Rachel Maddow On SCOTUS And Gay Marriage: ‘A Sense Of Inevitability Can Be A Dangerous Thing’ – VIDEO

Rachel Maddow On SCOTUS And Gay Marriage: ‘A Sense Of Inevitability Can Be A Dangerous Thing’ – VIDEO

Rachel

On Friday night, Rachel Maddow dug into the decision by the Supreme Court to hear 4 cases tackling whether states have the right to ban same-sex marriage. As our legal editor Ari Ezra Waldman pointed out in his analysis of this decision, the Court seems to be leaning towards recognizing a nationwide freedom to marry. And indeed, momentum seems to be on the side of marriage equality. Since the 2013 SCOTUS ruling on DOMA, we have gone from having only 20% of the U.S. population living in states that allow same-sex marriage to 70% (see GIF below). However, for all the talk of momentum, Rachel Maddow wonders, what if the inevitable is not so inevitable? 

Watch her contemplate this question, AFTER THE JUMP…

Marriage


Sean Mandell

www.towleroad.com/2015/01/rachel-maddow-on-scotus-and-gay-marriage-a-sense-of-inevitability-can-be-a-dangerous-thing-video.html

Actor-comedian Stephen Fry Weds Partner

Actor-comedian Stephen Fry Weds Partner
LONDON (AP) — Actor-comedian Stephen Fry has married partner Elliott G. Spencer in eastern England.

The 57-year-old Fry sent a tweet to his 8 million followers on Saturday, announcing that he had tied the knot. “Gosh. @ElliottGSpencer and I go into a room as two people, sign a book and leave as one,” Fry says on his Twitter feed. “Amazing.”

Well-wishers tweeted their congratulations on Sunday.

Fry announced his plans earlier this month to wed 27-year-old Spencer at the register office in Dereham, eastern England.

One of Britain’s best known presenters, Fry first gained fame in the 1980s in a comedy duo with Hugh Laurie. He also written novels and appeared in the film, “The Hobbit.”

www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/01/18/stephen-fry-married_n_6497898.html?utm_hp_ref=gay-voices&ir=Gay+Voices

This V-Day, Let's Work Together to Prevent Violence Against <em>All</em> Women and Girls

This V-Day, Let's Work Together to Prevent Violence Against <em>All</em> Women and Girls
We are representatives of the first all-transgender benefit performance of The Vagina Monologues.

In 2004, Eve Ensler supplemented The Vagina Monologues, writing a transgender piece after having intimate conversations with a diverse group of women in our community. It debuted in 2004 as part of the first all-transgender performance, which was cast without regard to transgender surgical status.

That trans-inclusive piece has been performed by trans and non-trans participants around the world as part of V-Day’s global fundraising efforts to end violence against women and girls. We feel it is one of many important steps which made the feminist movement more trans-inclusive.

The money our benefit performance raised went to Peace Over Violence, a trans-inclusive anti-violence nonprofit, the National LGBTQ Task Force, and V-Day’s annual focus of 2004, violence against women and girls in Juarez, Mexico. The interviews and performance became the 2005 film Beautiful Daughters.

V-Day’s and Eve’s amazing response to concerns presented to them by trans people has been inspirational. They made extraordinary efforts to make the play and the movement trans-inclusive, changing many hearts and minds in the process.

The goal of V-Day is to create a community which raises money and raises our voices together until violence against women and girls stops. Throughout the project’s history, Eve has added new monologues to include voices that were not heard in the original play.

Hurtful labels and divisiveness are antithetical to the social justice movement, which encourages building bridges and finding common ground around shared goals. We encourage all trans and genderqueer people interested in sharing their own unique voices to work with V-Day as we have. Our successful efforts with V-Day emerged from sharing our constructive criticism through direct outreach.

The V-Day movement and Eve’s play continue to evolve and respond to issues of the day, and our work with the movement was meant to be the start of a conversation about including sex and gender minorities. We encourage you to join us in working together to eliminate violence against all women and girls.

In love and solidarity,

Calpernia Addams, producer
Andrea James, producer
Lynn Conway, participant
Valerie Spencer, participant

www.huffingtonpost.com/calpernia-addams/post_8905_b_6497356.html?utm_hp_ref=gay-voices&ir=Gay+Voices

CNN: HRC Foundation’s Welcoming Schools Program Fights Bias and Stereotyping in Schools

CNN: HRC Foundation’s Welcoming Schools Program Fights Bias and Stereotyping in Schools

In honor of Martin Luther King Day, CNN profiled HRC Foundation’s Welcoming Schools program as a leader in fighting homophobia, bias and bullying in schools.
HRC.org

www.hrc.org/blog/entry/cnn-hrc-foundations-welcoming-schools-program-fights-bias-and-stereotyping?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss-feed

High School Wrestler Forced Into Conversion Therapy By Parents Pulls Coming Out Post on Outsports

High School Wrestler Forced Into Conversion Therapy By Parents Pulls Coming Out Post on Outsports

Wrestler

Last week Outsports carried a story about a high school wrestler who came out as gay to his parents and was subsequently forced into conversion therapy and forbidden from coming out to anyone else. Suffering under the yoke of his parents’ oppressive reign but still yearning to live authentically, the young man, known only as “Hunter,” decided to came out anonymously online in a post published on OutSports.

Reading about other young LGBT athletes who had come out and interacting with them over social media inspired Hunter to open up. However, after his story started to gain media traction, Hunter asked that his story be pulled for fear that his parents might discover it, figure out it was about him and make reprisals against him. OutSports’ Cyd Zeigler has the story:

We’re sorry to say that we’ve decided to remove this story from the site.

Hunter contacted us this morning with fear that his parents might see it. The story got shared and read far more widely – and with more mainstream media – than we had imagined it could be. When mainstream sites started picking it up, Hunter got concerned and this morning asked us to remove the full story, at least temporarily, from Outsports. Just as the publication of the story is something we don’t usually do, its removal is the same […]

While there’s so much more to his story that Hunter wants to share, that will have to wait […]

The message of the story is not lost: There are lots of LGBT teen athletes who very much need help and support.

Hunter has set up an anonymous email where other young LGBT athletes can connect with him. 


Sean Mandell

www.towleroad.com/2015/01/high-school-wrestler-forced-into-conversion-therapy-pulls-down-online-coming-out-fears-discovery-and.html