Beyoncé inspired Melbourne’s newest skyscraper

Australian architects and design studio Elenberg Fraser found inspiration in a slightly unusual source when developing their newest development.

Premier Tower, one of central Melbourne’s premier new developments, was inspired by one of Beyoncé’s music video – or rather, the fabric-wrapped bodies of her dancers.

Using the theory of Occam’s razor – i.e. things should not be complicated beyond necessity – to explain the theory behind the skyscraper, the studio soon revealed its shape was not just based on a problem-solving theory.

‘For those more on the art than science side, we will reveal that the form does pay homage to something more aesthetic,’ the studio said.

‘We’re going to trust you’ve seen the music video for Beyoncé’s Ghost.’

The fabric-covered dancers’ movements inspired Premier Tower’s unusual shape.

Sitting directly in front of Southern Cross Station, in Melbourne’s Central Business District, Premier Tower will be the first thing people see upon exiting the station.

Rising 68 stories high into the sky, it is set to contain 660 apartments as well as a 160-room hotel

The building’s unusual form, with the façade swelling out in various places, is ‘the most effective way to redistribute the building’s mass’ according to Elenberg Fraser.

Designed for efficiency, the tower takes everything into account – limited space, wind and the climate.

Modeled to be as effective as possible in regards of site and climatic constraints, the tower is one of the most effective yet – according to Elenberg Fraser, the building’s design also responds to ‘frequency oscillation and wind requirements’.

Computer generated images show the development to be of the highest luxury, offering spectacular views as well as a private swimming pool.

A date of completion has not yet been announced.

The post Beyoncé inspired Melbourne’s newest skyscraper appeared first on Gay Star News.

Stefanie Gerdes

www.gaystarnews.com/article/beyonce-inspired-melbournes-newest-skyscraper/

Marriott CEO: “We Have to Protect Our Right to Welcome Everybody”

Marriott International CEO and President Arne Sorenson sat down with LinkedIn this week to discuss why it is vital for companies to speak out in support of issues like marriage equality.
HRC.org

www.hrc.org/blog/entry/marriott-ceo-we-have-to-protect-our-right-to-welcome-everybody?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss-feed

Woman “Disgusted” To Learn Her Husband Secretly Likes Guys, Says “I Can’t Compete With Other Men”

Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.

Carol, a 43-year-old old mother of two living in the U.K., is pissed. Not only did the man she marry turn out to be gay, but now people are calling him an “inspiration” and a “role model” for coming out after spending his entire life in the closet. And she’s not having any of it.

“I was disgusted by this,” she recently told the BBC, “that someone actually considered him to be both of these things when he had spent our entire relationship lying.”

(That’s one way of looking at. Alternatively, maybe he wasn’t “lying.” Maybe it just took him a while to figure it out. Human sexuality is a complex thing, after all.)

Carol continued: “To me, there is nothing to be proud of. He destroyed our family through his failure to admit that he was, in fact, gay.”

Related: Five “Straight” Guys Who Have Grindr To Thank For Accidentally Coming Out

Carol and her husband were married in 2003. She says they were “very happy and in love” and even produced two children together.

Then strange things started happening.

About six years into their marriage, she found gay dating profiles on her husband’s computer. When she confronted him about it, he explained them away. Then, in 2009, he finally told her he was bisexual. A year after that, he came out as gay.

“I thought my whole world had fallen apart,” Carol said, “but then he came back and said let’s stay together for the sake of the kids. I didn’t know what to do so we lived a lie for two years. To anyone else we looked like a normal happy couple.”

After giving it the old college try, the pair finally decided it was probably best to dissolve their union and go their separate ways.

Related: Antigay Pastor’s Adult Gay Film Past Is Uncovered To Nobody’s Surprise

Four years later, Carol still isn’t over everything that happened.

“For me it is a trust issue,” she said. “How can I trust anyone again? I can’t compete with other men. I’m a woman. But he should have been truthful from the start.”

“It would have been easier if it had been a woman,” she continued, “at least he would have loved me in the first place. He says he loved me, but I don’t believe him.”

And as for other gay men considering marrying unsuspecting women, Carol had this piece of advice:

“You have to be honest with yourself and your partner, especially when kids are involved. Not knowing your own sexuality and taking time to decide hurts everyone involved. Be true to who you are.”

What do you think? Is Carol being too hard on her ex-husband? And is it possible that he did love her even though he is attracted to men? Sound off in the comments below.

Graham Gremore

feedproxy.google.com/~r/queerty2/~3/Eac-2VSGx2A/woman-disgusted-to-learn-her-husband-secretly-likes-guys-says-i-cant-compete-with-other-men-20150708

Missouri Governor Jay Nixon Orders All State Agencies To Comply With SCOTUS Ruling: VIDEO

Missouri Governor Jay Nixon has issued an executive order directing state agencies to comply with the recent SCOTUS decision on same-sex marriage, reports Fox4kc.

