5 star Malta hotel to launch country's first civil union and wedding fair
The Phoenicia Hotel Malta to host fair offering special packages for same-sex couples around the world
jamiet
Daily Archives: May 28, 2015
Marco Rubio Plays the Victim, Says Marriage Equality is a “Clear and Present Danger”
Marco Rubio Plays the Victim, Says Marriage Equality is a “Clear and Present Danger”
David Brody of the Christian Broadcasting Network reported on Florida Sen. Marco Rubio’s latest anti-LGBT broadside, where Rubio tries to play the victim for opposing marriage equality.
HRC.org
Video Game Shop’s Perfect Response To Vandal’s Antigay Graffiti
Video Game Shop’s Perfect Response To Vandal’s Antigay Graffiti
Owners of Voltage Video Games in Syracuse, NY, aren’t letting a gang of homophobic vandals get the best of them.
Earlier this week, someone broke into the store, smashing through the glass door to gain entry, then spray-painting “gay” on the window.
Related: A Woman Threw A Fit At Planet Fitness Over A Trans Guest. Here’s The Gym’s A+ Response.
But rather than get upset, the owners decided to fire back at vandals with a message of tolerance.
First, they painted a rainbow on the remaining window along with the following message: “Dear vandalist [sic], so what?” Then they boarded up the shattered glass door, writing on the wood: “I assure you, we are OPEN.”
A picture of the storefront was posted on Reddit yesterday. Other Reddit users were quick to respond.
“For a moment there I lived in a world where ‘gay’ wasn’t an insult,” one person wrote. “I guess I was wrong…Then again, after the shop owner’s response I’d be more likely to buy from that particular shop.”
“I’d really love to shop there,” someone else commented, “it looks awesome and knowing that they’re both open for business and open to LGBT people makes it look even more appealing.”
Sorry, vandals. You lose.
Related: Gay Couple Puts A Homophobic Vandal In His Place With This Hilarious Note
h/t: Pink News
Graham Gremore
North Carolina Anti-Gay Marriage Recusal Bill Heads to Governor's Desk
North Carolina Anti-Gay Marriage Recusal Bill Heads to Governor's Desk
A bill allowing public officials to opt out of marrying same-sex couples for “sincerely held religious” objections has cleared the state House and now heads to Governor Pat McCrory’s desk.
McCrory, who expressed concerns about the proposal back in March saying “What is the problem they’re trying to solve?” has yet to indicate whether he’ll veto the bill, sign it, or let it become law without his signature.
The News & Observer reports:
If McCrory breaks out the veto stamp, Thursday’s House vote tally indicates that a three-fifths majority to override a veto might prove challenging for the Republican leadership. About 61 percent of the legislators voting Thursday supported the bill, but 10 House members were absent or didn’t vote.
McCrory made his position on Senate Bill 2 clear during a Charlotte radio interview in March: “I don’t think you should have an exemption when you took an oath to uphold … the constitution of North Carolina,” he said.
If the governor doesn’t veto the bill within 10 days, it will automatically become law.
LGBT groups are blasting the bill’s passage and calling urging for a veto.
“At a time when the N.C. General Assembly should be taking up job protections that apply to all North Carolinians, legislative leaders have instead chosen to waste precious time and resources giving a few anti-LGBT North Carolina magistrates a license to discriminate against taxpaying North Carolina families,” said Equality NC Executive Director Chris Sgro in a statement. “We call on Gov. McCrory, who has already opposed the premise of this bill, to veto this discriminatory legislation and send a strong message that no public official is exempt from the constitution they’ve sworn to uphold.”
No couple should have to spend their wedding day going to different courthouses hoping they meet a magistrate’s religious criteria #StopSB2
— ACLU-North Carolina (@ACLU_NC) May 28, 2015
Couples getting married in #NC should spend their happy day w/ friends, family and loved ones – not in a maze of government offices #StopSB2
— ACLU-North Carolina (@ACLU_NC) May 28, 2015
Kyler Geoffroy
www.towleroad.com/2015/05/north-carolina-anti-gay-marriage-recusal-bill-heads-to-governors-desk.html
Surprising No One, Texas State Senate Reaffirms Opposition to Marriage Equality
Surprising No One, Texas State Senate Reaffirms Opposition to Marriage Equality
Same-sex marriages already are prohibited by the Texas Constitution. But senators say they wanted to make a point by voting to ban gay marriage. Again.
Dawn Ennis
Interview with the Actor and Playwright, Alexis Gregory
Interview with the Actor and Playwright, Alexis Gregory
(Alexis Gregory is photographed by Jay Barry Matthews)
Alexis Gregory is one of the most talented and generous young performers/ playwrights working today. Whether he is part of an ensemble play by Rikki Beadle-Blair or writing his own pieces, his work consistently dazzles. That he approaches his craft with humility, perseverance and a sense of fun is a testament to his character. We sat with the London-based Gregory to discuss his new play, “Safe”, which focuses its lens on the plight of homeless LGBT youth.
