Rand Paul Is Officially Running for President

The Kentucky senator says he is a ‘different kind of Republican’ — but his past statements on LGBT equality indicate more of the same.

read more

Sunnivie Brydum

www.advocate.com/politics/politicians/2015/04/07/rand-paul-officially-running-president

'Drag Race' Season 7 Star Katya: RuPaul Is Intimidating and Michelle Visage Is Terrifying
“I didn’t expect to be afraid of RuPaul,” admits Drag Race star Katya Zamolodchikova, “But I was.”

It was just one of many surprises in store for the Boston-based performer when she showed up to compete on Season 7 of RuPaul’s Drag Race. Katya now realizes just how “naïve” she was about elements of the televised competition, not the least of which being how difficult it would be to build a “rapport” with “The Supermodel of the World.”

“I didn’t go in there expecting to be pals with her or whatever, but it is different when you’re in front of the cameras,” she said of RuPaul.

“She’s a businesswoman. It’s her job,” Katya continued during a recent interview filmed for YouTube (below). “She goes in there, does a fabulous job of hosting the show, but that’s it. You don’t hang out with her or anything.”

In hindsight, though, Katya — pronounced “Kah-Tee-Yah,” not “Kotcha,” which she quickly corrected upon our meeting — has a better understanding of the superstar. For future contestants, she has clear-cut suggestions for interacting with the legend.

“It is intimidating meeting [RuPaul], and, yes, you can definitely get that ‘distant’ vibe, but she wants you to make her laugh,” she says, “She really, really wants that, so you just have to get over that nervousness or intimidation…Just go for it!”

Watch: Drag Race star Katya discusses her fear of RuPaul, dishes on the other queens of Season 7, names her all-time favorite Drag Race contestant & shares the inspiration for her quirky YouTube videos.

After facing elimination in the second episode of the series — in which she seriously flubbed a lip-sync in “The Glamazon Airlines” challenge — Katya has regained her footing and quickly become a standout. While audiences love her sassy wit and incredible runway looks, the show’s judges don’t seem entirely sold. She describes Michelle Visage as “particularly harsh.”

“She’s terrifying, I’m not going to lie,” Katya said of the long-time Drag Race judge, who also happens to be RuPaul’s BFF. Since the departure of Santino Rice from the panel of judges, Katya says Visage has become even more difficult to please.

“I think that she’s taken on the role of ‘head judge,'” she said, “[Santino and she] kind of had a good cop/bad cop thing going, and now Michelle’s the ‘bad cop.’ Well, she was always a bad cop, but now she’s a really bad cop.”

RuPaul and the judges weren’t the only things which had the contestant quivering in her stilettos. According to Katya, she was shaken to find New York’s Miss Fame also competing.

“I was like ‘Fuck, fuck, fuck!'” she recalled of walking into the workroom that first day to discover the 29-year-old YouTube sensation in the running to become “America’s Next Drag Superstar.”

Drag Race Season 7 star Katya & Pollo Del Mar, Photo by Jose A. Guzman-Colon

“She was so intimidating in such a specific way,” Katya shared of Fame, who revealed her somewhat bizarre love of chickens (I love Pollo too!) in the latest episode. “When I introduced myself to her, she was so confident — but not bitchy about it. She was so sure of herself.”

It was a radically different approach, Katya says, than fellow contestant Violet Chachki. The 22-year-old diva, who won the show’s first main stage challenge and appears to be a judge’s favorite, was much a more in-your-face competitor.

“She was like, ‘I’m going to win because I’m America’s fucking next drag superstar, and I’m going to claw my way to the top,” Katya recalled, “‘And if that means stepping on your face, I’m going to do it.’ That’s Violet.”

That said, the Bostonian still rejected labeling her talented young costar as Season 7’s “villain” (though I tried!). Instead, she views Chachki in a different way.

“I would call her this season’s ‘brat,'” Katya says. “I am a huge fan of hers, and I like watching her on the show…Her talent is not overshadowed by her brattiness, not at all!

“Every time she walks down the runway, it blows your wig off,” she concluded, “Every fucking time!”

To get more of the performer’s insights into episodes of Drag Race, told from the perspective [and in the accent of her Russian alter-(sh)ego], check out Katya’s YouTube Channel here.