Nixon also called for lawmakers to pass the Missouri Nondiscrimination Act, which would ban discrimination in employment, housing and public accommodations based on sexual orientation.

Speaking at a press conference yesterday, he said:

“This landmark ruling was a historic step forward for our nation, and it has some very real benefits for families here in Missouri.

“As Governor, I’m committed to protecting the rights of all Missourians, and that’s why this morning I am signing Executive Order 15-04 to ensure the Supreme Court’s ruling is implemented uniformly throughout state government.

“Same-sex couples now have the right to get married, but here in Missouri, individuals can still be fired for being gay.  That’s wrong, it’s not who we are – and it must change.”

Back in 2013, Missouri GOP Rep. Nick Marshall announced plans to impeach Nixon for signing an executive order directing the Revenue Department to accept jointly-filed state tax returns of same-sex couples married in other states.

Watch a Huffington Post report on Marshall’s plan to impeach Nixon below.

(Image via Wikimedia Commons)

The post Missouri Governor Jay Nixon Orders All State Agencies To Comply With SCOTUS Ruling: VIDEO appeared first on Towleroad.

Michael Fitzgerald

Missouri Governor Jay Nixon Orders All State Agencies To Comply With SCOTUS Ruling: VIDEO

Cleveland Firefighter Investigated for Homophobia Toward Gay Kid in Viral Photo

Firefighter Guy Estergall says flaming the crying gay boy on Facebook does not reflect on his work as a public servant.

read more

Mitch Kellaway

www.advocate.com/youth/2015/07/08/cleveland-firefighter-investigated-homophobia-toward-gay-kid-viral-photo

8 Iconic Movie Moments Reimagined With Queer Couples
For decades finding representation of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community in Hollywood that didn’t rely on cliches, stereotyping or violence seemed like an impossible task.

Now, as queer people are gradually being folded into mainstream society and we are seeing more queer storylines and characters than ever before, we began to wonder — what would some of Hollywood’s most beloved films look like with a queer twist?

As a result, Kriti Kaur, who drew the illustrations, reimagined eight films by turning iconic cinema opposite-sex couples into queer couples. These striking images raise the question: What would all of our favorite Hollywood references mean to our culture as a whole if queer people had been as present as non-queer couples in film and television?

1. “Casablanca”

2. “Clueless”

Kriti Kaur, who drew the illustrations, came up with the idea for these images after thinking about a way to portray the universal nature of love, no matter what one’s sexual orientation or gender identity may be. She told HuffPost Gay Voices, “I came up with this when I was trying to brainstorm ideas about portraying the concept of love and how it stays the same regardless of people’s gender identities. And I do think that when people think of love, they look back to these famous films that showcase how powerful and amazing it can be. Recreating those moments with LGBT couples just made sense!”

Check out the rest of the images below.

3. “Dirty Dancing”

4. “Grease”

5. “Love Actually”

6. “Pretty Woman”

7. “Titanic”

8. “It’s A Wonderful Life”

— 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.

www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/07/08/queer-couples-movies-moments_n_7745286.html?utm_hp_ref=gay-voices&ir=Gay+Voices

Firefighter could get fired for saying gay kid in viral photo should be ‘cured’

A firefighter could get fired for homophobic comments he made about the 13-year-old crying gay kid whose photo went viral.

Guy Estergall, who has worked as a fireman for 26 years, saw the Humans of New York photo on his Facebook like much of the rest of the world last week.

The young boy in the photo said: ‘I’m homosexual and I’m afraid about why my future will be and that people won’t like me’.

And while many of the 60,000 comments were supportive, including Hillary Clinton and Ellen DeGeneres, one was not.

‘The kid needs psychiatric help, he’s delusional,’ wrote Estergall. ‘We need to find a cure for his kid!’

The Cleveland Plain Dealer reports how he got into a heated discussion on the Facebook page, claiming the ‘overwhelming majority’ of pedophiles are gay.

‘You’re mentally ill just like the kid and the rest of the homosexuals and their supporters,’ he said.

The Cleveland Fire Department is now investigating Estergall’s comments to see if they violated their social media policy. A spokesperson said those types of statements are ‘unacceptable’. The investigation will see whether Estergall’s role as a public servant is affected by his views.

Estergall has defended his comments, saying his ‘opinion’ that all LGBTI people have mental disabilities does not affect his work.

