Category Archives: NEWS

One Direction's Louis Tomlinson Blasts Reporter for Implying He's Gay: 'I Am In Fact Straight'

One Direction's Louis Tomlinson Blasts Reporter for Implying He's Gay: 'I Am In Fact Straight'

Tomlinson

One Direction’s Louis Tomlinson (seen above in the ‘Story of My Life’ video) lashed out at a reporter at the UK Independent this week after she suggested that his t-shirt bearing a classic Apple rainbow logo was because he supported CEO Tim Cook’s recent statement coming out of the closet.

Wrote reporter Jenn Selby in the article:

Days after Harry Styles’ comment about gender and sexuality became a viral talking point, his bandmate Louis Tomlinson seemingly showed his support for the recently out Apple CEO Tim Cook.

 

What a difference a week makes. First Harry Styles’ pro-LGBT comments on sexuality, now this: t.co/jaI6OqMgL9 pic.twitter.com/aq3X72jhqq

— IndyPeople (@TheIndyPeople) November 10, 2014

While Selby never says that Tomlinson is gay, her attempt to draw connections between Styles, Cook, and Tomlinson caused the One Direction singer to draw a few conclusions of his own:

@JennSelby The fact that you work for such a ‘credible’ paper and you would talk such rubbish is laughable. I am in fact straight.

— Louis Tomlinson (@Louis_Tomlinson) November 10, 2014

@JennSelby Google ‘original apple logo’ and you will see the one printed on my shirt that you reported on. Trying to look for a promotion ?

— Louis Tomlinson (@Louis_Tomlinson) November 10, 2014

F–king ridiculous I even have to tweet that sh-t !

— Louis Tomlinson (@Louis_Tomlinson) November 10, 2014

Tomlinson’s response is similar to one he offered to a fan two years ago when the fan brought up a nickname (“Larry Stylinson”) that fans had created suggesting he was in a relationship with bandmate Styles.


Andy Towle

www.towleroad.com/2014/11/one-directions-louis-tomlinson-blasts-reporter-for-implying-hes-gay-i-am-in-fact-straight.html

Out 100 2014: Sam Smith, Ellen Page, Zachary Quinto And More Honored By Out Magazine

Out 100 2014: Sam Smith, Ellen Page, Zachary Quinto And More Honored By Out Magazine
Singer-songwriter Sam Smith and out actors Ellen Page, Zachary Quinto and Samira Wiley take top honors on Out Magazine’s OUT 100 list for 2014.

Smith, whose smash debut album “In the Lonely Hour” dominated radio airwaves this year, was named Breakout of the Year, while Page (“X-Men: Days of Future Past,””Juno”) nabbed Entertainer of the Year honors. Quinto, who will star opposite James Franco in the hotly anticipated “Michael,” is the magazine’s Artist of the Year, and “Orange is the New Black” veteran Wiley is Ingenue of the Year.

Each year Out magazine chooses 100 of the most compelling lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people in the world to create its Out 100 list. Honorees are chosen from all walks of life and include celebrities, writers, politicians, activists, sports figures and artists, among others.

Take a look at all four Out 100 covers, then scroll down to keep reading:
out magazine covers

Page, who garnered praise from the LGBT community for her profound coming out speech at the Human Rights Campaign’s Time to Thrive conference, tells the magazine:

“You just feel different in the world. Once you’ve done something that you used to think was impossible, what could ever really scare you again? Even now, press is more enjoyable because I don’t have to have certain conversations. For instance, I’m never going to have to have a conversation about a dress, or heels, ever again.”

Check out the full list of OUT 100 honorees here.

Meanwhile, check out a selection of the list in the slideshow below.

www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/11/11/out-100-2014_n_6139654.html?utm_hp_ref=gay-voices&ir=Gay+Voices

Federal Judge Could Strike Down Mississippi's Gay Marriage Ban This Week: VIDEO

Federal Judge Could Strike Down Mississippi's Gay Marriage Ban This Week: VIDEO

Mississippi

Mississippi’s gay marriage ban goes before a U.S. District Court Judge Carlton Reeves tomorrow morning. As we reported last month, the Court put Campaign for Southern Equality v. Bryant, which is being led by DOMA lawyer Roberta Kaplan, on a fast-track after it was filed in October.

MississippiSaid Kaplan at that time:

“By setting the schedule that it did, the Court clearly appreciated the need for expedition on issues of such great constitutional and practical import. We look forward to presenting our arguments to Judge Reeves on November 12. We are confident that, having read the briefs and heard our arguments, the Court will grant the relief that our clients seek – namely, the right to be treated like all other Mississippi families who love and care for each other, pay their taxes, and do their best to raise their kids.”

BryantMississippi Governor Phil Bryant (pictured) and Attorney General Jim Hood filed papers on Monday asking Reeves to uphold the state’s ban, the AP reports:

Gov. Phil Bryant and Attorney General Jim Hood responded that the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which hears cases from Mississippi and two other states, has not recognized gays and lesbians as a group with specific civil-rights protections. Because of that, there is no reason for a federal district judge to give “heightened scrutiny” to claims of bias.

“Mississippi’s traditional marriage laws do not discriminate,” Bryant and Hood said in court papers Monday.

Jackson local news station WAPT filed a report on the hearing last night featuring interviews with two of the plaintiffs, Carla Webb and Joce Pritchett, who have a 6-year-old daughter and a 2-year-old son. Pritchett and Webb were married in Maine but Mississippi won’t recognize their marriage, endangering their two kids.

Rebecca “Becky” Bickett and her longtime partner, Andrea Sanders, who were denied a marriage license earlier this year, are also plaintiffs.

