Jonathan Van Ness Celebrates Being Cosmo UK’s First Non-Female Cover Star in 35 Years
Queer Eye grooming guru Jonathan Van Ness made history as the first non-female cover star of Cosmo UK in 35 years, wearing a dress by designer Christian Siriano.
Writes TIME: “While the British boy band One Direction fronted Cosmopolitan UK in Dec. 2012, Van Ness is the first non-female-identifying figure to land the cover on their own since Boy George in 1984.”
Said the magazine’s editor in chief Claire Hodgson: “Cosmopolitan has always tried new things and we are all for challenging the status quo. We want to represent our diverse and beautiful readership, spark conversation and shake things up.”
U.S. COMMISSION ON CIVIL RIGHTS ASSERTS TRUMP-PENCE ADMIN IS “UNDOING DECADES OF CIVIL AND HUMAN RIGHTS PROGRESS”: The report cites multiple examples of Trump-Pence’s unrelenting attacks on the LGBTQ community. Said Commission Chair Catherine E. Lhamon (@CatherineLhamon), “the Trump administration has been as vocal as it is possible to be about its dismissal of LGBTQ rights as worth protecting. It will take us a very long time to dig out from under the damage this administration has caused to civil rights in this country.” Read the full report here, and more from NBC Out.
TUESDAY TWEET — YESTERDAY, THE NATIONAL CATHEDRAL UNVEILED A PLAQUE IN HONOR OF MATTHEW SHEPARD: Read more here, and from The Daily Beast & WUSA9.
Sunday would have been Matthew Shepard’s 43rd birthday.
On Monday, the Washington National Cathedral dedicated a plaque in his memory.
“Matt being there gives notice…that there is one place they can go to to be safe, welcomed and accepted.” t.co/2dz5m7W8ue
HRC EXPANDS PRESENCE IN CALIFORNIA TO WORK CLOSELY WITH FRIENDS AND PARTNERS TO ELECT PRO-EQUALITY CANDIDATES AND ADVANCE EQUALITY: Read more here.
I was so proud to be in LA with @HRC supporters and partners to celebrate our expanded presence and deepened work in this critically important center of entertainment, culture and technology. pic.twitter.com/nOglnRiDGj
CHECK OUT QUÉPASA’S PIECE ON HRC’S LGBTQ INCLUSION WORK IN CHILE: Beck Bailey, director del Programa de Igualdad en el Centro de Trabajo de HRC, estableció un acuerdo con Fundación Iguales para levantar el ranking Equidad CL, programa que certifica a las empresas 100% diversas e inclusivas. “Fue inspirador ver que en este primer año, hay participantes que están comprometidos en evaluar sus prácticas y políticas respecto a la inclusión LGBT,” dijo Bailey (@TheBeckBailey). Este 9 de diciembre se lanzará una nueva versión de Equidad CL, donde podrán participar, hasta el 31 de enero de 2020, todas las empresas que operen en Chile y así rankear los mejores lugares de trabajo para la comunidad LGBTQ. Más de QuéPasa.
UTAH TEACHER BERATES CHILD WHO SHARED WITH CLASS THAT THIS THANKSGIVING, HE IS THANKFUL HE’LL BE ADOPTED BY HIS TWO FOSTER DADS: The substitute teacher was removed from the school after three of the child’s fifth-grade classmates asked her to stop, and walked out to get the principal. “This situation really hurt him. This person really hurt us,” said one of the dads, Louis van Amstel (@LouisVanAmstel), who was on multiple seasons of “Dancing With the Stars.” More from USA Today and The Salt Lake Tribune.
BOSTON ACTIVISTS URGE THE CITY TO NAME A NEW GREEN SPACE AFTER RITA HESTER: Hester, a transgender woman, was killed in Boston more than 20 years ago. Hester’s death spurred activist Gwendolyn Ann Smith (@gwenners) to start the annual Transgender Day of Remembrance on November 20. Read more from WGBH.
FIRST UNITED METHODIST CHURCH IN GRAND RAPIDS, MICH., WELCOMES A COUNTY JUDGE WHO WAS DENIED COMMUNION AT HER CHURCH BECAUSE SHE’S MARRIED TO A WOMAN: More from WOOD TV.
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ACTRESS ANNETTE BENING ABOUT HER TRANSGENDER SON STEPHEN IRA: “He’s an articulate, thoughtful person, and I’m very, very proud of him,” Benning said. Read the full interview at AARP.
HRC ATTENDS PREMIERE OF THE L WORD: GENERATION Q: More here.
