Brazil Legislator Pastor Isidório liga Blames Pride Parade For Catastrophic São Paulo Drought
The population of São Paulo has already heard about a number of “culprits” to blame for the dramatic drought and water shortages in the state this year. But one legislator in Bahia, Brazil’s fourth most populous state, claims to have unraveled the mystery surrounding the real reason for the lack of rain in São Paulo: the Gay Pride Parade.

Sounds like a joke, right? Well, the lawman in question, Pastor Sargento Isidório, decided to immortalize his “argument” on video to banish any doubt that he TRULY does believe it. And he quoted Bible passages to back him up.

“When the skies close up and there is no rain, because the people have sinned against you– here I’m talking about the big Gay Pride Parade that takes place in São Paulo. The largest Gay Parade in the world is there (…). It’s the first sign of the spilling of the chalice of God’s wrath due to homosexuality in our Brazil,” says Isidório pompously.

Isidório then invited people of all religions to pray for five days, on behalf of São Paulo residents, because, according to him, it is extremely important for the development of the country, and the inhabitants must not pay for the “sin” of the gay population.

The legislator, who was the second most voted-for in this year’s elections and intends to be president of the Bahia Legislative Assembly in 2015, asks those who are not gay (and “non-sinners” according to him) to pray for the sin of homosexuality to be forgiven so that rain will at last fill São Paulo’s reservoirs.

According to Bahia Notícias, the president of the Bahia Gay Rights Group (GGB-BA), Marcelo Cerqueira, says the pastor’s allegations only speak to his “ignorant voter base.”

“I believe that for one who claims to have Biblical knowledge to say something this outrageous can only lead us to believe he is a false prophet, sowing lies and errant interpretations of the Bible,” Cerqueria said.

Isodírio tends to be a fan of controversy. In Brazil’s recent elections he caused a commotion from atop his campaign float wherever he went. The parliamentarian describes himself as an “ex-homosexual, ex-junkie and ex-thug.”

For all those who agree with Pastor Isodirio and his supporters, we’ll leave you with this: when the drought started, Brazilian YouTube troupe Põe Na Roda responded with a social media campaign encouraging users to #DoucheYourAssWisely in order to solve the water crisis. In a video, they declared, “Gays are doing their part to save water… are you?”

www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/11/12/brazil-drought-gay-pride-parade-_n_6145882.html?utm_hp_ref=gay-voices&ir=Gay+Voices

BBC to air film about trans teen on children's TV

‘I just want people to finally see me the way I see myself’

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joem

www.gaystarnews.com/article/bbc-air-film-about-trans-teen-childrens-tv121114

HRC to Launch Blog Series Honoring Transgender Day of Remembrance

Over the next week, HRC will raise up the voices of transgender community leaders and advocates to bring attention to the continued fight for a safer and better future for all members of our community.
HRC.org

www.hrc.org/blog/entry/hrc-to-launch-blog-series-honoring-transgender-day-of-remembrance?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss-feed

Man Who Proclaimed 'I'm Not Gay No More' Gets A Funky Remix: VIDEO

Sean Mandell

www.towleroad.com/2014/11/man-who-proclaimed-im-not-gay-no-more-gets-a-funky-remix-video.html

Bette Midler Is Ready For 'Hocus Pocus 2,' So 'Inundate' Disney With Your Demands
SISTAHS! Let the witch hunt for the Disney executives who have yet to bring us “Hocus Pocus 2” begin.

Bette Midler said during a recent Reddit AMA that she’s ready to make a sequel to the Halloween favorite — and so are Sarah Jessica Parker and Kathy Najimy, who played the other two Sanderson sisters in the 1993 original.

Midler was asked several times throughout the Q&A session whether she’d do a sequel. “You have to go to send in your cards to the Walt Disney company,” she said. “The ball’s in their court.”

That ball was rumored to be picked up by Tina Fey earlier this year when reports indicated she was developing a sequel with Disney. That turned out to be false, which left “Hocus Pocus” advocates still searching for a virgin to light the movie’s candle.

But Midler, who also revealed she kept Winifred’s teeth as her souvenir from the set, ended the AMA with a clear directive for everyone who wants to see “Hocus Pocus” cast a spell again: “Inundate the Disney company, because I have canvassed the girls and they are wiling to do it, but we have no say in it, so if you want a HOCUS POCUS 2, ask the Walt Disney company. You have been SO adorable. This has been most enlightening. SISTAHS!”

