Open Question: Why are Arsenal the club of the LGBT community?
lol Are people trying to tell us something when they tell their friends and family that they support Arsenal?
Applause breaks out in Senate as law is passed to allow Marriage Equality in Ireland
Applause breaks out in Senate as law is passed to allow Marriage Equality in Ireland
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Applause breaks out in Senate as law is passed to allow Marriage Equality in Ireland
byu/tomybones inlgbt
Olympic Freeskier Gus Kenworthy: ‘I’m Gay’
Olympic Freeskier Gus Kenworthy: ‘I’m Gay’
Olympic freeskier Gus Kenworthy has come out of the closet. Kenworthy, who won AFP World Championships overall titles in 2011, 2012, and 2013, won silver at the Olympics in Sochi, Russia and won his first medal, a bronze, at the X Games in Tignes, France in the slopestyle event, came out on social media and in an interview with ESPN:
Gus Kenworthy started coming out to his family and closest friends nearly two years ago. His mom said she knew. His brother said he was proud. His best friend voiced unrelenting support. And if Gus Kenworthy were an average 24-year-old, the announcement — the story — might have ended there. But Gus Kenworthy is not an average 24-year-old. He is the top freeskier on the planet, an Olympic medalist, a face of the X Games. He is an elite athlete competing in the world of action sports, where sponsors — and income — are inextricably linked to image. In other words, he is an athlete with a lot to lose. But Gus Kenworthy is ready to tell that world, his sport, his truth. And so, as we sit down together in Los Angeles in September, he begins the only way he knows how: “I guess I should start by saying, ‘I’m gay.’”
I am gay. pic.twitter.com/086ayvChq2
— Gus Kenworthy (@guskenworthy) October 22, 2015
Kenworthy also updated his social media accounts with the announcement, writing on Facebook:
I am gay.
Wow, it feels good to write those words. For most of my life, I’ve been afraid to embrace that truth about myself. Recently though, I’ve gotten to the point where the pain of holding onto the lie is greater than the fear of letting go, and I’m very proud to finally be letting my guard down.
My sexuality has been something I’ve struggled to come to terms with. I’ve known I was gay since I was a kid but growing up in a town of 2,000 people, a class of 48 kids and then turning pro as an athlete when I was 16, it just wasn’t something I wanted to accept. I pushed my feelings away in the hopes that it was a passing phase but the thought of being found out kept me up at night. I constantly felt anxious, depressed and even suicidal.
Looking back, it’s crazy to see how far I’ve come. For so much of my life I’ve dreaded the day that people would find out I was gay. Now, I couldn’t be more excited to tell you all the truth. Maybe you’ve suspected that truth about me all along, or maybe it comes as a complete shock to you. Either way, it’s important for me to be open and honest with you all. Y’all have supported me through a lot of my highs and lows and I hope you’ll stay by my side as I make this transformation into the genuine me – the me that I’ve always really been.
I am so thankful to ESPN for giving me this opportunity and to Alyssa Roenigk for telling my story to the world. I think about the pain I put myself through by closeting myself for so much of my life and it breaks my heart. If only I knew then what I know now: that the people who love you, who really care about you, will be by your side no matter what; and, that those who aren’t accepting of you are not the people you want or need in your life anyway.
Part of the reason that I had such a difficult time as a kid was that I didn’t know anyone in my position and didn’t have someone to look up to, who’s footsteps I could follow in. I hope to be that person for a younger generation, to model honesty and transparency and to show people that there’s nothing cooler than being yourself and embracing the things that make you unique.
The magazine adds:
The 24-year-old Kenworthy, who finished the 2014-15 season as the Association of Freeski Professionals overall champion for the fifth year in a row, told ESPN The Magazine — in an interview done in September but published Thursday — that he contemplated quitting the sport entirely because he was distraught.
He said he’s known since the age of 5 that he is gay, but he didn’t start coming out to family and friends until two years ago.