— 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/pollo-del-mar/drag-race-star-katya-rupaul-is-intimidating_b_6997470.html?utm_hp_ref=gay-voices&ir=Gay+Voices

HRC Calls on Rand Paul to Take Position on Indiana’s Anti-LGBT Law

Today, HRC highlighted Sen. Rand Paul’s long history of opposing LGBT equality and called on him to take a position regarding Indiana’s anti-LGBT law signed by Gov. Mike Pence.
HRC.org

www.hrc.org/blog/entry/hrc-calls-on-rand-paul-to-take-position-on-indianas-anti-lgbt-law?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss-feed

Watch These Wives Respond To Seeing Their Husbands In Drag For The First Time

The last we heard from Davey Wavey he had someone managed to convince a straight man to try using a vibrating butt plug for the first time. On camera.

Now, our favorite vlogger is back with an all-new video in which he asks husbands to dress in drag in front of their wives because, well, why the hell not?

Three married couples participated in the video. With the help of Miss Haley Star, each of the husbands underwent a drag makeover, complete with fake eyelashes and lots of make-up.

While we have to applaud these fellas for being such great sports, they make some seriously ugly drag queens.

See the silliness in the video below.

Related stories:

Davey Wavey Conducts Highly Scientific “Gay Test” On Straight Friend

Davey Wavey’s Tips For Giving A Great Hand Job: Use Your Mouth

Davey Wavey Launched His Video Career After Catching A Neighbor Masturbating

Graham Gremore

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Louisiana Lesbian Student Wins Battle to Wear Tuxedo to Prom

Andy Towle

www.towleroad.com/2015/04/louisiana-lesbian-student-wins-battle-to-wear-tuxedo-to-prom.html

Aetna aims for LGBT community with targeted marketing test
A relative says a man found dead with his seven children in a Maryland home was trying to keep them warm with a generator after power was cut over an outstanding bill.

www.wfmj.com/story/28740566/aetna-aims-for-lgbt-community-with-targeted-marketing-test

I Support Your Right To Share My Rights
This piece first appeared on Momastery. I’ve been asked these questions so frequently that I compiled a few answers here. Love.

Q: You’ve been vocal in your support of marriage equality even though you are a Christian. Can you talk about that?

Yes. I will, but I do so under protest. It makes me squirm that we are still talking about this, that a straight woman is being asked to discuss whether or not her gay sisters and brothers should or should not be granted their basic civil rights. As if we Christians are the morality police, the gatekeepers for God, the legislative branch of the government, the bosses of the world. My gay friends know they’re fine and good and worthy of their rights even without knowing what I think. Even so – I will share my thoughts here with great anticipation for the Supreme Court’s ruling this summer – after which I hope we’ll need to discuss this less often.

One of the brilliant ideas that launched this country is that religions shouldn’t legislate their interpretations of holy texts to citizens. It doesn’t make sense to me to ignore this very American idea and call ourselves patriotic about it. But if we must, then I wish we Christians could come up with an actual tenant of Christianity to legislate, one that would serve the world – like gleaning or caring for widows and orphans or embracing the alien or turning the other cheek or turning all our weapons into plowshares or giving away our first fruits. I think it says a lot that we choose the rights of homosexuals to obsess over. It feels too easy. I’m not big on faith rules but if I had to choose one – it would be that every person must choose a faith issue upon which to hang her hat that requires HER to change – not somebody else.

It makes no sense to me that my gay friends cannot get married to each other because a certain slice of Christianity doesn’t believe in gay marriage. And let’s be clear, deciding that certain folks can get married and others cannot is not just a symbolic gesture. My married friends and I enjoy a host of government privileges and protections by virtue of being part of a government-approved marital unit. So when we do not support marriage equality, we support the government denying from gay families the rights we claim for ourselves, including rights to hospital visitation and emergency medical decisions; public housing access; certain inheritance rights and tax benefits; the right to residency and family unification under immigration law; and certain social security, retirement and health insurance benefits.

So, the first reason I support marriage equality is that I believe in the separation of church and state. I think if people don’t believe in gay marriage, then mostly they should not get gay married. That should be enough of a stand to take. We should live out our particular brand of faith, sure – but we should never force our brand of faith upon anyone else. All violence starts with the desire to change others and then never, ever ends.

Having said that, I’ll admit that I came to my stand on this “issue” through my faith, not in spite of it. I support equal rights for my gay neighbors not even though I’m a Christian, but BECAUSE I’m a Christian. In the Gospel Jesus makes it crystal clear that if we are going to take seriously only one of his suggestions- we should make it this one: love your neighbor as yourself.

I think there is a big difference between simply loving someone and loving someone as yourself.

