Selena Gomez admits to questioning her sexuality
“I think it’s healthy to gain a perspective on who you are deep down,” the 23-year-old singer tells PrideSource.
Jaclyn Hendricks
pagesix.com/2015/10/16/selena-gomez-admits-to-questioning-her-sexuality/
Hillary Clinton Shatters Rand Paul’s Homophobic Employment Policy With Single Tweet
During his recent speaking engagement at Drake University in Iowa, Republican presidential candidate Sen. Rand Paul argued that it should be alright to fire an employee for being gay. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton isn’t having it. Check out her Twitter response below.
The feeling when a GOP candidate says it’s acceptable to be fired for being gay. t.co/cF9mw5k8fq pic.twitter.com/cYFvcW27mQ
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) October 14, 2015
Jeremy Kinser
Rachel Maddow Makes the Case for the Relevance of Lincoln Chafee: WATCH
Last night, Rachel Maddow revisited Tuesday’s Democratic presidential debate and the performance of former Rhode Island Governor Lincoln Chafee.
For all the flack Chafee received for his at times blundering performance, Maddow argues that Chafee’s focus on the Iraq war was prescient given President Obama’s announcement yesterday that he would not withdraw troops from Afghanistan as previously planned. Chafee’s criticism of of Hillary Clinton’s vote in favor of the Iraq war also gave Clinton the chance “to talk about that vote and apologize for that vote in a way that honestly pretty much settles it,” as Maddow put it.
She went on,
“So Lincoln Chafee, of all people, jumping on that issue, reminding voters of that war and peace issue, testing whether or not that war issue will still be kryptonite for her politically the way it was in the past, giving her that chance, which she took, to try and put that issue to rest and to try and turn that to her advantage finally, well…thank you, Lincoln Chafee. Putting the war back into our national politics the way you did. Because, honestly without you, Lincoln Chafee, I’m not sure the war issue would be in our national politics right now. And it turns out we really need it to be in our national politics right now.”
Watch, below:
The post Rachel Maddow Makes the Case for the Relevance of Lincoln Chafee: WATCH appeared first on Towleroad.
Sean Mandell
Rachel Maddow Makes the Case for the Relevance of Lincoln Chafee: WATCH
NFL Owner Donates $10K to Houston's Anti-LGBT Referendum
While the NFL has been making strides to be more inclusive and welcoming of gay players and LGBT fans over the past few years, Houston Texans owner Bob McNair is running the ball in the other direction. McNair gave $10,000 to the effort to repeal Houston’s LGBT-inclusive human rights ordinance this week, according to the Houston Chronicle.
As The Advocate has reported, opponents of the ordinance have focused primarily on the law’s inclusion of transgender people, claiming the law will allow sexual predators to lurk in bathrooms to attack women. The claim uses transgender people as a boogeyman; no such crimes have been reported over the decades that LGBT-inclusive human rights ordinances and laws have existed.
Most local businesses and celebrities have spoken out in favor of the ordinance, but McNair’s cash infusion comes just weeks before the city election to decide the law’s fate. Tony Perkins, leader of the Family Research Council, an anti-LGBT organization listed as a “hate group” by the Southern Poverty Law Center, trumpeted the donation in an email to supporters:
“A long-time conservative, the football mogul jumped into the fight with just a few weeks left until the city’s vote. Like so many locals, he’s strongly against forcing local businesses to swallow their beliefs and celebrate sexual immorality. No doubt McNair is also shaking his head at the thought of giving grown men the green light to share bathrooms, locker rooms, and public showers with young girls simply because they identify as another gender. With a $10,000 donation, he and Major League Baseball’s Lance Berkman helped put to rest the notion that high-profile Texans all line-up behind the ordinance.”
Berkman, a former star player for the Houston Astros, appears in a recent political ad opposing the ordinance. “I played professional baseball for 15 years, but my family is more important,” the six-time All-Star says in the spot. “My wife and I have four daughters. Proposition 1 would allow troubled men who claim to be women to enter women’s bathrooms, showers and locker rooms. It’s better to prevent this danger by closing women’s restrooms to men, rather than waiting for a crime to happen. Join me to stop the violation of privacy and discrimination against women.”
HERO supporters have warned that repealing the ordinance could have financial and public relations repercussions similar to the outcry after Indiana passed a “religious freedom” law intended to allow businesses to discriminated against LGBT people. Houston is set to host the 2017 Super Bowl, but supporters say repealing HERO could jeopardize the event.
