Same-sex marriages halted in Texas after lesbian couple legally ties the knot
State’s Supreme Court issues emergency order blocking other same-sex couples from obtaining licenses
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Category Archives: NEWS
There Is a 1 in 100 Chance You Are Intersex
There Is a 1 in 100 Chance You Are Intersex
The recent conversations about gender expression have rightfully supplanted the ways that we once conflated psychological and sexual variance. As a society, we’ve grown become more cognizant and accepting of the ways in which one’s gender identity is not always tied to one’s body. Though we’ve grown more accustomed to thinking of gender as existing on a spectrum, it’s not often that we think the same of our biological sexes.
“The main problem with a strong dichotomy is that there are intermediate cases that push the limits and ask us to figure out exactly where the dividing line is between males and females,” Arthur Arnold, a biological sex research at UCLA explained to Nature magazine. “And that’s often a very difficult problem, because sex can be defined a number of ways.”
The basic biology that we’re all brought up to believe in states that men and women can be differentiated by the presence or absence of the Y chromosome. While that logic holds true in the most general of senses, a closer look at chromosomal variance reveals a much more interesting and not immediately obvious truth: in many cases physiological sex can shift on a genetic level.
Differences of sex development (DSD) manifests itself in a number of different forms depending on which different specific genes are functioning in a variety of different ways. The sort of DSD that we’re most familiar with are those in which a person’s body demonstrably belies their assumed sex such as genetically female women who discover that their gonadal tissue developed into small testes rather than ovaries. These cases, Claire Ainsworth explains for Nature, occur 1 in about every 4,500 births. If we were to take more minute sex variation into account, however, 1 in every 100 people could consider themselves intersex.
“These discoveries do not sit well in a world in which sex is still defined in binary terms.” writes Ainsworth. “Few legal systems allow for any ambiguity in biological sex, and a person’s legal rights and social status can be heavily influenced by whether their birth certificate says male or female.”
Recently Thailand, India, and Australia have made small inroads in allowing for a wider variety gender representation, but Ainsworth raises a valid point. The law, generally speaking, is no friend to those in the biological in-between.
Charles Pulliam-Moore
www.towleroad.com/2015/02/intersexuality-could-be-more-common-than-previously-thought.html
Baton Rouge Police Chief Apologizes For Unconstitutional 'Sodomy' Arrests
Baton Rouge Police Chief Apologizes For Unconstitutional 'Sodomy' Arrests
A police chief in Baton Rouge, La., issued an apology Friday after two men were arrested using an unconstitutional and unenforceable anti-sodomy law.
Raffy Ermac
This Is Not The Marc Jacobs You're Used To Seeing At Fashion Week
This Is Not The Marc Jacobs You're Used To Seeing At Fashion Week
Since it’s the last day of New York Fashion Week and Throwback Thursday, it’s only right that we reach back into our style archives and pull out something special for y’all!
Behold, Marc Jacobs circa 2006:
Amazing, right? This is definitely not the health-buff Marc we all know and love today. I snapped this picture of the fashion designer nine years ago, right before the Heatherette Fall 2006 show. I was totally star struck, but he was gracious enough to let me take the photo. Plus, I secretly took a picture of his friend showing his support (or obsession) for Marc with “MJ” shaved into the side of his head.
In case you were wondering what Marc looks like now — here he is in September 2014 at his Marc by Marc Jacobs show. #MindBlown
Exploring questions of identity with A Local Boy
Exploring questions of identity with A Local Boy
London playwright Dan Murphy draws on his hometown of Romford to tackle some big themes with his bold debut production.
G2003
www.gaystarnews.com/article/exploring-questions-identity-local-boy190215
HRC Mourns Kristina Gomez Reinwald, the Sixth Transgender Woman Murdered in 2015
HRC Mourns Kristina Gomez Reinwald, the Sixth Transgender Woman Murdered in 2015
While news reports have remained scant, transgender advocates in south Florida and around the country are mourning the death of Kristina Gomez Reinwald
HRC.org
Towleroad Guide to the Tube #1697
Towleroad Guide to the Tube #1697
PEOPLE’S BRIEF: Edie Windsor & Roberta Kaplan on how you can be a part of history.
ELLEN PAGE: Talks Carnival, coming out, and whether or not she’s single.
NICK THE GARDENER: Could be coming to a city near you!
SNOW: It’s no match for a hungry cat.
For more recent Guides to the Tube, click HERE.
Kyler Geoffroy
www.towleroad.com/2015/02/towleroad-guide-to-the-tube-1697.html
WATCH: Here's Why That Michigan Doctor Is Allowed to Turn Away Lesbian Moms
WATCH: Here's Why That Michigan Doctor Is Allowed to Turn Away Lesbian Moms
A midwest doctor has refused to see the newborn child of two lesbian moms seeking pediatric care — and it’s all perfectly legal.
Matt Baume
www.advocate.com/politics/2015/02/19/watch-heres-why-michigan-doctor-allowed-turn-away-lesbian-moms
Pat Robertson Suggests Companies Will Be Forced To Cater To Man-Dog Weddings
Pat Robertson Suggests Companies Will Be Forced To Cater To Man-Dog Weddings
Conservative televangelist Pat Robertson slammed a Washington state judge’s ruling that a florist’s refusal to provide flowers for a gay couple’s wedding had violated local anti-discrimination laws.
Robertson, who has made no secret of his opposition to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) rights in the past, condemned the decision as “just outrageous” and “crazy” in an installment of “The 700 Club” this week, according to Right Wing Watch.
He asked, “To tell a florist that she’s got to provide flowers for a particular kind of wedding? What if somebody wanted to marry his dog? She’s got to have flowers for that?”
Robertson then went on to note, “What if there’s a polygamous situation where a guy has five wives and he wants to have five ceremonies and she’s going to be forced by the law to provide them flowers?”
Bakeries, florist shops and other wedding-related venues have become an unlikely battleground for marriage equality and other LGBT-related issues in recent years.
On Feb. 2, the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries ruled that Sweet Cakes by Melissa owners Aaron and Melissa Klein had similarly violated their state’s anti-discrimination laws when they turned away a lesbian couple who had sought a cake for their wedding in 2013.
On the flip side, Marjorie Silva, who owns Denver’s Azucar Bakery, is now reportedly facing a religious discrimination complaint after she refused to bake a cake decorated with phrases like “God hates gays” written in icing.
Gay man's new billboard corrects the record
Gay man's new billboard corrects the record
Model Kyle Roux had been featured – as an identical twin – in ‘Nobody is Born Gay’ billboard without his knowledge
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