For example: when a married Christian says that he loves gay people but can’t support marriage equality, it strikes me as an incomplete kind of love. Because loving your neighbor as you love yourself, I think, must mean that you bestow every right you claim for yourself onto your neighbor. If you are free and you love your neighbor as yourself, you want your neighbor to be free, too. If you claim your right to be married, but deny it to your neighbor, then you are loving your neighbor just a little bit less than you love yourself.

This kind of talk upsets people, which makes me sad because I really, really don’t like to upset people. Upsetting people feels wrong to me. But it feels more wrong to be quiet about freedom matters for fear of upsetting people. I have so many Christian friends who privately disagree with what is being preached from their pulpits about marriage equality, but they stay quiet so they don’t rock the boat. What’s ever going to change if we don’t raise our hands kindly? If our kids see us sitting silently, they’ll never know they have the freedom to ask questions. I get it, though. It’s dangerous to disagree with “the church.” You can get yourself crucified. People never get more riled up then when someone starts talking about God and freedom in the same sentence. It’s like we Christians love the idea of grace, but we don’t want it distributed indiscriminately- we want make rules about it and dole it out carefully and strategically. It’s like we’re worried that if everybody knows that she’s loved and accepted by God – it will be Grace Anarchy! I want that. I want Grace Anarchy. I want people to be free to be who they are. It makes sense to me that the free-er people are, the BETTER people are. I believe in people because I believe in God. I think God knew what God was doing when God made each of us.

Q: And so I suppose you agree that homosexuality is not a choice, then- but an inborn trait?

Yes, of course. Although I have a hunch that our sexual orientation is much more of a sliding scale with lots of grey than most of us are comfortable admitting. I think if we all got a little more cozy with our own grey areas we’d probably be more accepting of the gray in others. So, yes- I believe that gayness or straightness is inborn- but honestly I never understand why that is what we focus on. It makes me uncomfortable when people say: You’re okay because you were born that way. That feels negative to me. Like, it’s okay that you are this weird thing because God made you weird. I don’t love that approach. For me, I don’t care if you’re a woman who wants to marry a woman because you were “born that way” or because you met this one person and everything you previously thought about your sexuality changed in an instant. I don’t care. You are my neighbor and I trust you to choose your life and your love. I’m married and it’s one of the best things to ever happen to me and if you want this wonderful thing too, then I want it for you.

Q: How do you respond when people accuse you of picking and choosing what you believe in the Bible?

Well, that theory suggests that there are two kind of Christians: Those who pick and choose what they follow in the Bible, and those who follow it all. I just tend to think that the two kinds of Christians are: those who admit that they pick and choose what to follow, and those who don’t admit that. For example: most folks reference 1 Corinthians to prove that homosexuality is a sin, while ignoring the fact that the same book of the Bible says that women should wear head coverings and be silent in church. The strange thing is that when I bring that up, people say: well, that was written in a different time. You have to understand the context. It is so strange. Context is allowed to be considered when discussing women (progress! great!) but not when it comes to homosexuality. It doesn’t seem right to pick and choose which scriptures we are permitted to consider the context of and which we are not. As a woman, it is important for me to say: Let’s please not take hold of our freedom, but leave our gay brothers and sisters in prison. This is like the Bible underground railroad; as the church moves forward and frees oppressed groups one at a time, let each newly freed group go back for those still imprisoned. What good is our freedom if we don’t spend it on those not yet free? Tweet: What good is our freedom if we don’t spend it on those not yet free? @momastery ctt.ec/6jde1+

Q: How do you interpret the scriptures about homosexuality?

When these scriptures were written, there was no precedent for monogamous, consensual homosexual relationships. Many theologians agree that the original Hebrew word used here (the one that has been translated again and again by imperfect people) originally referred to the common ancient practice of taking child sex slaves. Many theologians agree that the original scripture writers were referring to child sex slavery as abomination. The abomination here is about abuse of power. It’s about the abomination of people in in power abusing the vulnerable. (Read more about this here.) If you want to fight against the abomination referred to in these scriptures, don’t picket a wedding of two grown people who love each other and want to start a family, join the work of courageous organizations who are fighting the very real abomination of the child sex trade across the world today.

I think that if someone translates scripture to me in a way that seems to rub up against what I know about the God of love, it’s my responsibility to start asking questions. We must work out our own faith with fear and trembling. We need to take scripture seriously enough to look hard and research and ask questions. Every time someone tells me that homosexuals need to repent and leave their life of sin I want to say: but repent means to RETHINK .Why do you read God’s direction to repent and assume God is talking to someone else? What if God is talking to you? What if you are to rethink your ideas of who is in and who is out? I know when I read the direction to repent, I know it’s meant for me. I feel constantly, just constantly, called to rethink. If we live in a constant state of repentance, that means we are always letting go of old ways of thinking to make way for the new. Behold, God says. I am doing a new thing! Repentance is the way of God, which means that if I want to follow God, I can’t cling too tightly to my ideas about God. Ideas and beliefs about God are not God. Opinions and beliefs can become the idols that are hardest to let go. And so faith has to be more of a dance than a checklist.