Richard Carlbom, campaign manager for Houston Unites, pointed to the many supporters of the ordinance telling the Chronicle the “vast majority of Houston business interests taking a position on Proposition 1 support it. They know discrimination is bad for business and bad for the city’s image. Over time, companies, including sporting franchises, will stop wanting to come here.”
Watch Berkman’s anti-LGBT commercial below.
Bil Browning
www.advocate.com/2015/10/16/nfl-owner-donates-10k-houstons-anti-lgbt-referendum
What's A Skoliosexual?
Miley Cyrus made headlines over the summer when she came out as pansexual, thereby introducing many people to a term that they may have heard before but don’t entirely understand.
But pansexual is just one of many sexual and romantic identities that exist beyond more commonly known and discussed orientations like heterosexual, homosexual and bisexual. In fact, some people may not even know that a person can be romantically, as well as sexually, oriented. According to Asexuality.org, romantic attraction “is an emotional response that most people often feel that results in a desire for a romantic relationship with the person that the attraction is felt towards.” The site notes that “many asexual people experience romantic attraction even though they do not feel sexual attraction” and though romantic and sexual orientations often “match,” “it is common to find mixed combinations of romantic and sexual orientations” in the asexual community.
To help shed some more light on this subject matter, here are 12 terms related to sexual and romantic identities that are beginning to receive more attention in the media but that are still regularly absent or erased from conversations currently taking place in popular culture.
Also on The Huffington Post
— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.
Chicago-Area School District Decides Discriminating Against Trans Students Worth Risking $6 Million in Fed Funding
Suburban Chicago’s Palatine-Schaumburg High School District 211 has decided to defy a U.S. Department of Education order and discriminate against a transgender student by barring her from the female locker room.
Superintendent Dan Cates
Eighteen months ago the ACLU filed a complaint on behalf of the student, who has chosen to remain unidentified. The school was found guilty of discrimination but instead of abiding by the law have decided to take another course, and made the decision public in an equally cowardly way, while students were off school for Columbus Day.
The decision may cost the school district $6 million in federal funding, the Daily Herald reports:
A federal mandate from the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights states that under Title IX requirements, transgender students should have full access to sex-specific locker rooms.
Instead, District 211 says it will provide the student with a private area to change “to protect the privacy rights of all students when changing clothes or showering before or after physical education and after-school activities, while also providing accommodations necessary to meet the unique needs of individual students,” according to a statement issued by the district Monday.
The ACLU reports:
The Department of Education has made it clear to District 211 that denying a transgender student equal access to gender-appropriate locker rooms is sex discrimination in violation federal law. District 211 has chosen, however, to abandon efforts to reach an agreement with the Department to address the violation and has announced that it will continue discriminating against transgender students.
The decision of the Office of Civil Rights results from a complaint filed by the ACLU of Illinois with the Department of Education. The young woman represented by the ACLU has identified as a female since a very early age and has been living full-time as a girl for several years. When she started high school, she and her parents met with school officials to request that she be treated as a female in all ways, including in her participation in sports, as well as restroom and locker room access. While making some accommodations, her school denied her use of the female locker rooms. Instead, she was directed to a separate bathroom for changing located down a long hallway from the gym.
Since District 211 has refused to comply with the mandate, the next step is in the Office of Civil Rights’ court to determine whether litigation, revoking funds or another punishment is necessary. Representatives from the Department of Education were not available to comment Monday because of the federal holiday.
District 211 has a $240 million budget, so the $6 million in federal funding makes up a small portion of its total revenue. Cates said it would be “unconscionable” for the government to revoke funding for at-risk students over this issue, but he isn’t willing to back down, either.
“Our principles that we stand on are the ones that define who we are,” he said.
Cates, who started his education career as a school psychologist, said he understands the difficulties facing transgender students, but that his responsibility is to all of the district’s 12,000 students.
Said John Knight of the ACLU of Illinois who represented the student:
“Transgender students now are a part of everyday American life as society has become more accepting of all kinds of differences. Instead of ostracizing these students and singling them out from their fellow students, schools and communities need to embrace kids who are different and ensure that all are able to be safe, be themselves, and succeed in school. It is puzzling that the school district has decided to elevate its misguided interpretation of ‘privacy’ over the fundamental principle of non-discrimination. The school leadership’s decision is a poor reflection on the community they represent.”
