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Gareth Thomas Reveals New Partner With Sexy Bathtub Photo

Gareth Thomas Reveals New Partner With Sexy Bathtub Photo

unnamedWe’ve been together about a year now. We moved in together after about a month, a month and a half. I know so many people gay, or straight, who have regrets and just wish they’d not missed out on something good. I don’t want to regret something, I wanted to give it a go. It did seem pretty quick but we’re better than we ever have been after living together for a year. We thought ‘if it is right to us then bollocks to what anyone else thinks.’ If anyone thought it was too soon we’ve proved them wrong as now we’ve got our own house in Wales, we’re settled and life is good. I was 39 and Ian was 50. We’re not teenagers anymore and we live or die by our decisions and not by what other people decide for us.”
– Former rugby superstar Gareth Thomas speaking about his boyfriend Ian Baum and posing in a bubble bath with him for a cover story for Attitude magazine

Jeremy Kinser

feedproxy.google.com/~r/queerty2/~3/9ydWRmfRPd0/gareth-thomas-reveals-new-partner-with-sexy-bathtub-photo-20140912

MISC

Facebook Begins Enforcing 'Real Name' Policy, Disproportionately Affecting GLBT Performers

Facebook Begins Enforcing 'Real Name' Policy, Disproportionately Affecting GLBT Performers

My Name Is Roma

Facebook requires members to use their real names, a fact of which most folks are likely unaware due to the policy largely being unenforced, a decision quite possibly made due to the substantial blowback Google Plus received with their mandatory real name policy that they only recently rescinded. However, Facebook is now cracking down on their policy and the fallout is a disproportionate effect on LGBT individuals and drag performers in particular.

In a remarkably tone-deaf response in an interview with Business Insider, a Facebook representative said:

If people want to use an alternative name on Facebook, they have several different options available to them, including providing an alias under their name on their profile, or creating a Page specifically for that alternative persona.

As part of our overall standards, we ask that people who use Facebook provide their real name on their profile.

Fan Pages and Musician/Group categories are how stars like Lady Gaga, Madonna, RuPaul, and will.i.am keep their obvious stage names. 

Sister Roma of the San Francisco chapter of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence is presently one of the more high-profile dissenters to the policy. When Roma, who now has to go by Michael Williams in order for his Facebook account to remain active, was told to create a Fan page he responded: 

I use this site to keep up with friends and simply don’t want employers or crazy stalker people to log on and search me . I want my friends to find me…I detest the idea of having a fan page. I’m not fucking Britney Spears. I have friends, not fans.

Saying additionally:

Bottom Line: I’ve been Sister Roma for 27 years. Ask anyone what my name is, in or out of drag, and they will tell you it’s Roma. #MyNameIsRoma. 

Which brings to the forefront something that Facebook may not be considering: safety. While no doubt some users adopt pseudonyms for the purposes of trolling or harassment, no small number adopt fake names to protect their privacy and safety, and when that privacy is broken it can lead to disastrous results as one particularly devastating incident on Google Plus revealed.

This mandatory outing could be especially destructive for LGBT youth who need the protection of anonymity to connect with friends and resources without subjecting themselves to the hatred of peers…or even their own family. Going to Sister Roma again, she posted a message she received from a friend when the name change went into effect:

Here is an example of the comments i have received regarding Facebook’s legal name change policy:

“The name I was born with is the name of a victim, a lonely little boy who hated himself.

That is NOT who I am. 

#MyNameIsJayd“

Adding to all of the chaos and shady business, Roma went to reply to a message from Sister Unity and found that the entire thread had been censored, along with other conversations that had discussed Facebook’s name change policy. 

Then there’s the whole question of “How does Facebook enforce this?” Unlike Google Plus, users don’t have to submit photographic proof of identity when they sign up, so it seems to be that enforcement his highly subjective and is going to target people with obvious stage names rather than people who are simply creating a fake profile with a real-sounding name. Enforcement is also very spotty; Roma and some Sisters have been forced to change their names, while other Sisters like Nancy Drew Blood and performers like Heklina have their drag names intact. 

A Change.org petition has been started to demand that Facebook allow performers of all types be allowed to use their stage names and is seeking 2,800 signatures. As of right now, Facebook hasn’t commented any further on the issue.


