Counting Down to Election Day, HRC Makes Push to GOTV
Election Day is one week away and now, more than ever, HRC is making a push to Get Out The Vote (GOTV).
HRC.org
Houston Mayor Annise Parker Meets With Clergymen Over Subpoena Of Church Records: VIDEO
Houston Mayor Annise Parker Meets With Clergymen Over Subpoena Of Church Records: VIDEO
Houston Mayor Annise Parker met with clergymen from across the nation yesterday to discuss the city’s subpoena of church records tied to Houston’s recently passed Equal Rights Ordinance (HERO). KHOU reports:
The mayor juggled her schedule Tuesday afternoon to meet with the church leaders after they staged a news conference and prayed outside City Hall, but the meeting apparently didn’t change any minds – at least, not yet.
“I don’t think the mayor wanted to do the subpoenas,” said Alexander Webster, a Russian Orthodox Church leader from Virginia who attended the meeting. “I think she is looking for a way to get out of the subpoenas and find a more positive, reconciling approach.”
The clergymen described the meeting as cordial and took pictures with the mayor, but they were unsure about whether she would change her stance on the subpoenas.
“This is not a local Houston issue exclusively, but an affront to every church and pulpit in America,” said Rev. Patrick Mahoney, a leader of the Christian Defense Coalition, which is organizing opposition to the subpoenas.
The subpoenas in question were issued after anti-gay activists sued Houston over its rejection of petition signatures intended to force a public referendum on HERO. City attorneys then subpoenaed local pastors tied to the lawsuit for “all speeches, presentations, or sermons related to HERO, the Petition, Mayor Annise Parker, homosexuality, or gender identity prepared by, delivered by, revised by, or approved by you or in your possession.” This set off a firestorm among the religious right, drawing the ire of Ted Cruz, Mike Huckabee and Pat Roberston to name just a few. While Parker has stated that original subpoena was too broad and has since amended the subpoena not to include any mention of sermons, as KHOU notes, “the damage was already done” and the wingnuts had their spin in full swing.
Watch a video on Parker’s meeting with the clergymen, AFTER THE JUMP…
Sean Mandell
LGBT Real Talk Radio
Hedwig Star Michael C. Hall Had His Wig Snatched
Hedwig Star Michael C. Hall Had His Wig Snatched
A bad fan may have stolen one of the blonde wigs from Broadway’s Hedwig and the Angry Inch.
Brandon Voss
What Is Pope Francis Saying to Gays?
What Is Pope Francis Saying to Gays?
As a gay man and a gay Episcopal priest, I am extremely confused by the Vatican right now when it comes to the entire gay question. Am I loved by anyone there? By whom? What’s going on in the sacred halls when it comes to gay identity, gay rights, gay existence — maybe the whole question of who I am as a gay person?
I knew something was going on when Pope Benedict vanished. He had never been remotely a civil rights leader for gay people. Yet he was nominally a spiritual leader for millions of people. Did he have in the recesses of his mind any kind of “solution” to the gay question?
Pope Benedict abruptly disappeared. Pope Francis appeared, a new star in the global pantheon. A nice enough guy, as images go. Yet as a gay man, I couldn’t really know what to expect. Yes, I hoped for a new face, a new mind, a new soul. Would I ever feel he understood me at all? Wanted me to have full civil rights? Did he feel I was sexually and morally a sinner? If so, was I somehow a threat to what he stood for?
He seemed humble. He chose the name “Francis” after a globally loved person everybody has adored for ages. Pope Francis got deeply involved. Speaking to the Latin American and Caribbean Confederation of Religious, he referred to something he apparently called the “gay lobby.” Quickly the news-hungry Roman media grabbed the new term.
Then it got complicated — mercy, yes. A Vatican historian said, “This is a question of blackmail and blackmailability, not homosexuality.” Will you repeat that, and can we get a close-up?
What is going on here? Are we talking about homosexuality?
Allow me a couple of comments here. I’ve been gay all my life. I lived through the absolute hell of persecution in the 1940s and 1950s when gay life was not chic, gay bars were raided (I know, I was in some at the time). Gay people like me were supposed to be our dirty selves in private, but never inflict our reality on anyone else. This wasn’t exactly the cheeriest of times, to say the least.
In my own case, the worst time was after I came out. Not to applause. Not to beaming faces. Not to job opportunities. I came out to enormous controversy. I wasn’t moving rapidly into “happiness and peace.” Fortunately, I was strong. I had close friends who were extraordinarily strong and supportive. I made it. My life partner and I have been together for more than 30 years.
I am not asking for a world of gay people. However, I earnestly yearn for a world that allows me honest identity, spares me persecution, and blesses the emergence of hope in our corporate life. Our wedding movingly brought new friends together.
Is this asking too much? Pope Francis, are you on board? You certainly seemed to be when, for example, you knelt to wash the feet of prison inmates, including Muslims.
I’d like to spend a reflective evening with you, send out for a pizza from a great place near the Vatican, open a bottle of Chianti, put our feet up, relax, and share thoughts and aspirations.
It would be great to know you.
