HRC Board Member Recognized as “Fearless LGBT Advocate” in Arizona
Sheila Kloefkorn, a member of HRC’s Board of Directors and Tempe resident, was named as an Arizonan to watch by The Arizona Republic.
HRC.org
Keep Your Nipples Unclamped! Newly-Released Documents Reveal Maggie Thatcher Wanted To Ban Sex Toys
Keep Your Nipples Unclamped! Newly-Released Documents Reveal Maggie Thatcher Wanted To Ban Sex Toys
We always knew Margaret Thatcher was a prude, but we had no idea she was this puritanical.
A trove of new documents released by the National Archives in the U.K. have unveiled that the Iron Lady once considered a law banning sex toys (i.e. dildos, butt plugs, nipple clamps, etc.) in an effort to promote “public decency” and prevent “physical injury.”
The documents reveal the former prime minister was persuaded to consider the law by notorious antifeminist, antigay, anti-television, anti-obscenity, anti-everything campaigner Mary Whitehouse.
Thatcher’s home secretary, Lord Leon Brittan, wrote to his boss in September 1986 about Whitehouse’s “strong case” for banning sex toys under the 1959 Obscene Publications Act, the same law used to prosecute the publisher of DH Lawrence’s classic romance novel Lady Chatterley’s Lover.
Brittan explained: “Some of the items in circulation are most objectionable, including some which can cause physical injury.”
He went on to say that he believed that sex toys could be deemed “deprave and corrupt.”
In response, Thatcher requested Brittan prepare a test which would allow lawmakers to set a new bar for measuring what was indecent. After mulling it over for a bit, Brittan replied that trying to measure that sort of thing would be too complex a concept for the courts to litigate over and the plan was swiftly abandoned.
The news of Mrs. Thatcher’s war on sex toys comes mere weeks after the U.K. government imposed a new law banning certain sex acts in British-made adult videos, including spanking, facesitting, and caning, among other things. Lawmakers deemed the acts morally corrupt and dangerous, sparking outrage among many who accused the government of attempting to police their bedroom behavior and impose upon their civil liberties.
Related stories:
Hey Brits, You Can Perform And Watch These Sexual Activities, Just Don’t Film Them
How The UK Ruined Gay Sex For Everyone
Graham Gremore is a columnist and contributor for Queerty and Life of the Law. Follow him on Facebook and Twitter.
Graham Gremore
Conservative Group Sues to Block Marriage Equality from Taking Effect in Florida Next Week
Conservative Group Sues to Block Marriage Equality from Taking Effect in Florida Next Week
Florida Family Action, Inc, a conservative group led by anti-gay wingnut John Stemberger (above), filed lawsuits on Tuesday seeking to stop marriage equality from going into effect on January 6 when a stay of U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle’s ruling striking down the state’s gay marriage ban expires, the AP reports:
The officials named in the lawsuits are Osceola County Clerk of Court Armando Ramirez, Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer (pictured, right) and Circuit Judge Robert LeBlanc.
The conservative group argued the lifting of the state’s ban on same-sex marriage applies to only Washington County in the Panhandle, where the legal challenge originated.
Ramirez is the only Florida clerk of courts outside of Washington County who has publicly said he will issue licenses to same-sex couples, according to a survey of clerk of courts done by The Associated Press last week.
Dyer and LeBlanc have said they plan to officiate at same-sex weddings on Jan. 6, the day Florida’s ban on gay marriage is scheduled to be lifted.
Said Stemberger of the suits:
“All three of these officials have shown great contempt and disrespect for the rule of law and are behaving irresponsibly and unprofessionally. The federal court decision is clear that it only applies narrowly to the two plaintiffs and only in Washington County. Elected officials must be held accountable to the law and to the constitution they have sworn to uphold. Part of the reason for the recent landslide mid-term election was the utter disregard and insolence shown by President Obama for the rule of law which is now infecting so many other politicians across America. Respect for law must be restored or else legitimacy in government as an institution will diminish at an even greater rate. Ultimately, if these local officials continue in this same reckless pattern of behavior, they could easily face the same fate as so many other politicians did who are now retired as a result of the last election.”
Stemberger said in July that the fight against same-sex marriage is “worth dying for.”
Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi asked Hinkle late on Monday to clarify the scope of his ruling, asking him to specify whether it applies to clerks throughout the state. A majority of the 67 county clerks in Florida have said they will not issue marriage licenses to gay couples unless it is clarified.