I’ve had a lot of repentance to do lately. I used to be really angry at Christians who think differently than I do. God is working with me. I am softening. I have many conservative Christian friends who look at all of this differently and I have come to understand that they are good people. They are not hateful, they are just like me: doing the best they can with what they’ve been taught. It’s good to be kind and humble about what we think we know. It’s good to choose mercy over judgement in all cases. I’m working on it. My son said to me recently: “Mom, you’re judgmental too, you just tend to judge judgy people.” Dangit, I thought. Repent, repent. repent, Glennon. Walk humbly.

Q: How do you talk to your kids about homosexuality?

Early and often and badly.

Recently my 11-year old and I were talking about this and my five year old walked in and overheard us. She said: “what’s gay?” And Chase said: “Well, it’s like when a girl loves girls more than she loves boys.” And Amma said,” Oh, I’m definitely gay then.” And I thought. Wait, Crap, Well – based on that definition, I might be gay, too. We need to tweak that, maybe.

So we don’t talk about it perfectly. It’s awkward and I’m always certain I’m saying all the wrong things. There’s no script. After one family discussion about sexuality- I called a gay friend and said: “UGH. How do I talk about this? What do I say? I feel so awkward.” And she said, “Well don’t go blaming that on us. You’re awkward about a lot of things.” YES. That’s true, I thought.

But we do talk about sexuality openly and often and we keep two things in mind:

First, we don’t ever assume to know our kids’ orientation. Recently, we were playing the Life board game and when each child landed on the “Get Married” space I was careful to say: “Congratulations! Should I give you a wife peg or a husband peg?” No assumptions until and unless they talk to us about it.

Secondly, our kids know that homosexuality (or heterosexuality for that matter) is not something to tolerate, but to celebrate. We tolerate traffic jams, we celebrate love and sexuality. They need to know that NOW. I often see loving, wonderful, courageous parents changing their “views” on homosexuality after their child comes out to them. That is some brave progress, and I applaud it, but it’s not ideal. Many of my gay friends tell me they knew they were gay as children, long before they told their parents. How much better for a little one to know he’s ALWAYS been accepted for whoever he turns out to be?

Most importantly, our minister, Dawson (that’s him in the picture up top, officiating a wedding!) is our good friend and he’s gay- so my kids aren’t growing up with the idea that homosexuality and church are at odds at all. They just see their gay friend wrapped up in a vestment Sunday morning, being his brilliant, divine, human, hilarious self. They just watch Dawson preaching truth and love and freedom and then they feel him placing his hand on their little foreheads and blessing them: in the name of the Father/Mother, Son and Holy Spirit. They feel God through Dawson. So that’s how we “talk” about it. We just love Pastor Dawson and he loves us. And as my kid see our church family not just “accept” pastor Dawson but be led by him — they learn that church is a place for humans to be human, and then love each other in superhuman ways.

We just want to dance in the streets with God and Pastor Dawson.

It will be Grace Anarchy and we will all be free and it will be on Earth as it is in Heaven.

Love,
G

— 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/glennon-melton/i-support-your-right-to-s_b_7017644.html?utm_hp_ref=gay-voices&ir=Gay+Voices

Jim Obergefell: Remember That Name

In Tuesday’s Washington Post, Americans will see a face and name they will be seeing a lot more of in the days to come: the named plaintiff in the marriage equality case before the Supreme Court, Jim Obergefell.
HRC.org

www.hrc.org/blog/entry/jim-obergefell-remember-that-name?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss-feed

“RuPaul’s Drag Race” Recap Realness: Bring Back My Merle

Though Kasha’s recent departure caused quite a stir with the audience, it seems to have minimal effect on our remaining nine contestants. Kandy’s cleaned that mirror so many times that Logo is required to report her as one of their janitorial staff, but she remains confident that her purpose on the show is to send the other girls home one lip sync at a time. I’d laugh, but given how many lifelines she’s been thrown, it wouldn’t shock me if she was straight-up hosting next season. That ever-thickening smear of black liner under her eye will be down to her tits by then.