The best case scenario would be for the judge to agree with the plaintiffs and rule immediately, striking down the state’s ban. Advocates say they will be ready with officiants to begin marrying gay couples if that happens.

Watch WAPT’s report on what might happen, AFTER THE JUMP

Read Kaplan’s “Reply memorandum of law in further support of plaintiffs’ motion for preliminary injunction” filed yesterday, below. Plaintiffs are also represented by Mississippi attorney Robert McDuff of McDuff & Byrd, based in Jackson.

#25 on Scribd”>D.E. #25


Andy Towle

www.towleroad.com/2014/11/ms.html

Kansas Watches Supreme Court Justice After Temporary Block On Gay Marriage Licenses

Kansas Watches Supreme Court Justice After Temporary Block On Gay Marriage Licenses
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas gay-rights advocates are watching the U.S. Supreme Court as they hope same-sex couples can get marriage licenses this week.

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor on Monday temporarily blocked gay marriages in Kansas, but it wasn’t clear how long she or the high court would continue to do so. Sotomayor put on hold a federal judge’s injunction preventing the state from enforcing its gay-marriage ban. The lower-court ruling was to take effect at 5 p.m. CST Tuesday.

The judge’s injunction came in a lawsuit filed last month by the American Civil Liberties Union. Kansas wants to keep enforcing its ban while the lawsuit is reviewed.

Sotomayor directed the ACLU to respond Tuesday.

If the justice reconsiders, gay couples could head to Kansas courthouses Wednesday morning.

www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/11/11/kansas-gay-marriage_n_6139326.html?utm_hp_ref=gay-voices&ir=Gay+Voices

U.S. Bishops Declare Open War On The Pope As Too Soft On Homophobia

U.S. Bishops Declare Open War On The Pope As Too Soft On Homophobia

Pope-Francis-waves-to-cro-011-360x216None of us needs to be reminded of just how homophobic the U.S. Catholic bishops are. But the bishops clearly feel a refresher is in order for Pope Francis. In what is close to becoming an open revolt, the U.S. bishops are letting the pope know in no uncertain terms that they believe homophobia = Catholicism and that they are more Catholic than the pope.

And the pope is letting them know who’s the boss.

The bishops are gathering in Baltimore for their annual jamboree, and while their ostensible agenda is, in the words of one journalist, “sleep inducing,” the actual agenda is the battle brewing between the bishops and Pope Francis. Following the Vatican synod last month, many of the bishops are fuming that the pope is abandoning the hardcore homophobia that has been their bread and butter.

“Many of the U.S. bishops have been disoriented by what this new pope is saying and I don’t see them really as embracing the pope’s agenda,” said John Thavis, a former Rome bureau chief for Catholic News Service, told the Associated Press.

And they’re not trying to hide their displeasure. Bishop Thomas Tobin of Providence, RI, said that the synod was “rather Protestant.” Archbishop Charles Chaput of Philadelphia, who won his position through homophobia, said that the synod created confusion about Church teaching and “I think confusion is of the devil.”

No one has been more hard core than Cardinal Raymond Burke, formerly the flame-throwing archbishop of St. Louis, whom Pope Benedict appointed the equivalent of chief justice of the Vatican court system. Burke has gone to far as to say that the Church is risking a schism by moving “contrary to the constant teaching and practice of the Church.” What he’s really talking about is softening the Church’s stance on LGBT issues, even if actual policies don’t change.

Pope Francis sent the bishops a strong signal about where he stands by formally demoting Burke just two days before the bishops met. The pope busted Burke to the ceremonial position of protectorate of the Knights of Malta. The move was a brutal reminder of just who holds the power in the Church.

Some of the bishops have been trying to paper over the differences by madly spinning the press.

“What I heard and read, the real synod was divisive, confrontational, partisan, and dwelt only on same sex-marriage, cohabitation and divorce,” New York’s Timothy Dolan said Monday. “In fact it was plodding, even at times tedious, but it was a synod of consensus.”

Dolan is going to have to revisit that statement in the confessional, because it’s clearly untrue. The document that the synod originally floated was much more pro-gay. It was watered down because the conservative bishops, many of them from the U.S., blew a gasket. That’s not the definition of consensus.

The fact is, the landscape for the U.S. bishops has changed, and they don’t know how to deal with it.

“It used to be your career in the church could be advanced if you took a hard stance on issues,” the Rev. James Bretzke, a professor of moral theology at Boston College, told the Boston Herald. “Pope Francis wants people who are more bridge builders instead of bridge burners.”

That won’t stop the hard-core homophobes from taking a few more bridges with them before they go. They’re probably hoping that the pope is standing on one of them.

JohnGallagher

feedproxy.google.com/~r/queerty2/~3/9yyZYked7TI/u-s-bishops-declare-open-war-on-the-pope-as-too-soft-on-homophobia-20141111

'Go-Go Boy Interrupted' Shows You How To Deal With Your Arch-Nemesis at Work: VIDEO

'Go-Go Boy Interrupted' Shows You How To Deal With Your Arch-Nemesis at Work: VIDEO

Gogo

Your favorite ex-go-go is back and, this time, returning to dance on a box just as he always wanted. However, when Danny returns to his former place of employment, he quickly finds out there’s a new twink in town.

Watch as Danny shows you how to deal with conflict in the workplace, AFTER THE JUMP…

And in case you missed them, check out Episodes ONE, TWOTHREEFOUR and FIVE of Jimmy Fowlie’s irreverent web series.


Sean Mandell

www.towleroad.com/2014/11/go-go-boy-interrupted-shows-you-how-to-deal-with-your-arch-nemesis-at-work-video.html