REPORT: Half of LGB Americans Identify As Christian
A 6 percent increase in LGB Americans identifying as Christian reflects a “changing religious landscape.”
Eliel Cruz
www.advocate.com/politics/religion/2015/05/12/report-half-lgb-americans-identify-christian
Tom Brady (And His Song About Balls) Is Perfect
New England Patriot quarterback Tom Brady may have just been suspended for four games without pay by the NFL, fined $1 million and taken away two draft picks as punishment for deflating footballs used in the AFC title game, but he’s still a winner in many ways. But before the news came down, Brady expressed himself through a catchy little ditty to let fans know exactly how he feels about anyone touching his balls.
Watch (and feel free to sing-along) below.
Posted by Sports Central on Thursday, 7 May 2015
Jeremy Kinser
STUDY: Number of People Calling Themselves 'Christians' Dives Over The Past Decade
A new study conducted by the Pew Research Center finds that the number of adults who identify as Christian in the U.S. is steadily falling reports The New York Times. Pew’s study finds that the number of identifying Christians fell eight percent since 2007; a decline of five million adults across various denominations, age and race.
The study doesn’t reveal an exact explanation behind the decline of identifying Christians, but the low numbers of identifying Christians among millennials and educated youth indicates that a religiously unaffiliated generation is rising. The study shows that the number of the religiously unaffiliated increased to 56 million, up from 36 million in 2007; a 16 percent increase. Notably, ex-Christians, or those who left the faith, now represent 19 percent of adults.
Another trend in the data shows that as time goes on, younger millennials are more likely to be less affiliated with religion than their older cohorts. Many argue that the declining number of Christians amongst youth is a result of political backlash against Republicans and conservatives’ religious association with political values; Mike Hout, a professor of sociology at New York University, concurs with the findings:
“The two are now intertwined. You can’t use one to predict the other, because if the Republicans switched to more economic or immigration issues, then perhaps the rise of the unaffiliated will slow down.”
However, non-Christian faiths within the U.S. remained relatively unaffected, with Judaism, Islam and Hinduism either remaining relatively unchanged or experiencing slight growth. Islam grew the most experiencing a .5 percent increase in practitioners and followers.
Anthony Costello
How Highly Gendered Toys Present an Exclusively Heterosexual Worldview to Children
When I was a child, these are some of the things I saw in daily life:
• Books, movies and TV shows about husbands and wives, boyfriends
and girlfriends
• Paintings of male/female couples
• Wedding books, photo albums, gowns, bride-and-groom cake
toppers and other wedding-related items
• Men and women walking down the street holding hands
• Math worksheets with word problems about Susie’s mommy
and Susie’s daddy
• Barbie and Ken
The list goes on forever.
Today’s children are more likely to see two men or two women holding hands, more likely to have a friend or relative who is openly gay and more likely to have a schoolmate who has two moms or two dads. But when girls and boys walk into a toy store in 2015, they see a significantly more gendered, heteronormative arrangement and selection of toys than I did as a girl forty years ago! Toys, grouped by gender, are prescriptive of gender roles. It is not only a problem of limiting the ways to be a girl or a boy, as I have written about extensively. It is also a problem of promoting an exclusively heterosexual worldview.
In the boy aisle are the toys that show boys they will become men and husbands who work outside the home at a variety of exciting jobs, make important discoveries, run/jump/play and impact the environment (by fighting, building, solving problems and mysteries and using superpowers to save the world).
Girls learn the yin to the boys’ yang. They see a toy aisle that tells them they will become women and wives who work inside the home, who spend a lot of time cultivating their physical appearance, who focus on attracting males, who are physically sedentary and passive, and who raise babies, cook and clean.
The two aisles can be taken together to represent the heterosexual couple — the bride and groom, but in a decidedly archaic depiction of marriage. Obviously, this message is not a healthy one for raising strong, empowered girls or sensitive, nurturing boys, but it is also unhealthy for any child who is gender-nonconforming or who will not grow up to fulfill traditional heterosexual gender roles.
For the child who does not like the trappings that the world rigidly assigns to his or her gender, or who knows somewhere deep inside that he or she does not fit into the world of play that is presented as all there is, there is discomfort. There is confusion. And often, there is compliance and a very private, perhaps entirely secret thought process that goes something like this: I am not like other girls. I am a girl, but I like the things in the boy aisle. But I can’t go over there, or I could get teased. People will think I’m weird if I like to play with boy toys. Kids might bully me if they know I do not want to be a princess or a bride when I grow up. What I really want is to be a firefighter. But I can’t, and I can’t tell anyone.
