Please enter your date of birth to proceed.
Longtime HRC Member Jim Obergefell on His Decision to Fight for Nationwide Marriage Equality
In the most recent edition of HRC’s Equality magazine, longtime member Jim Obergefell spoke about his late partner John Arthur, the impact of U.S. v. Windsor, and the decision to fly half way across the country to say, “I do.”
HRC.org
PHOTOS: Stars Sparkle And Raise Serious Cash For LGBT Youth At The Annual Center Dinner In NYC
It was a star-studded evening at The Center’s annual Center Dinner at Cipriani Wall Street in New York City this week. The dinner honored actor Jeffrey Tambor of Transparent, plus several other LGBT community leaders. The event also supported The Center’s efforts to open the first-ever substance abuse treatment program designed specifically for LGBT youth. The evening’s attendees included Edie Windsor, Laverne Cox, Neil Patrick Harris, Alan Cumming, Mary Louise Parker, Lea DeLaria, and other influential celebrities, activists, and figures from the LGBT community. The dinner proved to be a great success, raising over $1 million.
Scroll down for a few photos from the evening, and check out the full gallery at Gaycities.
Graham Gremore
Congressional Republicans File Supreme Court Brief Backing Bans on Same-sex Marriage
Six U.S. senators and 51 U.S. House members have signed a brief urging the U.S. Supreme Court to uphold state bans on same-sex marriage, the AP reports.
The senators: Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Ted Cruz (R-TX), Steve Daines (R-MT), James Lankford (R-OK), James Inhofe (R-OK) and Tim Scott (R-SC).
Notable House signers include: Virginia Foxx (R-VA), Louie Gohmert (R-TX), Tim Huelskamp (R-KS), Steve King (R-IA), and Randy Webber (R-TX).
The Washington Blade reports:
At one point, congressional Republicans invoke the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Roe v. Wade, saying the nationwide ruling on abortion was “widely criticized” for departing from incremental change.
“In this case, it is beyond dispute that a judicially mandated redefinition of marriage would impose sweeping, rather than incremental, change,” the brief says. “It would impliedly invalidate the recent, democratically adopted policies of 31 States. Moreover, several States have opted for a more incremental approach, affording to same-sex couples forms of legal recognition other than marriage. Constitutional prudence dictates that this incremental, democratic process should be allowed to continue.”
Last month over 300 Republicans, including 23 current and former GOP congressional members, signed a friend-of-the-court brief in support of marriage equality.
The Obama Administration and 211 congressional Democrats have also filed separate briefs asking the Supreme Court to overturn bans on same-sex marriage.
Read the GOP brief, AFTER THE JUMP…
Kyler Geoffroy
It’s the culture war, stupid: Why identity is at the heart of Indiana’s “religious freedom” fight
Instead of getting swept up in talking points and legalisms, we should focus on the real reason Indiana matters
'Masturbation Will Lead To Homosexuality': Sex-Ed In China Leaves LGBT Youth In The Dark
At the International Conference on Sexuality in Kunming, China, HIV/AIDS activist Humphrey Wou attended a panel on sex education, hoping to learn about the textbooks used to teach Chinese students about sex. He remembered one presenter reading aloud from a book that had been widely used in high school classrooms in the city of Hangzhou for years: “Masturbation will lead to mental disorders and homosexuality,” he said.
Wou, who had been in the region for months providing rapid HIV testing to gay men, was not surprised. In a country where sex and sexuality remain taboo topics of discussion, such misinformation remains common. In fact, out of ninety Chinese science, psychology, and sex-education textbooks surveyed by the Gay and Lesbian Campus Association, a Guangzhou-based student advocacy group, 80 percent characterized homosexuality as psychologically aberrant. Although homosexuality was removed from the official list of mental disorders in 2001, LGBT people in China have few legal protections against discrimination and still face widespread social disapproval and harassment.
Young Sons Of Gay Dad Share Their Powerful Brushes With Antigay Bullying
Good parenting is made even better with a soundtrack of inspirational piano music and frog noises.
YouTuber Kamaka Alameda, a gay father of two in Puna, Hawaii recently posted a video in which he openly engages his young sons about the homophobia they face in school.
His older son is in 5th grade, and describes:
“I was bullied because people would ask me about my father — if he was gay. And I would say ‘yeah, there’s nothing wrong with that…’ I tried to walk away from this kid — he jumped on me and he slammed my face against a pole and gave me a black eye…They would call me gay, they would call me stupid, retard.”
The situation wasn’t addressed properly, and Kamaka eventually decided to switch the kids’ school after personally witnessing his son being called a “fag” and hearing that he continued to face bullying “almost every single day.”
“I want to create an awareness that this happens to people in the community,” he says in the video. “If you step out and you’re not afraid to be who you are, sometimes you’re hated on…How I raise my children is that they can love whoever they want to love.”
Watch their touching story below:
Dan Tracer
Đi đường nghe chuyện LGBT – Kickstart (4/4/2015)
Ngày 4/4/2015, Nam và Huy chính thức khởi hành từ Hà Nội cho hành trình "đi tìm chân dung cộng đồng LGBT Việt Nam."
www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMgnQsdzW4w&feature=youtube_gdata
Choir sings to help ease tensions in Walkerton
If you went near Memories Pizza at 4 p.m. you would have heard the voices of The Ripple Effect Choir. The choir is composed of LGBT and LGBT allies and they were hoping to spread love and compassion through their songs. .
www.fox28.com/story/28718430/2015/04/03/choir-sings-to-help-ease-tensions-in-walkerton
You must be 18 years old or older to chat
