WATCH: NOM Ad Says N.C. Marriage Equality Is All Sen. Kay Hagan's Fault
The ad denounces Hagan for voting to confirm the judge who brought marriage equality to the state — but all other senators present voted the same way.
Trudy Ring
Gay Halloween New Orleans: 102 Hotshots Of The Big Easy Celebrations
Gay Halloween New Orleans: 102 Hotshots Of The Big Easy Celebrations
Last weekend, Towleroad hit The Big Easy for Halloween New Orleans!
We were so excited to participate this year as a media sponsor and our crew was headquartered outside OZ bar each day at the corner of Bourbon and St. Ann Streets in the French Quarter where the revelry that New Orleans is famous for continued day and night.
2014-10-26 19.29.14Our Bourbon Street gallery features photos we took in and around the gayest intersection in NOLA, and inside OZ bar. We were happy to meet so many Towleroad readers and look forward to see you again next year.
New Ad Proves Nan Hayworth Loves Her Own Gay Son, But Where’s the Love for Everyone Else?
New Ad Proves Nan Hayworth Loves Her Own Gay Son, But Where’s the Love for Everyone Else?
Nan Hayworth, running to unseat openly gay Congressman Sean Patrick Maloney for New York’s 18th Congressional District, is running a new ad featuring her own gay son—seemingly in an attempt to gloss over her own poor record on marriage equality.
HRC.org
Airport Homophobe Identified As McCleish Christmas Benham, May Face No Jail Time For Attack
Airport Homophobe Identified As McCleish Christmas Benham, May Face No Jail Time For Attack
In case you’ve been hiding under a rock since last week and have only just emerged, you should probably get something to eat. Also, you missed this video of a group of airline passengers (and definitely not Paul Rudd) tackling a homophobic aggressor at the Dallas Airport.
Here’s the update:
First things first, the attacker has been identified as one McCleish Christmas Benham, 27, of Shelbyville, Tennessee born 12/17/1986. So much going on already. Birthday is eight days before Christmas, middle name is Christmas. First name is McCleish? McCleish?? And isn’t Shelbyville the rival of Springfield on The Simpsons?
None of that actually matters, just needed to get it out.
The real story is that he may not face a single day of jail time for his clear-as-day anti-gay hate crime.
He was caught on video saying, “Queers is what I’m upset about! This faggot right here!” before violently attacking someone.
Yet he’s being charged with public intoxication and simple assault, both class-C misdemeanors each punishable by a maximum $500 fine.
In the official police report, the responding officer writes:
“[Victim] told Mr. Benham that the police were on the way and he needed to calm down. [Victim] said Mr. Benham called him a “San Frisco Faggot” and then punched him in his right eye.”
Pete Schulte, an openly gay Dallas criminal defense attorney and former police officer, told the Lone Star Q he was surprised the charges were so light.
We hope that justice catches up with McCleish and his charges are elevated to reflect the nature of his crime.
Dan Tracer
102 Hot Shots on Bourbon Street at Gay Halloween New Orleans: PHOTOS
102 Hot Shots on Bourbon Street at Gay Halloween New Orleans: PHOTOS
Last weekend, Towleroad hit The Big Easy for Halloween New Orleans!
We were so excited to participate this year as a media sponsor and our crew was headquartered outside OZ bar each day at the corner of Bourbon and St. Ann Streets in the French Quarter where the revelry that New Orleans is famous for continued day and night.
Our Bourbon Street gallery features photos we took in and around the gayest intersection in NOLA, and inside OZ bar. We were happy to meet so many Towleroad readers and look forward to see you again next year.
Also, coming up shortly we’ll have galleries of both the Friday night NEON party at Republic nightclub and the main ‘Descent’ costume ball where there was plenty of sexiness, skin, drag, and devilry to be found.
Halloween New Orleans is one of the largest and most amazing party events of the season and the weekend, now in its 31st year, is one of the only 100% donation/volunteer event weekends left in the U.S.. Project Lazarus, a home in New Orleans which provides healthcare and support services for men and women with AIDS, is the sole beneficiary of all the funds that are raised.
The weekend includes four days of events including a black tie ball, two big parties, and a brunch and a traditional brass band Second Line parade through the city.
Check out 102 photos from Bourbon Street, AFTER THE JUMP…
STAY TUNED: Galleries of the NEON party and Halloween Costume Ball coming soon!
Also, coming up shortly we’ll have galleries of both the Friday night NEON party at Republic nightclub and the main ‘Descent’ costume ball where there was plenty of sexiness, skin, drag, and devilry to be found.
Andy Towle
Presentation: Marketing Communication towards LGBT by
Presentation: Marketing Communication towards LGBT by
This video is a Prezi®, converted by PreziTube® Create your own video from your Prezi® at PreziTube click: goo.gl/h3aa0V Title: Marketing Communication towards LGBT Author: Original…
www.youtube.com/watch?v=uu17o2E5_m4&feature=youtube_gdata
For Halloween, The Scariest Antigay Candidates in Next Week's Election
For Halloween, The Scariest Antigay Candidates in Next Week's Election
These are the scariest homophobes we could come up with for a pre-Halloween election preview.
