SCOTUS Rejects Final NOM Attempt to Undo Oregon Marriage Equality Ruling

Charles Pulliam-Moore

www.towleroad.com/2015/04/supreme-court-smacks-down-the-national-organization-of-marriage-in-defense-of-oregon-same-sex-marria.html

High Court Swats Away NOM's Efforts to Dismantle Oregon Marriage Equality

The antigay group has kept trying to intervene after Oregon’s attorney general declined to defend the ban, but it’s out of options now.

read more

Trudy Ring

www.advocate.com/politics/marriage-equality/2015/04/21/high-court-swats-away-noms-efforts-dismantle-oregon-marriage-e

YouTube Star Connor Franta Talks New Memoir, Dealing With Haters And His Dream Vlog Collaboration
Connor Franta is a mega YouTube star, philanthropist and entrepreneur. As of today, the Internet personality can officially add another accomplishment to his growing resume — a published author.

HuffPost Teen chatted with Connor and got exclusive details about his new memoir, “A Work in Progress,” what it’s like to be a YouTube star and his heartfelt advice for his fans. Check it out below.

HuffPost Teen: You’re releasing your first memoir — congratulations! How was your process of writing this memoir different from your routine of creating YouTube vlogs?

Connor Franta: With YouTube, everything is incredibly quick, so I can write, shoot, edit and produce everything within a day if I want. With a book, it took an entire year — which is quick for a book — but just the process itself is incredibly slow compared to YouTube videos. It was kind of hard to allow myself to sit down and take time on a project!

What inspired this memoir?

Just my life. I felt like I wanted to go beyond the five minutes a week I do with YouTube videos and kind of put more thought and more effort into putting out my message into the world.

Being on YouTube, your fans know a fair amount about you. Is there anything you discuss in your book that you haven’t really gone into in your videos?

There’s a million new things that I talk about [in my memoir], but a lot of it is just going more in depth on things, so I talk about coming out in more detail and kind of describe the process that I went through with that, like the ups and downs of it.

What advice do you have for HuffPost Teen readers about self-esteem and identity?

I would say just it’s just about finding confidence in yourself. It’s cheesy, but everyone has flaws and everyone has things they don’t like about themselves. But the sooner you can allow yourself to accept those, those imperfections about yourself, the sooner you can be happy and move on. It’s easy to focus on all those “negative” things you see about yourself, but you know, to most people they’re not a big deal. They just seem like they’re a big deal to yourself.

How, if at all, has being a YouTube megastar changed your day-to-day life?

I’ve never been this busy and I’ve never been doing this many things. With all of those YouTube videos comes a lot of stuff that I do behind the scenes like writing books. But also it’s made me a lot more fortunate in that I’ve been given lots of opportunities, again, like writing books, that I probably would have never gotten before YouTube. So it’s been truly a blessing and truly amazing.

Have you dealt at all with “haters?” What has that been like, and how do you bounce back from that kind of feedback?

Making YouTube videos while I was in school, I was fortunate enough not to really have any negative repercussions from it. I had a lot of positive feedback from my friends who thought they were great and thought they were funny and that what I was doing was really cool. As for online, yeah, I mean I get a couple hate comments now and again, but they’re mixed in with thousands of more positive, supportive comments, so I try to just ignore them and focus on the good things.

What would you say is the hardest part about being a YouTube star?

The hardest thing, at least for me, is just being so public about everything ’cause I’m a pretty personal guy. I’m a little bit shy and from the Midwest, so to be so open and honest with millions of people is pretty difficult. To have people constantly having an eye on you and very interested in what you’re doing at all times — it can be a little stressful at times. But that’s also simultaneously the thing I like the most about it. So it’s kind of like a weird love/hate thing.

Would you say YouTube has been a creative outlet for you?

Oh, definitely. It started off and it still is today my creative outlet. It’s exactly how I express myself and get my thoughts and opinions out into the world — whether it’s in a silly challenge video, or a well thought-out creative poetic video, it doesn’t really matter… it’s just me expressing myself. I think [a creative outlet] is an important thing for anyone to have — to be encouraged to share their thoughts and be able to just in general, create things. I think it’s great and such a positive thing.

We hear that you’re really into coffee. Tell us more about your coffee brand!

Yeah, I am! One of the fun, really cool projects that I’ve done this year is that I launched a coffee line. I’ve always enjoyed coffee and I’ve always wanted to do something with coffee, and I figured why not just make my own? So, I partnered up with this company in LA called LA Coffee Club and essentially, I got to pick my own coffee beans from this farm in Guatemala — not like physically pick them, but look at different ones and say, “I want that one” and I created my packaging and the design for everything. I launched it and did a 48-hour sale and it went incredibly well.

What is your favorite coffee shop?

