Lil Nas X Makes Gay History With CMA Nomination

The “Old Town Road” singer is the first out gay man to be recognized by the Country Music Awards.

www.advocate.com/music/2019/8/28/lil-nas-x-makes-gay-history-cma-nomination

An Emmy win for Jonathan Van Ness is a win for personal authenticity

Jonathan Van Ness is nominated as an executive producer in the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Short Form Variety Series category for the Funny or Die series Gay of Thrones, in which Van Ness and a celebrity guest star humorously recap the most recent episode of Game of Thrones. Guests on the final season of the series included Tiffany Haddish, Kumail Nanjiani, and Gabrielle Union. With lightning speed dialogue and clever pop culture references, the show itself is laugh-out-loud hilarious. But what’s more important about the series is that it showcases Van Ness as unapologetically himself: queer and femme.

Van Ness started his career as a hairstylist in Arizona before moving to Los Angeles to work in asalon. Gay of Thrones hit the Internet in 2013, and Van Ness started his own podcast, Getting Curious with Jonathan Van Ness,a few years later. However, it wasn’t until 2018 when he became part of the new Fab Five of Netflix’s Queer Eye reboot (which is nominated for six Emmys at this year’s awards show, including Outstanding Structured Reality Program) that Van Ness started to become a household name. On that show, he is responsible for transforming subjects’ hair, skin, and hygienic routines, and quickly became known for his sassy sensibility, quirky sense of style, and message of personal empowerment.

Van Ness has been open about the bullying he faced as a teen because of his sexual orientation and feminine gender expression, and how he found it difficult to find entertainment work in L.A. at first. Yet on Gay of Thrones, Van Ness is unmistakably femme in his speech, clothes, and mannerisms. This type of visibility for femininity is especially important for the gay community, as there still exists a strong current of femme-phobia (which is really disguised misogyny) and a privileging of masculinity above all else. As one of the executive producers and host of Gay of Thrones, Van Ness has taken control of his own narrative, and transformed what he used to be bullied for—his flamboyancy and femininity—into a successful and entertaining media product.

As one of the most popular shows of all time, Game of Thrones prompted prodigious amounts of online discussion after each episode. What made Van Ness’ take on the series unique was his ability to provide a queer perspective, as well as include a women-centered point of view from the many of the guest stars and production team on Gay of Thrones who are women. These underrepresented voices were given a chance to be heard on Van Ness’ show: to providean always comical, and sometimes critical, viewpoint on mainstream characters and storylines.

As a queer person, I find Van Ness’ brand of over-the-top extra to be particularly empowering. Whether it’s wearing nail polish to work or trying out a pair of high heels on the weekend, I’ve found myself more and more exploring my feminine side as a result of Van Ness’ example. He’s taught me that finding professional and personal fulfillment should not come at the price of sacrificing your own identity and self-expression, and that my happiness is, in fact, dependent on living authentically.

While he still uses he/him pronouns, Van Ness also recently came out as genderqueer and non-binary. In his interview with Out, he mentions that he felt restricted in his identity as a gay man, because “that’s just the label I thought I had to be.” A win for Van Ness would be a win for all queer, gender non-conforming, and femme-presenting people, who must deal with femme-phobia, misogyny, and binary imperialism from both the wider heteronormative society and from within the LGBTQ community itself. A win for Gay of Thrones would prove that being yourself is nothing to be ashamed of, and that no matter what you identify as, following your dreams and passions while being true to who you are is always the best success.

