Botswana Court to Recognize LGBT Lobbying Organization
The organization Lesbians, Gays and Bisexuals of Botswana (Legabibo) won a landmark case this week when a judge ruled to allow the organization to register as an official lobbying and advocacy organization.
HRC.org
PHOTOS: If “Lumbersexual” Is Really A Thing, Where Do We Sign Up?
In the beginning, there was the homosexual. Once oppressed and ignored, the homosexual rose to global influence with his keen sense of style and sharp wit.
The homosexual begot the metrosexual, for the straight man looked to him and thought “damn, he looks so good I could kiss him. How can I pull that off?”
And now, though our labels become less adhesive and more interchangeable, there are trends which cannot be completely ignored.
There’s the spornosexual, which, OK, stop trying to make spornosexual happen. It’s not going to happen.
But what of the spornosexual’s even burlier cousins? The ones with beards instead of stubble, axes instead of CrossFit?
Well GearJunkie has dubbed them lumbersexuals, and they’ll steal your heart faster than you can say “what do you mean this cabin doesn’t have plumbing?!”
Here they are in their natural habitat:
Dan Tracer
Florida DMV Threatens To Revoke Gay Couple's Driver Licenses If They Don't Change Names – VIDEO
The state of Florida is threatening to revoke a same-sex couple’s driver licenses because they obtained them using an out-of-state marriage certificate.
Daniel [left] and Scott Wall-Desousa, of Palm Bay, Florida, have been together for 10 years and were married in New York City.
Earlier this year, both men attempted to get their hyphenated, married name — which appears on their Social Security cards — on their Florida driver licenses.
Daniel Wall-Desousa had no trouble, but Scott was rejected at a different DMV office — based on Florida’s constitutional amendment prohibiting recognition of same-sex marriages from out of state, according to a report from WFTV Channel 9.
After an extended back-and-forth with state officials, Scott went to a different DMV office and was able to obtain a license with his married name. The couple then appeared on WFTV, which reported they were one of the first couples in Florida to change their name thorugh an out-of-state same-sex marriage.
However, state officials apparently took notice, and within days of the report airing, the Wall-Desousas received a letter saying their driver licenses will be revoked unless they obtain new ones in their previous names, WFTV reports.
“It informs me and notifies me that my driving privileges will be canceled indefinitely as of Nov. 22,” Daniel Wall-Desousa said of the letter.
The couple now says they intend to file a lawsuit. Several state and federal judges in Florida have struck down the state’s marriage amendment as unconsitutinal, but those decisions have been stayed pending appeals by Republican Attorney General Pam Bondi.
In Texas earlier this year, a woman was similarly denied a driver license when she tried to obtain one using an out-of-state same-sex marriage certificate. But the woman, Connie Wilson, was later able to obatin a license with her married name using a US passport.
No word on whether Texas plans to try to revoke Wilson’s license.
Watch WFTV’s initial report, AFTER THE JUMP …
John Wright
LGBT-Affirming Christians Gather in D.C.
Featured as keynote speakers were Christian ethics professor David Gushee and LGBT movement activist Allyson Robinson, both ordained ministers.
Stevie St. John
www.advocate.com/politics/religion/2014/11/14/lgbt-affirming-christians-gather-dc
Azealia Banks Defends Her Use Of The Word 'Faggot' While Discussing Perez Hilton Feud Again
Azealia Banks offered up yet another unusual justification for her use of the word “faggot” in a new interview.
The singer, who recently dropped her debut album, “Broke With Expensive Taste,”sat down The Guardian to discuss her life over the last several years, her new album and the past Twitter feuds she’s engaged in with other celebrities.
Now, the rapper is continuing to defend her use of the word “faggot,” but apparently seems to have changed her thoughts surrounding what it signifies.
In a recent interview the The Guardian, Banks clarified what, exactly, she is implying when she says “faggot,” as well as her thoughts surrounding misogyny in the gay community.
I don’t regret doing it, but I’ll never do it again, because I don’t care enough about the person to have the battle again and defend my use of the word ‘faggot’… A lot of gay men are way more misogynistic than straight men. The shit they say about women behind their backs, it’s like: ‘Wow, oh my God!’
You can be a straight faggot, you can be a gay faggot. A faggot is anybody that hates women. It’s like, y’all sing along to my words when I’m saying ‘nigga’ and ‘cunt’, but as soon as I call this one white man a faggot the whole world exploded. Listen, I didn’t say all gay men are faggots; I said Perez Hilton is a faggot, so don’t try and bring the rest of the gays down with your faggotry.