The post Chicago-Area School District Decides Discriminating Against Trans Students Worth Risking $6 Million in Fed Funding appeared first on Towleroad.
Andy Towle
The Texas Attorney General’s Thorough Plans To Discriminate Against LGBT People
This year, Texas lawmakers considered a record number of bills targeting LGBT people for discrimination and persecution, but almost all of them failed to pass. The state’s top elected leaders haven’t given up yet, however, and recently laid out extensive plans for future anti-LGBT bills.
Last week, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick (R) announced interim charges for the various committees in the legislature. At the top of his list for the State Affairs Committee was “religious liberty,” encouraging “recommendations to ensure that the government does not force individuals, organizations or businesses to violate their sincerely held religious beliefs.”
The same day, Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) was at the ready with a detailed list of proposals the Texas legislature might consider, both for how to further limit a woman’s right to choose, and for “protecting religious liberties.”
Paxton’s proposals read as general principles that skimp on the details, but are immediately recognizable as mirroring other approaches that have been considered by conservative lawmakers across the country. Here are the recommendations he made to state lawmakers about exactly what kinds of discrimination he believes should be legal — and in fact, enshrined in law — in Texas:
Discrimination against LGBT people is already legal in Texas, but the state legislature could certainly pass legislation formally licensing religious organizations to openly refuse to hire people who are LGBT, and for shelters, refuse service to people who are LGBT. Texas has already faced high-profile examples of both.
Last year, a children’s shelter in Lubbock fired an employee for introducing some of the teenagers to his same-sex fiancé. That shelter, The Children’s Home, is “licensed and reimbursed for services rendered by the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services.” Lawmakers could ensure that no act of discrimination ever endangers such funding.
Similarly, a transgender woman was denied housing by a Dallas shelter run by the Salvation Army, a religious organization. She was told when she interviewed that she could not be offered a room because she had not yet had gender reassignment surgery. She filed a complaint with Dallas’ Fair Housing Office, because the city actually protects against discrimination against transgender people, but state lawmakers could override such protections and ensure such discrimination can continue across the state.
Here, Paxton is referring to the adoption agencies — usually Catholic Charities — who have been denied state funding for refusing to serve same-sex couples in other states. In every case, the agency voluntarily shut down rather than continue to provide service without the support of taxpayer funding. In Colorado, Catholic Charities wielded their adoption services as a political weapon against civil unions legislation, threatening to shut down even if they were granted an exemption to refuse service to same-sex couples.
Similar to Paxton’s suggestion, federal legislation has similarly been introduced known as the so-called “Child Welfare Provider Inclusion Act.” It would ensure that government funding could never be cut for any child welfare agency because it refuses to serve same-sex couples.
This claim has been one of conservatives’ consistent warnings about what will happen now that marriage equality is the law of the land. It stems from a question Justice Samuel Alito asked during the Obergefell trial, referencing how Bob Jones University lost its tax-exempt status — not its accreditation — for discriminating against students who engaged in interracial relationships.
As ThinkProgress has previously explained, it’s unlikely that a school will lose its tax-exempt status simply for espousing a religious belief against same-sex marriage. What doomed Bob Jones was its active engagement in discrimination against people because of their race, not its beliefs about interracial relationships. A school’s religious tenets alone would likely not endanger their recognition. Even if a school did actively discriminate against students based on their sexual orientation, there is a much weaker foundation in law for such repercussions as compared to the precedents against racial discrimination.
With no federal law even protecting LGBT people against discrimination in education, any concern that a school’s tax-exempt status is at risk for being anti-gay is far-fetched at best.
Like the three more specific examples above, this is a more generalized commitment to ensuring that no religious organization ever lose its taxpayer subsidies because it discriminates against LGBT people.
Paxton may be referring to two possible ways that counseling is used against LGBT people.
Many states are currently working to ban conversion therapy for minors, ensuring that they aren’t subjected to harmful, ineffective treatments that try to undo their sexual orientation or gender identity. In contrast, the Texas Republican Party recognized in its 2014 platform “the legitimacy and value of counseling which offers reparative therapy and treatment to patients who are seeking escape from the homosexual lifestyle. No laws or executive orders shall be imposed to limit or restrict access to this type of therapy.”
