Daily Archives: October 23, 2014
7 Absurd Legal 'Arguments' Against Marriage Equality From a Straight Couple in Kansas
7 Absurd Legal 'Arguments' Against Marriage Equality From a Straight Couple in Kansas
Philip and Sandra Unruh have asked a federal court to allow them to intervene in a Kansas marriage equality case because the couple fears they will lose property if same-sex couples are allowed to marry.
Sunnivie Brydum
Utah Supreme Court Lifts Hold On Same-Sex Adoptions
Utah Supreme Court Lifts Hold On Same-Sex Adoptions
Utah’s Supreme Court lifted its stay on same-sex adoptions Thursday, two weeks after the state dropped its legal fight over the issue.
In May, the state’s high court placed a hold on several district judges’ rulings that ordered the Utah Department of Health to issue birth certificates to same-sex couples who were adopting children. The stay halted any movement on the issue until judges could decide whether or not the adoptions were legal under state law.
Thursday’s ruling clears the way for those adoptions to proceed.
Earlier this month, the Supreme Court declined to review rulings allowing same-sex marriage in a number of states, including Utah. The decision allowed same-sex marriages to begin in the state, and county clerks across the state began issuing marriage licenses to gay couples that day.
Shortly after the Supreme Court decision, the Utah attorney general’s office asked to drop its appeal of a federal ruling ordering Utah to allow same-sex spouses to receive full marital benefits. State officials also asked the state Supreme Court to lift its stay on the same-sex adoption orders.
“There is no longer any need for clarification about what the status of these marriages is,” Utah Solicitor General Bridget Romano said, according to The Salt Lake Tribune. “We’re going to go ahead and comply with the law.”
Tyrese Gibson furious with comic Spanky Hayes for claiming he went gay for movie role
Tyrese Gibson furious with comic Spanky Hayes for claiming he went gay for movie role
Gibson describes self as ‘one of the prominent, black, significant, African American, straight men in this town called Hollywood’
gregh
U.S. Army is Held Accountable for Discrimination Against a Transgender Civilian Employee
U.S. Army is Held Accountable for Discrimination Against a Transgender Civilian Employee
U.S. Army is held accountable for discrimination against a transgender civilian employee, but LGBT troops continue to be denied equal protections.
HRC.org
What’s The Best LGBT Film Of The Year? You Decide!
What’s The Best LGBT Film Of The Year? You Decide!
The gay Super Bowl, which some refer to as the Academy Awards, is still months away, but if you can’t wait that long to throw your support behind the year’s best film, here’s good news. Queerty readers can tell us which was the film most likely to become a future queer classic. There were so many deserving projects to choose from this year, but we managed to narrow it down to six. Watch the trailers for each and then click over to the 2014 Queerties ballot page to cast your vote.
The Imitation Game: A look at events in the life of Alan Turing opens next month but is already being heralded as one of the year’s best films, due primarily to the portrayal of the late persecuted gay hero by Benedict Cumberbatch.
Lilting: Exquisite cinematography and a delicate performance by out actor Ben Whishaw helped make this gentle drama about a mother coming to terms with her dead son’s lover one of the year’s most rewarding films.
Love Is Strange: The latest from acclaimed director Ira Sachs starred master thespians John Lithgow and Alfred Molina as a couple whose long relationship is challenged after they finally tie the knot.
Neighbors: Seth Rogen showed that he can make homoerotic comedies without the aid of bestie James Franco. Zac Efron costarred as “something a gay guy designed in a laboratory!”
The Normal Heart: Larry Kramer’s powerful stage drama about the early years of the AIDS epidemic in New York City finally made it to film, thanks to Ryan Murphy and a stellar cast, led by Mark Ruffalo and Matt Bomer.
Pride: This crowd-pleaser, currently in theaters, depicts the true story of a ragtag group of young gay and lesbian activists in London in the mid-1980s who decided to raise money to support the striking miners of a small Welsh town.
VOTING IN THE QUEERTIES IS EASY: Just head over to the ballot page and click on your favorite nominees.