The openly bisexual singer landed in hot water last year for calling celebrity blogger Perez Hilton a “messy faggot” while the two sparred via Twitter. Shortly thereafter, she went on to claim that “a faggot is not a homosexual male. A faggot is any male who acts like a female. There’s a BIG difference.”
Banks’ comments about gay men and misogyny seem to echo those made by “Scream” actress Rose McGowan earlier this year. During a podcast with openly gay author Bret Easton Ellis, McGowan claimed that, “Gay men are as misogynistic as straight men, if not more so. I have an indictment of the gay community right now, I’m actually really upset with them.”
McGowan later apologized for making a “dumb generalization,” but defended the message within her words.
British Actress “Devastated” After Discovering Boyfriend’s Not-So-Secret Gay S&M Past
Reid getting spanked by a tattooed assailant.
British actress Lorna Fitzgerald of the popular show EastEnders is reportedly in shambles after learning her boyfriend, Keo Reid, starred a series of gay fetish videos.
The 18-year-old actress is reported to be “absolutely distraught” after videos of 25-year-old Reid getting spanked, whipped, whacked, and receiving blowies from older chaps were discovered on an S&M website, according to Pink News.
“It’s any girlfriend’s worst nightmare,” a source told the prestigious Sun newspaper. “After seeing the videos, she feels she can never go back.”
A friend of Reid told The Mirror: “Keo just did these films as a bit of fun for good money… He could have had a job as a plumber or he could have a job getting his ass spanked. It’s as simple as that.”
The friend added, “Although it features men, it’s not a gay thing.”
Hmmm. We know straight men are a lot more bisexual than people think, but we’re pretty sure performing in an adult video alongside another guy would be considered by most everyone as “a gay thing.”
But Reid’s friend insists otherwise. “Keo is completely straight,” he said.
Reid was reportedly paid £350 ($550) for each fetish film, and is believed to have starred in as many as 20 videos. The oldest one was uploaded in December 2012. His most recent video was uploaded on October 16, after he and Fitzgerald had been dating for six months.
According to sources, Reid sincerely hopes his “completely straight” gay past doesn’t affect his relationship with Fitzgerald.
“He has been on such a journey in his life and has really turned things round,” a source said. “He’s really happy with Lorna. Keo has really fallen for her and he’s upset and so sorry to have embarrassed her like this.”
So far, both Fitzgerald and Reid are refusing to comment on the matter.
Related stories:
Straight Men Are A Lot More Bisexual Than You Might Think
Spencer Matthews “Mortified” Over Full Frontal Photo Leak
British Man Sleeps With 200 Men, Finds Christ, Converts To Heterosexuality
Graham Gremore is a columnist and contributor for Queerty and Life of the Law. Follow him on Facebook and Twitter.
Graham Gremore
Mexico City Approves Landmark Bill Allowing Trans People to Legally Change Gender Without Court Order
Mexico City lawmakers approved a groundbreaking trans rights bill on Thursday allowing trans people to legally change their gender without a court order, reports Michael Lavers at the Washington Blade:
Members of Legislative Assembly of the Federal District, in which Mexico City is located, approved the measure by a 42-0 vote margin.
Six lawmakers abstained from the vote on the measure that Mexico City Mayor Miguel Ángel Mancera (pictured) proposed. Manuel Granados Covarrubias of the Party of the Democratic Revolution, known by the Spanish acronym PRD, welcomed the proposal’s approval.
The progressive mayor, as you may recall, married 26 gay couples in a mass wedding in July 2013.
The bill’s approval came following a campaign by The Mexico City Commission to Prevent and Eliminate Discrimination and is the first such law in Latin America, according to the Blade:
The Mexican capital’s comprehensive anti-discrimination law already includes gender identity and expression and designates transphobia as a form of discrimination.
Andy Towle
Eddie And Chip's Story From The Let Love Define Family Series
In today’s installment of the Huffington Post Gay Voices RaiseAChild.US “Let Love Define Family™” series, we highlight a culturally-diverse, multiracial family formed through foster-adoption whose differences ultimately add to the strengths of each of its members.
Eddie and Chip’s family is not simply multiracial but also multicultural in more ways than one. Eddie and Chip are both white and gay and their children are black, so the family incorporates both African American culture and LGBT culture. But because Eddie is deaf, the family also straddles the boundaries of deaf culture.
Edward “Eddie” Peigneux, Jr., 44, known as “Baba” to his kids, is the supervisor of California School for the deaf in Riverside, CA. His partner, Raymond “Chip” West III, 41, whom the children call “Dada,” is the assistant vice president for capital planning and facilities management at the University of La Verne. The couple lives in Diamond Bar, CA.