I’m actually like a hole-in-the-wall coffee shop kind of guy. So I love the local shops that are kind of like one-off chains in Los Angeles, and I usually get a soy flat white.

If you could collaborate with one other YouTube star, who would you pick?

I haven’t done any collabs in a while. I usually do them with my friends, but I feel it’s only fitting that I would love to collab with the amazing John Green and his brother Hank. The Vlog Brothers would be great. Now that I wrote a book, maybe I can talk to John about books! [laughs]. I’m a huge fan of his work in general. They’re absolutely amazing.

What is one message you would send to HuffPost Teen readers and your fans?

Never think you can’t do something. I definitely never thought I could write a book, and even after I started writing it I was like, “Oh my God, how am I gonna write a book?” Just set your sights high and reach for the stars. Go live your dreams, and never think you can’t.

Check out Connor’s book tour here.

Follow HuffPost Teen on Twitter | Instagram | Tumblr | Pheed |

More on HuffPost:

— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/04/21/connor-franta-new-book-youtube_n_7109560.html?utm_hp_ref=gay-voices&ir=Gay+Voices

Shocking 1975 Government Document States Marriage Cannot Exist ‘Between Two Faggots’: VIDEO

Jim Redmond

www.towleroad.com/2015/04/1975-government-document-says-marriage-cannot-exist-between-two-faggots-video.html

WATCH: Josh Groban sings "Over The Rainbow"

The single is from Groban’s new album Stages, available next week.

read more

Gina Vivinetto

www.advocate.com/arts-entertainment/music/2015/04/21/watch-josh-groban-sings-over-rainbow

Conservative Lawyer Gene Schaerr Argues That Marriage Equality Will Lead To Spike In Abortion Rates
A conservative, Washington D.C.-based attorney is making headlines after linking same-sex marriage to abortion rates in a bizarre blog post.

Gene Schaerr, who specializes in constitutional and appellate litigation, is perhaps best known for defending same-sex marriage ban in Utah and Idaho, and is a former clerk to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. Now, as The Washington Post points out, he’s filed an amicus brief on behalf of “100 scholars of marriage” asking the Supreme Court not to recognize same-sex marriage as a constitutional right.

Schaerr makes his controversial claims in an April 17 editorial that appeared on the conservative Heritage Foundation’s news site, The Daily Signal. It reads, in part:

A reduction in the opposite-sex marriage rate means an increase in the percentage of women who are unmarried and who, according to all available data, have much higher abortion rates than married women. And based on past experience, institutionalizing same-sex marriage poses an enormous risk of reduced opposite-sex marriage rates.

Claiming that opposite-sex marriage rates have declined in the time that same-sex marriage has been recognized across many states and abroad, he implies that up to 900,000 children could be aborted as a result of their mothers never marrying, and continues:

In short, forcing states to convert the traditional gendered marriage institution into a genderless institution will very likely reduce man-woman marriages by undermining some of the norms that encourage heterosexual couples to marry, which will in turn increase the number of unmarried women and, hence, the number of children aborted.

It is one thing for the people of a state to subject themselves and their children to that risk through democratic processes. It would be quite another for the Supreme Court to subject a states’ citizens to that risk, against their will.

Contrary to Schaerr’s claims, marriage rates across the U.S. have dropped overall, even in states without same-sex marriage legislation, The Washington Post reported in September 2014.

— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/04/21/gene-schaerr-gay-marriage-abortion-_n_7108600.html?utm_hp_ref=gay-voices&ir=Gay+Voices

Get Your Tally Wacked By Half-Naked Waiters In Dallas

Finally, the restaurant we’ve been waiting for.

Tallywackers is a new dining establishment coming to Dallas. Per a help wanted ad posted to Craigslist, it appears to be a bar and restaurant specializing in hot dogs and other phallic-shaped foods served up by a staff of half-naked hunks.

In other words: It’s the male equivalent to Hooters. And we’re sure it’s going to be a huge hit in the Oak Lawn geighborhood. How could it not?

Related: Police Searching For Underwear Bandits Who Stripped During Restaurant Heist

The restaurant, which is billing itself as the “newest and most exciting place to be,” is currently hiring bartenders, servers, cooks, bus boys and hosts, and is expected to open some time next month.

Let’s just hope servers in super skimpy briefs don’t violate any health department regulations.

Related: WATCH: The Naked Chef Is Back To Work His Meat

Scroll down for photos from the restaurant’s hiring event held last weekend…

h/t: Dallas Eater

Graham Gremore

feedproxy.google.com/~r/queerty2/~3/kIL6XnOuAmg/get-your-tally-wacked-by-half-naked-waiters-in-dallas-20150421

The Myth of Black Gay Privilege
In The Fire Next Time, James Baldwin expiates about American society, writing presciently that it is “a civilization sexually so pathetic that the white man’s masculinity depends on a denial of the masculinity of the blacks.” As always, Baldwin’s writing is relevant for understanding contemporary society and the persistence of American racism and provides some explanation for the marginal professional success black gay men experience. However, it would be inappropriate and misleading to label that success as “black gay privilege” as did Dr. John Fitzgerald Gates. As a gay black man, I find fault in many of Dr. Gates’ assertions principally because I have never encountered any of the secret spaces that he described where one gains access to a host of privileges. Furthermore, as a sociologist I am troubled by the instances where his claims of “black gay privilege” is not supported by social scientific evidence.

