 5 Will Be Headed Somewhere New

#AM_Equality Tipsheet: June 19, 2019

AS TRUMP LAUNCHES 2020 CAMPAIGN, HRC VOWS TO TURN OUT THE VOTE AND END THE TRUMP-PENCE ASSAULT ON LGBTQ PROGRESS: “Since Donald Trump and Mike Pence took office 29 months ago, LGBTQ people have been under constant attack by an administration that is hell-bent on ripping away our progress,” said HRC President Chad Griffin (@ChadHGriffin). “But time and again, HRC’s grassroots army of more than 3 million strong has fought back, putting up roadblocks on this administration’s path of destruction and discrimination. In the months ahead, we will continue to turn resistance into action by making major investments to turn out the more than 10 million eligible LGBTQ voters in this country and millions more allies to ensure we defeat Donald Trump in 2020 and elect a pro-equality president who will fight for the rights of all Americans.” More from HRC.

• For the full list of Trump-Pence’s attacks on LGBTQ people, visit hrc.org/Trump.
• Despite standing two miles and a 10-minute drive away from the site of the Pulse nightclub shooting, Donald Trump refused to even mention the 49 LGBTQ lives, most Latinx, taken by senseless gun violence. This omission comes less than one week after Orlando, the LGBTQ community, the Latinx community and the world marked the third year since Pulse without any substantive action on gun reform. More from HRC.

Tonight, Donald Trump will announce his 2020 re-election bid.

Here’s a reminder that since Trump & Pence took office 2+ years ago, LGBTQ people have been under constant attack by an administration hell-bent on ripping away our progress. #TrumpRallyOrlando t.co/OfJFGJgf3O

— Human Rights Campaign (@HRC) June 18, 2019

HRC RESPONDS TO NEWS THAT TONY PERKINS HAS BEEN APPOINTED TO HEAD THE U.S. COMMISSION ON INTERNATIONAL RELIGIOUS FREEDOM: “Tony Perkins has devoted his career to limiting the legal rights of LGBTQ people,” said David Stacy, HRC Director of Government Affairs (@david_stacy). “In his America, LGBTQ people would be forced to hide who they are or face criminal sanction, and their relationships would be outlawed and undermined. Once again, the Trump-Pence Administration has taken a non-partisan commitment to religious freedom around the world and turned it into another weapon in their anti-LGBTQ crusade.” More from Metro Weekly.

WHAT WE’RE READING WEDNESDAY — AN OPEN LETTER TO BISEXUAL PEOPLE THIS PRIDE MONTH: Read the letter from HRC.

Too often, bisexual people are excluded from LGBTQ spaces, and often invisible to each other—all things that can make going to your first #pride feel incredibly daunting.

But you’re not alone and #pridemonth is for you too. ������ t.co/SE4S9jklnB

— Human Rights Campaign (@HRC) June 16, 2019

HOUSE VOTES TO PASS AMENDMENT DEFUNDING TRANS TROOP BAN: The appropriations amendment, offered by Reps. Jackie Speier (D-CA) (@RepSpeier) and Anthony Brown (D-MD) (@RepAnthonyBrown), would prevent further implementation of Trump’s ban on transgender people in the military by eliminating funding for it. Said Sarah McBride, HRC National Press Secretary (@SarahEMcBride). “The Trump administration’s ban on transgender troops goes against medical experts, military leadership, budget analysts, 70% of the American people, and the U.S. House, who passed a resolution in March condemning Trump’s attacks on transgender service members.” More from CBS News.

THE NY TIMES INTERVIEWS DR. DEMETRE DASKALAKIS ON HIS EFFORTS TO COMBAT SOCIAL STIGMA AROUND HIV & AIDS: Read Sam Dubin’s full interview with Daskalakis (@DrDemetre), deputy commissioner for the Division of Disease Control of the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, here.

WORKPLACES CONTINUE TO IMPROVE FOR LGBTQ EMPLOYEES: HRC Foundation’s Beck Bailey (@TheBeckBailey), Director, Workplace Equality Program, on how workplaces have improved, and the work still to be done: “Companies do need to work on their overall culture, education, engagement around bias and unconscious bias and how it comes up at work and observing how they may inadvertently be sending messages to people that they should stay in the closet,” he says. Read more from NBC.

UPDATE — AUTHOR NICHOLAS SPARKS APOLOGIZES FOR PAST ANTI-LGBTQ COMMENTS & EMAILS THAT REVEAL HE REFUSED TO ALLOW LGBTQ STUDENT CLUB AT SCHOOL HE FOUNDED: Read more from The New York Times.

PRIDE MONTH ROUNDUP

NEW YORK CITY’S ICONIC “GAY STREET” AND “CHRISTOPHER STREET” RENAMED “ACCEPTANCE STREET” TO MARK PRIDE MONTH: More from ABC.

THE DAILY BEAST’S TIM TEEMAN (@TimTeeman) CHATS WITH DAVID MIXNER (@DavidMixner) ABOUT THE STATE OF LGBTQ RIGHTS IN THE U.S.: Read the interview here.

CALIFORNIA FLIES THE LGBTQ PRIDE FLAG ON ITS CAPITOL BUILDING FOR THE FIRST TIME: More from The Hill.

GLOBAL EQUALITY NEWS

ORGANIZERS OF TBILISI PRIDE IN GEORGIA SAY THE EVENT WILL GO AHEAD DESPITE THREATS: More from Agenda.GE.

NEW TESTIMONY REVEALS MISSING RUSSIAN MAN MAY HAVE BEEN DETAINED DURING PERSECUTIONS AGAINST LGBTQ CHECHENS: Eyewitness Maksim Lapunov claims he and the man who is currently missing, Andrei Kobyshev, were held in the same facility for two weeks. More from Radio Free Europe.

PRIME MINISTER OF MALAYSIA, DR. MAHATHIR MOHAMAD, REITERATES ASSERTION THAT THE COUNTRY WILL NOT RECOGNIZE MARRIAGE EQUALITY: More from Gay Star News.

READING RAINBOW – Bookmark now to read on your lunch break!

CNN’s Fayemi Shakur (@7fayemi) profiles Zanele Muholi’s (@ZMuholi) work photographing Black LGBTQ South Africans; NYTimes readers share their experiences with binding; We Rate Dogs celebrates Pride Month

WOW. I guess people like our little guy Bodie! He’s napping rn, but says TY very much @dog_rates! He wants to be friends with all y’all and he loves you very much. He can’t get treatos through internets so if you wanna give treats to @HRC or @TrevorProject he says that’d be good. t.co/OY10F9vji9

— Alex Hayden DiLalla (@AlexDiLalla) June 18, 2019

Have news? Send us your news and tips at [email protected]. Click here to subscribe to #AM_Equality and follow @HRC for all the latest news. Thanks for reading!

www.hrc.org/blog/am-equality-tipsheet-june-19-2019?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss-feed