How did ‘Safe’ come about? What was the genesis of the play?
“I met Tim Sigsworth, Chief Executive of the Albert Kennedy Trust, which is a charity helping and supporting homeless and at risk LGBT youth, when he came to see my play “Slap”. Shortly afterwards I was nominated for an award and I was seated next to Tony Butchart-Kelly, Communications Officer for the AKT. Tim, Tony and I met up shortly after with the idea that I might run a one-off drama workshop for their young people. I ended up coming up with the idea of a verbatim play based on the young people’s experiences and calling it “Safe”, and so it was set there and then. We all got more than we bargained for at that coffee meeting!”
Was it a difficult piece to write?
“Not difficult as such but a completely new way of working for me. At times it felt more like investigative journalism. With my previous plays I hadn’t had to transcribe and edit interviews and create cohesive (hopefully!) and compelling storylines that cross over and intertwine, though most of my other work is multi-themed too.”
As an actor and playwright, had you had experience before with verbatim theatre?
“As an actor, I have had some. As a writer, no. I’ve never created anything like this before, but there is no doubt in my mind that this is the right way to present these young people’s stories, which I consider to be astonishing; a young Nigerian-born gay male threatened with being sent back to Africa for “curing”, a trans woman’s amazing journey from coming out (as a gay male) at eleven years of age to surviving abusive foster homes to transitioning and becoming a role model for the AKT – as all of these young people are; a gay trans man’s journey too, from identifying at first as a gay woman and then realising his identity lay elsewhere. They are all stories of survival, in fact. These stories speak for themselves and don’t need any extra dramatizing from me, although Robert Chevara – my director, who is great – and I will be doing something very interesting with the staging.”
What do you hope viewers take away from the play?
“I hope it raises awareness of the charity’s work. The play focuses on a particular LGBT experience -i.e. that of hostility at home, issues around coming out etc. and those of sexuality and gender – but I made sure the play covers other themes too; family, addiction, childhood and the transition to adulthood, relationships, identity, and religion. I consider “Safe” a highly political piece of theatre. I hope the audience relates to it and learns something new too, and I hope we are all reminded to look beyond possible immediate labels we may place on individuals.”
What are you working on next?
“Bringing back my debut play “Slap” later this year, finally, for its first official full run, once again directed by the wonderful Rikki Beadle-Blair, and then working on my second play, “Bright Skin Light”, with Robert, which has had some workshop performances already and which we are developing for a 2016 or 2017 run. Oh, and I better write something new too.”
Alexis Gregory’s “Safe” is playing at The Soho Theatre, London on Friday 26th of June, 4pm. You can purchase tickets here.
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Everything We Know About Suspected NYC BBQ Attacker, Including That He’s Gay
Everything We Know About Suspected NYC BBQ Attacker, Including That He’s Gay
Earlier this month we reported on some truly disturbing footage of an apparent gay bashing at Dallas BBQ in New York City’s Chelsea neighborhood.
Jonathan Snipes, 32, and his boyfriend, Ethan York-Adams, 25, were beaten over the head with a wooden chair, thrown to the ground and repeatedly kicked by two men shouting anti-gay slurs.
A few days later, police released video footage of the suspect, Bayna El-Amin, and there were early rumors suggesting he is gay.
Since then, more details have emerged about El-Amin.
Here’s what we know:
- The rumors appear to be true.
Gawker dug up El-Amin’s Facebook page, which is listed under an “alias variation of his birth name,” which points to El-Amin being engaged to another man.
Below is a screenshot of an Instagram post of the two (the other man’s identity has been protected), captioned “Bear & cub.”
Here’s an engagement announcement El-Amin posted in February 2014:
- El-Amin is described as a “career criminal” by NYPD, and has served serious prison time for forgery and credit card fraud in Georgia.
- Animal reports that until recently, El-Amin listed on his Facebook page that he was working “Personal Security for Sketchie ENTertainment,” a nightclub promotion company.
- The “hate crime” element will be a complicated issue to dissect. El-Amin reportedly called the couple “white faggots” before and during the attack. Gawker spoke with Lambda Legal Deputy Legal Director Hayley Gorenberg, who said, “Even if the victim or the aggressor share the same characteristics, that’s not going to answer the question of whether what happened here was a hate crime. It’s going to be about the motivation.”
- El-Amin has not been apprehended, and police believe he has fled the state.
Dan Tracer
'Northwest Passage' is a Documentary About Growing Up In Twin Peaks as a Gay Adolescent
'Northwest Passage' is a Documentary About Growing Up In Twin Peaks as a Gay Adolescent
BY DAVID BRENDEL
Filmmaker Adam Baran is a vortex of the ’new’ New Queer Cinema – a former editor at Butt Magazine, a programmer for Outfest and NewFest, and co-curator, with Ira Sachs, of New York’s Queer/Art/Film. His new project Northwest Passage tells the story of queer filmmaker Travis Blue, who grew up in the shadow of Twin Peaks, filmed in his hometown.
