How Astronomer Frank Kameny Fought Antigay Bias in ‘Lavender Scare’
PBS’s The Lavender Scare shines a light on the federal government’s oppression of LGBTQ people in the workplace throughout history.
www.advocate.com/film/2019/6/20/how-astronomer-frank-kameny-fought-antigay-bias-lavender-scare
JBER recognizes pride month
Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson posted a photo:
Service and community members attend a Pride Month dinner at the USO Alaska Center at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska, June 18, 2019. June is recognized as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender History Month, an annual observance of LGBT history and the history of gay rights, along with related civil-rights movements. (U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Jonathan Valdes Montijo)
Alabama Homophobe Roy Moore Running for U.S. Senate Again
Despite his 2017 loss, the virulently anti-LGBTQ Moore won’t go away.
www.advocate.com/politics/2019/6/20/alabama-homophobe-roy-moore-running-us-senate-again
PHOTOS: Highlights from the Queerty Pride50 extravaganza
World Pride in New York City is still officially a week away, but the rainbow momentum is palpable.
Queerty kicked things off on Wednesday with a dazzling evening at Town Stages in SoHo to celebrate this year’s Pride50 honorees and to recognize 50 years of remarkable advancements in LGBTQ culture since Stonewall.
The looks were on point, naturally, but the real spirit of the room was focused on 50 trailblazing individuals who actively ensure society remains moving towards equality, acceptance and dignity for all queer people.
With an appearance from this year’s Catalyst Award recipient John Cameron Mitchell, an arresting performance by Pride50 honoree Jeremiah Lloyd Harmon, and many celebrated activists and entertainers in attendance, the night was one to remember and hold on to.
Queerty managing editor Dan Tracer played host in collaborative couture designed by Project Runway season 16 winner Kentaro Kameyama and Simay Bleur that was certainly somewhere over the rainbow; we’re still not exactly sure where.
The event partnered with SAGE, a vital organization providing assisted living for LGBTQ seniors. Several SAGE participants were in attendance to enjoy the festivities, and all were grateful for their presence. And you’d better believe they worked that red carpet.
Special thanks to Pride50 sponsors Target, Amtrak, Visit Seattle, Svedka, and Nulo.
Here are some highlights from the engagement (for even more photos, head here):
Photos by: Justin Barbin.
The Trump-Pence Administration’s Ongoing Attack on Children and Parents in the Child Welfare System
The Trump-Pence administration has time and time again attempted to undermine the rights and welfare of LGBTQ people.
In April, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) published a proposed rule change that would abandon data collection on the sexual orientation of youth in foster care and foster and adoptive parents and guardians in the Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System (AFCARS).
This is an ongoing assault by the administration on the LGBTQ community that threatens to harm some of the most vulnerable youth in the foster care system.
LGBTQ youth are overrepresented in foster care. Studies estimate 10% to 20% of youth in out-of-home care identify as LGBTQ, and many face harassment, discrimination and lack of affirming services within the foster care system. Further, fear of discrimination keeps many prospective LGBTQ parents from engaging with foster care and adoption agencies.
In a recent study, 70% of LGBTQ people surveyed said they were concerned or unsure about their ability to find an agency that would welcome them as an LGBTQ applicant, with 78% fearing being turned away because of their LGBTQ identity. And 56% were worried that agency staff wouldn’t be LGBTQ competent. With over 130,000 children awaiting a permanent family, any barriers to expanding the pool of qualified, loving families is not in the best interest of children.
LGBTQ youth are tragically overrepresented in foster care, and this attempt to erase them and important data on adoptive and foster parents undermines the charge of child welfare professionals — safety, permanency and well-being for all children.
The Children’s Bureau at the Department of Health and Human Services’ Administration for Children and Families published the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) on April 19, in the Federal Register. The public had 60 days to comment on the proposal.
The data from the AFCARS provides states, the Children’s Bureau, and foster care and adoption providers with valuable information to ensure safety and security to children in need of homes and families who will care for them.
HRC recently submitted a comment against the proposed rule.
Worst First Date Venues – 4 Places You Should Rethink For A First Date (& Some Great Alternatives)
Dating is complicated enough as it is. It takes social savvy, charm, compatibility, and good timing for both partners to have a great time on a date. So what you shouldn’t do is make it hard on yourself and choose a venue where the ability to freely communicate one on one is compromised. Bonus Tip: […]
The post Worst First Date Venues – 4 Places You Should Rethink For A First Date (& Some Great Alternatives) appeared first on PlentyOfFish Blog.
Worst First Date Venues – 4 Places You Should Rethink For A First Date (& Some Great Alternatives)
Mom to a Disabled Son Navigates Love in Nicole Conn’s New Movie
Elena Undone and Claire of the Moon director Nicole Conn is back with her most personal lesbian-themed feature film yet.
www.advocate.com/film/2019/6/20/mom-disabled-son-navigates-love-nicole-conns-new-movie
On Stonewall Inn’s hallowed ground, you can still drink, dance & flirt
This is the first in a series of “Then & Now” articles looking at historic places that have made New York the cradle of LGBTQ life from Stonewall to today at Pride 50.
Stonewall THEN
In the late 1960s, The Stonewall Inn wasn’t the history-altering turn-up it is today.
It was a Mafia-owned private club that catered to Greenwich Village’s emerging community. Like all gay bars at the time, the place was subject to frequent police raids—just another fact of life at a time when homosexuality was outlawed and pretty much everyone was on what now call the DL. During one such raid on the night of June 28, 1969, a riot broke out after bar patrons began resisting arrest.
Urban legend has it that the queens at the bar that night were so distraught by the recent death of gay icon Judy Garland that they were in a particularly defiant mood. “Not today, Satan,” doesn’t even begin to describe their response to the boys in blue. As patrons were loaded into the paddy wagon, the crowd on the street turned on the police, forcing officers to barricade themselves inside the bar itself.