Trudy Ring
The Marriage Equality Express 2004
The Marriage Equality Express 2004
On the morning of February 12, 2004, then San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom threw open the doors of San Francisco City Hall for all loving, committed couples to marry — regardless of their sexual orientation, gender or gender identity. Mayor Newsom declared that his oath to uphold the United States and California Constitutions required him to ensure that San Francisco no longer discriminate against LGBTQ people in marriage.
We were on the steps of City Hall that morning to attend our very first marriage equality event — a rally that the California chapter of Marriage Equality USA had organized. We dashed inside City Hall, got married, and soon thereafter met many amazing MEUSA leaders. The atmosphere was electric. The joy was contagious. Over the next month, over 8,000 LGBTQ people from 46 states and 8 countries came to San Francisco to marry. Mabel Teng, then SF County Recorder, described San Francisco as the “happiest place on earth.”
Although the California Supreme Court stopped the marriages and later invalidated them, the taste of equality, dignity and joy that we and many others had experienced instilled in us an unshakeable dedication to attaining nationwide equality, a passion that knew no bounds.
Davina Kotulski, Molly McKay and other MEUSA leaders conceived of channeling some of this energy into an educational bus tour from coast to coast — the national Marriage Equality Express — nicknamed “the caravan.” The caravan’s purpose was to give people across our nation the opportunity to meet LGBTQ couples, and their friends and family, to see our common humanity and our shared hopes and dreams, and to hear our real life stories of how marriage discrimination harms LGBTQ people. We also wanted to support and inspire local activists across the country and to be visible as LGBTQ Americans in places where many local LGBTQ people did not feel safe to do so.
The 44 caravan riders included bi-national couples, whose relationships and families were torn apart or threatened because the federal government would not then recognize their relationships due to DOMA; military veterans who had served under the burden of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell (then still in effect) and sought to overturn that discriminatory law and to be free to marry; parents of LGBTQ people; children of LGBTQ couples; and, ministers of faith communities. The group was racially diverse, with African-Americans, Latinos, Asian Americans, and mixed race Americans all playing active and visible roles. We were thrilled to join the caravan.
After months of preparations, including meetings and countless organizing calls, we finally embarked on our journey. On the first day, we stopped in Reno, Nevada for a rally, followed by a trip to the Silver Bells Wedding Chapel. At the Chapel, same-sex couples, fully dressed in wedding attire, asked to get married. After the stunned and perplexed receptionist declined to allow the couples to marry, we switched partners so that we were different sex couples, and asked again if the chapel could marry us. This time, she responded they could. We explained that although we were friends with our new “partners,” we had years-long, loving, committed relationships with our real partners. How could it be that the chapel could marry complete strangers if they were of different sex, but not LGBTQ couples who had lived as married for decades but without the legal protections and respect that marriage affords? The event illuminated the arbitrariness and absurdity of these exclusionary laws, and underscored the caravan’s motto: “Inspire Justice.”
A couple days later the caravan arrived in Laramie, Wyoming for events at the University of Wyoming, followed by a commemoration of the six year anniversary of Matthew Shepard’s death. Several caravan riders shared stories of anti-LGBTQ violence they themselves had survived. As we held hands in a circle the skies opened up in a dramatic display of thunder and lightning.
Later that night, the caravan stopped for dinner at a restaurant in Rawlins, Wyoming, where the restaurant’s patrons looked at us as if they’d never seen — or ever thought they’d see — a busload of LGBTQ couples and their friends. As our meal progressed, a waitress approached Stuart and whispered, “My son moved to San Francisco….” He surmised that she was telling him that her son was gay, something she likely didn’t feel comfortable telling her co-workers. He reflected how the caravan was probably extending her a lifeline by providing her temporary relief from her isolation. And, she was providing a lifeline to us as well. An attendee of our kickoff rally in California had noted the risk caravan riders would be taking, commenting, “[t]hey’re going to places where they’re not wanted at all.” The waitress had reassured us of what we knew intellectually — that there were LGBTQ people, their families and friends in places like Rawlins, Wyoming.
Something that disappointed some riders was the relatively small turnout at many of the caravan events. However, the personal interactions with locals along the way in and of themselves made the caravan worthwhile. The riders also developed tight bonds with each other and honed communication and advocacy skills that would prove invaluable in the long struggle for marriage equality that lay ahead. Further, we learned and made full use of the power of the media on the trip. The publicity the caravan garnered was tremendous.
