Gay Twins, The Rhodes Bros, Come Out To Father In Emotional YouTube Video (VIDEO)
YouTube personalities Austin and Aaron Rhodes have had a significant social media following since they began loading clips to their channel nearly six months ago.
This week, the pair decided to start off 2015 in a major way by utilizing their platform to both come out as gay to their father over the phone while recording the event in order to share it with their followers — and the world.
This video inspires a roller coaster of emotions, as the boys initially struggle to get the words out. When they finally do their father offers the perfect response to his sons: “It’s the way things are, you know? You’re grown people. You grew up in a lot different generation than me. I just don’t really know what to say — you know I love you both and that’ll never change.”
When individuals come out of the closet we’re always moved and inspired but there’s something especially incredible about a set of twins living authentically and openly together (and letting us take part in such a special moment).
Last August another pair of twins and YouTube personalities, Luke and Adam Monastero, also came out to their parents and caught it all on camera.
Additionally, in 2011 a gay airman called his mother just hours after the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” in order to come out and put the whole experience on YouTube.
The proud papas just landed a gig as models for a new Nikon ad campaign called I Am Generation Image.
Nikon gave the guys a brand new camera to document their lives and the marks they are making on the world. Naturally, they used it to capture all sorts of sweet images of their three adorable kiddos.
“Last year, we were surprised when a picture of us doing our daughters’ hair went viral,” the two dads say in the campaign. “To us, that’s just part of our morning routine. With our images, we want to share our family’s life — and maybe reveal how much our family is like yours.”
In January 2014, the two dads received negative criticism from bigots on Twitter for posting photos of their modern family on Instagram. In May of 2014, Kordale released a memoir about the experience that went on to be a number 1 bestseller online.
Check out photos and video from Kordale and Kaleb’s journey on the campaign’s website.
Divulgação da página de literatura LGBT – Katia Viula
Página com poesias e contos com temas em torno do amor e do erotismo LGBT. Os textos enfocam também a igualdade de direitos e o protesto contra a homofobia.
Immigration Advocates Demand Release of Abused Trans Asylum Seeker
Nicoll Hernández-Polanco says she’s faced transphobia and verbal, physical, and sexual abuse from immigration staff and other detainees in her all-male facility, despite posing no ‘security threat.’
Gay Teacher Fired After Posting Marriage Announcement On Facebook
A gay substitute teacher in Charlotte, N.C., has been fired from his job at a Catholic high school after posting on Facebook about his plans to marry his longtime partner.
Lonnie Billiard taught theater and English at Charlotte Catholic High School for more than a decade. After retiring in 2012, he has remained part of the community as a substitute teacher.
Those ties ended, however, after Billiard revealed his plans to marry Rich Donham, his partner of 12 years. On Dec. 30, Billiard said he received a call from the school’s assistant principal saying he was no longer welcome to be a substitute teacher.
“I’m 68. Nobody is going to shove me back in that damn closet,” Billiard told McClatchy, which reported on the firing. He also said that his sexual orientation was well-known by other staff members at the school.
David Hains, a spokesman for the Catholic Diocese of Charlotte, told McClatchy that Billiard’s Facebook post violated the agreement that he and all other employees sign stating that they will not act publicly in ways that are against the church’s positions.
“We don’t even ask people to uphold church teachings. Our policy says they can’t oppose church teachings,” Hains said, adding it would be like “the guy working for Coca-Cola to walk around with a Pepsi in his hand.”
Billiard also told QNotes, a lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender publication in North Carolina, that he’s concerned about the impact his firing will have on LGBT students.
“It sends the message that they don’t matter,” Billard said. “One of the counselors there actually had a kid come into their office after this announcement and asked, ‘Am I going to be expelled because I’m gay?’ It sends such a destructive and hurtful message to kids, instead of validating them for their beauty and validating them for the love they bring. It tells them they don’t count.”
Billiard maintains that the diocese made the decision to fire him. The diocese said school officials were the ones who chose to terminate his position.
Lisbeth Meléndez Rivera, the Human Rights Campaign Foundation’s director of Latino/a and Catholic Initiatives, criticized Billiard’s firing, noting that the pope has taken a less severe approach to LGBT rights.
“The diocese’s actions seem to contradict Pope Francis’ more pastoral approach to LGBT people in the church,” she said in a statement. “Decisions like this reflect a tone-deafness among American Catholic clergy. While Pope Francis asks. ‘Who am I to judge?’ and speaks of the gifts LGBT people can bring to the Church, this Diocese has appointed itself judge and jury. The Diocese of Charlotte should be following the Pope’s example and become the home we know the Church can be to all.”
