Murdered Indianapolis Trans Woman's Family Seeks Answers
Tajshon ‘Ashley’ Sherman was found shot to death outside a housing complex, but police cannot yet determine how she got there and are searching for leads.
Mitch Kellaway
www.advocate.com/crime/2014/10/30/murdered-indianapolis-trans-womans-family-seeks-answers
Starbucks Is 'Ground Zero For Ebola' Because Of Its LGBT Appeal, Anti-Gay Pastor Claims
The pastor of a New York church which sparked controversy after posting a billboard which claimed that “Jesus would stone homos” is back in the headlines.
Pastor James David Manning of the ATLAH Worldwide Missionary is now taking aim at Starbucks, claiming that the coffee giant is “ground zero for Ebola” because franchises, particularly in urban areas, are meeting places for “generally upscale sodomites” interested in “clandestine sexual activities,” Towleroad is reporting.
“I am now on the Ebola watch, warning people to stay away from Starbucks,” he says in a new “Manning Report” clip. Starbucks locations, he adds, attracts “a large number of sodomites and the [lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender] crowd that usually, and continue to, approach the idea of sex, intercourse and dating on a lower, less visible, less social scale because of the nature of what they want to do.”
Manning’s argument also takes shots at President Barack Obama, too: “Remember, I told you back in 2007 that Obama was a homo.”
The pastor’s remarks come on the heels of a release of the first Starbucks commercial geared toward the LGBT community, starring “RuPaul’s Drag Race” veterans Adore Delano and Bianca Del Rio.
Starbucks, of course, has a history of being an outspoken advocate for the LGBT community. In 2012, the Seattle-based coffee chain joined a then-growing list of major corporations in publicly endorsing same-sex marriage legislation in Washington state.
Earlier this year, officials raised raised a Pride flag over the Starbucks headquarters in Seattle.
Coming Out for Equality in Mississippi
HRC Mississippi State Director Rob Hill works to change hearts and minds in the South, and, in return, creates new advocates for equality.
HRC.org
www.hrc.org/blog/entry/coming-out-for-equality-in-mississippi?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss-feed
Norman Reedus Did Not Beg Producers To Keep His “Walking Dead” Straight
The Walking Dead star Norman Reedus has called foul on reports that he objected to playing gay on TV.
While there has been much speculation about the sexual orientation of Reedus’s character, Daryl Dixon, nothing has been revealed on the show. But, says Reedus, that’s certainly not because he begged the producers not to go there with his character out of fear of tarnishing his hetero sex symbol status.
A request Inquisitr article quoted The Globe as saying that Celeb Dirty Laundry had reported that the actor feared “the same-sex shocker would hurt ratings by disappointing his legions of female fans.”
The actor took to Facebook and Twitter to deny the claim, linking to the piece and writing “This is total bs by the way.”
Of course it is. Reedus has already gone on record to say that he’s down with his character getting down with a dude, telling GQ that when executive producer Frank Darabont suggested making Daryl “prison gay,” Reedus answered “That’ll blow minds — let’s do that.”
For the record though, Walking Dead showrunner Scott Gimple says the subject of Daryl’s sexuality will not be addressed this season — which hopefully won’t cause too much disappointment for Reedus’s legion of gay male fans.
Winston Gieseke
News: Jane Lynch, Barbie, North Carolina, Ted Olson, Taiwan
Miley Cyrus showed up at Wednesday’s amfAR gala wearing little more than duct tape.
Former Boston mayor and longtime LGBT ally Thomas Menino has died at the age of 71.
The Walking Dead‘s Norman Reedus shoots down tabloid rumors he’s begging producers not to make his character Daryl Dixon gay.
Jane Lynch’s expensive divorce from Lara Embry was finalized this week.
SCOTUSblog looks at how the Puerto Rico gay marriage case will be a test of Baker v. Nelson – the 1972 gay marriage case dismissed by the Supreme Court for lack of a “substantial federal question.”
E! News looks back on some of the biggest, groundbreaking LGBT moments in television history.
The British colonial origins of Africa’s anti-gay laws.
New poll shows 58 percent of North Carolina voters oppose the federal court decision this month bringing marriage equality to the state.
Michael C. Hall shows off his short shorts for Hedwig and the Angry Inch.
10th Circuit Court of Appeals rules Tulsa County must pay the legal fees for Mary and Sharon Bishop-Baldwin, the gay couple at the center of Oklahoma’s marriage equality battle.
A fun look at how Barbie’s dreamhouse has changed over the decades.