The San Francisco Chronicle was so intrigued that what they described as a “motley” crew of LGBTQ couples and activists had chartered a bus to spread the marriage equality message across the country that they dispatched a reporter and photographer to the bus, not knowing what to expect. They loved the stories they got and covered the caravan on the front page of the paper every single day. Nearly everywhere we went the caravan was the lead story on the local television news. Even when there were small crowds, the local news stations and newspapers came out. At the national rally in Washington, DC, attended by many members of Marriage Equality USA’s New York chapter, a photograph of many of us on stage with the Capitol Dome in the background ran repeatedly in newspapers across the country. Regardless of the turnout at any particular rally, if the caravan was on the news that night, or if a photograph of us was used the next day, we were furthering our goal of putting a human face on the issue.
While the caravan encountered little opposition from marriage equality opponents en route or at the national rally, local LGBTQ advocates weren’t always welcoming. This was especially true in states that were facing anti-marriage equality referenda that year. Ian James, political director of Ohioans Protecting the Constitution, a group opposing the anti-marriage equality referendum on the ballot that year, said of the caravan, “It’s not about marriage. If you fight that fight, you’ll lose, and you’ll lose soundly. You can be morally right and lose, but that doesn’t get you anything.” Some local activists feared that a busload of visible LGBTQ couples and supporters, especially from California, could alienate approachable voters rather than endear them to the marriage equality cause. Many national LGBTQ organizations withheld their support for the caravan or the national rally in Washington, DC. However, DC Congressional delegate and civil rights legend Eleanor Holmes Norton embraced the caravan and spoke at the DC rally along with California State Senator Mark Leno, sponsor of the first state marriage equality bill in the nation. Although rally attendance measured only in the hundreds, C-SPAN 2 broadcast the entire rally nationwide.
Looking back, a staggering amount of change has taken place over the last decade since the national Marriage Equality Express set out from Oakland, California on October 4, 2004. That year, then President George Bush had attacked LGBTQ couples in his State of the Union Address and proposed a Constitutional Amendment to exclude LGBTQ Americans from marriage. LGBTQ people lacked the freedom to marry in every single state along our route, DOMA prevented federal recognition of marriages of same-sex couples, and Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell prohibited LGBTQ Americans from serving openly in the military.
Ten years later in October 2014, nearly all the states on the caravan’s itinerary — California, Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Washington, DC — have marriage equality. President Barack Obama has endorsed the freedom to marry nationwide, the Supreme Court has struck down key provisions of DOMA, and Congress has repealed Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. More work lies ahead, but the caravan definitely contributed in its own unique way to the success the movement enjoys today. The 2004 Marriage Equality Express demonstrates that every step LGBTQ people, their friends and family take — and every mile we log — along this journey brings us closer to our common goal of full nationwide equality.
John Lewis and Stuart Gaffney, together for nearly three decades, were plaintiffs in the California case for equal marriage rights decided by the California Supreme Court in 2008. They are leaders in the nationwide grassroots organization Marriage Equality USA.
70,000 Attend Taiwan Pride 2014 – VIDEO
70,000 Attend Taiwan Pride 2014 – VIDEO
An estimated 70,000 people attended the LGBT Pride Parade in Taiwan on October 25th, reports Global Voices.
The number of people taking part was one of the largest since the parade was first held in 2003, making Taiwan Pride the biggest in Asia.
With this year’s theme ‘Walk in Queers’ Shoes,’ the event featured voices from marginalized LGBT groups including physically disabled people, HIV-positive people and sex workers.
A marriage equality bill was presented by the Taiwan Alliance to Promote Civil Partnership Rights in 2012. Although the proposed law passed the first reading in October 2013, the legislative process was suspended following a massive mobilization of opponents.
Gay rights activists this month began pushing legislators to resume implementation of the legislation. A public hearing for the bill was held on October 16.
Watch a video for Taiwan Pride 2014, AFTER THE JUMP…
Jim Redmond
www.towleroad.com/2014/10/70000-attend-taiwan-pride-2014-video.html
Russell Brand Comes Out As Straight, Relives The Magic Of His Gay Public Bathroom Quickie
Russell Brand Comes Out As Straight, Relives The Magic Of His Gay Public Bathroom Quickie
All evidence indicates that actor/comedian/speed talker Russell Brand is straight, but in a recent interview, he made it clear to Absolute Radio’s Geoff Lloyd he wished that things could be different.
“I wish I was bisexual. That’s one of the things about me where I’ve got a very traditional moral code. I’m tedious with my heterosexuality.”
And that’s not for lack of trying.
Russell gave a bizarre interview a while back in which he recounted and even more bizarre experience of jacking off a guy in a pub bathroom on camera.
“I trawled around Soho… going [to] various gay bars, gay gyms trying to pick people up with a film crew. I went in this pub and I goes: ‘Anyone want me to wank them off?’
“And this bloke goes, ‘Yep’. Like as if I was saying: ?Does anyone want a packet of crisps from the bar…?’
“So we goes to the lavvy – me, him, the director – and… he gets his willy out. And it was not nice. The phallus is… I like mine and you see some others in paintings that look all right but his looked like a rag.’
“I took it betwixt my fingers thusly. It were like massaging a naked mole rat and it wouldn’t go hard!”
Wonder how that went over with Katy Perry?
H/t HuffPo
Dan Tracer