Many people are not aware that the word Deaf defines not only a medical condition, but a rich culture with specific history, jokes, poetry and literature. Eddie and Chip’s children are growing up conversant in the two languages spoken at home, English and American Sign Language, and culturally competent in mainstream American life, African American culture, LGBT community and deaf culture.
“Being deaf and gay as well, I have experienced all of the things that go along with that, the discrimination, the oppression, and the depression,” said Eddie through an ASL interpreter. “So I have a strong identity. I know who I am and I know that there are struggles out there so I’m very aware and very sensitive to those things.”
“I wanted to make sure that the African American culture is part of my children’s lives,” continued Eddie, who explains that he and his husband have worked carefully to find ways to immerse their children in their own cultural heritage. “For example, the children go to a day care run by a woman who is African American and there are African American children there as well. We want them to be exposed to the food, customs and all those things.”
“The daycare provider has been fabulous and has really taken the kids in,” added Chip. “And she tells Eddie and I all the time that she had a preconceived notion of gay couples and we really changed her mind, not only because Eddie is deaf but because of the relationship we have. We’ve been together 19 years, so we’re an old married couple even though we’re not married!”
To give the children a well-rounded cultural education, the dads select books for their children that reflect their family structure and cultures, take their children to cultural celebrations and participate in cultural dinners and activities. They also take the children a couple times a month to an African American Baptist church in Compton that Taylor’s adopted biological aunt attends.
Fostering runs deeply in both Chip and Eddie’s own family histories. Growing up in Virginia, Chip was inspired by his mother, who decided to become a foster parent while he was in high school. Preferring to foster rather than adopt, she had more than 12 kids in her care over the years. Eddie’s mother and father, who lived in Montana, also became foster parents while Eddie was growing up, and Eddie’s sister and her husband later became foster parents and adopted one of the children they fostered.
As a child, Eddie attended an all-deaf school in Great Falls, Montana about six hours away from his family’s home in Miles City. Eventually, a deaf family who had fostered him there decided to adopt him while he was in high school. He still maintains connections with his deaf family, as well as his hearing family.
Eddie and Chip started with fostering, taking care of two teens briefly, but when now 14-year-old Taylor was placed with them they fell in love with him and wanted to adopt him. A year later, at the final hearing for termination of parental rights, the biological aunt suddenly changed her mind — an experience Chip described as very painful. Nevertheless, the adoptive mother recognized the important role of the men in her son’s life and worked out an arrangement whereby Chip and Eddie pick him up every Thursday and keep him through Sunday. That arrangement has persisted fairly consistently over the past three years and created a strong support system for Taylor.
After that four foster children followed in rather rapid succession and were all adopted. The last two’s adoptions were finalized in October. Eli, 3, Chase, 3, Chloe, 2, and Ethan, 1, are all fluent in ASL, a particular blessing because all of the kids have had speech delays based on their individual circumstances — either drugs or neglect.
“Signing has been a really great tool for us,” said Chip, who says none of the children are deaf but some have biological family members who are deaf. “We’ve had each of the kids in speech therapy, so the signing is a great way to help them communicate as their spoken language has been a little delayed.”
The day care provider has been so impressed by the children’s communication skills that she has added ASL to her programming.
Growing up gay, Eddie never thought he would have the opportunity to adopt. But with Chip’s determination to pursue parenthood, the couple eventually expanded their family through working with the Los Angeles County Department of Children’s Services, which welcomes LGBT prospective parents. Today, Chip volunteers as a foster parent advocate for DCFS.
These days, Eddie anticipates meeting with his children’s elementary school teachers in the years to come — he is more concerned about being a deaf parent than a gay dad.
“The teachers might see bypassing me as a simpler way to communicate, so I would end up feeling excluded,” said Eddie. “There might be parent-teacher meetings where they might believe that since Chip’s going be there they wouldn’t need to get an interpreter. That’s something that I have faced already in my life so I anticipate that that might be an issue. But here in California I think people are pretty deaf aware, so I don’t foresee that as being a big barrier.”
Corinne Lightweaver is the Communications Manager at RaiseAChild.US, a national organization headquartered in Hollywood, California that encourages the LGBT community to build families through fostering and adopting to serve the needs of the 400,000 children in the U.S. foster care system. Since 2011, RaiseAChild.US has run media campaigns and events to educate prospective parents and the public, and has engaged more than 2,200 prospective parents. For information about how you can become a foster or fost/adopt parent, visit www.RaiseAChild.US.
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