TAKE THE PLEDGE: #StandWithTarget on June 1 as LGBT Pride Month Begins

www.glaad.org/blog/take-pledge-standwithtarget-june-1-lgbt-pride-month-begins

Samantha Bee Eviscerates 'Potty Prefect' Pat McCrory (Video)

The feminist funny lady launched a Full Frontal assault on North Carolina’s new law that bars trans people from using the public bathrooms that match their gender identity. 

www.advocate.com/comedy/2016/5/12/samantha-bee-eviscerates-potty-prefect-pat-mccrory-video

Why Is North Carolina Governor McCrory Forcing Male Reporters to Use Ladies Room? (Video)

www.advocate.com/media/2016/5/12/why-north-carolina-governor-mccrory-forcing-male-reporters-use-ladies-room-video

Vogue Mini-Doc Takes You Inside New York’s Contemporary Ballroom Scene

It’s been 25 years since Paris Is Burning, Jennie Livingston’s award-winning 1991 documentary about New York’s drag ball culture, made stars of talents like Willie Ninja and legends of personalities like Dorian Corey and Venus Xtravaganza.

The city’s ball scene is still going strong, thanks to a whole new generation of club kids and performers inspired by the cult classic — and in some instances in spite of it — so we’re long overdue for an update.

Now Thump — Vice Media’s channel devoted to electronic music and club culture — has teamed up with Axe for Night Visions, a look at the contemporary ball scene and its stars.

While Paris Is Burning spotlighted events in Harlem ballrooms, the first episode of this three-part mini doc brings the action downtown. We get a peek at promoter Jack Mizrahi’s Vogue Knights at XL Nightclub — inside Manhattan’s infamous Out Hotel — a kind of weekly workshop for vogue performances that attracted stars like Rihanna and Janelle Monae in its original location at the now-shuttered 39th Street club Esquelita. Meanwhile, the children on the runway at Symba McQueen’s Red Ball basically redefine the word “fierce.”

Watch below:

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Another Antigay Pastor (Allegedly) Caught With His Hand In The Underage Cookie Jar

Meet Dave Reynolds. He’s the recently fired pastor of the Cornerstone Bible Fellowship in Sherwood, Arkansas currently facing 70 counts of distributing, possessing or viewing child pornography.

He’s also vehemently antigay.

Related: People Will One Day Look Back And Realize A Promiscuous Homosexual Ruined The World, “Poop Pastor” Predicts

The 40-year-old pastor, who has preached that marriage is between a man and a woman and that all homosexual activity is a sin, was arrested this week after police received a tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children that a social media account in Sherwood was storing pages and pages (and pages and pages) of images of kiddy porn.

The account allegedly belonged to Reynolds.

In March, Reynolds informed elders at Cornerstone Bible Fellowship that he was under investigation for child porn possession. When they asked if he had engaged in viewing the material, Reynolds told them he had “not knowingly done so.”

Related: Pastor Is Convinced Children’s TV Series Is Turning Kids Into “Hideous” Homosexuals

The elders ultimately decided to relieve Reynolds of his duties and put out a statement saying the church was fully cooperating with police.

“Our present concern is with the people of Cornerstone to whom the Lord has entrusted us as shepherds,” the church said in a statement. “We have been and will continue to pursue all avenues to determine whether any of Cornerstone’s people may have been directly or indirectly affected by any actions Dave may have taken.”

Meanwhile, Reynolds is maintaining his innocence. In a statement released earlier this week, his attorney, Blake Hendrix, said, “Mr. Reynolds has pleaded not guilty and intends to vigorously defend himself against the accusations.”

Reynolds appeared in Sherwood District Court on Wednesday. Bond was set at $250,000.

Related: Pastor Claims Gay People Are Possessed By “Fart Demons” That Can Drive Pigs To Suicide

h/t: KATV

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Azealia Banks’ Twitter Account Suspended Following Homophobic and Racist Tirade Against Zayn Malik

Azealia Banks’ Twitter account has been suspended following a hateful tirade the rapper unleashed against singer and former One Direction band member, Zayn Malik.

Banks lashed out at Malik using homophobic and racist slurs as she blasted him for allegedly copying some of her looks for his new video, “Like I Would.”

The New York Daily News reports: 

The 140-character platform suspends users’ accounts, either temporarily or permanently, if they engage in “abusive tweets or behavior.”

The hot-tempered rapper’s missives certainly fit that bill, as her insults at Malik — who is of English-Pakistani descent — included “the token sand n—a from 1D,” “f—-t” and an offensive slur for Pakistani people.

A Twitter rep on Thursday declined to elaborate on the situation.

“We do not comment on individual accounts, for privacy and security reasons,” the rep told the Daily News.

RELATED – UK Music Festival Rinse FM Drops Azealia Banks: ‘We Celebrate Inclusivity and Equality’

This is not the first time Banks has landed in hot water over her vitriolic language on Twitter, though it does appear to be the first time her account has been suspended.