HuffPost Entertainment loaded a cauldron with blood of owl, dead man’s toe and green newt saliva to confirm Parker’s and Najimy’s interest with their reps. As of yet, we’re still waiting for it to boil. We’ll update you if it does.

www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/11/12/bette-midler-hocus-pocus-2_n_6144914.html?utm_hp_ref=gay-voices&ir=Gay+Voices

America’s Cities Leading the Way to LGBT Inclusion, Even In States Where Equality Remains Elusive

New HRC report also finds that a record number of Americans now live in cities with comprehensive protections and inclusive laws for transgender people
HRC.org

www.hrc.org/blog/entry/americas-cities-leading-the-way-to-lgbt-inclusion-even-in-states-where-equa?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss-feed

Leader of Russian Vigilante Group That Tortured Gays Gets Reduced Prison Sentence: VIDEO

Sean Mandell

www.towleroad.com/2014/11/leader-of-russian-vigilante-group-that-tortured-gays-gets-reduced-prison-sentence-video.html

The Backstory on 'Pride'

Jonathan Blake was one of the members of the group Lesbians and Gays Support Miners, and its story inspired the wonderful movie Pride by Matthew Warchus.

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Mauro Meneghelli

www.advocate.com/arts-entertainment/film/2014/11/12/backstory-pride

On My 50th Birthday, a Letter to Myself at 17

I see you at 17 — feathered hair, parachute pants, asymmetrical smile. You have just graduated from high school. Despite your outward ebullience, I see that, beneath the jocular façade, you are so very sad. Of this you are (mostly) unaware.

I see the reason for your sadness: twelve years of institutionalized bullying — pervasive, relentless. I am touched by the exquisite coping skills you’ve cultivated, the exaggerated belief in your own exceptionalism that you use like armor to guard against painful things, made to measure to compensate for what is being denied you or taken away.

I see the cruelty of children: They throw food at you, but you keep walking; they punch you in the back, but you keep singing. When you did a jazz dance to Pat Benatar’s “Hell Is for Children” wearing a burgundy leotard, the entire school laughed as one, but you kept dancing. You confronted the principal’s office like Julia Roberts in Erin Brockovich when some creep lit your locker on fire; I’m laughing at your indignant reaction when the principal told you the school bore no responsibility because the conflagration could have been the result of “spontaneous combustion.” Despite feeling humiliated, you looked him in the eye — well, glared at him — and, holding your melted acrylic winter coat, you hissed, “We both know full well my locker ‘spontaneously’ combusted when someone threw a lit match in it! I demand this administration’s accountability, and I will see that I get it.”

Sanctioned abuse is what it was — and you stood your ground with your own unique brand of defiance. So many who were less flinty became terribly introverted or disappeared entirely. When I see you at 17, I am filled with admiration. You may be a shame-filled Show Tune Sally, but you are no less a warrior for the legwarmers.

Take a breath, because the next few years are going to be a different sort of test: There is an epidemic coming that will exact stunning losses. You will come of age in an environment of complete hysteria, you will be terrified to have sex, and then you will be diagnosed yourself at age 34 — the immaculate seroconversion, as it were. With detached compassion, your doctor will give you nine years to live. By the time you realize you didn’t die, you will be middle-aged, and you will also realize you haven’t lived. You will be irritated when it begins to occur to you that life is an aggregation of adjustments and dashed expectations. At this you will bridle and then — finally — begin to bend.

It is risky business to stake your happiness on what is essentially an enormous revenge fantasy. Your first therapist, Dr. Fader, will tell you one day in the not-too-distant future that you are “pathologically ambitious.” At this you will spin on your heels and storm out of his office like Bette Davis in All About Eve. Placing such capital on the necessity of having global impact is a strategy that involves far more luck than you can currently bear to consider.

But trust me that the more you let go of the need to conquer the world, the more alive you will feel. Don’t exhaust yourself needing to “show them,” because the truth is that there is no “them.” Though you will never be able to forget the pain of growing up gay and the brutality of those early years, eventually that pain will lessen, and you will, at last, begin to treat yourself as compassionately as you treat most everyone else.

Photo by Dylan Patrick

An earlier version of this piece appeared on stargayzing.com.

www.huffingtonpost.com/gay-voices/?utm_hp_ref=gay-voices&ir=Gay+Voices

'I'm not gay no more!' viral video inspires dance remix

Sam Smith? Please, there’s a new gay male diva in town

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joem

www.gaystarnews.com/article/im-not-gay-no-more-viral-video-inspires-dance-remix121114