You can come back and vote once every day until the contest closes on November 02, 2014, at midnight Eastern.
Jeremy Kinser
ACLU Sues San Bernardino Sheriff's Department Over Anti-LGBT Discrimination
ACLU Sues San Bernardino Sheriff's Department Over Anti-LGBT Discrimination
LGBT inmates at the West Valley Detention Center, both current and former, have filed suit against the San Bernardino Sheriff’s Department for discrimination and abuse faced behind bars. The prison system often separates LGBT inmates for their own safety, but that discrepancy should not reinforce and legitimize the difficulties they have faced according to the suit, from name calling to longer jail sentences.
The Los Angeles Times reports:
The suit cites several cases in which gay inmates were allegedly denied equal access to drug rehabilitation and educational programs. Gay inmates were allowed less time out of their cells and were unable to participate in work programs that would reduce their sentences, the suit claims.
“In the United States, we punish people because of the crime they commit, not because of who they are,” said Melissa Goodman, an ACLU attorney who filed the suit along with the law firm Kaye, McLane, Bednarski & Litt, LLP.
The ‘Althernative Lifestyle Tank’ where LGBT inmates are kept became a personal hell for the fifteen people filing suit alongside the ACLU, including Peter Guzman who claims he was kept in his cell for up to 23 hours each day.
Guzman, who spent seven months in West Valley awaiting trial in a fraudulent check-writing case, said that from his cellblock he could see that straight inmates were often out of their cells. Sometimes, violent offenders who were straight served food to the gay inmates as part of a work program that gay inmates were denied access to, Guzman said…
Guzman said a deputy once slammed his face against the bars because he is gay.
The San Bernardino County Sheriff’s office, along with deputies and sheriff John McMahon, are being named in the suit, and for good reason: they either enforced or committed the in-jail discriminatory behavior.
[Former Indiana sheriff deputy and West Valley inmate Dan] McKibben (pictured far right with partner Sean), 51, said he once saw deputies beating a gay inmate. Deputies, he said, regularly used gay slurs when addressing inmates.
McKibben, who spent about two months in the gay cellblock, said he was appalled at the behavior of those who’d taken an oath to uphold the law.
“When you’re sworn, you’re sworn. And I took that oath,” he said. “These guys, every other minute, were violating that.”
Joseph Ehrman-Dupre
Brooke Candy, Nick Knight and Steven Klein for LGBT (Teaser)
Brooke Candy, Nick Knight and Steven Klein for LGBT (Teaser)
Video promorcional para um projeto especial em protesto contra a lei a comunidade LGBT na Russia, criado e dirigido por Nicki Knight.
enough rainbows?
Gay Man Details The Physical And Mental Anguish Of His Abusive Relationship
Gay Man Details The Physical And Mental Anguish Of His Abusive Relationship
Conversations about abusive relationships among same-sex couples often go untold, but one survivor opened up to HuffPost Live to share his harrowing experience with an abusive boyfriend.
John Mio, a domestic violence survivor and advocate, found himself in an abusive relationship two years ago, unsure of how to escape. Like many similar stories, his relationship didn’t start off that way.
“It was love at first sight, how it usually is,” Mio explained to host Caroline Modarressy-Tehrani. “We got engaged, moved in together and [then] everything started going downhill from there.”
The abuse Mio endured is hard to imagine. It started as verbal and then got brutally physical.
“Things kept getting worse and worse, to the point where I had to eat my dinner off the floor,” he said. “I couldn’t speak because I’d get punched in the face.”
The violence didn’t stop there. The breaking point for Mio, he described, was when he was locked in a garage for nearly two weeks.
While he said he knew the abuse was “very wrong,” he “didn’t know how to get out” because he’d left his family and friends behind to pursue the relationship.
But Mio is now free from the abuse and is sharing his story in the hopes of helping others.
“I’m not saying I regret everything that happened because it’s made me a stronger person that I am today. It just shows that if I share my story, it’ll get out to people and maybe they can see whatever happens to you, you can make a difference,” he said.
Watch the full segment on same-sex domestic violence here.
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