Bollywood’s First Gay Rom-Com Fights India’s Homophobia

Shubh Mangal Zyada Saavdhan (Be Extra Careful About Marriage), coming out Friday, is challenging stigma with comedy.

www.advocate.com/film/2020/2/19/bollywoods-first-gay-rom-com-fights-indias-homophobia

A gay teacher complained about student’s insults; then the kid’s parent tried to stab him

A gay schoolteacher in Robertson, South Africa, a city near Cape Town, has gone public over a vicious attack wherein the parent of a student stabbed him.

Thando Dyamara works as a teacher at Masakheke Combined School, a high school-level institution. The trouble began when Dyamara encountered a student off-site from school grounds.

“I heard a child calling me a moffie [an African slur for a gay man], and I went to reprimand him,” Dyamara told IOL. He and a friend later stopped by the student’s house, “and was met by his mother who was rude and shouted at me. She said her husband would deal with me.”

At that point, things turned violent.

Related: PHOTOS: The cads in Cape Town have no problem showing off their assets

“I called the police to report a case of discrimination. Her husband appeared out of nowhere and smacked me with an open palm. The husband took out a knife and wanted to stab me. If my friend was not there it would have been a different story.”

Adding insult to injury, the parent in question served on the student governing body of Masakheke School; the South African equivalent of the school board. When Dyamara reported the incident, the school refused to take action, as the incident did not occur on school grounds. The parent has since resigned from the governing body.

Police are investigating the attack as a “common” incident, and have yet to make any arrests. For Dyamara, the response hasn’t been supportive enough. “Members of the LGBTI+ community are not given the respect they need and deserve,” he says. “The community, even though it is diverse, needs to respect gay people.”

www.queerty.com/gay-teacher-complained-students-insults-kids-parent-tried-stab-20200219?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+queerty2+%28Queerty%29

Andrew Yang, Election Interference, Meghan McCain, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Harry Styles, Ty Mitchell, Richard Madden: HOT LINKS

WARNING. Trump campaign manager hires former Cambridge Analytica staffer: “Matt Oczkowski, who served as head of product at Cambridge before it went bankrupt and shut down in 2018, is helping oversee the Trump campaign’s data program, according to two people familiar with the hire. Cambridge gained notoriety for its work on psychological voter profiling and because it allegedly improperly obtained the personal information of tens of millions of Facebook users.”

MEGHAN MCCAIN TO CO-HOSTS. “You know, you guys have done a piss-poor job of convincing me that I should vote for a Democrat.“

HELD UP. Harry Styles robbed at knifepoint.

NOTORIOUS. Ruth Bader Ginsburg dons sparkly silver heels for award ceremony.

ROD BLAGOJEVICH. Thank you to Trump for pardoning me.

FEDS. Bill Barr, Christopher Wray, Chad Wolf, Joseph Maguire and Christopher Krebs write op-ed warning public to be vigilant of election interference: “States have plans in place, like provisional ballots, to enable a reliable election to proceed in the case that interference does occur. While the states have primary responsibility for administering elections under our Constitution, our agencies continue to provide them with support by identifying best practices for voting systems, sharing threat information and offering services and resources.”

OH NO. Hillary responds to report that Mike Bloomberg is considering her for running mate. “I’m just waiting and watching as this plays out. I will support whoever the nominee is.” 

NEW CONTRIBUTOR. Andrew Yang joins CNN.

ACLU. There is a coordinated attack against trans youth in state legislatures: “Right now, bills are pending in 10 states that would criminalize life-saving, best practice medical care for trans youth, putting government in the way of decisions that should be left up to the young person, their parents, and their medical providers. Proponents of these bills repeat similar lies about medical care, but these bills are opposed by all major medical associations that just want to be sure all kids can get the health care they need.”

LONDON. Gay bookstore burglars caught in store kitchen after they get drunk on tequila and prosecco. “They had been there for some time,” said bookseller Uli Lenart. “I think they were looking for cash, but when they didn’t find any, they started bringing up computer equipment from the basement. As I went through the shop afterwards, I found an empty bottle of tequila, and an open bottle of prosecco on the kitchen table downstairs. They seemed to have been boozing up mid-burglary, which probably wasn’t the most prudent thing to do.”

AIRPLANE SEAT PUNCHER. Ellen takes a side.

TY MITCHELL. Adult film performer explores debate over performer pay.

007. Billie Eilish sings her Bond theme “No Time To Die” for the first time live.

NEW TUNE OF THE DAY. The Weeknd “After Hours”.

CARPOOL KARAOKE OF THE DAY. Justin Bieber.

CANE DANCE OF THE DAY. Madonna celebrates 50th #1 song on dance charts.

View this post on Instagram

Madame . Celebrating having her 50th #1 song on the dance Charts with a Cane dance! #idontsearchifind #london #chilternfirehouse @honeydijon

A post shared by Madonna (@madonna) on Feb 19, 2020 at 8:29am PST

HUMP DAY HAIRY. Richard Madden.