Another conflict that has arisen in the counseling world is when students in counseling programs refuse to serve clients because of their LGBT identity without condemning them. A federal judge in Georgia ruled against a counseling student at Augusta State University in 2012 who insisted on imposing her religious beliefs, noting that she was conflating her “personal and professional values.” In contrast, the Sixth Circuit ruled in favor of a student at Eastern Michigan University, but only because she referred the client and never actually imposed her beliefs.
In either of these situations, Paxton’s approach would favor policies that harm the well-being of LGBT people.
This is the most obvious endorsement of discrimination — and not just against same-sex couples. On its face, Paxton’s claim seems to endorse religious-based discrimination against any kind of couple, including interracial couples, interfaith couples, and previously divorced people.
But both Paxton and Patrick have expressed support for wedding venues that wish to refuse service for same-sex couples. When a Colorado judge ruled against a baker for such discrimination, Patrick tweeted that it was “an attack on Americans’ 1st Amendment rights.” When the Supreme Court first ruled on marriage equality, Paxton actually encouraged county clerks to refuse service to same-sex couples too.
Currently, no state or federal law requires any business to serve LGBT people, but several Texas cities — including Austin, Houston (pending the fiercely contested referendum), Dallas, Fort Worth, Plano, San Antonio, And El Paso — do offer LGBT protections for public accommodations. If state lawmakers passed a law licensing anti-gay discrimination, it would override those city protections.
The Supreme Court’s Obergefell decision guaranteed that same-sex couples should have access to “civil marriage on the same terms and conditions as opposite-sex couples.” Paxton would challenge that by inviting government officials to refuse to perform their sworn duty to uphold the Constitution, not unlike Kim Davis of Kentucky.
If judges and county clerks refused to officiate marriages, it could force couples to have to drive hours across Texas to find someone who will.
Here again — and more explicitly — Paxton is endorsing discrimination by government employees against same-sex couples. This could mean any number of refusals of services, from county clerks who refuse to issue marriage licenses, to tax processors refusing to recognize same-sex couples as married, to a benefits administrator refusing to issue the proper benefits.
This rhetoric matches the pro-discrimination “First Amendment Defense Act” that has been proposed in Congress and endorsed by the Republican National Committee.
This likely refers to forcing universities to subsidize student groups with student fees even if the group refuses to welcome all students according to the university’s nondiscrimation policies. In 2013, Texas lawmakers considered just such a “license to discriminate” bill, which would have allowed any university group to refuse membership to anybody while still enjoying privileges on campuses. It failed, but similar bills have passed elsewhere, such as in Virginia.
Paxton could also be encouraging opposition to services that support LGBT students and policies, like those that address bullying. In 2013, Texas lawmakers targeted university LGBT resource centers, threatening to cut state funding to campuses if any of it went to support the health and well-being of LGBT students, claiming that these centers encourage behavior that creates a high risk for HIV, Hepatitis B, and other sexually transmitted diseases.
To create this uniformity, Paxton likely hopes Texas will follow the example of Arkansas and Tennessee. In those states, the legislatures passed laws that force all municipalities to conform to what nondiscrimination protections are offered at the state level — and no more. Because the state doesn’t protect sexual orientation and gender identity, neither can cities or counties. Rather than circumventing local protections, this would invalidate them completely.
Texas lawmakers proved this year that they will not hesitate to consider any number of anti-LGBT bills. With the state’s top officials encouraging them to try them again and go further in future sessions, there could be a long slog ahead for defending LGBT equality across Texas.
The post The Texas Attorney General’s Thorough Plans To Discriminate Against LGBT People appeared first on ThinkProgress.
Zack Ford
thinkprogress.org/lgbt/2015/10/16/3712803/texas-lgbt-discrimination-ken-paxton/
I Am a Woman, Not a Man in a Dress
Well, it finally happened to me.
I really had thought that I was immune to being made to feel “less than human” by insensitive and/or rude remarks, but it finally happened to me last night.
I was invited to play guitar and sing at a local open mic night. I went and was warmly received both when I walked in to the place, meeting a roomful of new people, as well as when I did my portion of the show. In fact, as far as the performance went, I was given as much applause, if not more applause than anyone else that played all night — and everyone else was very good.
I would have thought that the emotional high that I was on from holding my own in a room full of really good folksingers, would shield me from an accumulation of small hurts — but it didn’t.
Then, to have it happen to me of all people, is surprising even to me. Almost no one was trying to be rude or hurtful. They were mostly just talking naturally, but for me, every “him” and “dude” and other references to me as a male and not female cut like a knife.