My colleague, David S. Pedulla, at the University of Texas-Austin, recently published results from an experimental study that asked respondents to make a salary recommendation after reviewing a resume for a job applicant. Resumes were experimentally manipulated along two axes, the race of applicant (white vs. black) and their sexual orientation (straight vs. gay). Results showed that straight white men and gay black men received similar initial offers, while straight black men and gay white men both received significantly lower offers. While these results are important and increase our working knowledge of the role and impact of “intersecting identities,” it does not in anyway provide evidence of “gay black privilege.” The fact remains we have more questions than answers about than how race, gender and sexuality unfold and intersect in the workplace.

First, while there are certainly drawbacks to conducting experiments versus testing hypotheses in real world encounters, it seems unreasonable to assert the existence of “black gay privilege” based upon this study, because the data only show how respondents evaluate race and sexual orientation in one instance: hiring. Forget the fact that these survey respondents are making suggested initial salaries and that these are not real offers of employment, we know nothing about of the daily experiences of professional black gay men and more importantly if these perceived benefits or privileges are extended during throughout their tenure at a work organization. Does “black gay privilege” still hold when trying to negotiate a raise or a promotion? It is one thing to evaluate a person’s multiple social identities on paper and quite another to evaluate that individual in person.

Second, we know little about why black gay men received similar salary offers as straight white men, although there is evidence in the study that black gay men are seen as less threatening. While black gay men may not fit the negative stereotypes commonly associated with straight black men that depict them as sexually and physically dangerous, there are a host of stereotypes that black professional men encounter in the workplace. Sociologist Adai Harvey Wingfield documents how black professional men in occupations dominated by white men are often cast into the numerous roles, including that of the “superbrother.” Going beyond the previously discussed research study, I would hypothesize that many professional gay black men are cast and find success as the “superbrother,” who has excellent credentials, typically better than their white counterparts. As Wingfield identifies “superbrothers” in the workplace must meet exceptionally high standards and incur massive debts attending elite universities to obtain similar positions held by white men with less impressive resumes. While I agree with Dr. Gates’ assessment that many white employers might hire black gay men because they believe they are killing two “diversity birds” with one stone, I am unsure if that translates into privilege or a burden. As doubly diverse employees, black gay men might find themselves working harder for the same salary perhaps despite superior resumes and with the additional responsibilities of serving as representatives of their respective communities. The point here is to question if it is privilege that we are observing or oppression in disguise that requires black gay men to be exceptional and supernatural to get ahead. Furthermore, I would also like to point out as a scholar of organizations, just because someone is present in an organization, it does not mean that individual is in power or has the power to change its institutional structure.

Third, while Pedulla’s study adds to the literature on intersectionality, I was struck by Gates’ lack of an intersectional perspective when thinking about “black gay privilege.” Specifically, he writes “within companies, black gay privilege carries a tacit obligation and expectation that one’s gayness trumps ones blackness in affairs with the company.” That tacit obligation is unproven and says nothing of how black gay men see and experience themselves in the workplace. Personally, I am unable separate my race and sexual orientation in the workplace. While my sexuality might lead others to see me as less threatening, it does not stop others from confusing me with other gay and straight black men, opening the door to encounter racial micro aggressions, nor does this intersectional identity minimize bonds of racial solidarity with my black colleagues. Although we know little about how black gay men negotiate their identity in the workplace, the intersectionality literature is clear that having multiple social identities is complex. It is more than the sum of multiple identities, rather, it is the reflection of identities intersecting and influencing one another.

While Pedulla’s research is promising, we need to rigorously interrogate what it means to be a black gay man. Do these “privileges” extend to black gay men who do not fit stereotypical images, such as those who are not effeminate but exude traditional traits of masculinity or those who are radical queer brothas but who refuse to confirm to Eurocentric standards? Before one assumes the presence of “black gay privilege” one must acknowledge the variety of experiences of black gay men.

— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

www.huffingtonpost.com/james-jones2/the-myth-of-black-gay-privilege_b_7107304.html?utm_hp_ref=gay-voices&ir=Gay+Voices

These 10 ridiculously sexy shots of gay girls on holiday have won an award

Simply sizzling on the Canary Islands

read more

jamiet

www.gaystarnews.com/article/these-10-ridiculously-sexy-shots-gay-girls-holiday-have-won-award210415