‘Do you think I go into a fire and say, “excuse me, what’s your sexual orientation? Seriously?” he said. ‘I couldn’t care less about someone’s sexual orientation. It means about as much to me as someone’s eye color or whether they have five fingers on their left hand. It means the same to me when I’m at work.’

He added: ‘Right or wrong is irrelevant. It’s an opinion that differs from what’s popular at the moment and people are trying to take my livelihood from me.’

Estergall has not been formally reprimanded and continues to carry out his regular duties.

The post Firefighter could get fired for saying gay kid in viral photo should be ‘cured’ appeared first on Gay Star News.

Joe Morgan

www.gaystarnews.com/article/firefighter-could-get-fired-for-saying-gay-kid-in-viral-photo-should-be-cured/

Congress Members Call for Release of LGBTQ Immigrants

In June, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) issued guidance on the detention of transgender non-citizens.
HRC.org

www.hrc.org/blog/entry/congress-members-call-for-release-of-lgbtq-immigrants?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss-feed

Jonathan Groff Dishes on Dating Zachary Quinto and Being Gay in Hollywood: PHOTOS

In a new interview with Jonathan Groff posted today on FourTwoNine, author Kevin Sessums talked with the actor about his love life, that time Madonna texted during his hot new show Hamilton, the cancellation of HBO’s Looking, and how coming out has impacted his career.

Of the perils of dating while in the closet, Groff remarks that he and his former boyfriend (who was also closeted) “were living in a double closet.” After coming out he dated actor Gavin Creel. Creel took him to the march on Washington and his love life “became more public.”

Groff then dated actor Zachary Quinto and told Sessums that dating actors isn’t necessarily easier than dating civilians:

“I feel like in dating actors the nice thing about it is they understand the schedules involved or having to leave for three months to shoot something and all of that. But when I was dating Gavin and dating Zach, it was more about the people they were instead of the actors they were, which is the same about the people who aren’t actors that I’ve dated. It’s about them as people and not about any careers or jobs they have.”

On how coming out has impacted his career, Groff says:

“When I came out, I understood that maybe I wouldn’t be the male romantic lead in a Nicholas Sparks movie. And I’m okay with that. I love theater. I came to New York to be a theater actor. There are a lot of out gay theater actors. When I came out, I made peace with the fact that maybe I wouldn’t be a huge movie star or a huge TV star. But I’d rather be a working actor and not hiding anything in my personal life. Weirdly, after I came out, I began to get a lot more film and television work. That’s all a way of saying that the reason I don’t mind talking about it over and over is because that is the way acceptance happens, and that’s the way you break down those walls. It’s what Harvey Milk said about coming out to all your friends. It’s important. And the more we talk about it, then the less we’ll finally have to talk about it. And for me personally, it feels liberating. I enjoy talking about it because I felt I couldn’t talk about it for so long.”

On his family’s reaction to him coming out:

“They were shocked when I told them. It took them a while. They just couldn’t understand it. They didn’t shun me or anything like that. They’ve met my boyfriends. I took one of my boyfriends home for Christmas a couple of years ago, and they bought him a present. My dad did tell me that he started to feel really bad because he used to make fun of guys in high school for being sissies, and now he has a son who’s gay.”

As for the cancellation of HBO’s Looking, which will wrap with a TV movie meant to tie up loose ends, Groff told Sessums,

For me, the sadness was more based on our having found our stride in the second season and expanded our world. There were so many more stories to tell. San Francisco, where the series was set, is full of so many stories because it is so diverse and fascinating, and there were so many places yet to go.

And what about that time Madonna came to see his new play Hamilton and was texting through the performance? Sessums asks, “Were you disappointed the night Madonna was there but was barred from coming back afterward by [Hamilton scribe] Lin-Manuel [Miranda]?

No. Because that bitch was on her phone. You couldn’t miss it from the stage. It was a black void of the audience in front of us and her face there perfectly lit by the light of her iPad through three-quarters of the show. What was funny about it was that she was there that Saturday night, but at that Saturday matinee Michelle Obama was there. We were collecting for Broadway Cares after the show, and Mrs. Obama stayed in the audience while the Broadway Cares speech happened, and Lin called her out and the audience applauded for her. Then she came backstage and hugged every crew member—the wig girl, all the costume people, every cast member. She said to us—and this is a direct quote—“This is the greatest piece of art I’ve ever seen.”

You can read the full interview with Groff, complete with more pictures of the actor looking hunky HERE.

(Photo credit: Damon Baker)

The post Jonathan Groff Dishes on Dating Zachary Quinto and Being Gay in Hollywood: PHOTOS appeared first on Towleroad.

Sean Mandell

Jonathan Groff Dishes on Dating Zachary Quinto and Being Gay in Hollywood: PHOTOS