View this post on Instagram

Tuesday’s mountain

A post shared by Richard Madden (@maddenrichard) on Feb 18, 2020 at 2:00pm PST

The post Andrew Yang, Election Interference, Meghan McCain, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Harry Styles, Ty Mitchell, Richard Madden: HOT LINKS appeared first on Towleroad Gay News.

Andrew Yang, Election Interference, Meghan McCain, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Harry Styles, Ty Mitchell, Richard Madden: HOT LINKS

EXCLUSIVE FIRST LOOK: Bravo’s Blind Date’s first transgender dater in series history

www.glaad.org/blog/exclusive-first-look-bravo-blind-date-first-transgender-dater

Buttigieg Slams Trump: ‘I’ve Never Sent Hush Money to a Porn Star’

Buttigieg says he’s ready to debate Trump any day on “family values.” 

www.advocate.com/politics/2020/2/19/buttigieg-slams-trump-ive-never-sent-hush-money-porn-star

University doctor accused of performing unnecessary rectal exams on male athletes for decades

The University of Michigan says it’s investigating multiple “disturbing and very serious” allegations of sexual abuse against a former member of its campus medical team.

Robert E. Anderson was the director of the University Health Service and spent several years as a top physician for school’s football team from 1968 until 2003 when he retired. He passed away in 2008.

In July 2018, the university quietly launched an investigation into Anderson after a former student athlete wrote to the university’s Athletic Director Warde Manuel about alleged abuse he suffered during a medical exam performed by Anderson in the early 1970s.

Robert Julian Stone claimed Anderson, a married father of three at the time, abused during a checkup on June 30, 1971. While explaining how to check for STDs, the doctor allegedly dropped his pants then reached for Stone’s hand and placed it on his penis.

Another time, Stone says Anderson performed a medically unnecessary rectal examination on him, for which he still has the official medical file written in Anderson’s handwriting.

Speaking to the Detroit News, Stone says: “When I first wrote to the university, I thought, ‘Well, Dr. Anderson was a closeted gay man,’ and I had some compassion for a man at that time in that position. Now I realize he wasn’t a closeted gay man. He was a sexual predator and that’s … a criminal thing.”

After Stone spoke out in 2018, more former student athletes came forward to say they, too, had suffered sexual abuse at the wandering hands of Anderson. The victims all described sexual misconduct and medically unnecessary exams, including rectal exams, beginning in the early 1970s and lasting all the way up through the late 1990s.

The university is now calling on any addition victims to please come forward, and has even opened a hotline for people to call.

“The allegations that were reported are disturbing and very serious,” says U-M President Mark Schlissel. “We promptly began a police investigation and cooperated fully with the prosecutor’s office.”

“As part of our commitment to understanding what happened and inform any changes we might need to make, we now are taking the next step to reach out to determine who else might be affected or have additional information to share. Every person in our community should expect to feel safe and supported.”

Stone says going public with his story wasn’t easy, but he hopes it helps encourage others to do the same.

“I don’t think any man would really want to be the face of male sexual assault survivors in the 21st century,” he says. “But if men don’t start coming forward, these things are just going to go on.”

Related: 21 men are now accusing college doctor of performing medically unnecessary rectal examinations

www.queerty.com/university-doctor-accused-performing-unnecessary-rectal-exams-male-athletes-decades-20200219?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+queerty2+%28Queerty%29

Canadian Olympic Swimmer Markus Thormeyer: ‘I Thought it Would Be Easy for Me to Keep My Sexuality a Secret’

Canadian Olympic swimmer Markus Thormeyer, who competed in 2016 in Rio, talks about coming out as gay to his teammates in an emotional essay in Outsports.

Said Thormeyer: “I thought it would be easy for me to keep my sexuality a secret with my new training group, at least until the Olympic qualifications in April 2016. I was wrong. I found out pretty fast how hard it was going to be for me to keep not to come out to my teammates. The following months in the closet were difficult and keeping my sexuality a secret got progressively harder every day.”

“Hiding my sexuality became a huge distraction to my training and was starting to affect the relationships with my teammates too,” Thormeyer added. “Some days I dreaded going to the pool in fear that my sexuality would be exposed. I’d show up late and leave early to social gatherings and workouts. Some days it would even spiral and I would question why I was swimming and be scared of my own goals.”

Eventually Thormeyer decided to tell his teammates he was nervous about going on a date with a guy, and he was rewarded with “the best feeling in the world.”

Check out his full essay at Outsports.

The post Canadian Olympic Swimmer Markus Thormeyer: ‘I Thought it Would Be Easy for Me to Keep My Sexuality a Secret’ appeared first on Towleroad Gay News.

Canadian Olympic Swimmer Markus Thormeyer: ‘I Thought it Would Be Easy for Me to Keep My Sexuality a Secret’