Catholic School Bans Julianne Moore, Ellen Page Lesbian Drama Shoot – VIDEO

Catholic School Bans Julianne Moore, Ellen Page Lesbian Drama Shoot – VIDEO

Julianne Moore Ellen Page

A Catholic boys’ school in New Rochelle, New York, has reversed its decision to allow Freeheld — a film in which Julianne Moore and Ellen Page play a lesbian couple — shoot on its campus, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

A location manager had picked out Salesian High School for a key scene in the fact-based movie, based on the 2007 documentary of the same name. The school had agreed to allow the scout to shoot still photos of the building, which was to stand in for the town hall of Ocean County, New Jersey.

However, after first approving the shoot, the school’s principal, John Flaherty, then informed producer Michael Shamberg that it had reversed its decision because of the movie’s subject matter.

In an email to Flaherty, Shemberg explained that the movie is “not about gay marriage [but] about recognizing the dignity of a woman who was a brave civil servant.”

According to Kelly Bush, another producer on the movie, the school’s decision only serves to underscore the themes of the film:

Freeheld captures the inequality and bigotry that one couple faced while coping with cancer and the end of life. That our film was denied access to a location because of the subject matter — a same-sex couple fighting for their legal rights — illustrates just how important it is that this story be told.”

Mayor Paul Rosenberg of nearby Rye Brook has since stepped in and allowed Freeheld producers to use his town’s city hall for the scene.

Watch Page coming out during a speech she made at the Human Rights Campaign’s Time to Thrive youth conference in Las Vegas, AFTER THE JUMP


Jim Redmond

www.towleroad.com/2014/10/catholic-school-reverses-decision-to-allow-julianne-moore-and-ellen-page-lesbian-drama-shoot-on-camp.html

'Mystery Woman' Involved In Teddy Pendergrass' Paralyzing Accident Speaks Out, 30 Years Later (VIDEO)

'Mystery Woman' Involved In Teddy Pendergrass' Paralyzing Accident Speaks Out, 30 Years Later (VIDEO)
In 1982, charismatic soul singer Teddy Pendergrass was at the peak of his career when he slammed his Rolls Royce into a tree, leaving him paralyzed from the chest down. Though there were no other vehicles involved in the crash, there was a passenger in Pendergrass’ car. In the wake of the accident, questions emerged about this mystery woman. Her name was Tenika Watson, a nightclub performer and transgender woman.

At first, there were rumors and speculation about the cause and details surrounding the accident, but Pendergrass remained focused on his recovery and his music. Watson, too, kept quiet. In fact, in the 30 years since the accident, Watson has rarely spoken about what happened that day or about the nature of her relationship with Pendergrass. Now, in an interview with “Oprah: Where Are They Now?,” she tells her side of the story.

Like many Pendergrass fans, Watson admired the popular artist. “Teddy was a big star,” she remembers. “His music was always playing. You couldn’t get any bigger than he was, and he was a very handsome man, I must say.”

Back then, Watson, a former prostitute, lived near the studio where Pendergrass recorded his music, and one day, she saw him walking down the street. “He called me over to his car — it was a Rolls Royce,” Watson says. “I thought he was a pimp because I wasn’t used to people really having Rolls Royces.”

Instead of talking with Pendergrass, Watson says she ran away. The other time they met was at a popular club in Philadelphia, where Watson was working as a nightclub entertainer and model. The two struck up a conversation and when Watson said it was time for her to go home, Pendergrass offered her a ride.

That’s when both of their lives would change.

“First, the car started speeding up really fast, and I was wondering, ‘Was he driving fast?’ — but he wasn’t. It was out of control,” Watson says. “Then I noticed he was struggling with the wheel, and all of a sudden I heard this great big bang.”

The next moments were a blur. “The next thing I know, the press was there,” she says.

Watson was relatively unhurt — she had contusions and a chipped tooth — so she boarded the ambulance with Pendergrass and accompanied him to the hospital. She didn’t stay, however, and only learned about Pendergrass’ paralysis when it was reported in the newspapers.