Donny MacDonell (@dmacdaddyy) is an Entertainment Research & Analysis Intern at GLAAD, and a master’s candidate in the Cinema and Media Studies program at UCLA. In addition to interning at GLAAD, Donny recently completed a programming internship at Outfest Los Angeles LGBTQ Film Festival.

www.queerty.com/emmy-win-jonathan-van-ness-win-personal-authenticity-20190828?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+queerty2+%28Queerty%29

EMMYS: Billy Porter talks history-making nomination, what it means to him, and how queer bankability in Hollywood is finally happening; PLUS – he’s letting us in on a BIG “Pose” Season 3 secret!

www.glaad.org/blog/emmys-billy-porter-talks-history-making-nomination-what-it-means-him-and-how-queer-bankability

POC workers at Old Navy claim they were “hidden from view” during recent “Queer Eye” taping

Employees at an Old Navy store in Philadelphia allege that nearly all people of color who work at the location were hidden from view during a recent taping of Queer Eye.

According to Philadelphia magazine, three employees from the Old Navy in Center City say they, along with almost all of their black and brown co-workers, were instructed to “keep out of sight” from the the “all-white crew” when the hit Netflix series came to film there last week.

Not only that, but they alleged 10 white employees from other Old Navy stores were bused in for background shots.

Monae Alvarado has worked at the store for over a year. She took to Facebook to air her grievances, writing:

So they were filming Queer eye (not queer as folk) at my job (Old Navy in Center City Philadelphia) and at my job is nothing but people of color. Most of us did an overnight to help make the store look beautiful. Today they brought all these workers from other store around the region (West Chester, Mount Pocono, and Deptford NJ) and they were all white. They had us standing in the back not to be seen while the other workers from another store get to work on our floor like it’s their store. The shade I tell you.

“I was told to go to the back of the store by [Old Navy managers] involved with the production,” Alvarado tells Philadelphia magazine.

She adds, “About six of my fellow co-workers were there, and we were shooed away from the camera as they filmed with these outside employees, who came from West Chester, Mount Pocono, and New Jersey.”

“It immediately seemed odd to me that they were being used to tape at our store location when we already have a diverse group of workers who had been preparing for Queer Eye to come for nearly a week.”

Related: Karamo Brown blocks LGBTQ followers, deletes Twitter account after complimenting Sean Spicer

Alvarado says that many of the employees worked overnight to prepare the store for shooting and that they were told they would get to appear in the episode.

“I was super-excited up until the day of and a random group of white folks came in to replace us at our own store.”

Another employee, speaking anonymously to the magazine, adds that they were instructed to go to areas of the store where “I usually don’t work around.”

“It became clear that we weren’t going to be filmed because we hadn’t been asked to sign consent forms, and they made it a point to keep us as far away from the cameras as possible.”

But the company denies everything. In a statement, a spokesperson for Old Navy says:

At Old Navy, we celebrate the diversity of our teams and our customers and foster an environment of inclusion and belonging. We were proud to work with The Queer Eye show to film at our store in Philadelphia and to feature our local store manager on camera. We also worked with additional employees in the area to help ensure the store ran seamlessly for customers, as the location was open for business during filming, and we expect they may appear in background shots. These individuals are reflective of our diverse employee population. We would never select employees to participate – or not – based on race. That is completely inaccurate and against the values we stand for as a company.

Meanwhile, Netflix and Queer Eye also deny allegations of on-set segregation.

“During the filming of Queer Eye season 5, the production team filmed in a Philadelphia-based Old Navy last Wednesday, August 21,” a spokesperson for Netflix says. “Production featured one employee from the retail store, an African American woman, in the segment.”

Queer Eye co-host Tan France admitted on Facebook that he didn’t know what happened behind-the-scenes, but added “I had one person join me on camera, from Old Navy. She was African American. This is the last I will say on this matter.”

But as a third employee from the store, also speaking under anonymity, notes, “That doesn’t explain the need to bring in additional white staffers to be in the background of our store.”

“Having one black person featured on the show when most of us already work there full time is a slap in the face. They would all be better off saying they didn’t want a bunch of black people on their show because they thought it would be ghetto. I’ve seen Queer Eye — they don’t have too many of us on there like that.”

