Toledo Passes Extension of Hate Crime Laws
This week, the Toledo City Council voted to expand the city’s current hate-crime law to include protections against violence motivated by actual or perceived sexual orientation, gender identity or disabilities.
HRC.org
www.hrc.org/blog/entry/toledo-passes-extension-of-hate-crime-laws?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss-feed
You’ll Never Guess Where It’s Still Legal For Kids To Be Forced Into Ex-Gay Therapy
The American Psychiatric Association removed homosexuality from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) in 1973.
Numerous national health organizations in the United States have stated that there are zero scientific demonstrations of conversion therapy’s efficiency in the last forty years, and many institutions — among them the American Medical Association, American Psychiatric Association, and the American Psychological Association — publicly discredit the practice.
And somehow, Washington, D.C. is set to become the third place in the country to ban conversion therapy as a treatment for minors.
Which is baffling if you think about it. We have a discredited practice that’s been proven to do far more damage than good being used to “treat” something that is widely understood to not be a disorder in the first place.
We’ve experienced a tidal wave of marriage rights that have granted same-sex unions in 35 states, but if you’re a gay 15-year-old and you don’t live in California or New Jersey (and soon to be D.C.), your parents can still force you to undergo ex-gay therapy.
It’s time to do away with the ugly blemish of conversion therapy.
You need look no further than ex-gays’ reaction to the news in D.C. to see how damaging their attitude is. The so-called “Voice of the Voiceless,” an ex-gay group, released a press release, the headline of which reads, D.C. Council Passes Reparative Therapy Ban for Minors, Gay Pedophiles Applaud.
While there’s no actual example they use of a “gay pedophile applauding,” here’s the warped logic they follow, taken verbatim from their press release:
“Tuesday’s unanimous decision by the D.C. Council is a victory for gay pedophiles everywhere, but especially in the District,” commented Christopher Doyle, President of Voice of the Voiceless (VoV). “Now that sexually abused and confused minors will no longer have the ability to see a licensed mental health provider in the District to help them reduce unwanted same-sex attractions due to sexual molestation, there will be less reports of sexual abuse by D.C. children, because they will increasingly be indoctrinated by D.C. -based organizations, such as HRC, that they are born gay and may not seek out treatment for their homosexual feelings brought on by pedophiles such as HRC’s Terry Bean.”
It should be noted that Terry Bean was arrested and faces charges of sodomy and sexual abuse for having relations with a 15-year-old. And that’s just not good for a number of reasons. But does that make him a pedophile? No. Pedophiles are attracted to prepubescent children. Ephebophilia describes a primary or exclusive sexual attraction to individuals in later adolescence (generally ages 15-19).
But ephebophile doesn’t have quite the same ring as pedophile. Still, they use Terry’s past and the truly wacky notion that molestation reports will somehow decline if minors aren’t able to seek ex-gay therapy as a way of building a twisted reality.
To anyone on the outside looking in, they’re clearly wrong. Gay conversion therapy is clearly wrong. Allowing professional authority figures the right to damage children by shaming their same-sex attraction is clearly wrong.
So why is it still legal in 48 states?
The Southern Poverty Law Center is one organization trying to change that. Hopefully there are more Sam Wolfes out there in the world:
Related stories:
An Ex-Gay Therapist Was No Match For This Amazing Harvard Law School Student
A Disturbing Undercover Look At How Conversion Therapy Tries To “Cure” Gayness
Grieving Mother Says “Gay Conversion Therapy Killed My Son”
Dan Tracer
Trans Teen Wins Discrimination Lawsuit Against Maine School District
Nicole Maines, a 17 year-old transgender tenager from Orono, Maine, has won her discrimination lawsuit against the Orono school district after being forced to use a staff-only bathroom. A lower court awarded Maines and her family a settlement of $75,000 having found that the school district was in clear violation of the Maine Human Rights Act. The award will be split between the Maines family, their legal representation, and the Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders organization.
“A significant portion of the monetary award will go to the Maines’ family,” Carisa Cunningham, spokeswoman for GLAD, explained Monday. “We’re grateful that it was resolved favorably, not only for Nicole and her family but for all transgender students who are just seeking to get an education like every other student.”
The Maines family first raised the issue of their daughter’s discrimination to the Maine Human Rights Commission in 2009 while Nicole was still in middle school. Together the family and the Commission brought a lawsuit against Regional School Unit 26 in Penobscot County Superior Court where the family won their initial case. In 2012, however, a Superior Court Justice William Anderson reversed the decision and ruled in favor of the school district. In January, the Maine Supreme Judicial Court further review the Maines’s case and ultimately ruled in their favor.
“I’m just glad it’s over,” Nicole’s father, Wayne Maines, said of the years long legal struggle. “We just want to move on. We just want to be normal.”