Florida Family Action also filed a brief in the case arguing that the judge cannot expand the scope of his ruling to include any other clerk in the state.
#106 on Scribd”>4:14-cv-00107 #106 by Equality Case Files
Andy Towle
item_1.adapt.480.high.1419544493945
The 6 Resolutions All Gay Men Should Make
The 6 Resolutions All Gay Men Should Make
Break out the bubbly and light up the sparklers, because it’s time to ring in the New Year.
Tyler Curry
www.advocate.com/commentary/tyler-curry/2014/12/30/6-resolutions-all-gay-men-should-make
Best of 2014: Healthcare Facilities Work to Meet HRC Standards
Best of 2014: Healthcare Facilities Work to Meet HRC Standards
When the HRC Foundation released its annual Healthcare Equality Index (HEI), we saw significant improvements to healthcare facilities directly relating to LGBT equality throughout 2014.
HRC.org
Edie Windsor Looks Back On A Whirlwind 2014
Edie Windsor Looks Back On A Whirlwind 2014
NEW YORK (RNS) The subject is same-sex marriage, but the vivacious blonde who has come to personify the issue stops her interrogator with a scolding.
“Could I suggest that you don’t say same-sex marriage anymore?” Edie Windsor asks politely. “Because it’s not. It’s marriage.”
As in her own marriage to the late psychologist Thea Spyer, which followed a 40-year engagement. As in the wedding ceremonies she attends or is forced to skip because she can’t keep up with all the invitations. As in the marriages sanctioned by judges in 27 states this year, all of which mention Windsor by name.
While 2013 brought the landmark ruling in United States v. Windsor that forced the federal government to recognize legally married gay men and lesbians, 2014 was the year that the case spurred a judicial juggernaut. From Oklahoma in January to Mississippi in December, federal judges in the nation’s most conservative states declared that what this 85-year-old widow started can’t be stopped.
From the comfort of her apartment at the foot of Fifth Avenue in Greenwich Village, Windsor recalls the “mind-blowing days” when state laws and constitutional amendments banning gay marriage were falling like so many dominoes.
“The statistics were changing every night,” she says. Even now, Windsor has trouble with the math — 35 states where marriage is legal for two men or two women, and 10 others where lower court judges have said it should be.
“I didn’t expect any of it,” she says, “and certainly not in the time frame.”
To be sure, several recent decisions upholding gay marriage bans in Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, Louisiana and Puerto Rico have slowed progress and put the ultimate resolution in doubt. The Supreme Court that brought Windsor instant fame on June 26, 2013, will have to make the final call — perhaps next year.
But the court may have tipped its hand in October when it refused to hear appeals from Utah, Oklahoma, Virginia, Indiana and Wisconsin challenging lower court rulings that struck down gay marriage bans. Now most Americans live in states where such marriages are legal.
Windsor, a former IBM computer systems programmer, isn’t discouraged by the setbacks. She never expected the fight she began in 2009 to be easy.
When Windsor and her lawyer, Roberta Kaplan, filed the lawsuit that would change the arc of history, only a handful of states allowed gays and lesbians to marry. By the time they won their case, there were a dozen. After Windsor came the deluge.
All that happened because Windsor balked at a $363,000 federal tax bill on Spyer’s estate in 2009 — a tax that would not have been levied on the surviving spouse in a heterosexual marriage.
“The principal purpose and the necessary effect of this law are to demean those persons who are in a lawful same-sex marriage,” Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote in the 5-4 decision.
Windsor has seen not only judicial victory in her lifetime, but steady progress in public opinion polls. About 55 percent of Americans now say gay marriage should be legal.
“For ages before my case, that was not true,” she says. She hopes those sentiments will turn the tide against what she calls “terrible and ugly” state proposals aimed at shielding merchants with religious objections from participating in same-sex marriages.
Windsor takes pride in the advances made by her gay and lesbian community.
For young people in particular, she says, “hopefully it’s the beginning of the end of suicides … the beginning of the end of stigma … the beginning of the end of internalized homophobia.”
Five years removed from the heartache of Spyer’s death, Edie Windsor is a whirlwind. She recalls the days when she begged her cardiologist to keep her alive long enough for the Supreme Court’s ruling in her case. Now she’s walking 10,000 brisk steps a day, and her heart function is improving.