Related: Queer Eye’s Tan France on the pressure of fame: “I represent Asians globally at this point”

www.queerty.com/poc-workers-old-navy-claim-hidden-view-recent-queer-eye-taping-20190828?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+queerty2+%28Queerty%29

Franklin Graham: Shame on Taylor Swift for Shoving the Equality Act Down Our Throats

Televangelist Franklin Graham blasted Taylor Swift for her advocacy for the Equality Act, legislation that would protect LGBTQ Americans under existing civil rights laws.

Said Graham on Facebook: “Shame on Taylor Swift for using her platform to try to push the socialist left’s so-called Equality Act, which has nothing to do with equality, but is about pushing the LGBTQ agenda down the throats of the American people. When she received an award for her LGBTQ pride-themed music video at the MTV awards last night, she did a pitch for the Equality Act. This bill is the most crushing threat to religious liberty in our nation’s history. I endorsed a letter appealing to Congressional leaders to vote NO to the Equality Act.”

“This is far too serious for Christians to sit by and do nothing,” Graham added. “I encourage everyone to contact their representatives in the Senate, asking them to vote AGAINST this dangerous measure which has already passed the House. In addition to allowing perverted men access to women’s private spaces like dressing rooms and restrooms, and allowing biological males to take over girls’ and women’s athletic competitions, this bill would do a lot more damage. It’s about trying to force those of us who don’t agree to accept and approve the LGBTQ lifestyle, and I’m not going to accept that. The Daily Signal spells out 7 concerning ways the Equality Act would affect our daily lives. Read more and let me know if you’re shocked.”

Swift noted upon accepting her award for “Video of the Year” that a petition at the end of her “You Need To Calm Down” video calling for passage of the Equality Act had reached half a million signatures “which is five times the amount that it would need to warrant a response from the White House.”

Said Swift: “You voting for this video means that you want a world where we’re all treated equally under the law regardless who we love, regardless how we identify.”

The White House responded on Tuesday to Swift’s request for a response.

Said (gay) White House Deputy Press Secretary Judd Deere to CNN: “The Trump administration absolutely opposes discrimination of any kind and supports the equal treatment of all; however, the House-passed bill in its current form is filled with poison pills that threaten to undermine parental and conscience rights.”

The post Franklin Graham: Shame on Taylor Swift for Shoving the Equality Act Down Our Throats appeared first on Towleroad Gay News.

Franklin Graham: Shame on Taylor Swift for Shoving the Equality Act Down Our Throats

#AM_Equality Tipsheet: August 28, 2019

VICTORY IN MISSOURI — FEDERAL JUDGE BLOCKS STATE’S 8-WEEK ABORTION BAN: More from CNN and USA Today.

• NCTE’s Gillian Branstetter on how Trump’s attacks on Planned Parenthood impact trans people: “The fights for reproductive justice and transgender equality are inextricably linked,” writes Branstetter (@GBBranstetter). “Each of our movements must combat coordinated and overlapping attacks on the rights of anyone who needs reproductive health care, transgender people included.” More from Out. 

Important victory in Missouri. Anti-abortion laws threaten the basic health & fundamental rights of countless people. We stand with @ACLU, @PPact & other organizations defending the reproductive rights of all Americans. t.co/lEDtIMrgjf

— Alphonso David (@AlphonsoDavid) August 27, 2019

TEXAS-BASED RAICES CONTINUES TO TIRELESSLY ADVOCATE FOR LGBTQ MIGRANTS: Cristian Sánchez (@Cristian_S_Tx) of the Refugee and Immigration Center for Education and Legal Services (RAICES) says they provide transportation and housing assistance to migrants once they’re at the Mexico-U.S. border. “We made the decision to help them the rest of the way because they were suffering some discrimination within the caravan and just felt their needs weren’t really being listened to in the group decisions,” said Sánchez. More from the Washington Blade.