“I never got to be proud of what I did in Sochi because I felt so horrible about what I didn’t do,” Kenworthy told ESPN The Magazine. “I didn’t want to come out as the silver medalist from Sochi. I wanted to come out as the best freeskier in the world.”
Watch:
The post Olympic Freeskier Gus Kenworthy: ‘I’m Gay’ appeared first on Towleroad.
Andy Towle
Sir Ian McKellen Calls On All Closeted Actors To Fling Their Doors Open Wide
Sir Ian McKellen Calls On All Closeted Actors To Fling Their Doors Open Wide
It all happened after coming out. I had no idea this silly thing was a weight on my shoulders. That’s my message to anyone in this town who thinks ‘I’ve got to stay in the closet to be successful in films.’ I didn’t. Do you want to be a famous movie star who has love scenes with ladies and in private be an unhappy gay? There’s no choice. Forget the career, dear. Go and do something else … A closet’s a really nasty place to live, you know? It’s dirty, it’s dusty, it’s full of skeletons. You don’t want it. Open that door — fling it wide and be yourself.”
— Sir Ian McKellen, who came out publicly in 1988, in a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter
Jeremy Kinser
Buffalo Enhances Non-Discrimination Ordinance for All
Buffalo Enhances Non-Discrimination Ordinance for All
Last week, Buffalo, New York, updated the city’s non-discrimination ordinance for all.
HRC.org
Florida Lawmaker Proposes Expansive Bill To Allow Discrimination Against LGBT People
Florida Lawmaker Proposes Expansive Bill To Allow Discrimination Against LGBT People
Florida lawmakers have not given up on passing legislation that enables discrimination against the LGBT community. State Rep. Julio Gonzalez (R) has introduced a new bill that specifically empowers businesses, health providers, and child placement agencies to refuse any service to any customer if it would violate their “religious or moral convictions.”
HB 401 specifically references Florida’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA), first passed in 1998, but builds upon it to ensure the use of religious beliefs to justify discrimination. Here are the three main categories of discrimination it aims to license:
- Any health care facility, ambulatory surgery center, nursing home, assisted living facility, extended congregate care facility, or hospice is “not required to administer, recommend or deliver a medical treatment or procedure that would be contrary to the religious or moral convictions or policies of the facility or health care provider.”
- Any person, closely held organization (small/family-run business), religious institution, or business owned or operated by a religious institution is “not required to produce, create, or deliver a product or service that would be contrary to the religious or moral convictions” of the person or organization.
- Any private child-placing agency is “not required to perform, assist in, recommend, consent to, or participate in the placement of a child that would be contrary to the religious or moral convictions or policies of the agency.”
In all three cases, the bill exempts the discriminating individual or organization from any liability for the refusal of service, and also ensures that such refusal “does not form the basis for any disciplinary or other recriminatory action” against them.
Though the bill does not include any LGBT-specific reference, Gonzalez specifically highlighted to the Herald Tribune the examples of wedding vendors that been found in violation of nondiscrimination laws when refusing service to same-sex couples. “We have seen in other states the bakers, the photographers who don’t want to participate in certain religious events,” he said.
“This is not about discriminating,” he insisted. “This is making sure the state stops, at a narrowly crafted level, from intruding into somebody’s liberties.” This is despite the fact that the bill empowers refusals of service in ways much more explicit than similarly controversial bills considered earlier this year in Indiana and Arkansas.
Gonzalez’s bill follows just six months after the Florida House overwhelmingly voted for a bill that would have specifically enabled discrimination by child-placement agencies. Opponents of that bill offered several amendments to specifically ensure the bill’s identical protections of “religious or moral convictions” could not be used to discriminate, but those amendments were repeatedly voted down. Fortunately, the bill died shortly thereafter in the Senate Rules Committee.
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The post Florida Lawmaker Proposes Expansive Bill To Allow Discrimination Against LGBT People appeared first on ThinkProgress.