The film grapples with gay adolescence in the 90’s, and issues of LGBT abuse and homelessness. Yet these themes are filtered through a Lynchian lens – call it ’social-surrealism.’ Currently being launched on Kickstarter, Northwest Passage is a film both by and for queer people. There are 5 days left in the campaign, which is offering some of the coolest Kickstarter rewards I’ve seen to date.
David: Did you watch the pilot when Twin Peaks first came out?
Adam: No, I didn’t know about it until a few years later when I started to get into films and David Lynch and things like that.
David: So as a teenager, did you feel like the show was in some way queer while you were figuring out your queerness?
Adam: In retrospect, maybe. There’s something about Lynch’s work that presents the underworld in everything, and I think as gay people we know the underworld better than straight people. Of course, Lynch was showing the straight underworld: the secret sadomasochistic things that go on behind closed doors and the terrible things that people do to each other, but it still had this very queer angle to it. Laura is keeping her sexuality – her intense, extreme sexuality – hidden from her parents, and she’s going out to work as a prostitute and to the secret underground clubs where everyone’s having sex with each other. Definitely that world is the world that I wanted to live in (laughs) in some way! I think the reason I’m attracted to and Travis’s story is because he really actually lived it.
David: Travis brings a Gus Van Sant slant to this meta-David Lynch story.
Adam: Yeah, in addition to Twin Peaks I would say My Own Private Idaho was Travis’s other inspiration.
Travis and The Log Lady
David: Twin Peaks became part of the queer canon in some way, without being explicitly gay.
Adam: Lynch has done lesbian stuff. And in Blue Velvet, the most famous creepy moment in Blue Velvet is where it’s implied that Dennis Hopper’s character rapes Kyle MacLachlan’s character, forces him to wear lipstick. So, I think David Lynch – he’s used it in some ways to shock, but by Mulholland Drive it’s a progression to actually considering this lesbian love affair as this grand time unbending thing.
David: There’s five days left in your film’s Kickstarter.
Adam: Yes. Anything helps. I did my first film Jackpot (right, which you can watch on Towleroad) as a Kickstarter, and this continues the theme – what did our queer youths look like? How do we determine who we are, based on the information that we receive in childhood? Unfortunately, because gay youth are underrepresented, we have to look at straight characters to try and find ourselves in coded spots.
David: I didn’t really watch Twin Peaks back in 1990 – will I still be interested?
Adam: I think for any gay people who had a hard time figuring themselves out, Northwest Passage is going to portray it for the first time in a really strange and honest way. This is a film that has the power to help a lot of gay people, and people who are going through things that Travis went through. It’s not just about Twin Peaks – it’s about surviving abuse and homelessness, and things like suicide prevention, which the media overlooks in favor of gay marriage. Even now, kids are getting kicked out of their houses and and ending up in sex work, before they’re really able to figure out who they are. This is a film about that journey, how we figure out, as gay people, who we are.
Watch the teaser trailer (briefly work-unfriendly) for Northwest Passage on its Kickstarter page.
Here is an exclusive clip shot by Twin Peaks devotee Mark Lyons of Travis and his friend Chani playing Laura Palmer during the 1994 Twin Peaks Fan Fest.
Northwest Passage Clip 1: Wrapped in Plastic from Adam Baran on Vimeo.
David Brendel
www.towleroad.com/2015/05/northwest-passage-a-doc-about-growing-up-in-twin-peaks-2.html
Smyrffs, Mardi Gras Caerdydd / Smurfs, Cardiff Mardi Gras, 2011
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Thinks It's Bullsh*t That Young Women Have To Be ‘Likable'
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Thinks It's Bullsh*t That Young Women Have To Be ‘Likable'
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is here to remind young women that whoever likes you or doesn’t like you should have no effect on your self worth.
On May 19, the Nigerian author was honored at the 2015 Girls Write Now Awards, where she gave a riveting speech directed at young women — reminding them that their stories and their voices matter. “I think it’s important to tell your story truthfully and I think that’s a difficult thing to do — to be truly truthful,” Adichie told the crowd in New York City.
She said that it’s hard for women to be truthful when telling their stories because we’re conditioned to be concerned about offending people. Adichie told the young women in the crowd to forget about being liked. “If you start off thinking about being likable you’re not going to tell your story honestly because you’re going to be so concerned with not offending and that’s going to ruin your story. Forget about likability,” she said.
“Forget about likability”
“I think that what our society teaches young girls and I think it’s also something that’s quite difficult for even older women, self-confessed feminists to shrug off is that idea that likability is an essential part of the space that you occupy in the world,” she went on. “That you’re supposed to twist yourself into shapes and make yourself likable, that you’re supposed to kind of hold back sometimes, pull back, don’t quite say, don’t be too pushy because you have to be likable. And I say that is bullshit.” And that’s what we call a crowd pleaser.
Thank you, Chimamanda for reminding all of us (even the self-confessed feminists) that being liked should never stand in the way of telling your story.
Watch her entire speech in the video above.
H/T Blavity
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