Thank you to @RAICESTEXAS for working to protect our LGBTQ siblings at the border as the Trump-Pence administration turns away people fleeing persecution. @HRC is proud to have you as a partner. t.co/Bbsygesddo

— Human Rights Campaign (@HRC) August 28, 2019

WHAT WE’RE READING WEDNESDAY — PROPUBLICA INVESTIGATES THE DANGERS OF TSA BODY SCANNERS FOR TRANSGENDER TRAVELERS: Shortcomings of TSA’s technology and insufficient training of its staff will often lead to invasive searches for transgender and gender non-conforming travelers. Read more from Lucas Waldron (@lhwaldron) and Brenda Medina (@BrendaMedinar) in ProPublica.

DANCING FOR LGBTQ EQUALITY AND ACCEPTANCE: Lifetime’s Dance Moms sends a powerful message to LGBTQ community by spotlighting the music and storyline of the hit Broadway musical The Prom. More from HRC. 

TWENTY-FIVE NEW JERSEY HOSPITALS GET TOP RANKING FOR EQUITABLE AND INCLUSIVE TREATMENT OF LGBTQ PATIENTS: Twenty-five New Jersey health care facilities received the top score in HRC’s 12th annual Health Care Equality Index, which scores health care facilities across the nation on more than 50 policies and practices dedicated to the equitable treatment and inclusion of LGBTQ patients, visitors and employees. More from NJ101.5. 

NEGATIVE FALLOUT FOR LOG CABIN REPUBLICANS AS EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR QUIT IN PROTEST OVER TRUMP ENDORSEMENT: More from the Washington Blade. 

GLOBAL EQUALITY NEWS

LA CORTE IDH VE POR PRIMERA VEZ EL CASO DE VIOLENCIA CONTRA AZUL ROJAS MARÍN, UNA MUJER TRANSGÉNERO PERUANA: Azul Rojas Marín, una mujer transgénero de 37 años, quien fue verbal y físicamente abusada por tres miembros de la policía nacional en febrero 2008, tuvo finalmente la oportunidad de ser escuchada y buscar justicia. Lea más del autor Carlos J. Zelada en El Comercio. 

RUSSIAN BAKERY FINED FOR SIGN BANNING LGBTQ PATRONS: More from Moscow Times.

SAME-SEX COUPLE HELPED BY ENGLISH CRICKET PLAYER BEN STOKES: The two say that Stokes (@benstokes38) intervened in an anti-LGBTQ attack against the couple. More from Mirror.

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

Advocate spotlights Wazina Zondon (@wazinazondon) and what it means to be queer and Muslim in America; Out shares that Teddy Quinlivan (@teddy_quinlivan) will become Chanel’s first-ever openly trans model

Teddy Quinlivan just made history at @CHANEL. ✨ t.co/rDuyEiZEcA

— Out Magazine (@outmagazine) August 26, 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-august-28-2019?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss-feed

Jerry Falwell, Jr. Gave His ‘Personal Trainer’ Some Real Estate

Liberty University president signed off on selling 18 acres of school property to his 23-year-old fitness trainer.

www.advocate.com/news/2019/8/28/jerry-falwell-jr-gave-his-personal-trainer-some-real-estate

The Proud Boys spew hateful garbage at kids attending an all-ages drag show

The Proud Boys — the self-avowed anti-feminist, anti-Muslim group who beat each other up, never masturbate and attend white supremacist rallies — have taken to protesting Drag For All Ages, a monthly all-ages drag show and charity fundraiser held the first Sunday of every month at the Mile High Comics, in Colorado. Denver.

The store’s owner Chuck Rozanski holds the event as a way for kids to enjoy drag entertainers and perform if they want. The kids can keep their tips, and the show raises money for the White Rose Scholarship Foundation, a college fund for local students run by the Imperial Court of the Rocky Mountain Empire, one of Colorado’s oldest LGBTQ philanthropy organizations.

