'Transparent,' 'OITNB,' 'Normal Heart' Among Writers Guild Nominees
Several LGBT-inclusive programs are up for awards in the Writers Guild’s competition for TV, radio, and new media.
Dawn Ennis
Season's Bleedings
Season's Bleedings
Calls for justice in Michael Brown case affirm that all lives matter.
The “Season’s Greetings” banner hung across South Florissant Road in Ferguson, Missouri, is a far smaller piece of incongruity than the Christmas truce on the Western Front during World War I a century ago, but it provides a contemporary reminder of the contrast between our ideals and our treatment of one another.
The failure last week of a St. Louis County grand jury to indict Officer Darren Wilson in the August shooting death of Michael Brown was criticized by several LGBT groups, including the National Black Justice Coalition, the National LGBTQ Task Force, the Human Rights Campaign, the National Center for Lesbian Rights, Lambda Legal, Metropolitan Community Churches, the Gay-Straight Alliance Network, the National Center for Transgender Equality, and PROMO, the statewide LGBT group in Missouri.
If gay advocacy for you is a joyful progression from understanding to understanding, you might think the story would end with these groups deploring another black son being missing from another Thanksgiving table, but you would be wrong. Here is a sampling from Twitter:
HRC expresses disappointment after grand jury fails to bring Michael Brown shooting case to trial t.co/JUMkKaZ62k via @HRC
— HumanRightsCampaign (@HRC) November 25, 2014
@HRC you just lost my donations. Stick to what you know! I will never donate to you again.
— nyctrojan (@nyctrojan69) November 25, 2014
@nyctrojan69 @HRC bye bitch! They don’t need yo money!
— Jowie Rey (@jowierey) November 25, 2014
(This last comment may be true, but don’t expect to see it as a new HRC slogan.)
What is the fuss about? Succinctly: A police officer who was more an occupier than a protector used deadly force to subdue a jaywalker, then prosecutors presented the case for his defense.
As protests sprang up across the nation and overseas last week, Wilson resigned from the force. St. Louis County police shut down a vigilante operation by the Oath Keepers militia. Twenty-year-old Deandre Joshua was killed during the unrest on the night of Nov. 24. When President Obama said after the grand jury announcement, “[T]here are still problems, and communities of color aren’t just making these problems up,” reactions from the right would make you think he had torched a storefront.
Carlton Lee, Michael Brown Sr.’s pastor, received dozens of racist death threats in recent weeks, and his church, far from the riots, was burned down as he was off trying to keep the peace. Vowing to rebuild at a Sunday service beside the ruins, he urged love in response to the haters.
It is an old struggle. Frederick Douglass, speaking in 1852 on the meaning of the Fourth of July to a slave, accused America of “crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages.” The catalog runs from slavery to the ethnic cleansing of Native Americans to the rapacity of robber barons. Extrajudicial killings of young black men by police are ongoing. The desire for payback is perfectly natural, but we must choose between seeking revenge and building our country.
Any building, however, must be done on a foundation of truth. Here are some disturbing details that we must confront: Wilson describing Brown as looking like a demon, and as if he could bounce bullets off his body; Fox News falsely reporting that Wilson suffered a fractured eye socket; an assistant DA instructing the grand jury in a law on admissible use of force by police that was ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in 1985.
The haters portray the protesters as all looters and rioters despite extensive efforts by community leaders and ministers to keep the peace. Echoing their peers in Ferguson, the Council of Elders of Metropolitan Community Churches wrote:
Humanity has the power to do great good. Systemic racism can be dismantled. The Berlin wall was toppled. Apartheid was overthrown. Nazi Germany was defeated. Slavery was stopped. Systems of oppression are constructed by human beings and can be deconstructed by human beings. Will it be easy? No, but like every good thing we work for, it will be worth the effort. Our only regret will be that we did not act more quickly.
The LGBT groups do not have to speak for everyone. All lives matter, and so do our voices.
An earlier version of this piece appeared in the Washington Blade and on Bay Windows.
Prezi® Presentation: Group 1 presents: LGBT (work in progress) by Hong Truong
Prezi® Presentation: Group 1 presents: LGBT (work in progress) by Hong Truong
This video is a Prezi®, converted by PreziTube® Create your own video from your Prezi® at PreziTube click: goo.gl/h3aa0V Title: Group 1 presents: LGBT (work in progress) Author:…
www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOVviu761qs&feature=youtube_gdata
Two Arrested for Beating Gay Man Singing 'Wicked' Tunes on Tram
Two Arrested for Beating Gay Man Singing 'Wicked' Tunes on Tram
Jean Claude Manseau and Jake Heaton were victims of a homophobic attack in England because someone didn’t like the idea of gay men singing show tunes.
Thom Senzee
www.advocate.com/world/2014/12/04/two-arrested-beating-gay-man-singing-wicked-tunes-tram
Colton Haynes Shows Off His Pipes And Madonna Has A Broken Heart
Colton Haynes Shows Off His Pipes And Madonna Has A Broken Heart
Colton Haynes can keep us warm this holiday season, even if it’s just listening to him croon “Baby, It’s Christmas.”
There are so many reasons to look forward to the upcoming film adaptation of the musical Into the Woods: Chris Pine as Prince Charming, Meryl Streep as the Witch…and oh yeah, Anna Kendricks as Cinderella selling the hell out of “Steps of the Palace.”