Banks has previously compared the LGBT community to the KKK, and frequently defended her use of the word “faggot.” 

The post Azealia Banks’ Twitter Account Suspended Following Homophobic and Racist Tirade Against Zayn Malik appeared first on Towleroad.

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WATCH: Trailer for ‘Tickled’, Doc on Tickling Culture That Has a Homoerotic and Dark Twist

Tickled, a new documentary film that played at Sundance last year, has debuted its trailer and, as the title indicates, the movie is all about men who like to get tickled. But as it turns out, there’s a lot more to this fetish sub-culture than meets the eye.

From the film’s description:

After stumbling upon a bizarre “competitive endurance tickling” video online, wherein young men are paid to be tied up and tickled, [Australian] reporter David Farrier reaches out to request a story from the company. But the reply he receives is shocking—the sender mocks Farrier’s sexual orientation and threatens extreme legal action should he dig any deeper. So, like any good journalist confronted by a bully, he does just the opposite and uncovers a vast empire, known for harassing an[d] harming the lives of those who protest their involvement in these films. The more he investigates, the stranger it gets, discovering secret identities and criminal activity. Discovering the truth becomes Farrier’s obsession, despite increasingly sinister threats. With humor and determination, Farrier and co-director Dylan Reeve summon up every resource available to get to the bottom of this tickling wormhole.

Yet even this overview cleans up some of what actually goes down in the trailer and the movie. The threats Ferrier received stemmed from the fact that he is gay. Variety reports:

But upon contacting these events’ producer, Jane O’Brien Media, for an interview, [Ferrier] was surprised to receive virulently homophobic responses (Farrier is an out gay man). This seemed ludicrous, since nothing could be more blatantly homoerotic than videos of mattress-bound youths being straddled and tickled all over by other handsome junior jocks. The long-distance insults rapidly took on a lawsuit-threatening nature. Now Farrier and his (straight) collaborator Reeve were intrigued enough to decide their inquiry might merit a whole documentary, despite (or because of) the intimidation tactics.

Watch the rather mystifying trailer, below.

Tickled opens in theaters on June 17.

The post WATCH: Trailer for ‘Tickled’, Doc on Tickling Culture That Has a Homoerotic and Dark Twist appeared first on Towleroad.

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Gay Former NFL Player Wade Davis Gives Moving TED Talk on the ‘Mask of Masculinity’ – WATCH

Out gay former NFL player and current executive director of the You Can Play Project Wade Davis recently gave a TEDx Talk in which he delved into what he calls “the mask of masculinity” and how he battled internalized homophobia for years before and after coming out of the closet.

Speaking in March at the University of Florida’s TEDx conference, Davis began by discussing a game he used to play as a little boy with his friends, ‘Smear the Queer.’ Davis explained that while neither he nor his friends knew what queer meant, they all knew that they “did not want to be the queer.”

Davis added, “We raise young boys to wear a mask of toughness in order to be a man, and we rob them of their childhood and their innocence. And sport is one of the many vehicles parents choose to help them put on this mask. And as little boys we learn that being labeled ‘tough’ grants you a crtian type of social capital and being thought of as weak or queer is suicidal, both athletically and socially.” And yet a more beneficial education was lacking in his life, as it is for many young boys. “I was never taught how to be myself or love myself,” Davis explains.

As a football player, Davis learned about a concept known as “wasted motion”, a notion that is pretty much exactly what it sounds like–extra motion (on the football field in this case) that requires energy and effort yet yields zero beneficial result. Davis began to realize that hiding his sexuality and performing a rigid version of masculinity was nothing but wasted motion. “‘I’m standing gay. I’m walking gay. I’m running gay. Would you just stop being so gay?!’” he recalls thinking. “That was wasted motion. Most of my life in fact was wasted motion.”

PREVIOUSLY – Out Former Football Player Wade Davis Opens Up About Being Gay In The NFL: VIDEO

Davis says he faced a complete paradigm shift by coming out: “I would be giving up so much power by being gay. And I’d be violating the very essence that I was taught of what being a man was.”

But Davis came to learn one important lesson: while holding on to his mask of masculinity might bring him many things, it would never bring him freedom.

“So what is the cost of always wearing a mask, what is the cost of never being yourself?” Davis asks. “The cost is never really loving yourself, and never allowing someone else to love all of you.”

Watch, below.

The post Gay Former NFL Player Wade Davis Gives Moving TED Talk on the ‘Mask of Masculinity’ – WATCH appeared first on Towleroad.

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#AM_Equality Tip Sheet: May 12, 2016

NC CHAMBER OUTRAGEOUSLY SUGGESTS “COMPROMISE” POSSIBLE ON HB2 DESPITE OWN MEMBERS’ CALL FOR REPEAL: The business community knows that discrimination is bad for business and bad for North Carolina — that’s why more than 200 major CEOs and executives have signed our letter demanding that NC Gov. Pat McCrory and state lawmakers repeal HB2. Yesterday’s statement by the NC Chamber of Commerce suggesting that full repeal is not necessary ignores the overwhelming outcry against HB2 from the business community — including the chamber’s own members. More from HRC.

