Daily Archives: February 15, 2015
Georgia Lesbian Rep Seeks to Protect State Employees
Georgia Lesbian Rep Seeks to Protect State Employees
Rep. Karla Drenner’s LGBT-inclusive bill on state employment has bipartisan support.
Dawn Ennis
www.advocate.com/politics/2015/02/15/georgia-lesbian-rep-seeks-protect-state-employees
Roy Moore Tries to School President Obama on the Legality of Gay Marriage in Alabama: VIDEO
Roy Moore Tries to School President Obama on the Legality of Gay Marriage in Alabama: VIDEO
Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore appeared on Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace today to discuss same-sex marriage’s arrival in Alabama. While Moore spent most of the interview attempting to explain the legal underpinnings of his continued fight against marriage equality, he also had a response message for President Obama – who spoke up about the reincarnated George Wallace during a recent Buzzfeed interview.
Said Moore:
“But what this Harvard professor who is president of the United States does not understand, is that a trial court’s decision on the constitutionality of a federal question is just that — it’s an opinion. It may be law of the case before her. It is not overturning the Alabama constitution. Federal law is not made by judges.”
Wallace also asked Moore whether or not he would abide by the Supreme Court should it decide this year that there is a constitutional right to same-sex marriage.
Watch, AFTER THE JUMP…
Kyler Geoffroy
Scientology, LGBT People & John Travolta
Scientology, LGBT People & John Travolta
The church of Scientology and their intolerant views of LGBT people are looked at with investigative journalist and author Mark Ebner. Are celebrity Scientologists like John Travolta and Tom…
www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPvWrEU6Ljw&feature=youtube_gdata
Looking Back
'Fifty Shades Of Grey' Whips Up Record-Breaking Weekend Box Office Debut
'Fifty Shades Of Grey' Whips Up Record-Breaking Weekend Box Office Debut
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Audiences were more than curious to check out the big-screen adaptation of the racy phenomenon “Fifty Shades of Grey” this weekend. The erotic R-rated drama sizzled in its debut, earning an estimated $81.7 million from 3,646 theaters in its first three days, distributor Universal Pictures said on Sunday.
In addition to destroying Valentine’s and President’s Day weekend records, “Fifty Shades of Grey” has also become the second-highest February debut ever, behind “Passion of the Christ’s” $83.9 million opening in 2004. The chart-topping film cost a modest $40 million to produce. Starring Dakota Johnson and Jamie Dornan as Anastasia Steele and Christian Grey, it could be on track to earn over $90 million across the four-day holiday weekend.
According to Universal, North American audiences were 68 percent female.
Internationally, director Sam Taylor-Johnson’s adaptation of E L James’ book earned an estimated $158.3 million from 9,637 locations in 58 territories. That’s the second biggest international opening for Universal, right behind the $160.3 million debut from “Fast & Furious 6,” and the highest international opening for an R-rated film ever.
Director Matthew Vaughn’s “Kingsman: The Secret Service” also exceeded expectations, landing in second place with an estimated $35.6 million from 3,204 locations across the three-day, according to box office firm Rentrak.
The R-rated comic book adaptation starring Colin Firth and Samuel L. Jackson cost a reported $81 million to produce and should earn around $41 million across the four-day period.
Animated children’s film “The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water” came in third with $30.5 million in its second weekend in theaters, falling only 45 percent. As one of the few family-friendly options in theaters, Paramount’s PG-rated movie could pass $100 million by the end of the holiday weekend.
Rounding out the top five were holdovers “American Sniper,” with $16.4 million, and “Jupiter Ascending,” with $9.4 million.
The Oscar-nominated “American Sniper,” now in its fifth weekend of wide release, has earned over $300 million in North America to date.
Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Rentrak. Final domestic figures will be released Tuesday.
1. “Fifty Shades of Grey,” $81.7 million.
2. “Kingsman: The Secret Service,” $35.6 million.
3. “The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water,” $30.5 million.
4. “American Sniper,” $16.4 million.
5. “Jupiter Ascending,” $9.4 million.
6. “Seventh Son,” $4.2 million.
7. “Paddington,” $4.1 million.
8. “The Imitation Game,” $3.5 million.
9. “The Wedding Ringer,” $3.4 million.
10. “Project Almanac,” $2.7 million.
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Universal and Focus are owned by NBC Universal, a unit of Comcast Corp.; Sony, Columbia, Sony Screen Gems and Sony Pictures Classics are units of Sony Corp.; Paramount is owned by Viacom Inc.; Disney, Pixar and Marvel are owned by The Walt Disney Co.; Miramax is owned by Filmyard Holdings LLC; 20th Century Fox and Fox Searchlight are owned by 21st Century Fox; Warner Bros. and New Line are units of Time Warner Inc.; MGM is owned by a group of former creditors including Highland Capital, Anchorage Advisors and Carl Icahn; Lionsgate is owned by Lions Gate Entertainment Corp.; IFC is owned by AMC Networks Inc.; Rogue is owned by Relativity Media LLC.
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Follow AP Film Writer Lindsey Bahr on Twitter: www.twitter.com/ldbahr
LGBT Activists Stage Valentine's Day Protests In Arkansas, Kansas: VIDEO
LGBT Activists Stage Valentine's Day Protests In Arkansas, Kansas: VIDEO
It used to be a tradition for same-sex couples to protest marriage bans on Valentine’s Day — often by requesting licenses from clerk’s offices.