Christian Walters

www.towleroad.com/2014/09/facebook-begins-enforcing-real-name-policy-disproportionately-affecting-glbt-performers.html

MISC

If You Don't Go After It, Someone Else Will

If You Don't Go After It, Someone Else Will
Everything eventually surfaces in one way or another. As gay men, sometimes we find ourselves subconsciously choosing to do everything in our power to avoid looking foolishly vulnerable and admittedly undesirable in the face of other gay men, but at the end of the day, doing that almost NEVER makes us feel any stronger or masculine by a long shot. By bottling everything up, you almost always look like you’re hiding something in the face of your friends who only want to pull you aside and give you the gulping truth. You can’t have your cake and eat it too girl.

The suckiest blow to the gut for any gay man is when his dream babe starts hooking up with the guy he’s mildly interested in seeing. When that happens, all hell breaks loose. You are so taken back that you without a doubt can’t understand how to process all those set of emotions rushing through you. Not keeping in mind that the business with those two boys hooking up has nothing to do with you, and that just because you’re lonely doesn’t mean that you should selfishly occupy the down time you have with someone you are not even that into for the sake of not being with yourself.

The only promise that can come about out of all of that lying is that you are not being honest with yourself, with that guy who might like you more than you like him, and to the guy who you really want to get to know, but who has no idea you exist because you haven’t put yourself out there to him yet. One some level we are grown enough to subconsciously acknowledge this to ourselves, but no one is ever really ready to accept it. Our egos have a hard time allowing us to do so.

As a pain in the ass as it is to accept, most likely, there is someone else out there desiring the same person you are, so if you aren’t brave enough to assert yourself to that guy, then someone else will happily do so. Chances are, when you take the risk, you WILL at least know what you have to work with, go on or move on from. You have to run the distance if you expect to finish.

All caught up in dreamland, I didn’t fully realize until lately that the guy I liked since my freshman year in college doesn’t like me, and not just in the boyfriend type of way, but that he probably doesn’t like me as a person. Yeah, I could be overreacting. In the past, I would love to give all the reasons why this guy wouldn’t possibly give me the time of day, but I never got anything from him, even after my few attempts to initiate something. It was like talking to a brick wall.

What I learned from that situation is that the longer you wait to make a move, the less interested everyone becomes. You begin to ask yourself. Where is the mystery? Whether or not that person will reciprocate the same feelings you have is not the heart of the conflict to be solved. They might have some inkling of an idea because some other person has probably mentioned you to them, and they were waiting for you to say something all that time, but by not saying anything, you ended up looking cowardly and worse than if you were to say anything at all.

Of course in our wild, emotionally, untamed hearts, the object of our affection belongs to us. The moment you hear otherwise, that some other dog is barking up that tree, then you want to hurt a bitch, when, they were never even yours.

In the end, we all want validation and love that is so inconvenient. Unless, one doesn’t care, and in that case that sort of person will show you their true colors; otherwise, don’t we all want to get to that reassuring place?

We all have the tendency to build up the guys we’re interested in dating. In our eyes, they are perfect, and we vaguely see the little to zero flaws they do possess. By remembering that Tom, Dick and Harry are human too, and that they have needs and insecurities they want to fulfill like everyone else, we lessen the pressure. No matter what, there is always someone better out there, always. And knowing that makes the dream not so unattainable.

www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-mcnair/if-you-dont-go-after-it-s_b_5808530.html?utm_hp_ref=gay-voices&ir=Gay+Voices

MISC

Barbra Streisand's son on duet with his mom and why he took so long to pursue music

Barbra Streisand's son on duet with his mom and why he took so long to pursue music

Jason Gould: ‘My mother’s such an idon. I thought, “I can’t open my mouth, people would compare” and I just didn’t think I’d ever want to go there’

read more

gregh

www.gaystarnews.com/article/barbra-streisands-son-dueting-his-mom-and-why-he-took-so-long-pursue-music120914

MISC

Ben & Jerry’s Joins Amicus Brief to the Supreme Court Supporting Marriage Equality

Ben & Jerry’s Joins Amicus Brief to the Supreme Court Supporting Marriage Equality

Everyone’s favorite LGBT-friendly ice cream company, Ben & Jerry’s, has taken another step for LGBT equality, signing onto an amicus brief supporting marriage equality.
HRC.org

www.hrc.org/blog/entry/ben-jerrys-joins-amicus-brief-to-the-supreme-court-supporting-marriage-equa?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss-feed

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