Why HRC Will Attend Southern Baptist Convention’s National Conference
Why HRC Will Attend Southern Baptist Convention’s National Conference
Yesterday the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberties Commission meets in Nashville, Tenn., for a conference on “The Gospel, Homosexuality, and the Future of Marriage.”
HRC.org
Disgruntled Gay Florist Asks That You Please Stop Peeing On His Showroom Floor
Disgruntled Gay Florist Asks That You Please Stop Peeing On His Showroom Floor
Richard Ramey
It can’t be easy being Richard Ramey.
The Atlanta business owner has seen more than his fair share of bizarre assaults on his various businesses over the years, including unprovoked police raids, break-ins, and, most recently, a woman peeing in the middle of his flower shop.
The incident happened at East Point Flower Cottage on Main located in the East Point neighborhood of Atlanta. Ramey has been a business owner in the area for more than 25 years.
“She was saying she needed a restroom right now and she didn’t make it,” Ramey told local news station WSB. “I mean, it was right in my showroom floor. It was very humiliating for her. I felt really bad for her.”
Another time, Ramey says, a woman passed out in his bathroom.
“We had one lady who went in there and she O.D.’d on something, so I had call police to come get her out.”
All of this, he claims, is the result of a nearby bus station closing its restrooms, leaving desperate travelers in need of a toilet with virtually nowhere to go.
“I don’t really have a public restroom,” Ramey said, regretfully, “and so trying to accommodate them is sort of a burden on my business.”
Other business owners claim they regularly see riders dash from the station over to a patch of nearby bushes where they relieve themselves. Signs within the station warn that the building is “armed with a urine detection device.”
“It’s a very sad situation because these people come in out of desperation,” Ramey says.
The transit authority, however, has no sympathy. In a statement to WSB, it said:
Unlike most major transit systems, MARTA has a total of 13 restrooms open for our customers at the end-of-line rail stations and major transfer points. A number of remaining restrooms were closed several years ago for staffing and budgetary reasons, including East Point. To enhance comfort and convenience, MARTA is now exploring new technology to make more restrooms available to customers in the near future.
But this is only one of many grievances Ramey has suffered in recent years.
Protesters stand shoulder to shoulder to save Atlanta’s Eagle Bar from being closed.
In addition to the flower shop, which provides beautiful arrangements for local churches, weddings, and the Children’s Miracle Network, he’s also co-owner of Atlanta’s Eagle bar.
In 2009, the bar was raided by a gang or rogue police officers in an unprovoked, Stonewall-style sting operation. The highly publicized raid was later deemed illegal and motivated be bigotry. Six officers were fired and taxpayers ended up paying nearly $3 million as a result, both in settlement fees and attorney fees for the city.
In 2011, a band of thieves broke into the bar through an exhaust fan and stole three bottles of alcohol, which paled in comparison to the police raid, but was still annoying.
Then earlier this year, the building that houses the Eagle was sold to a developer, resulting in Ramey and friends holding hands outside the doors in an effort to save their beloved bar.
Through all this, though, Ramey seems to be keeping a positive attitude, happily posting pictures of his flower bouquets on Facebook and helping couples pick arrangements for their wedding ceremonies.
It’s just unfortunate, he says, that the closed bathrooms at the bus station are such a “blemish on our city.”
Related stories:
Texas Woman Traumatized After Mistakingly Booking Room In Gay NYC Hotel
Restaurant Owner Receives Creepy Phone Calls and Letters After Flying Rainbow Flag
Atlanta Fired Six Eagle Raid Cops For Lying, Not For Illegally Harassing Queers
Graham Gremore is a columnist and contributor for Queerty and Life of the Law. Follow him on Facebook and Twitter.
Graham Gremore
Ellen Scares the Bejesus Out of Jake Gyllenhaal: VIDEO
Ellen Scares the Bejesus Out of Jake Gyllenhaal: VIDEO
Jake Gyllenhaal might have suspected that when Ellen DeGeneres invited him on her show to talk about Nightcrawler and the other dark films he has been attracted to in recent years, that she was going to pull a scare on him, but it sure didn’t seem like it.
Watch Jake get a pre-Halloween fright, AFTER THE JUMP….
They also had a less shock-inducing discussion about his weight loss for Nightcrawler:
Andy Towle
www.towleroad.com/2014/10/ellen-scares-the-bejesus-out-of-jake-gyllenhaal-video.html
Five Nutty Statements That Prove Republicans Just Need To STFU About LGBT Issues
Five Nutty Statements That Prove Republicans Just Need To STFU About LGBT Issues
Five Nutty Statements That Prove Republicans Just Need To STFU About LGBT Issues.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fT5qRk-OO0&feature=youtube_gdata
Wait, Truvada Isn't the Only PrEP?
Wait, Truvada Isn't the Only PrEP?
Pre-exposure prophylaxis is a generic term — it applies to things like malaria drugs and such — but for HIV it’s synonymous with Truvada. Turns out, it shouldn’t be.
Diane Anderson-Minshall
www.advocate.com/31-days-prep/2014/10/29/wait-truvada-isnt-only-prep