There currently is no federal law prohibiting workplace discrimination against individuals on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. Such legislation, known as the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, passed the Senate in 2013 but never made it to the House floor for a vote. Charlotte Catholic High School would not have been affected by ENDA, however, since there was an exemption for religious schools.
Want more updates from Amanda? Sign up for her newsletter, Piping Hot Truth.
International LGBT Activists Sending Letter to President Obama
Last month, 24 global LGBT advocates sent a letter to President Barack Obama urging him to articulate a clear U.S. policy for responding to any country that attacks or denies rights to their LGBT community. HRC.org
“Well-Endowed” Justin Bieber Accidentally Mistaken For A Girl At Gay Republican Event
2015 isn’t shaping up to be a great year for alpha male Justin Bieber’s ego.
Earlier this month, the “Baby” singer found himself the subject of ridicule after unretouched photos from his recent Calvin Klein shoot revealed that he wasn’t quite as buffed, bulged or hairy as the final photos implied.
Bieber’s team immediately went into crisis mode. First it sent a cease and desist order to the website that published the photos. The images were scrubbed and the website issued the following statement: “We sincerely apologize to Bieber for the hit to his ego and to the millions of tweens on social media we upset.”
Then Bieber’s personal trainer jumped to his client’s defense, going on Access Hollywood to say, “I can definitely confirm [Justin] is a well-endowed guy. I sound weird saying that, but yes.”
Now, it seems the tween heartthrob’s ego has been issued yet another blow. Earlier this week, he and four friends showed up to a fried chicken restaurant in Los Angeles only to find his usual spot was taken by a gaggle of Log Cabin Republicans, who were in the middle of a meeting.
Not pleased his private area was occupied, Bieber and his pals decided to sit there anyway.
Ben Coleman, event chairman of the Los Angeles chapter of the gay right-wing political group, told 790 KABC that Bieber initially went unnoticed by the Log Cabin Republicans. They just thought he was a random girl sulking in the corner.
Eventually the manager approached and said “some other people” would like to “hang out in the corner” and eat chicken wings.
That’s when Coleman realized the girl who had just crashed their meeting was actually Justin Bieber.
“I saw the group and, literally, I didn’t see Justin Bieber,” he said. “I just saw a bunch of girls. I got a closer look and said, oh yeah that’s the Biebs, for sure. But he looked like a butcher version of Miley Cyrus.”
That’s also when Coleman turned into a giddy schoolgirl.
“I tried to get a pic of the Biebs in front of the Log Cabin banner,” he said, “but the bodyguards said no. And they had guns. So that didn’t happen. Otherwise it was a dream come true.”
Outrage, Protests Ensue After Colorado Church Cancels Lesbian's Funeral: VIDEO
Vanessa Collier, a lesbian Coloradan who died on December 30 while cleaning her gun, was denied a funeral service at Denver’s New Hope Ministries because her family refused to edit out pictures of Collier kissing her wife in a video tribute to the departed, BuzzFeed reports. Collier was 33 and is survived by two girls, 7 and 11, and her wife, Christina Higley.
The video in question had been provided to the church 48 hours in advance, however, the church lost the copy and did not review it until the morning of the ceremony. The result was that when the family refused to give in to Pastor Ray Chavez’s ultimatum to remove the the photos of Collier and Higley kissing from the video, the service was cancelled after it had already begun:
“People started taking their seats at 10 a.m.,” [Collier’s friend Jose] Silva said. “At 10:15, the pastor said, ‘Due to technical difficulties, the funeral is being moved.’” He thought it was a joke. “I thought we were being punked.”
Friends and family had to pick up Collier’s open casket, flowers and other arrangements and move it to the Newcomer Funeral Home across the street.
“They don’t want overt, open homosexuality in their sanctuary,” said Gary Rolando, the chaplain who eventually conducted Collier’s service at the Newcomer Funeral Home, across the street from the church.
Higley later posted an emotional update on Facebook (below), asking, “Please I am begging anyone to help explain to our children why our life together as a family is any less than anyone else’s and inappropriate in a house of God?”
Collier’s friends and family were quick to organize a “Dignity in Death Rally” to show their outrage over New Hope and Pastor Chavez’s decision to expel Collier and her mourners.
Nearly 1,600 people have signed a change.org petition calling on Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper to “protect the rights of gays and their families in death.”
