All The Irrational & Ignorant Fears About Gay Marriage Set To Country Music, Just Because
According to this parody video from Trevor Moore, once the gays get married, everything’s basically going straight to hell. But, sort of a nice hell where you get to go to nice hotels and the devil looks like Mario Lopez in jean shorts washing his car. Doesn’t sound too bad to us.
Watch below as every subconscious fear about gay people is lampooned to oblivion:
Dan Tracer
Op-ed: Mom and Dad, I'm Taking Truvada
How a party prompted a man to evaluate his health — and how others talk about HIV.
Tim Mullaney
www.advocate.com/commentary/2015/03/04/op-ed-mom-and-dad-im-taking-truvada
There’s An Antigay Activist At The Heart Of The Supreme Court Case To Kill Obamacare
Here’s the great thing about the right-wing war against anything President Obama touches: you never have to dig deep to find an antigay nut.
Take the case before the Supreme Court today in which four plaintiffs insist, against all evidence to the contrary, that Congress really did not intend for tax credits for Obamacare to extend to anyone on the federally run exchange. This means only citizens in the 16 states that set up their own insurance exchanges would get subsidies. Everyone else would be out of luck.
The case, King v. Burwell, has been promoted by a veritable who’s who of the anti-Obama legal community, which has been frantically searching for ways to kill the measure. To make the case work, they had to recruit people who claim they were harmed by the Affordable Care Act. And it’s here that they went right to the lowest common denominator.
There are four plaintiffs in the case, one of whom is Brenda Levy. Levy told Mother Jones she has no idea how she was recruited for the case, saying she led “a quiet life.” And that’s true, if by quiet life you mean making your hatred of gay rights known to the world at large.
Levy has written a string of letters to local Virginia newspapers. (Here’s one example.) She contributed $600 to the Proposition 8 campaign to overturn California’s marriage law. She has shown up at her local Boy Scout chapter to protest allowing gay kids to join the Scouts. “We want to leave sex and politics out of the Scouts,” Levy said at the 2013 protest. Her comments on YouTube include rants about how gays want “to subvert monogamy.”
Yes, however did conservative lawyers who want to destroy Obamacare stumble across Ms. Levy living her quiet life? Her inclusion in the case is a telling sign of which rocks the lawyers looked under and their inclination to look under those rocks in the first place.
So, as the Justices listen to arguments tomorrow that could lead to millions of Americans losing their health care coverage, just keep in mind the sterling individuals challenging the law. Based on her writing, Levy would probably rather be challenging marriage equality.
But she’ll settle for anything else the President favors.
H/t: Mother Jones
JohnGallagher
Ryan Skyy Releases 'DONE' Featuring Niki Darling
Ryan Skyy is a queer music artist, DJ and producer who just released a heavy new dance track called “DONE.”
“DONE” features the impressively powerful vocals of Niki Darling and tells the story of the culmination of one’s emotions at the end of a relationship. “DONE” was co-written by Skyy, Anthony Gibson, and Niki Darling, and was produced by Skyy.
The Huffington Post caught up the with the artist this week to discuss this new club-ready track, as well as how his identity as a queer artist informs his work.
The Huffington Post: What is the concept for “DONE”?
Ryan Skyy: “DONE” is a song about facing the forces or people in your life who are causing you harm, realizing that all you need is yourself to be happy and that it’s ok to stand up for your own self-worth and say, “I’m all I ever needed to make me feel completed, and now I see that I deserve so much more. I’m walking out that door! I’m done! I’m done! I’m so done! I’m done with you!”
The song came from a collective experience that my writing/producing partner Anthony Gibson and myself shared in our own individual journeys, along with input from Niki Darling about past relationships and struggles we each faced. We wanted to create a song that people could use to find strength in their own situations to stand up for themselves. “I’m done!” is such commonly used phrase in our culture, and it’s something we realized more and more after we wrote and released the song. It’s the perfect power statement for what we wanted to convey. I think it’s become a universal record that really seems to resonate with people who hear it for the first time.
Why did you decide to collaborate with Niki Darling?
I met Niki in early 2014 when a song I wrote/produced was being considered for Katy Perry’s next album, and the record label, interested in the track, asked that I submit a version with female vocals on it. The original one I submitted had my own vocals and they wanted to hear how it would sound if Katy recorded it. Anthony, who is now my record label partner at Keystone Music Group, was styling me at the time and referred Niki to me when I told him I was looking for a female session singer that had the chops for the track. Niki and I worked together on that track and really clicked. About 4 months later she told Anthony and I that she was going to Europe to perform and wanted to move more towards dance music and asked if I’d produce for her. We sat down in November 2014 to write a track for her European trip and “DONE” emerged. Over the next couple of months the track really took on a life of its own and turned into this whole other thing. We never expected the three of us to click so strongly creatively and for the track to be so well-received. It changed the course of all of our careers and really is only just the beginning. I’m excited to see where things lead.