Her schedule is filled out for the first six months of 2015 already, public appearances wedged between her sign language classes (she is hard of hearing) and chorus practice (Spyer encouraged her to sing). Riding the Broadway-Seventh Avenue Local subway, she revels in a brief dose of anonymity.
“What I am is a draw,” Windsor says. “Every organization that is having something wants me there because they double the number of people there.”
How long will she be able to keep up the pace? Windsor says it doesn’t matter — the final victories in the gay marriage movement will happen, with or without her.
“I’ve had a lot of the celebration and a lot of the joy,” she says. “It’s OK if I’m not there for the rest of it.”
== 30 ==
Copyright 2014 Religion News Service. All rights reserved. No part of this transmission may be reproduced without written permission.
Party hardy: 7 New Year's Eve blowouts in America this month
Party hardy: 7 New Year's Eve blowouts in America this month
See in the New Year in style from Philadelphia and New York to Washington DC
jamiet
www.gaystarnews.com/article/party-hardy-7-new-years-eve-blowouts-america-month171214
DVD: “Last Weekend,” “Tusk,” “Elsa & Fred,” & More!
DVD: “Last Weekend,” “Tusk,” “Elsa & Fred,” & More!
We’re ringing in the new year with a diverse batch of home entertainment releases, from senior citizen rom-com (Elsa & Fred, above) to off-kilter horror (Tusk) to a queer-inclusive drama starring Patricia Clarkson (Last Weekend).
Scroll down for the deets!
($24.99 Blu-ray, $19.98 DVD; Lionsgate)
In this totally off-kilter horror-comedy from filmmaker Kevin Smith, Justin Long plays a podcaster who finds himself in dire straits when encountering a man obsessed with seals. Zany stuff, with an utterly bonkers surprise appearance by a heavily made-up Johnny Depp as a loopy investigator! Extras include making-of featurettes, deleted scenes, a commentary and audio Smodcast about the film.
($24.99 DVD; IFC)
In an all-too-rare starring role, Patricia Clarkson plays the matriarch of a family — including a gay son and his boyfriend — that gather at their gorgeous summer home. Dramz ensue!
($24.99 Blu-ray, $19.99 DVD; Millennium)
Shirley MacLaine and Christopher Plummer play single, elderly neighbors who discover that love has no expiration date. Silverdaddy and MacLaine fans, this is the rom-com for you! Extras include a making-of featurette.
ALSO OUT:
The Equalizer
Stephen King’s A Good Marriage
Kelly & Cal
Reach Me
Lawrence Ferber
feedproxy.google.com/~r/queerty2/~3/_zvbnkZtqIQ/dvd-last-weekend-tusk-elsa-fred-more-20141230
California Health Officials Issue Alert After Adult Film Actor Tests HIV-Positive
California Health Officials Issue Alert After Adult Film Actor Tests HIV-Positive
The Department of Public Health in California has issued an alert following an adult film actor testing positive for HIV after having unprotected sex with “several other males” on a film shoot in Nevada. According to public health officials, the actor tested negative before the shoot.
“During the second film shoot, he had symptoms of a viral infection,” the alert states. “The actor went to a clinic and had another blood test that showed he had recently become infected with HIV.”
One actor from the second shoot has since tested positive for HIV. According to the health department, lab results indicate the first actor who tested positive “probably transmitted” HIV to the second.
A health department official was unable to immediately release further details regarding the lab testing and investigation. The alert notes that very early in an HIV infection, the test can be negative “even though the actor really does have HIV.”
“In this case, the actor and production company thought he was HIV-negative during filming,” the alert states. “Shortly after his negative test, HIV levels in his body rose rapidly to where he could infect other actors through unprotected sex.
President of the Los Angeles-based AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) Michael Weinstein commented, “It’s happened before, it’s happened now, and it will happen in the future. The big lie the industry has been saying all these years, there are no on-set transmissions, has been proven to be untrue.” Weinstein has also been an outspoken critic of PrEP, labeling it a “party drug.”
AHF and Weinstein championed a law approved by Los Angeles voters that mandates all adult film performers in L.A. County wear condoms when working in adult films. As a result of that ordinance, passed in 2012, adult film production in L.A. County dropped by nearly 90%. Back in August, the California Senate Committee on Appropriations voted down a bill that would have extended those requirements to adult film workers throughout the state.
Sean Mandell