Asking the owner of the bar/restaurant where the bathroom was and being directed to the men’s was the one that made me really start to feel it. Up to that point, my armor had only been dented, but that little arrow, fired by a woman no less, went right to the heart.
I started to really feel uncomfortable after that happened. The real kick in the groin came as we were leaving. I was standing outside the front door talking to the guy that ran the show. This drunk from the bar across the street was getting into his car that was parked about 10 feet from where we were standing, jumps in with, “Are you a guy or a chick?”
I said, “I’m a woman.”
He said, “I heard your voice so I had to ask.”
I said, “Yes, I get that a lot.”
I tried my best to ignore him and finish my conversation with Mike. When we did finish up, Mike said, “OK Dude, I’ll see later.” When the drunk heard the word “dude,” you would have thought he just struck gold or diamonds for all of the hooting and hollering and carrying on he did.
When Transgender women come out and commit to transitioning to being a woman full-time, the first thing that most of us feel and express is the overwhelming joy and peace of mind that comes from not hiding who you really are anymore. For most of us, suddenly the word “happy” has real meaning.
We finally find out what it feels like to be “happy.” And most of us feel that our newfound happiness will be the armor that will help us to survive all of the crap that we just invited life to throw in our laps. It is certainly the armor that has protected me, but apparently, even my “shields” need reinforcement and repair sometimes.
At one point, early in my life, this experience would have been traumatic enough to send me back into the closet for months. Nowadays, it’s usually just annoying. But for some reason, this time, it hit home.
Transitioning to womanhood late in life has its own set of problems. Not that transitioning at any time in life doesn’t have similar problems to face and overcome, but some — like speaking in a passable woman’s voice — seem to become harder and harder to do the older that you get. It has proved to be a particularly difficult problem for me.
When people first meet you, they really perceive you as a man or a woman subconsciously. They don’t have to think about it. Your voice and then your looks tell them weather you are male or female. For me, my deep male sounding voice is something that, while I haven’t given up on developing a more passable voice, I have to live with on a day-to-day basis. Until last night, I had not let my vocal problems effect my emotional well-being.
The point of all this is to illustrate just how all of those little mis-gendered pronouns and mis-gendered references to those of us who are already struggling to become or stay positive about our lives can be really destructive. And yes, just because you didn’t mean for them to be, they are very hurtful.
Drunken assholes will always be drunken assholes, and I’m afraid that we will always have to endure their slings and arrows. But it would be very helpful if the vast majority of people out there, the polite people, the ones who understand the value of a certain level of civility, remember that the nicer, kinder, gentler, more respectful kind of society that we are all striving for includes just a bit more attention to the fact that I am a woman and not “a man in a dress.”
— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.
Open Question: LGBT, what is your opinion of polygamy?
A Canadian gay couple recently divorced so they can get remarried with a third husband.
attitude.co.uk/meet-the-couple-who-got-divorced-to-add-a-third-man-to-their-relationship/
EXCLUSIVE CLIP: Tab Hunter Was So Cute It Was “Like A Flying Saucer Landed”
During his heyday in the 1950s as one of Hollywood’s top male stars, Tab Hunter headlined hit movies like Battle Cry and Damn Yankees, competed against James Dean and Paul Newman for roles and cavorted with more-or-less a Who’s Who of Tinseltown. He escorted Natalie Wood on studio-arranged dates and even maintained a recording career, releasing the number-one hit, “Young Love,” which eventually led to the formation of Warner Bros. Records. Often referred to referred to as “America’s Boy Next Door,” Hunter seemed to have the world on a string. He also had a secret he needed to keep hidden: he was gay.
In the new documentary Tab Hunter Confidential (adapted from the actor’s 2005 memoir), the still-charismatic 84-year-old candidly shares his fear of being outed during his hey day, his love affair with Anthony Perkins and the incredible story of how he endured to become a happy, healthy survivor of Hollywood’s roller coaster. Produced by Allan Glaser, Hunter’s partner of three decades, the film (in select theaters today) includes a trove of vintage footage of the heartthrob, as well as new interviews with John Waters (his Polyester director), Debbie Reynolds, Robert Wagner, George Takei and former gossip queen Rona Barrett.
Watch Waters and others discuss Hunter’s beauty in the exclusive clip below.
Jeremy Kinser
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