What does it mean to you to be a queer artist? How does your queer identity inform your work?
I wouldn’t necessarily say my “queer identity” informs me any more or any less than every other aspect of my life, but I won’t shy away from it either. As an artist, the only things I can draw from that are authentic are my own personal experiences and share them with the world. My deepest thoughts, deepest secrets and strongest emotions are the most authentic and interesting things that I can share. If they come from my gay experience, then so be it, but the themes I write about are universal. I may relate to them differently than others but in the end we all relate and are in this together.
Artists are the lucky few who are given a gift to see the world in a way that others can’t see on their own and it’s our duty to report what we see and serve as cultural historians of what is happening at that moment. Some of my favorite moments with fans are when they tell me that my poem or song helped put into words what they were feeling but didn’t know how to express. That makes it all worth it to me in the end.
What’s next for Ryan Skyy?
I’m currently in the studio working on my follow-up singles while we’re finishing up a remix package for “DONE.” The “DONE” remix package will include remixes by the legendary Dave Aude, DJ Strobe and a few other remixers who will showcase “DONE” in a different light and make the single club ready. I’ve also been DJing weekly in NYC and preparing for a spring and summer club and festival tour.
Head here for more from Ryan Skyy.
www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/03/03/ryan-skyy-done_n_6770684.html?utm_hp_ref=gay-voices&ir=Gay+Voices
Alabama Supreme Court Blocks Same-Sex Marriage
The Alabama Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered probate judges in the state to stop issuing same-sex marriage licenses.
The ruling adds to the confusion surrounding gay marriage in the state. A federal judge found that the state’s ban on same-sex marriage was unconstitutional in January. Some probate judges refused to comply with that ruling and Alabama Supreme Court Justice Roy Moore said that probate judges didn’t have to follow it.
The conflicting orders prompted Elmore County Probate Judge John E. Enslen to ask for clarification from the Alabama Supreme Court, according to WBRC.
Read the Alabama Supreme Court’s full decision here.
Below, more from The Associated Press:
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — The Alabama Supreme Court is ordering the state’s probate judges to stop issuing marriage licenses to gay couples.
The all-Republican court sided with a pair of conservative organizations Tuesday in ruling that the U.S. Constitution doesn’t alter the judges’ duty to administer state law.
The court says Alabama has defined marriage as between only one man and one woman for about 200 years. And it says a federal court used “sleight of hand” in a case that resulted in most of Alabama allowing gay marriage last month.
The Alabama Policy Institute and the Baptist-run Alabama Citizens Action Program asked the court to halt same-sex unions after a federal judge in Mobile said Alabama laws banning them were unconstitutional.
Extralegal Ruling Shames Alabama Supreme Court
The order, which has no foundation in constitutional law, flies in the face a prevailing federal ruling by Judge Callie V.S. Granade issued weeks ago.
HRC.org
Breaking: Alabama Supreme Court Orders Halt On Same-Sex Marriages Statewide
Just a few weeks after a United States District Court Judge in Mobile ordered a local probate judge to begin issuing same-sex marriage licenses, the Alabama Supreme Court has ordered a halt on statewide same-sex marriage.
“As it has done for approximately two centuries, Alabama law allows for ‘marriage’ between only one man and one woman,” the order said. “Alabama probate judges have a ministerial duty not to issue any marriage license contrary to this law. Nothing in the United States Constitution alters or overrides this duty.”
The order gives probate judges five days to present arguments on why they should be allowed to issue the licenses.
This only adds to the confusion in the state.
Last month, Alabama’s chief justice Ray Moore (the same Ray Morore who defied a federal court order to remove a monument to the 10 commandments from the state courthouse) ordered state judges to disobey the ruling of the federal judge. It resulted in some counties following one authority, and some following another.
That situation prompted Elmore County Probate Judge John E. Enslen to ask for clarification from the Alabama Supreme Court, and thus we have this even more confusing decision form the state supreme court.
David Kennedy, one of the lawyers who represented the couple who initially challenged the same-sex marriage ban, doesn’t think the decision will hold up to federal scrutiny.
“I don’t really think that they can do that. I’m not surprised, but I’m somewhat appalled,” he said. “The Supreme Court of the United States ruled that the stay (on the order striking down the gay marriage ban) would expire on Feb. 9. On Feb. 9, same-sex marriage effectively became legal in Alabama.”