Great to be in LA for the premiere of @SHO_TheLWord. This groundbreaking show returns on Dec. 8 with the powerful stories of a new, diverse group of LGBTQ characters. Be sure to tune in. pic.twitter.com/F3BxaBL70L
TRANS PEOPLE AND ALLIES IN INDIA PROTEST A BILL, NOW PASSED BY PARLIAMENT: Intended to help protect the trans community, it fails to meet demands for “comprehensive anti-atrocities and anti-discrimination legislation.” Said Grace Banu (@thirunangai), founder of the Trans Rights Now collective, “it is not just problematic but regressive.” More from The Washington Post.
More than one thousand people joined a Pride parade last week in New Delhi. More from The New York Times.
EVEN AS ACCEPTANCE OF MARRIAGE EQUALITY INCREASES IN JAPAN, LGBTQ PEOPLE STILL FACE CHALLENGES FROM A CONSERVATIVE CULTURE: Read more from Ben Dooley (@BenjaminDooley) at The New York Times.
Yesterday, Yokohama became the third city in Japan to recognize LGBTQ and common-law couples. More from The Japan Times.
AS ANTI-LGBTQ HATE CRIMES RISE IN BRAZIL, A WOMAN HAS BEEN SENTENCED TO 25 YEARS FOR KILLING HER GAY SON: Read more from Out Magazine [warning — disturbing descriptions at link].
READING RAINBOW – Bookmark now to read on your lunch break!
Outsports reports on Dwyane Wade’s (@DwyaneWade) eloquent support of his family — and son — after a Thanksgiving photo went viral; McKnight’s Senior Living contributor Mary Beth Mohn (@mbsweetzer) writes on the importance of inclusive care for LGBTQ elders
The German Capital in the first nine months of 2019 saw more attacks targeting gays, lesbians and transgender individuals than occurred in all of 2018.
Zambia angered by US ambassador’s ‘horror’ at its treatment of gaymen
Daniel Foote, US Ambassador to Zambia (Photo: US Department of State)
The government of Zambia has said it intends to write a letter to Washington to complain about the US ambassador meddling in their country’s internal affairs.
The diplomatic spat has come over the country’s treatment of its gay citizens. Last week, the High Court in Zambia sentenced two men to 15 years imprisonment for having gaysex.
Yes, you read that correctly: 15 years.
Zambia offers no legal protections to LGBTQ citizens. It retains Colonial-era laws outlawing gaysex.
The men were arrested in 2017. They’d been caught in a room at a lodge they’d booked in Kapiri Mposhi, central Zambia. A female worker at the lodge said she’d seen what the men were doing through an open window. She then called over colleagues to also witness what was going on in the room.
A magistrate’s court found the men guilty of sex “against the order of nature” last year. The men appealed to the High Court.
However, in its ruling last week, that court backed up the magistrate’s court’s verdict, with the judge, Charles Zulu, saying, “The trial court cannot be faulted and there is no basis to review or substitute the conviction and I further find that there were no irregularities by the trial court.”
The sentencing of the men has been met with international condemnation. Among those to criticize the sentence was US ambassador, Daniel Foote. When asked at a press conference last week what he thought of the case, he said he was “horrified.” He implored the country to review the sentencing.
Zambia receives hundreds of millions of dollars in financial aid from the US: No less than $4billion over the last 15 years, much of which goes to helping fight HIV/AIDS.
Asked by reporters if there was a chance the US might cut some of this aid, Foote diplomatically replied: “I want to give the government of Zambia the opportunity to renew and rejuvenate its partnership with the U.S.”
He also took a swipe at the Zambian government, saying the men’s relationship hurt nobody, while at the same time, “government officials can steal millions of public dollars without prosecution.”
In a blistering statement issued yesterday, Foote also said he’d been subjected to hateful comments online since condemning the sentencing last week.
“I was shocked at the venom and hate directed at me and my country, largely in the name of ‘Christian’ values, by a small minority of Zambians. I thought, perhaps incorrectly, that Christianity meant trying to live like our Lord, Jesus Christ.
“I am not qualified to sermonize, but I cannot imagine Jesus would have used bestiality comparisons or referred to his fellow human beings as ‘dogs,’ or ‘worse than animals;’ allusions made repeatedly by your countrymen and women about homosexuals.
“Targeting and marginalizing minorities, especially homosexuals, has been a warning signal of future atrocities by governments in many countries. In my heart, I know that real Zambian values don’t merit your country’s inclusion on that list, ever.”