John Spinello, the creator of what would one day become the classic board game Operation, has reached his crowdfunding campaign goal to raise money for a medical operation of his own. Spinello famously sold the rights to his prototype to Milton Bradley for $500 back in 1964.
30 scary-good celebrity halloween costumes.
At The Atlantic‘s Washington Ideas Forum yesterday, Ted Olson shared his disappointment over the Supreme Court’s decision to not hear the gay marriage cases earlier this month. “I agonize over the court not making a decision,” said Olson, an attorney on one of the cases. “We give them lifetime appointments, and you’re supposed to make hard decisions. It brings tears to my eyes, actually physically, when I see people suffering … It seems inhuman to make people wait just for the Court to decide.”
Need to sort out all the controversy and drama surrounding Carl DeMaio’s campaign for Congress? Check out this in-depth report by San Diego’s KPBS station here.
A Jackson, Michigan ordinance protecting people from discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity has been tabled indefinitely after a city attorney warned the city would be in violation of state law if the ordinance passed.
An Indian man has been charged under the country’s anti-homosexuality law after his wife caught him with another man via spycam.
Aaron Schock: farmer extraordinaire.
Check out this interview with Paige Braddock, a lesbian cartoonist who serves as the creative director for Peanuts.
First looks: Ashton Kutcher and Jon Cryer’s wedding kiss on an upcoming episode of Two and a Half Men and Matt Bomer’s upcoming appearance on American Horror Story:Freakshow.
The New York Times examines Taiwan’s role as a beacon of hope for Asia’s LGBT community. “When it comes to gay rights in Asia, Taiwan is a world apart. Openly gay and lesbian soldiers can serve in the military, and the Ministry of Education requires textbooks to promote tolerance for gays and lesbians. In recent years, legislators here have passed protections for gays, including a law against workplace discrimination”
Sen. Lindsey Graham jokes that white men will “do great” under his presidency.
Kyler Geoffroy
The Importance of the LGBT Community
10 Things You Need to Know About the 16th Annual Out & Equal Workplace Summit
The 16th annual Out & Equal Workplace Summit takes place for the first time in San Francisco November 3rd through 6th at the Moscone Center West. Here are 10 things you need to know about it:
1. LGBT employees can be fired in 29 states solely based on sexual orientation and gender identity, 32 states if transgender.
2. Lee Daniels is giving the keynote address.
3. Billie Jean King will also address the attendees
4. Olympia Dukakis, an ally, will also address the attendees.
5. Armistead Maupin will be in attendance.
6. There will be 3,000 attendees from more than 30 countries, a majority from Fortune 500 companies.
7. “The Outies” recipients of Workplace Awards honoring both individuals and organizations that are leading the way to advance LGBT workplace equality. Past winners can be found here.
8. Out and Equal released the results of a poll conducted by Harris and Out and Equal saying that most Americans said employers should never discriminate.
9. Out and Equal Workplace Advocates is a non-profit organization dedicated to achieving workplace equality.
10. Selisse Berry is the founder and CEO of Out & Equal Workplace Advocates.
Peace, love, compassion, and blessings.
Two And A Half Men Stars Seal It With A Kiss
If you’ve been glued to your television waiting for Ashton Kutcher and Jon Cryer to swap some spit on Two and a Half Men (or for Michael Bolton to make a comeback), your wish has been granted.
In a somewhat odd storyline, Walden (Kutcher) and Alan (Cryer) — both of whom are straight — have decided to marry each other so they can raise a kid together, and E! Online has provided a first look at their wedding kiss. (Hopefully someone will give us a look at what happens on their wedding night.)
The show’s creator, Chuck Lorre, says he thought it was “both very funny and heartwarming that these guys would go to such great lengths to get a kid out of the foster system and give him a home. Yes, there’s some subterfuge in doing that, they are gaming the system, but the intention is to give a child a home, and it brings the series back to being about two men teaching a young man to become a man.”
And since every gay wedding needs a fabulous wedding singer, Michael Bolton will be on hand to serenade them with “When a Man Loves a Man,” a sure-to-be cheeky revamp of his signature song.
Jon Cryer admitted to E! that he was initially thrown by the idea of his and Ashton Kutcher’s characters putting a ring on it. “The first time I heard it I said, ‘What?!’ And then I thought, ‘Oh yeah it kind of makes sense, because last season Alan’s wedding fell apart and Ashton’s wedding has fallen apart.’ The writers have a good idea and it opens up a lot of doors.”
Whether those open doors will provide enough room for shark jumping is anyone guess.
The two men take the plunge on the episode airing November 6.
Winston Gieseke
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