But now that marriage equality has arrived in 37 states, the focus has shifted.
Instead of seeking legal recognition of their relationships, LGBT people are demanding that they be protected against discrimination based on who they are and who they love.
On Saturday, activists in Arkansas and Kansas spent part of their Valentine’s Day protesting decisions by Republican governors that effectively sanction anti-LGBT discrimination.
In Kansas, nearly 1,000 people gathered outside the statehouse to protest Gov. Sam Brownback’s decision to rescind an executive order protecting LGBT state employees. The Kansas rally featured some colorful signs and costumes.
In Arkansas, about 70 people gathered outside the governor’s mansion to call on Gov. Asa Hutchinson to veto SB 202, which would prohibit cities from passing LGBT protections.
View more images and watch news reports on the two rallies, AFTER THE JUMP …
John Wright
The Great LGBT Escape: Drugs
The Great LGBT Escape: Drugs
'She's Beautiful When She's Angry': The Early Glory of Feminism in a Documentary by Mary Dore
'She's Beautiful When She's Angry': The Early Glory of Feminism in a Documentary by Mary Dore
This is not a critical review, it’s a spontaneous reaction of sheer astonishment and delight. I am surely not the only one who has waited forever to see a documentary of the beginning feminist movement that hits the target, letting you relive the beginning era moment by thrilling moment. I have been there, although in Paris, not in the States, conscious that much of the great impulses came from American women, firing up the rest of the world.
Now the long wait is over. Filmmaker Mary Dore has done a small miracle of packaging the events of the first five years into a dense, suspenseful and often hilarious ride of “women becoming” that never loses its focus and intense narration.
If you think of documentaries about social movements or revolutions you know how hard a task it is to keep the millions of stories, anecdotes and details moving forward and not get slowed down and bogged down by the indispensable talking heads and the clutter of facts.
Dore clearly knows the territory and her heart and intelligence are palpable in the film. The talking heads she chose are the makers and shakers of these early years when the first sparks of a women’s revolt flew against “patriarchy,” the stifling and oppressive “Father Knows Best” era of the fifties and sixties. Many of these activists — white women and women of color — thankfully are still alive. To name a few: Denise Oliver, Linda Burnham, Carol Giardina, Eleanor Holmes Norton, Kate Millett, Ruth Rosen, Susan Griffin, Susan Brownmiller, Rita Mae Brown, Karla Jay and their fiery sisters are commenting on the events that rocked the boat. It’s beautiful to see their young angry faces and their wise faces today.
Whether you’ve been there and lived the moment or not, this feminist A la recherche du temps perdu makes one feel what it was like. At first just a few handfuls of women protesting their low salaries, questioning their rights as human beings, wondering who owned their bodes – and almost over night, millions of women took to the streets. It’s astonishing now, looking back, to realize how brilliantly organized these women were, partly trained in the political left-wing movements and partly simply driven by the maxim, “The personal is political!” — propelled by a passionate and sacred urgency for justice and liberation.
The uncanny knack of the early feminists for publicity stunts gives the film its particular spice and triumph: secretly dragging a huge banner up the Statue of Liberty and unfurling it before the eyes of the world, was only the first act of daring to get attention. The banner said: “Women of the world, unite!”
In Paris, the first inspired action of this kind used the monument of the Arc de Triomphe: women (with the press in attendance!) deposited a wreath “for the unknown wife” of the “Unknown Soldier” in his tomb. Similarly, the cocky action of interrupting a Miss America Pageant led women everywhere to burn their corsets and girdles and bras with glee — and shock the establishment to the point that even today feminism is equated with bra burning. You can just imagine how scary such a vision of bra-less harpies must have been for the men of the establishment and their good, girdled wives! Women let loose, women taking power — millions of angry women! Society has no perception today of the joy and exhilaration, the immense humor of breaking free that women experienced back then, and no idea what sisterhood meant when it was first discovered.
Among the distinct chapters of the film, lesbians have a strong moment, but it will take another film, a sequel hopefully, to do justice to the emotional force of love that swept these millions who found out that women together were complete within themselves and with each other. This erotic force is a whole different story to be told, a story very much embodied in the music of the time. The huge impact of women’s music, parties, dancing, physical and gay liberation has not been addressed here, although rousing documentaries about women’s music exist.
This absence, however, does not diminish the powerful film. Major demands of the movement, like free abortion, have become a reality (although in the endless battle of the sexes a constantly endangered reality). Other demands are still light-years ahead, like equal pay for equal work or a salary for stay-at-home parents. Daycare for all children had already been adopted by Congress (how many people remember this extraordinary fact today?), but Nixon vetoed the new law. Feminist achievements for women have been huge, this film reminds us, and no matter that the backlash that followed has been huge as well, the benefits for both women and men seem indelible today. What comes across most poignantly, in my view, is the reminder that rightful anger can move mountains and, as Ruth Rosen reminds us, that laws need to be broken so that better laws for women can be created.
Oregon’s Next Governor Is a Powerful Inspiration to LGBT Youth and Hundreds Gathered in Portland
Oregon’s Next Governor Is a Powerful Inspiration to LGBT Youth and Hundreds Gathered in Portland
Brown’s coming out story continues to reflect the reality for many bisexual youth, according to HRC Foundation research
HRC.org