Now, Zambian government officials have hit back. Associated Press reports Zambia’s foreign affairs minister, Joseph Malanji, as saying his government intends to send a protest letter to Washington over the remarks over the ambassador meddling in Zambia’s internal affairs.
In an interview with Sky News yesterday, Zambian President Edgar Lungu also defended the court’s decision, saying Zambian culture prohibited homosexuality. Lungu, a former lawyer, has often spoken out against gay rights in the past.
“If you want to be tying your aid to homosexuality… If that is how you will bring your aid then I am afraid the West can leave us alone in our poverty,” Lungu said.
Category Is GivingTuesday Realness: ‘Pose’ Star Billy Porter Talks Fashion, Politics and Giving Back
Photo: Poppy Gordon
Actor, activist and icon Billy Porter knows how to rock a red carpet, but for him giving back is always in vogue.
This GivingTuesday, Porter is teaming up with PayPal to spread the word about all the ways it’s possible to give back. Donating money certainly is the quickest way to make an impact for those who have the means, but there are lots of ways to give your time and talents to support the causes that mean the most to you.
We chatted with Porter about his favorite ways to give back and how he’s using fashion to change this “toxic gender world.”
Photo: Michael Simon/startraksphoto.com
What drew you to this campaign?
The spirit of giving has always been a part of my life growing up in the church environment, it’s one of the first things they teach you. So, when PayPal called me about this, it was a no-brainer. I really, really try to live my life in a space of paying it forward as much as I can possibly can.
What are some of your favorite ways to give back?
I’m an artist, so I always try to use my art in some way to give back. When I first moved to NYC, back in the early ’90s, I worked with the Actors Fund and Broadway Cares Equity Fights AIDS very often. I would show up and sing at benefits, or do my own personal concerts where all the proceeds would go to the those organizations, so I’ve always done it through my creativity, because I haven’t always had the finances to give in that way … Money is always a way to give, and PayPal is going to be matching by 10 percent, but I think it’s more important for everyone to know that giving is a hard thing. Giving of your time, whether it’s volunteering at food bank or mentoring someone who needs that kind of assistance, supporting small businesses, for instance, donating. Donate some of those clothes you got in your closet that you can’t wear no more, it don’t fit no more, you’ve been holding on to it for two decades — you ain’t that size no more! Donate those clothes somewhere. It’s getting creative with how we give, but every, every bit of it counts and matters.
Giving back and and paying it forward happens ALWAYS. It’s a way of life, it’s the oxygen that we breathe. It’s the only way the world is going to become a better place.
What are causes you’re excited about right now?
I always speak of the Actors Fund because the Actors Fund of America has been around for 137 years. They’ve been dedicated and committed to making sure that artists — people in the arts, very often we’re freelance — are taken care of when the insecurity of freelance-ness rears its ugly head. I have been a beneficiary of them when I was in my downtime period, they helped me through a really, really rough period, helping me with rent and utility bills and medical bills … They’ve been really present for me. They’ve been available for me in ways that are unimaginable. So, I’m always finding ways to give back.
What are the urgent needs for the LGBTQ community during this giving season?
The rights of LGBTQ people in general are under attack, like many other people’s rights are under attack. I have specifically been enlightened by being a part of Pose and now being a part of the transgender community and what that means and what that feels like. It’s really, really time for our focus to shift into how to protect that part of our society, our human society.
Why is Giving Tuesday particularly relevant now in 2019?
Giving is always relevant, let me just say that. Giving is ALWAYS relevant. This is no different than any other time, other than the fact we feel like some of us are under an oppressive regime. That means we keep giving, and we keep giving. Frederick Douglass said, ‘Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty,’ right? So, we just keep doing it. For me, it’s an extension of what I’ve always done. What I hope is that this moment is a springboard to remind people that giving is ALWAYS. Giving back and and paying it forward happens ALWAYS. It’s a way of life, it’s the oxygen that we breathe. It’s the only way the world is going to become a better place.
You’re no stranger to making a statement on and off the red carpet. What is your philosophy on fashion as a political act?
I’m from a generation of artists where the politics of it come first. The politics of it is rooted and grounded in the work, in general … So, we’re in this toxic gender world, where masculine and feminine are on opposite ends of the spectrum, and the twain shall never meet. That’s the conversation I knew we needed to have, but I didn’t know how intense it would be. It’s intense. It’s crazy. I feel humbled to be a part of that conversation, and I think it’s changing stuff. I know that it’s changing things. Fashion is art, and art is always political.