Oh also the editors would really like for us to believe that Fame has serious beef with Pearl because of negativity or whatever, but absolutely no drama results from this assertion.

The next day begins with Max opening up a tiny umbrella to shield herself from the vulgar sex talk with which the other ladies debase themselves. Like, can’t we all just cover our ankles and talk about daffodils? Sadly, her prudishness distracts from the top/bottom discussion. Can we get a rundown on that one? Inquiring dick pigs want to know.

Ru (fisting top/watersports bottom, for the record) jumps in with a video message about wigs and a mini-challenge about a really fantastic dream I had last night. The girls face a row of men wearing nothing but caps and underpants and ask one by one what they’re packing. Most offer a numerical score, but one has a game-ending monster in his pants. It turns out that drag queens are like truffle pigs when it comes to sniffing out panty snausages, because only Ginger manages to close out the round with points on the board.

As the default winner, Ms. Minj gathers a team for herself and divvies up the remaining gals as they face off for the week’s main task: portraying Ru, Michelle, and Merle in three variations of the story behind the judging panel switcheroo. Ginger makes a grab for Kennedy and Katya, then saddles Max with Violet and Kandy because she’s downright hateful. That leaves Pearl, Fame, and Jaidynn to figure their shit out.

And figure they do! Pearl is full of ideas about the foot-fetish-y things they could all do together, but her team is wildly disinterested in her input. By the time they hit the set with Ross Mathews, no one knows their lines and the vibe is strange to the point of being surrealist. Fame’s full-stop interruption with a directionless monologue about her feelings is so bizarre that I start to worry I accidentally tuned into David Lynch’s Drag Race (which would, incidentally, still have Max as a contestant). The team ends up pulling together a decent video, with Pearl’s addled, cartoonish take on Michelle garnering special notice. It’s not accurate or even especially good, it’s just nice not to have to check her for a pulse every ten minutes.

To portray Michelle’s take on the story, Max opts to embody Merle as a cartoon villain, because that’s how the vixen Visage would view her. Ross Matthews immediately crowns her “the Meryl Streep of drag” because it is revolutionary to him that someone put even thirty seconds of thought into her performance. To be fair, she does seem like an Oscar winner when compared to her sullen teammates. Violet remains beautiful, bland, and slightly bitchy, but Kandy sticks out like the sorest thumb with her stilted delivery, busted look, and overall unwatchable nature. Seriously, the concept of a mid-episode elimination needs to be instated. She shouldn’t be here.

Team Minj has an easier time. Ginger and Michelle are both secretly The Penguin when they take their make-up off, and so the pairing of actress and role is sublime. Similarly, Katya sees through Merle’s veneer of professionalism and plays her as a particularly dotty substitute middle school teacher. As for Kennedy, I don’t think she’s acting: I’m pretty sure the pit crew gave her a large handful of miscellaneous pills before the camera started rolling. Despite Miss Davenport’s near-absence, however, the group is unquestionably a frontrunner.

The next day’s runway theme, perhaps in a continued ode to Merle, is Death Becomes Her. While the queens prep for their mortuary mainstage, Jaidynn reveals that her family may disown her if she doesn’t marry a woman and play it straight. Violet is once again blindsided by the harshness of reality, calling Ms. Fierce’s concern “a real fear.” You got it, Chachki. While you’re vaguely concerned that you might have misspelled your last name, other people have real fear about their relatives kicking them out or getting murdered. Is it wrong to hope that tragedy befalls this child? I just think it would do her so much good.

The parade of painted corpses has a great many highlights, including Max baring her heart and Ginger bearing it all. Katya’s ode to Jaws and strong performance skills earn her a deserved win and propel her team into the safe zone. Which is good for Kennedy, because what even is that costume? Those pills must not have worn off yet.

Since half of the bottom two is perpetually reserved for Kandy (whose vampire couture is decidedly anemic), the only question is who will join her for the lip sync. The honor goes to Jaidynn, who the judges don’t see as level with the other contestants. Lucky for her, she doesn’t have to be better than everyone: she just has to outlast one queen that no one likes anymore anyway. Though the outcome of the battle is a foregone conclusions at this point, it’s at least a good show. I’m not sure how they landed Ariana Grande as a guest judge, but her presence provides us with a hell of a song and ensures that there are riffs, high notes, and sassy arms as we drive a stake through that Ho’s heart. Descanse en paz, ardilla amiga.

Chris J. Kelly performs under the drag name Ariel Italic; in addition to this recap, he hosts weekly Drag Race viewings at the 9^th Avenue Saloon in New York City.

Chris Kelly

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