“Whenever state law conflicts with federal law, federal law wins,” he added.
via AL.com
Dan Tracer
One Of Nation's Few Homeless Shelters For LGBT Youth Opens Doors In San Antonio, Texas
One of the nation’s few homeless shelters specifically for LGBTQ youth has opened its doors in San Antonio.
Thrive Youth Center is a 13-bed, 1,400-square-foot facility — including five individual rooms for transgender youth.
The center, which will serve LGBTQ youth ages 18-25, was initially scheduled to open last year at a downtown church, but that plan was nixed due to zoning issues. The shelter finally opened last week through a partnership with Haven for Hope, a larger facility serving the general homeless population.
Texas Public Radio reports:
Thrive Executive Director Sandra Whitley (right) said Haven has changed its intake process since Thrive came on board, asking new applicants if they required LGBT services. “And if they check yes, then they call one of us over at our office and we come over and talk to the person and see if they’ll be a fit for our program.” …
Thrive’s initial mission —getting people back on their feet — is being upheld through Haven’s programs. “The services that we were going to offer, the GED program; the career counseling; the job placement, all those things are now located 25 feet from our door,” said Whitley.
Scott Ackerson, a Vice President for Haven for Hope, said they also found space for certain individuals who did not meet Thrive’s 18-25 age group criteria. “We’ve got the capacity to serve an additional 10 LGBT individuals that don’t necessarily fit within Thrive’s target population,” said Ackerson.
According to Thrive Youth Center’s website, 50 percent of homeless youth in San Antonio are LGBTQ, mostly as a result of family rejection. And homeless LGBTQ youth on the street are more than twice as likely to commit suicide as other youth on the street.
Meanwhile, nearly nearly one in three transgender men and women report being turned away from homeless shelters because they are transgender, according to the National Center for Transgender Equality.
Before opening Thrive Youth, Whitley and other founders visited the Ali Forney Center in New York City and the LA Gay and Lesbian Center in Los Angeles — two of the only other homeless shelters in the nation for LGBTQ youth. Whitley, whose parents once sent her to a mental hospital because she was gay, sold her business last year so she could run the shelter.
For more information on the Thrive Youth Center or to make a donation, go here. And to listen to the stories of some of the youth who’ll be served by the facility, go here.
With any luck, Thrive Youth Center can serve as a model for shelters serving homeless LGBTQ youth across Texas and in other red states — where the facilities are often most needed due to high levels of family rejection.
Watch a video report from last year about plans for the Thrive Youth Center, AFTER THE JUMP …
John Wright
Angry Activists Confront Trans Teen in Charlotte Bathroom, As Nondiscrimination Ordinance Fails
Tensions flared in Charlotte, N.C. Monday, as nearly 120 citizens gave passionate speeches for and against an ultimately stymied LGBT nondiscrimination ordinance.
Mitch Kellaway
Gay Group Sex May Soon Be Illegal In China Thanks To This Guy
If it’s always been your dream to partake in a wild gay orgy with a gaggle of hot Chinese men, then you better book your flight to Beijing ASAP because lawmakers there are getting ready to consider a ban on group sex between men.
That’s right. Gay gang bangs may soon be illegal in the communist country of China. And all thanks to dermatologist Dr. Sun Jianfang (pictured) from the Institute of Dermatology at Peking Union Medical College.
Jianfang plans to propose the ban at the country’s upcoming annual legislative sessions. He will argue that banning gay orgies will help prevent the spread of AIDS. According to statistics, the number of HIV cases among men who have sex with men increased from 2.5 percent in 2006 to 25.1 percent in the first half of last year.
Current law criminalizes consensual group sex between three or more people, regardless of gender, so why this random dermatologist feels a new law created to explicitly criminalize gay sex is needed is unclear. But not everyone is pleased with his plan to police what they call “matters of the crotch.”
China’s leading sexologist, Li Yinhe, has been particularly outspoken about the matter.
“The crime of group sex is an outdated law, an erroneous law,” she said. “Its abolishment would not harm social customs, nor corrupt social values…It does not make sense to expand its scope to include same-sex sexual activity between multiple people.”
China’s annual legislative sessions begin March 4.
Related stories:
How A Chinese Gay Dating App You’ve Never Heard Of Just Hit 15 Million Users
WATCH: China’s First Same-Sex Marriage Ad Has A Surprise Twist
Research Finds Tolerance Of Homosexuality In China Dating Back Thousands Of Years
Graham Gremore
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