• Meanwhile, Mayor Roberts makes clear equality is not negotiable… Charlotte Mayor Jennifer Roberts told LGBT supporters on Wednesday that she will continue fighting for her city’s non-discrimination ordinance, which HB2 overturned. “When people talk about compromising on equality, I think how? Do you make them half equal? Equality is equality.”

HRC ENLISTS BUSINESS LEADERS TO JOIN AMICUS BRIEF: HRC President Chad Griffin met with CEOs from leading tech companies and enlisted their support in joining a business amicus brief in support of the Justice Department’s lawsuit against Gov. McCrory. Taking their powerful voices to the federal courts on behalf of transgender equality echoes recent history in the fight for marriage equality:  Nearly 380 major companies signed an amicus brief in the landmark U.S. Supreme Court case Obergefell v. Hodges, helping ensure our marriage equality victory.

MCCRORY IS WASTING NC TAXPAYER MONEY: Gov. McCrory continues to treat the Tar Heel State like a private cash register, racking up lawyer’s fees defending the discriminatory HB2 — and now we learn he’s charging taxpayers for his travel expenses to promote the anti-LGBT law on television talk shows. North Carolina Democrats have filed a public records request seeking McCrory’s travel receipts and reimbursement details, since, ya know, taxpayers shouldn’t have to pick up the tab for McCrory’s political games. Particularly since they’re already paying a steep price for jobs and investments lost because of his HB2 fiasco.

• A Raleigh mother’s grief… During a news conference announcing the introduction of the most comprehensive non-discrimination bill ever introduced in North Carolina, a tearful North Carolina mom, Hope Tyler, emphasized the importance of LGBT-inclusive non-discrimination protections and said that HB2 is “emotionally killing our children.” Tyler said her 15-year-old transgender son is faltering because of HB2. “To the transgender community: You are not alone. We are going to repeal this bill,” she said — and replace it with a law that prohibits discrimination instead of requiring it.
• No grounds for enforcement… NC police departments say they’re not enforcing HB2. They also confirm that there has never been a single complaint about a transgender person in a public bathroom.
• SIREN!… Man forced to use “ladies room” in governor’s mansion!

MEANWHILE, IN OHIO AND MICHIGAN… The Michigan Board of Education has proposed  guidelines on accommodating LGBT students, triggering criticism from Republican lawmakers. At a board meeting this week, more than 100 people turned out to comment on the proposed guidelines, which would allow transgender students to use the bathroom that corresponds to their gender identity. The board has until next school year to take action. Ohio legislators held a hearing this week on two nondiscrimination bills — one would guarantee protections in employment, housing and public accommodations on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity; the other excludes gender identity and fails to cover  public accommodations, plus includes unique  exemptions for sexual orientation.

ITALY SAYS “SÌ” TO CIVIL UNIONS: Yesterday, Italy’s Parliament voted 369-193 in favor of same-sex civil unions. While the new law includes tax, inheritance and welfare protections for same-sex couples, it still prevents them from adopting their partner’s biological children.  Before yesterday’s vote, Italy was the only county in Western Europe with no legal form of recognition for same-sex couples. Though a welcome step, the new law does not provide full rights or protections for same-sex couples. Local LGBT advocates continue to push for full marriage rights. More from BuzzFeed.

EQUALITY RANKED: Check out the new ILGA-Europe Rainbow Index, which ranks 49 European countries’ treatment of LGBT people by examining their practices, laws and policies. The worst? Azerbaijan and Russia. More from The Associated Press.

CHINA’S FIRST TRANS LABOR DISPUTE REJECTED: A labor arbitration panel in China has unfortunately rejected a transgender man’s discrimination complaint against his former employer. In the landmark case for China, the man alleged that he was unfairly fired because of his gender identity. More from Hindustan Times.

RIGHTING A WRONG: Germany plans to pay full compensation to men who were convicted under the country’s former anti-sodomy laws. More from Pink News.

READING RAINBOW

13 News Now profiles Sergeant Michele “Shelly” Meister, the Virginia Beach police department’s first liaison to the LGBT community… The Washington Post makes the case for Eric Fanning, who has had his nomination to Secretary of the Army stalled by GOP Sen. Pat Roberts… 76 Crimes covers a proposed bill that would criminalize being gay in Senegal… ESPN considers the effects of HB2 on roller derby, a sport that welcomes transgender athletes… The Wall Street Journal takes a look at other states that have limited local non-discrimination protections… and the Star-Telegram covers the Fort Worth Independent School District Superintendent’s stand for transgender students.

Have news? Send us your news and tips at [email protected]. Click here to subscribe to A.M. Equality and follow @HRC for all the latest news. Thanks for reading!

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