Making History: Ellen DeGeneres Came Out 18 Years Ago Today
Eighteen years ago today, Ellen DeGeneres publicly came out in an episode of her TV show, Ellen.
HRC.org
Monthly Archives: April 2015
EU Court Rules In Favor Of Easing Gay And Bisexual Blood Donation Restrictions
EU Court Rules In Favor Of Easing Gay And Bisexual Blood Donation Restrictions
An EU court of justice ruled in favor of easing restrictions that keep gay and bisexual men from donating blood reports expatica.com. The court reviewed the case of a French gay man who protested the ban on his blood in 2009 and came to the conclusion that a French blood ban introduced in 1983 during the HIV/AIDS crisis potentially violates EU’s principle of “non-discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.” However, the court also ruled that a ban against “high risk” men may be justified depending on the situation:
“It must be established whether those persons are at a high risk of acquiring severe infectious diseases, such as HIV, and that there are no effective detection techniques or less onerous methods for ensuring a high level of health protection for recipients.”
The EU court noted that if new testing methods can guarantee donated blood is free of infectious disease, then a ban may no longer be necessary. The French government reviewed a proposal to end the ban in April with many LGBT activists saying the blood ban stigmatizes the homosexual community.
Britain ceased its ban in 2011 and the U.S. followed suit late last year but with the stipulation that men donating blood remain abstinent for a full year. LGBT activists have called the stipulation unrealistic and garnered the attention of U.S. politicians who are urging the Federal Drug Administration to develop concrete policies based on reputable science.
Anthony Costello
Jessica & Lianne
YouTube Marketing Maven Starts His Own LGBT Channel
YouTube Marketing Maven Starts His Own LGBT Channel
Raymond Braun, the young man behind some of YouTube’s successful campaigns, is starting his own channel for LGBT youth.
Raffy Ermac
www.advocate.com/politics/media/2015/04/30/youtube-marketing-maven-starts-his-own-lgbt-channel
Director Dee Rees On Bessie Smith's Sexuality And The Open Experimentation Of 1920s Black Artists
Director Dee Rees On Bessie Smith's Sexuality And The Open Experimentation Of 1920s Black Artists
HBO’s new biopic “Bessie,” which stars Queen Latifah, chronicles the life of legendary blues singer Bessie Smith — from her rise to fame to the expression of her sexuality.
The film’s director Dee Rees stopped by HuffPost Live on Wednesday and explained how she portrayed Smith’s queer identity through Tika Sumpter’s character Lucille, one of Smith’s love interests in the film.
“Lucille is a composite character, kind of a made-up character. I knew that Bessie had had relationships with both men and women, and I wanted to show her as a woman who took humanity on a case-by-case basis. She loved who she wanted to love,” Rees told host Nancy Redd.
Rees also discussed the prevalence of queer female artists in the 1920s, like singer Gladys Bentley and comedian Jackie “Moms” Mabley, who who dressed in typically masculine clothes, and were open about their relationships with women. As Rees put it, embracing a fluid sexuality was a “known thing” among such artists at the time. In fact, blues singers were not afraid to use music to face issues of sexuality head on.
“People, especially entertainers, I think they exhibited this freedom that really empowered them. … They all have lyrics about gay and lesbian people,” she said. “It’s interesting because I feel like maybe in some ways they were more freer with that expression back then than they are even now.”
The historical context of the time may have helped fuel the openness among LGBT African Americans — an idea that Angela Davis suggested in her book Blues Legacies and Black Feminism. While black Americans still grappled with oppression within a multitude of arenas in the early 1900s, the abolition of slavery finally allowed them to have control of their sexual relationships, Rees said.
It’s post emancipation, you know. Things [hadn’t] really changed for black people, but the two things people did have now were your sexual freedom and geographic mobility. And so I think people were really harnessing the two things that they did have. So economically, things were still depressed. Socially, things were still depressed, but you have freedom of who you love and freedom over where you go — or more than you used to. And so I think it was kind of representative of the times that they lived and having these new liberties. They wanted to exercise them to the fullest.