Watch Nicole Maines describe her fight to end discrimination at the 2011 GLAD Spirit of Justice Ceremony AFTER THE JUMP…
Charles Pulliam-Moore
U.S. Trans Activist Deported From Australia as Reality Show Tries to Film
The saga continues for Monica Jones, who is now fighting alleged ‘procedural misconduct’ by Australian immigration officials who she claims alerted a reality TV show that she would be deported.
Mitch Kellaway
Why Patti Stanger Deleted Grindr Off Perez Hilton's Phone, Told Him To 'Stop Having Sex'
The upcoming season of “Millionaire Matchmaker” shows Patti Stanger fixing up celebrities large and small, from Dina Lohan to “Chilli” of TLC. Another bold name on Stanger’s matchmaking roster: Perez Hilton, for whom the third-generation matchmaker had to take a particularly determined approach.
“I say no sex before monogamy, and I told Perez this and I said look, you’re going to have to stop having sex. No Grindr!” she recounted in a Wednesday HuffPost Live interview. “[I said] give me your phone — I took it out of his phone!”
And while Stanger laments the gay community’s preference “to get frisky first,” she celebrates their ability to be so accepting and adaptive.
“They’re so colorful and they’re open,” she said, referring to the gay community. “If one [match] doesn’t work, I’m onto the next one, where the straight community’s a little bit more like ‘I want this one to work’ and beat a dead horse. So the gay community keeps moving.”
Tune into this season of “Millionaire Matchmaker” premiering this Sunday, Dec. 7th, at 9:30 on Bravo.
Watch more from Patti Stanger’s hilariously blunt conversation with HuffPost Live here.
Sign up here for Live Today, HuffPost Live’s new morning email that will let you know the newsmakers, celebrities and politicians joining us that day and give you the best clips from the day before!
www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/12/04/patti-stanger_n_6270152.html?utm_hp_ref=gay-voices&ir=Gay+Voices
HRC Urges FDA Panel to Ends Blood Ban
Earlier this week, the FDA Blood Products Advisory Committee met to review scientific data related to reconsideration of the blood donor deferral policy.
HRC.org
www.hrc.org/blog/entry/hrc-urges-fda-panel-to-ends-blood-ban?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss-feed
Michael Sam Suggests He Was Booted From The NFL For Being Gay
TMZ Sports caught up with Michael Sam at LAX yesterday and drilled the footballer about why he thinks he was cut from the St. Louis Rams in August, and then dropped from the Dallas Cowboys in October.
Was it because of his sexual orientation or did it have to do with the level of talent he faced after college, the papz wondered.
“Do you think with you coming out it affected your ability to play?” a member of the paparazzi asked.
“I think I was the SEC Defensive Player of the Year last year,” Sam replied. “So I don’t think it had to do with talent.”
Possible translation: Michael Sam believes he was forced out for being gay.
But he’s not letting it get him down. He says he’s still very much focused on getting back into the league. And as for that rumored reality series for OWN? Sam says it’s not happening. His focus right now is on football and, presumably, his sexy swimmer boyfriend, Vito Cammissino.
Check out the video below.
Photo credit: Richard Phibbs
Graham Gremore
Mariah Carey's 'All I Want For Christmas' Gets 20 Remixed Music Styles: VIDEO
Looks like Mariah has some competition. After Carey got some serious internet flack for flubbing notes on her holiday hit at Rockefeller Center’s tree lighting ceremony, singer and popular YouTuber Anthony Vincent has released his own unusual version of “All I Want For Christmas” in the style of 20 different singers. Vincent’s take on the now 20-year-old Christmas classic runs the gamut from Nat King Cole to Depeche Mode, with a spot-on imitation of the song stylings of Thurl Ravenscroft (aka the original Grinch).
The talented 26-year old singer/songwriter (who is a bit of a ringer for hot Chili Peppers frontman Anthony Keidis) has taken off over the last few months by specializing in these mash-up covers of pop hits from superstars like Katy Perry and Michael Jackson. Now this latest video from his Ten Second Songs channel might be his biggest hit so far. While it’s hardly the first Carey cover to go viral, Vincent’s version went up on YouTube less than 24 hours ago and has already racked up over a million hits.
You can watch the full video AFTER THE JUMP …
Brian Sloan
www.towleroad.com/2014/12/all-i-want-for-christmas-gets-covered-in-20-different-styles-video.html
'Transparent' Creator on Show's First Trans Writer
Jill Soloway explains the choice of Our Lady J and responds to criticism as the popular series resumes.
Dawn Ennis
Eric Radford: Olympic Figure Skater, Medal-Winning Family Man. And Gay.
Eric Radford can already hear it coming.
The Olympic figure skater in the prime of his career knows the stereotypes associated with men in his sport. He’s heard it since he was a child when a classmate asked him why his parents forced him to figure skate.
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