A year later, the heartiest among them marched from the Village to Central Park to commemorate the event, in what is recognized as the first gay pride march and a precursor to the riotous parades we see all over the country today. The Stonewall riots, as they are now known, are considered the spark that ignited the modern equality movement.
The bar’s history has been immortalized in more than one eponymous film. Skip Roland Emmerich’s whitewashed 2015 retelling and try to dig up a bootleg copy of English director Nigel Finch’s 1995 flick. Like Emmerich’s Stonewall, Finch’s is heavily fictionalized, but it honors the role that trans women of color like Sylvia Rivera and Marsha P. Johnson played in the uprising.
Stonewall NOW
Today, Stonewall Inn occupies half the space of the original—but it’s exponentially louder, prouder, and more historically significant. The space reopened in the 1990s and underwent several renovations and revamps before being declared a national monument by President Obama in 2016. The Stonewall National Monument includes not only the bar, but Christopher Street Park across the street, featuring haunting statues by sculptor George Segal commemorating the long struggle for equality.
It is the first LGBTQ site in the country to have been listed on the State and National Registers of Historic Places and to be named a U.S. National Park monument – and it’s probably a good guess that it’s the only one that features our own kind of natural beauty: drag shows, go-go dancers, and DJs.
As such, it has become something akin to hallowed ground for America’s gay community. In recent years, it has been the site of protests against the Trump administration, memorials for the victims of the 2016 Pulse Nightclub massacre, and celebrations marking the passage of marriage equality both in New York state and the nation as a whole.
But don’t let its revered status fool you. Stonewall is still a place to grab a drink – or several – shoot some pool, flirt with an increasingly diverse group of cute queers, and work up a sweat on the dance floor.
If you’re lucky, you may even run into a celeb or two. Cate Blanchette, Taylor Swift, Joe Biden, and Madonna are just four divas to have graced the bar’s cabaret stage for surprise appearances over the years.
Beluga Whales, Jerry Falwell Jr’s Pool Boy, Mayonnaise, Judge Judy, Meghan McCain, Big Gay Ice Cream, Flag Emojis: HOT LINKS
LITTLE GREY AND LITTLE WHITE. Two beluga whales held in captivity in China transported to Iceland sanctuary: “Little Grey and Little White, two 12-year-old female belugas, left behind their previous lives entertaining visitors at the Changfeng Ocean World and were flown across the globe in specially tailored containers. The whales, which each weigh about 900kg and are four metres long, will continue their epic journey by truck and ferry to the sanctuary at Klettsvik Bay at Heimaey, one of the Westman Islands off the south coast of Iceland.”
BRAIN CHANGES. Scientists detect earliest signs of Parkinson’s: ‘The changes were seen about 15 to 20 years before these individuals would typically start to show physical symptoms. In addition, these genetically predisposed participants showed no sign of deterioration in their dopamine system. “That by itself is a major breakthrough on how you see Parkinson’s disease,” said Politis.’
JERRY FALWELL JR. The Miami Herald dives deeper into the pool boy saga.
WEIRD CRAZE OF THE DAY. Eating tubs of mayonnaise at sporting events.
MAYOR PETE. Some gay top Hollywood donors are waiting and seeing: ‘As historic as Buttigieg’s candidacy might be, a number of Hollywood’s most prolific LGBTQ donors aren’t ready to commit to him exclusively just yet. Many of Hollywood’s influential base of bundlers and donors are backing multiple candidates, spreading their money around,contributing to other politicians with whom they have longtime relationships and who have their own long track record on LGBTQ issues, like Kamala Harris and Joe Biden.’
PROFILE OF THE DAY. Judge Judy: “I don’t hate getting older,” she told me, as the elevator doors closed. “I just hate looking it.”
GLITTER AND BE GAY. School in uproar after administration removes Lady Gaga quote about being gay from outdoor sign. “It makes us all look bad as a whole, honestly, because not everyone has the same belief that we should hide these things. It’s hard to say you’re so diverse and that you’re welcoming everyone when something as small as a sign is enough to cause such backlash.”
THE B WORD. Meghan McCain called Joy Behar a “bitch” on air. “Oh don’t feel bad for me bitch, I’m paid to do this, OK.”
SAMANTHA BEE. The Full Frontal star tells longshot Dem candidates to run for the Senate. “Winning the presidency would be great, but real change is impossible unless the Senate changes hands too. Bullock is just one of many Democrats wasting his time in a presidential race who could be way more useful running for something else.”
WAITRESS. Todrick Hall is joining the cast of the Broadway show.
GQ. Why do gay men walk so fast?
BIG GAY ICE CREAM. How it has grown in 10 years. ‘Quint says Big Gay Ice Cream is not an LGBTQ brand so much as a brand that celebrates the humor, camp, and kitsch embraced by gay culture. The word “gay,” he points out, refers to orientation but also to joy. Most people would describe the bold-colored stripes swirling up the company’s cone logo as a rainbow. But technically speaking it’s not because the colors are–intentionally–in the wrong order.’
YOU NEED TO CALM DOWN. Did Taylor Swift rip off Beyoncé?
FLAGGOTS. Where are all the flag emojis?
THIRSTY THURSDAY. Jaycee Domincel
View this post on InstagramLet the Good vibe Sunday well spent to bring us a week of content.
A post shared by Jaycee Domincel (@jaycee_domincel) on
The post Beluga Whales, Jerry Falwell Jr’s Pool Boy, Mayonnaise, Judge Judy, Meghan McCain, Big Gay Ice Cream, Flag Emojis: HOT LINKS appeared first on Towleroad Gay News.
You must be 18 years old or older to chat