A boy who wants to play with dolls will experience similar cognitive dissonance at the toy store. Why? Is pretending to care for a baby not a way of practicing parenthood? For some reason we encourage that behavior in girls, but not in boys. And then we talk about wanting men to be more nurturing fathers to their children. For many parents and other adults in the lives of boys who are not traditionally masculine in their interests and behavior, there is real fear. Fear that this boy might be gay. Disgust that this boy is like a girl, because being feminine is considered a negative trait for boys growing up in a patriarchal society. There really is nothing worse boys can be called than like a girl. As a woman, that offends me!
For these children, profound feelings of isolation and loneliness can be commonplace. This problem can be solved quickly and easily if we as a society so choose. It has already begun to be solved in Europe. There are toy stores across the pond that no longer separate toy aisles by gender. Instead, toys are grouped by type: you have the building toys here, the dress-up costumes there and the arts & crafts kits around the corner. There are no gendered labels. No gendered signage. No downsides! Boys and girls walk through these stores and go to the sections that interest them. What could be simpler? What could be healthier? When will America follow suit? Most importantly, what’s a good reason not to do this? Seriously. How will it hurt you or your child? Inquiring minds want to know.
I hope the thinking changes, for the sake of all children, especially those who do not fit the mold we have artificially constructed for them, and who are often bullied for it. Words like “tomboy” and “sissy” have been used for generations as labels for gender transgression, which is when a girl “acts like a boy” or a boy “acts like a girl.”
I hate these labels. I use them here because I have no other nonacademic, mainstream vocabulary readers could relate to, and because I believe that beginning to see these words negatively is a good thing. These words are not only descriptive but also prescriptive. They say to a child, “that toy is not for you” or “that activity is not for you.” These words are not just limiting, but shaming. Telling a child that his or her natural joy in something that is otherwise safe, fun and stimulating is “for” the opposite gender is essentially saying, “Get back in line.”
I say, take away that line. Let kids choose. What are we so afraid of? If we are fine with choice, it is time to show the toy manufacturers and marketers that their financial profiteering off the gendering of our children’s toys (so they can make twice as much money selling “separate but unequal” products for boys and girls) is over. This means the labeling and signage must go away. There can be pink vacuum cleaners and princess gowns. There can be super heroes and science kits. All that needs to stop is the messaging about what is for whom. The world is full of all kinds of girls and all kinds of boys and a spectrum of sexual orientations and gender identities. We don’t have packages and signs stereotyping toys as being “for white children” or “for children of color”–I mean, can you imagine?
So if we wouldn’t segregate toys racially, let’s stop socializing children from birth to accept stereotypes in terms of gender roles and heteronormativity. Let’s open it up for them and see what blossoms.
Lori Day is an educational psychologist, consultant and parenting coach with Lori Day Consulting in Newburyport, MA. She is the author of Her Next Chapter: How Mother-Daughter Book Clubs Can Help Girls Navigate Malicious Media, Risky Relationships, Girl Gossip and So Much More. You can connect with Lori on Facebook, Twitter or Pinterest.
— 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.
No More LGBTQ Youth Left Behind
In the same week many rallied for marriage equality before the U.S. Supreme Court, a 15-year-old transgender girl from Wisconsin, Cameron Langrell, died by suicide.
HRC.org
www.hrc.org/blog/entry/no-more-lgbtq-youth-left-behind?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss-feed
High School Wrestling Champ Quells Bi Rumors: “I’m Not Bisexual…I’m Gay.”
Alec Donovan was fresh off of winning the New Jersey state high school wrestling championship in the 145-pound division of the NJSIAA/Rothman Institute Wrestling Championships when he reached another milestone in his life — coming out as gay.
He was on a recruiting trip to Limestone College in South Carolina with other prospective teenage wrestlers, including another one from New Jersey who had competed in the same state championship.
Related: High School Jock Comes Out By Slow Dancing With The Homecoming King
“Rumor is you’re bisexual,” the other student said to him. “Is it true?”
For Donovan, it was a pivotal moment. Since realizing he was gay as a high school freshman, he’d experienced the depression, confusion and suicidal thoughts that unfortunately affect so many LGBT youth. But he was ready to speak his truth and unburden himself from the years of covering.