Zack Ford
thinkprogress.org/lgbt/2015/10/22/3714990/florida-license-to-discriminate/
Amsterdam Lowlanders Rugby Team Go Nude For 2016 Calendar (NSFW)
Amsterdam Lowlanders Rugby Team Go Nude For 2016 Calendar (NSFW)
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The Amsterdam Lowlanders rugby team — the only rugby club in the Netherlands organized by, though not exclusive to, gay men — is going nude again to raise money for its annual calendar, this time in hopes of funding a trip to the Bingham Cup, the world cup of gay rugby, taking place in May 2016 in Nashville, Tennessee.
“Once every two years more than 60 gay rugby teams gather from all over the world to participate in one of the largest amateur Rugby Union tournaments, the Bingham Cup,” Dennis de Boer, Chairman of the Lowlanders, said in a statement. “To get our entire team to participate, including our teammates that can’t afford such a trip on their own, our members worked passionately to produce this calendar. Passion is one of the core values of rugby, just as is respect, camaraderie and 100% dedication. Since 2003 the Lowlanders offer gays the opportunity to develop these aspects, to be part of the worldwide rugby family and to feel this rough sport offers a place to everyone. It’s a huge honor for us to present the first calendar to the Leo van Herwijnen Rugby Foundation. They will give the calendar a place in their permanent exhibition at the National Rugby Center in Amsterdam.”
Check out photos from the 2016 calendar below. Interested in acquiring your own? Head here.
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Provocative Films About Gay Palestinians & Crack-Addicted Trans Working Girls Among the Bold Highlights at New York’s Newfest 2015
Provocative Films About Gay Palestinians & Crack-Addicted Trans Working Girls Among the Bold Highlights at New York’s Newfest 2015
Naz and Maalik
Newfest launches with a bang tonight with Peter Greenaway’s visually stunning biopic Eisenstein in Guanajuato, and on tomorrow’s agenda is one of the world’s only LGBT film fest screenings of the highly anticipated Cate Blanchett-Rooney Mara love story Carol. But some of the most exciting flicks at this year’s incarnation of New York City’s gay film festival will be its documentaries, a heady blend of rare slice-of-life glimpses into little-seen LGBT lives from across the planet and right next door.
Undoubtedly the most controversial of Newfest 2015’s bold lineup — and especially poignant given the flare-up of Palestinian-Israeli violence in recent weeks — is Oriented, one of the first documentaries to profile gay Palestinians, and certainly the first to do so in such a positive (if far from breezy) light. Shot during the lead-up to the last round of pronounced regional tensions in 2014, the film focuses on Khader, Fadi and Naeem, three hip young gay Tel Aviv-based Palestinian friends who’ve formed an artistic resistance group called Qambuta. It’s an honest and fairly mind-blowing look at the grim and complex societal and familial challenges the guys face on a daily basis, and the creative, innovative and completely non-violent methods they’re using to overcome those pressures.
Oriented
Another fascinating documentary gem at Newfest this year is actually a throwback two-pack, 1990’s The Salt Mines and its 1995 sequel The Transformation, both of which have barely been seen in the two decades since they were made. The Salt Mines introduces us to the almost unbelievable Manhattan-fringe world of a fierce and plucky assortment of homeless crack-addicted Latin trans prostitutes, who’ve formed a makeshift society on a near-abandoned New York City Department of Transportation lot amid broken down garbage trucks and stored mountains of winter salt. Just when you think you’ve seen it all, the film’s follow-up The Transformation reveals that five years on, the ravishing Sara is now astoundingly living in Dallas as Ricardo — not only as a born again Christian, but also engaged to marry a cis woman. As we discover that some of his former Salt Mines neighbors are meanwhile leading very different lives, it becomes obvious that Ricardo’s stunning transformation isn’t as clear-cut as it initially seems.