Watch the full HuffPost Live conversation with “Bessie” director Dee Rees here.
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Even Expert Opposing Equality Conceded Same-Sex Unions Have Been Around for Millennia
Even Expert Opposing Equality Conceded Same-Sex Unions Have Been Around for Millennia
Two days after the Supreme Court of the United States heard oral arguments in Obergefell v. Hodges, the Human Rights Campaign joined with the legal team from Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher.
HRC.org
Watch What Happens When Hetero Men Get “Caught” On Grindr
Watch What Happens When Hetero Men Get “Caught” On Grindr
We’ve seen straight guys get tricked into checking out another man’s thick booty, as well as pleasure themselves to a picture of another man’s butt thinking it was boobs. Now, a gay guy has punked a bunch of hot spring breakers by saying he met them on Grindr.
Gaybriel, dressed in a flamboyant pink shirt and sunglasses, and two bikini-clad beauties teamed up to trick the guys. The ladies would go down the beach and flirt with the gents, collecting as much information about them as possible before radioing it back to Gaybriel, who was waiting up the beach. When the guys eventually passed by, he would rush over pretending to recognize them from Grindr. Hilarity (and some awkwardness) ensued.
See the silliness in the video below.
Related stories:
Man Wears Leggings To Trick Straight Guys Into Checking Out His Thick Booty
What Happens When A Straight Guy Hits On Other Unsuspecting Straight Guys?
Over 50 Horny Hetero Men Pleasured Themselves To Photos Of Guy’s Butt Crack Thinking It Was Boobs
Graham Gremore
Matt Baume Dives Into The Arguments for and Against Gay Marriage at the Supreme Court: VIDEO
Matt Baume Dives Into The Arguments for and Against Gay Marriage at the Supreme Court: VIDEO
Matt Baume is back for a very special look at the arguments made this week at the Supreme Court both for and against same-sex marriage. Baume also shared what his favorite moment from Tuesday’s oral arguments was.
Watch, AFTER THE JUMP…
Kyler Geoffroy
Deborah Craig – Grand Prize
Jon Stewart Positively Destroys Anti-Gay Marriage Arguments At The Supreme Court
Jon Stewart Positively Destroys Anti-Gay Marriage Arguments At The Supreme Court
Opponents of marriage equality trotted out the same old arguments at the Supreme Court on Tuesday. And on Wednesday’s “The Daily Show,” Jon Stewart positively crushed every single one of their talking points.
First, he took on the slippery slope argument. Justice Samuel Alito suggested that legalizing gay marriage might force states to also allow plural marriage between two men and two women.
“Why should gay people have to account for anyone who’s ever going to want to get married after they get the right to marry?” Stewart asked. “When women fought for suffrage, no one was like, ‘Well, what if one day a dog wants to vote, how about that, ladies?'”
Stewart also tackled arguments that the court shouldn’t get involved, arguments about the history of marriage, arguments over ending the debate, and, of course, arguments that the purpose of marriage is procreation.
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg asked John Bursch, a bow tie-clad attorney arguing against gay marriage, if a 70-year-old couple should be denied the right to marry since they can’t have children.
Or as Stewart paraphrased it:
And this 70-year-old couple, not matter how much they fuck — and they fuck a lot, in the sit-down shower, on that electric stair chair, then over on the mahjong table — they’re not having kids. Is theirs not a Constitutionally worthy fuck-fest filled love as well?
Bursch argued that “a 70-year-old man obviously is still capable of having children and we’d like to keep that within the marriage.”
Stewart said Bursch “would’ve been better off answering ‘homina-homina-homina,’ spinning the bowtie, throwing a smoke bomb and getting the fuck out of the room.”
“Bottom line is this,” Stewart concluded. “If oral arguments have any impact on the final result, June is going to be a nice time for a gay wedding.”
The Supreme Court is expected to issue its decision before its term ends in June.
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