“The rumor isn’t true,” Donovan told the other boy. “I’m not bisexual…I’m gay.”
Related: High School Wrestler Comes Out To Homophobic Coach, Who Also Happens To Be His Dad
It ended up being something of a nonevent, and the casual nature of the news is something we absolutely love hearing about.
The other boy said he was “cool with it,” and asked Donovan’s permission to talk to the Limestone team about it. And while it really wasn’t the business of the other athlete, Donovan said “sure.”
“It’s better that everybody knows anyway, so I don’t end up on a team that doesn’t want me for all of me,” he told Outsports.
The Limestone wrestlers were equally unfazed, with, “That’s cool as long as you don’t hit on me,” being the most extreme reaction. And one that Donovan had the perfect rebuttal to — “Why would I hit on you?” Everyone laughed.
Donovan doesn’t know where he’ll end up next year, but you can bet that wherever it is, he’ll be welcomed for who he truly is — an exceptional athlete who just so happens to be gay.
Dan Tracer
The 'Gay of Thrones' Recap of S5 E5 Is Here – 'Fleek The Boy' – VIDEO
Your favorite hairstylist-slash-GOT-recapper is back and spilling the tea on what went down this week in Westeros (and beyond).
Check in for your weekly dose of “Gay of Thrones” and find out what’s new in the 7 kingdoms, AFTER THE JUMP…
You can also watch last week’s installment on episode 4, HERE.
Sean Mandell
www.towleroad.com/2015/05/the-gay-of-thrones-recap-of-s5-e5-is-here-fleek-the-boy-video.html
Blazing Saddles: Texas Lawmakers Advance Antigay Bills
The full Texas legislature is expected to OK a bill today exempting ‘religious organizations’ from serving same-sex couples, while the House debates a bill designed to circumvent a Supreme Court marriage equality ruling.
Trudy Ring
The Privilege of Being Pretty — #PassingCanMean #PrettyPower — The Transgender Struggle
The way I have been treated in my life has generally been really well. I have never been homeless, jobless or hungry. In fact, when my husband died in 2010 and I became the only and most widely reported story about a Trans* person in America, many people were nice to me. I gained the support of five law firms and 18 lawyers while every news station wanted an interview with me, because I was pretty.
You see I am 5’3″ and usually weigh around 125lbs. I am small and most people say I am pretty. I don’t appear to be what many deem as a “stereotypical Trans*” woman, and I am convinced that stroke of luck has provided me a privilege of being pretty.
I have never been harassed going into a women’s restroom because of my appearance. One of my community’s biggest attacks and concerns in using public accommodations is being targeted based on their perceived appearance. Being “pretty” whether you are a trans woman or not allows in life better access, safety, and financial opportunity. Now let me be clear, pretty people have problems too, just not the same kind of problems as our less attractive counterparts.
I bring this up because in the discussion of equality for my Trans* identifying brothers and sisters this is a real life obstacle. You see the privilege of “passing” as the gender you identify with can truly be a life or death issue. Passing can mean the difference between walking into a restroom without awkward stares and verbal harassment. Passing can mean getting a job so that you can pay your bills and feed yourself. Passing can mean that someone will rent to you so that you aren’t homeless. Passing can mean that your friends and family will accept you.
The reality is that 20% of transgender people are homeless, 38% reported verbal abuse because of their gender identity or gender presentation, 37% reported physical abuse, 46% reported employment discrimination, and 37% reported housing discrimination. These numbers are terrifying for people in my community and the majority of this is because by stereotypical societal standards my people are not pretty or “normal”, and I call bullshit. Enough is enough. I am urging every one of my sisters and brothers to be the best they can be, but most importantly to recognize the divine pretty power within each of us.
Today I encourage you to look in the mirror and tell yourself “I am pretty, I am worthy, and I love Me!” and then go tell someone else, and even more I ask that the next time you encounter a transgender individual offer them a kind word about their appearance. Please share with me your #PassingCanMean and #PrettyPower stories on social media.
— 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.
This is how you should spend your five star trip to Ibiza
Luxury villas and VIP treatment, if you can this is an amazing way to spend time on this Spanish island
joem
www.gaystarnews.com/article/how-you-should-spend-your-five-star-trip-ibiza120515