Other doc standouts at Newfest 2015 include Finding Phong, which follows a young Vietnamese transwoman as she prepares for gender confirmation surgery; Gazelle: The Love Issue, profiling Brazilian-born New York City club fixture, photographer and publisher Gazelle (who’s a flight attendant known as Paulo by day); and Fassbinder: To Love without Demands, a portrait of prolific but divisive bisexual director Rainer Werner Fassbinder, as remembered by his friend, Danish author and director Christian Braad Thomsen.
Eisenstein in Guanajuato
And while it won’t be world premiering any dramatic films this year, Newfest is certainly showcasing some of 2015’s best from other fests (many in New York City for the first time), including the aforementioned Eisenstein in Guanajuato, a gorgeous look at the sexual and creative awakening of gay Russian director Sergei Eisenstein during his early 1930s visit to Mexico; Those People, the beautifully-shot story of two young lifelong friends (and maybe more) against the gilded but seriously tarnished Manhattan backdrop of a Madoff-esque scandal; Take Me to the River, an explosive but tender family drama and Sundance favorite centering on the clash between a gay California teen and his mother’s rural Nebraska clan; Summer of Sangaile, a sweet and charmingly offbeat lesbian love story (and another Sundance favorite) set in the Lithuanian countryside; Naz and Maalik, a slice-of-life look at two in-love but closeted black Muslim teens in Brooklyn; Fourth Man Out, a working class buddy comedy (and Outfest Dramatic Feature Audience Award winner) in which a newly out guy’s three straight buds help him find a boyfriend; and The Girl King, renowned Finnish director Mika Kaurismäki’s take on the 17th century romance between Sweden’s Queen Christina and her lady-in-waiting, Countess Ebba Sparre.
The 27th edition of Newfest runs through Tuesday, October 27. For the full list of films and to purchase tickets, check out the official site.
Jeremy Kinser
Hillary Clinton Testifies Before Benghazi Committee: WATCH LIVE
Hillary Clinton Testifies Before Benghazi Committee: WATCH LIVE
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will testify before the Benghazi Select Committee, scheduled to begin at 10 am ET.
To open this post in a separate window, click HERE.
Given the fact that in recent weeks the Committee has been exposed as being a complete farce, things should get interesting.
We’ve seen Rep. Kevin McCarthy admit it was a political attack committee in an appearance with Sean Hannity.
This was followed by Rep. Richard Hanna (R-N.Y.) voicing his view that “there was a big part of this investigation that was designed to go after people and an individual, Hillary Clinton.”
Then there was Bradley Podliska, an Air Force Reserve intelligence officer and self-described conservative, who was fired as a Republican staffer on the committee — in part, he said, because he resisted pressure to focus on Clinton. Podliska called it “a partisan investigation” with a “hyper-focus on Hillary Clinton.” He said the “victims’ families are not going to get the truth.”
And this jaw-dropping revelation:
Perhaps alcohol is to blame for the clumsy pursuit of Clinton. Podliska told the New York Times that committee members had started a “Wine Wednesdays” club and drank out of glasses imprinted with the words “Glacial Pace,” a reference to complaints about the leisurely investigation from Rep. Elijah Cummings (Md.), the panel’s top Democrat. GOP staffers also formed a gun-buying club. The slow pace leaves the strong impression that the panel is trying to extend its probe as far as possible into the 2016 election cycle.
The post Hillary Clinton Testifies Before Benghazi Committee: WATCH LIVE appeared first on Towleroad.
Andy Towle
Hillary Clinton Testifies Before Benghazi Committee: WATCH LIVE
PHOTOS: Trans Model Laith Ashley Is Blowing Up Instagram
PHOTOS: Trans Model Laith Ashley Is Blowing Up Instagram
According to Laith Ashley’s Instagram profile, he’s all about, “trying to become the best and the truest version of myself,” and “sharing light and positivity with all my kings and queens.”
Two worthy goals if you ask us.
And by the looks of it, he’s doing a bang-up job at both. When he isn’t posing for the camera, Laith works at New York’s Callen-Lorde Community Health Center.
Yes, yes and a side of yes:
Dan Tracer