Uma foto publicada por Madonna (@madonna) em Dez 12, 2014 at 8:51 PST
Hey, you scoundrels who leaked a couple of songs from Madonna’s next album last week, we hope you’re happy now.
Actor Maulik Pancholy, best-known as lovelorn Jonathan on 30 Rock, will soon make his Broadway debut when he replaces Rupert Grint in the comedy It’s Only a Play.
Lily Tomlin is surely one of the most talented performers in the annals of show biz. In a new WashPo profile, she chats about rejecting the cover of Time in the mid-’70s because the editors wanted her to come out. “I wanted to be acknowledged for my work. I didn’t want to be that gay person who does comedy,” she says.
Sausage party alert! Here’s the first full trailer for season two of Looking, which will premiere January 11 on HBO.
Heard any good music lately? The fabulous DJ Earworm has unveiled the 2014 edition of his viral-friendly United State of Pop.
Jeremy Kinser
Supreme Court to Consider Michigan Gay Marriage Case January 9
Supreme Court to Consider Michigan Gay Marriage Case January 9
On January 9, the Supreme Court is expected to consider accepting the appeal of Deboer v. Snyder, the case challenging Michigan’s gay marriage ban.
You’ll recall last month, the Sixth Circuit became the first appeals court to uphold state-level bans on same-sex marriage (with the court upholding the bans in Michigan, Ohio, Tennessee, and Kentucky). Plaintiffs in the cases promptly asked the Supreme Court to take up the anti-equality ruling and the Detroit Free Press reported at the time on why April DeBoer and Jayne Rowse’s Michigan case was uniquely significant:
* There was an actual trial on the same-sex marriage issue in Michigan, whereas in other states, judges issued decisions after reading written arguments, with no cross examination of any witnesses or experts.
* Two, the Michigan plaintiffs aren’t just seeking legal recognition for same-sex couples who were married in other states, but are actually fighting to make gay marriage legal in Michigan by challenging a voter-approved ban on it.
* Three, the Michigan plaintiffs also have children they are raising together — a key issue in the same-sex marriage debate. Those fighting to legalize gay marriage argue families are being harmed when same-sex parents aren’t legally recognized, while traditional marriage advocates argue that children thrive best when raised by moms and dads and that it’s too early to tell if same-sex parenting is a good idea or not.
* Four, the state of Michigan is actively seeking to keep same-sex marriage illegal, whereas in other states, officials have opted not to pursue appeals once a federal judge has spoken on the issue. That didn’t happen at the conclusion of Michigan’s same-sex marriage trial.
DOMA lawyer Mary Bonauto has also joined the Michigan legal team.
Kyler Geoffroy
www.towleroad.com/2014/12/supreme-court-to-consider-michigan-gay-marriage-case-january-9.html
Evangelist pastors create LGBT church in Brazil
Evangelist pastors create LGBT church in Brazil
In Brazil, the Evangelist Contemporary Church was founded by Fabio Inacio and Marcos Gladston and it provides an option for LGTB couples, in contrast to the prejudices of other religious denominati…
PHOTOS: LGBT Identities, 'Village Voices'
PHOTOS: LGBT Identities, 'Village Voices'
Based on interviews with Greenwich Village characters, a new play honors the lives and losses of New York’s LGBT community.
Brandon Voss
www.advocate.com/arts-entertainment/theater/2014/12/04/photos-lgbt-identities-village-voices
Chris Rock Says He Watches Movies And 'Doesn't See One Black Woman'
Chris Rock Says He Watches Movies And 'Doesn't See One Black Woman'
The tragic deaths of Michael Brown, Eric Garner and Tamir Rice, have ignited a lot of important conversations about race. And Chris Rock is adding his own poignant and thoughtful voice to these important conversations.
In a new essay for The Hollywood Reporter the 49-year-old comedian and actor breaks down Hollywood’s race problem. “It’s a white industry,” Rock writes. “Just as the NBA is a black industry. I’m not even saying it’s a bad thing. It just is.”
Rock discusses the well-known, but under-addressed issue of diversity in Hollywood and how black people, women and especially black women rarely see themselves on screen. He talked about the racial double standard black women face when they go through casting:
[How] about “True Detective”? I never heard anyone go, “Is it going to be Amy Adams or Gabrielle Union?” for that show. I didn’t hear one black girl’s name on those lists. Not one. Literally everyone in town was up for that part, unless you were black. And I haven’t read the script, but something tells me if Gabrielle Union were Colin Farrell’s wife, it wouldn’t change a thing. And there are almost no black women in film. You can go to whole movies and not see one black woman. They’ll throw a black guy a bone. OK, here’s a black guy. But is there a single black woman in “Interstellar”? Or “Gone Girl”? “Birdman”? “The Purge”? “Neighbors”? I’m not sure there are. I don’t remember them. I go to the movies almost every week, and I can go a month and not see a black woman having an actual speaking part in a movie. That’s the truth.
This world needs more Chris Rocks in it ASAP.
Head over to The Hollywood Reporter to read the rest of Rock’s truly awesome essay.
Fifth Circuit Extends Stay of MS Marriage Ruling
Fifth Circuit Extends Stay of MS Marriage Ruling