Related: Conservatives are sending death threats to this 11-year-old drag performer and his family

Recently, local Proud Boys and other so-called “alt-right” meatheads have started protesting the show as a form of “child abuse,” yelling homophobic abuse at children and parents attending the show — and Rozanski has had enough. He’s now recruiting members of a “Parasol Patrol” to hold large rainbow umbrellas in front of protestors so the kids won’t be exposed to their vitriol.

Rozanski tells Bleeding Cool News that the last Drag For All Ages show “had a very raucous mob of 18-20 homophobic protestors at our All-Ages Drag Show last evening, with several of them seemingly quite determined to provoke a confrontation.” The two-off duty police officers he hired for security “seemed inadequate, to say the least,” he says.

“What happened next was nothing short of a miracle,” Rozanski says. “Just as we were seemingly about to be overrun, 15 Denver police officers materialized out of nowhere. They set up a picket line between our families and those awful bigots, frustrating those nasty people beyond words.”

After getting dressed to perform for the latest show, Rozanski went down to listen to the protestors face-to-face:

“I then listened to an hour of some of the most irrational and ignorant BS that I have ever heard. Honestly, those people are dumber than rocks. They apparently watched some crazy YouTube video, and then just assumed that our show reflected the same extremes of behavior. Golly gee, wouldn’t it make a little more sense to actually research about how we run our shows before making up a ridiculous sign and then screaming at total strangers? Or could it (possibly) be that they drank some of that alt/right hatred Kool-Aide, and that facts now mean absolutely nothing to them? I think we all already know the answer to that question…”

Although his show had about over 400 attendees, Rozanski says, “Among the protestors this month were five or six helmeted individuals carrying shields who purported to be ‘Proud Boys.’ Their militaristic attire, and the masks and hoods of several other protestors, absolutely appeared to be threatening.”

Rozanski wishes the protestors would actually attend his show to see the joy it brings, but he doubts that’ll ever happen. So instead, he’s recruiting more people to join the “Parasol Patrol.”

While the Proud Boys say they’re not homophobic, stating that gay members are welcome to their ranks as long as they believe that “white men are not the problem” plaguing Western civilization, the group’s founder Gavin McInnes has a long history of anti-transgender and anti-Islamic rhetoric.

McInnes has previously referred to trans people as “gender n*ggers” and “mentally ill gays,” has supported Trump’s trans military ban, has called parental support of trans children “child abuse” and has called Muslims a bunch of interbreeding rapists.

In August, Twitter took down the Proud Boys Twitter account (@ProudBoysUSA), Gavin McInnes’ Twitter account (@Gavin_McInnes) and the accounts of regional Proud Boys chapters in violation of Twitter’s policy forbidding “violent extremist groups.”

“All I can say is that we will continue indefinitely to stage our fabulous drag shows, and to support the youth of our Community, regardless of their opposition,” Rozanski says. “Love is love.”

www.queerty.com/proud-boys-shout-homophobic-garbage-kids-attending-ages-drag-show-20190828?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+queerty2+%28Queerty%29

New Zealand Parliament Speaker Babysits Gay Lawmaker’s Baby in Viral Photos

New Zealand’s parliament welcomed a gay lawmaker’s baby after he returned from paternity leave to attend his first debate. Photos of father Tamati Coffey and Speaker Trevor Mallard holding the baby, Tutanekai Smith-Coffey, who was conceived via surrogate, went viral on social media after lawmakers began tweeting them.

Tweeted Speaker Trevor Mallard: “Normally the Speaker’s chair is only used by Presiding Officers but today a VIP took the chair with me. Congratulations @tamaticoffey and Tim on the newest member of your family.”

Said Coffey: “Babies have a way of calming down the intense environment of Parliament and I think we need more of them around to remind us of the real reason we are all here.”

The post New Zealand Parliament Speaker Babysits Gay Lawmaker’s Baby in Viral Photos appeared first on Towleroad Gay News.

New Zealand Parliament Speaker Babysits Gay Lawmaker’s Baby in Viral Photos