Soon after the accident, Watson tried to reach out to Pendergrass, but was unsuccessful. “I went to the hospital where he was and there was a woman there. She said, ‘Well, you’re not going to see him before his son does,’ and she caused this big scene,” Watson says. “I just left.”

Two days after the accident, news broke of Watson’s past, including the gender confirmation surgery she’d undergone five years prior (“I don’t think Teddy knew about my transition at all,” she says today) and her multiple arrests for prostitution.

In light of these facts, rumors swirled that Watson and Pendergrass were intimately involved during the moment of the crash. “The hardest thing for me to read was for them to insinuate that there was a sex act going [on],” she says. “There wasn’t.”

Watson was dropped by her modeling agency before her career could even get off the ground and says that she was forced back into prostitution to support herself. She also became addicted to drugs. “The doctor started giving me Valium, and the Valium made me feel like I could deal with things better. I got hooked on them,” Watson admits. “I became strung out on drugs later.”

In 2002, Watson finally got her chance to meet with Pendergrass. “Someone called me that knew Teddy’s mother and they said, ‘Tenika, you have to get here quick because Teddy’s mother wants to see you,'” she says. “So I got myself together and went to where his mother was. She said, ‘If you want to talk to Teddy his out in the car.'”

That’s when Watson and Pendergrass came face to face for the first time in three decades.

“We didn’t have much to say to each other it… But it was the closure that I needed,” she says. “I had been through a lot and I’m sure he had too. I was clean and sober, and I had me back. I had my strength back.”

Pendergrass died in 2010 of colon cancer.

“Oprah: Where Are They Now?” airs Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on OWN.

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www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/10/22/teddy-pendergrass-accident-tenika-watson_n_6024336.html?utm_hp_ref=gay-voices&ir=Gay+Voices

Gay People, Pope Francis Will Win By Losing Catholic Church Battle For LGBT Inclusion – VIDEO

Gay People, Pope Francis Will Win By Losing Catholic Church Battle For LGBT Inclusion – VIDEO

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Writing for the Washington Post, Jonathan Capehart has argued that although conservative bishops may have won a battle last week when they voted against language that spoke of “welcoming homosexual persons” into the Catholic church, they have not won the bigger battle with Pope Francis.

Following protests from conservative bishops, the Vatican last week backtracked on reports that it had planned to be “welcoming to homosexual persons.”

However, according to Capehart, although headlines called it a “setback,” “the pope let the genie out of the bottle. And, as we all know, it’s difficult to put him back in once released.”

6a00d8341c730253ef01bb079d3a5e970d-800wiHe continues:

“What the synod did at the outset on paper, Pope Francis has been doing since ascending to the papacy. He’s been talking about gays and lesbians in the Catholic Church with an unheard-of humanity and care.

“I found it interesting that Francis insisted not only on publicizing the vote tallies for each paragraph, but also which paragraphs failed to pass. The pope said he was doing it for transparency. And that’s great. The added benefit to such openness is the signal it sends the entire church. If the pope and the bishops can engage in a rational and respectful discussion about same-sex relationships, so can the rest of the flock. That’s the genie that is out of the bottle.

“As Francis said [on October 19th] during his homily, ‘God is not afraid of new things! That is why he is continually surprising us, opening our hearts and guiding us in unexpected ways.’ By the time the bishops reconvene next October to finalize the synod document, we might be looking at a very different outcome.

“I’m not saying the church or the pope will become a champion of LGBT rights. And I’m definitely not saying they are going to support marriage equality. What I am saying is that by talking about the humanity of gay and lesbian Catholics and worrying about their place in the church, Pope Francis is openly recognizing them as children of God. After centuries of demonization, that’s a revolutionary act that can’t be undone.”

Watch a CBS report on the failure of the synod to adopt pro-gay language, AFTER THE JUMP


Jim Redmond

www.towleroad.com/2014/10/gay-people-pope-francis-will-win-by-losing-catholic-church-battle-for-lgbt-inclusion-video.html

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