University Police Show their Support for the LGBT Community
Supporting LGBT equality can be easy. Just ask the University of North Florida (UNF) Police Department.
HRC.org
Monthly Archives: May 2015
The Streets Of Vienna Just Got A Whole Lot More Gay
The Streets Of Vienna Just Got A Whole Lot More Gay
Ah, Vienna.
The fine Austrian city is known for its friendly residents, stunning architecture, and, of course, its fine sausages. Now, the streets of the historic European city are getting a temporary makeover.
In an effort to improve road safety and promote tolerance, the the Austrian capital announced that it is replacing dozens of its gender-neutral traffic light figures with same-sex couples. Awww. How cute!
“The campaign is mainly targeted at raising awareness for traffic safety,” Andreas Baur, a spokesman for the city of Vienna, told NBC News. “But it is also pegged to the upcoming Eurovision Song Contest and the AIDS charity Lifeball in Vienna.”
Eurovision, you may recall, is the popular singing competition that brought us Conchita Wurst.
Related: Conchita Wurst Plus Eight Other Unlikely Pop Sensations Who Defied The Odds
This isn’t the first time a European city has had a little fun with its traffic signals. Last year, the disproportionate number of female versus male figures in traffic lights in Dortmund, Germany, caused a backlash, with several political parties campaigning for gender equality.
Vienna’s new traffic lights will remain up through the end of June.
Related: PHOTOS: Vienna’s Leopold Museum Uncovers “Naked Men”
Graham Gremore
This TED Talk on Spectacularly Awful City Flags is Here to Inspire the Inner Design Geek in All of Us: VIDEO
This TED Talk on Spectacularly Awful City Flags is Here to Inspire the Inner Design Geek in All of Us: VIDEO
100-percent of people care about flags, even if they don’t think that they do.
So says radio host Roman Mars, the producer of 99% Invisible (the highest-funded journalism Kickstarter project ever), who appeared at this year’s TED conference in Vancouver and dropped a design-centric talk on vexillology that will make you look at the banners waving on your local police stations and city halls in a new way.
In a brief 18 minutes you’ll realize why the flags of Chicago and Amsterdam are so wonderful, and the flags of San Francisco, Milwaukee, and many other municipalities around the nation are so tragic.
City flags need a better rap, Mars argues, and it’s time to do something about it.
Watch, AFTER THE JUMP…
Andy Towle
LISTEN: Meet Ian MacKinnon, Performance Activist and Queer Sex Time Traveler
Stunning Portrait Series Of People With Tattoos Proves 'Beauty Is Not Only Ink Deep'
Stunning Portrait Series Of People With Tattoos Proves 'Beauty Is Not Only Ink Deep'
Tattoos are a part of a person’s beauty, and a new photo series proves it.
Photographer Niall Patterson is currently fundraising to publish a book of portraits and narratives from his project “Beauty Is Not Only Ink Deep.” Patterson has been photographing people with tattoos and asking them about the meanings behind them, criticisms they’ve received, and how their ink affects their views on beauty.
“That you are carrying a piece of art around all the time. Lots of tattoos have a story to them; they make people talk to each other. They create friendships.”
“The idea originally came to me when I was deciding to get a tattoo myself and I came across a lot of negative feedback off the web and from my family,” Patterson told The Huffington Post. “I set out to do this project to prove to myself and to others that beauty is not only ink deep — the people that I am working with are beautiful in their own right, tattoos or no tattoos.”
“My tattoos represent the people I love.”
Learn more about the project here, and check out more stunning images below.
“Beauty is just being who you want to be, no matter what people think.”
“I feel that all of my tattoos represent how I felt at that moment in my life. They make me what I am today.”
“The ‘you’re too pretty to have tattoos’ or ‘what are you going to do on your wedding day with your tattoos.’ I’m going to look awesome as hell, that’s what!”
“Tattoos are a sign of independence, allowing a person to show their own creativeness, passion and personality in the form of artwork.”
“Well overall the world has become more accepting over the last 5 years (hopefully for good!) but there is still some discrimination, this is why I don’t have my hands or neck done.”
“I have never experience discrimination, luckily. Many people I know and love think that tattoos are a mistake because one day we come to regret them, but not me. You should never regret any decision you make because everything happens for a reason.”
— 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.
Nevada Assembly Passes LGBT Inclusive Anti-Bullying Protections
Nevada Assembly Passes LGBT Inclusive Anti-Bullying Protections
Yesterday, by a vote of 36 to 6, the Nevada Assembly passed a sweeping anti-bullying initiative seeking to ensure the safety and well being of the state’s youth.
HRC.org
Tom Hardy Proudly Boasts About Tea Bagging Tom Hardy
Tom Hardy Proudly Boasts About Tea Bagging Tom Hardy
While we’re pretty excited to see Tom Hardy in the Mad Max sequel this weekend, we’re singing early praises for the British actor for stepping out in some truly fine fashions.
Namely, a shirt that says “I tea bagged Tom Hardy.”
We’re not sure about the physics of such a claim (perhaps he’s been doing yoga to become a better bottom), but we still salute the effort. The shirt is being sold to raise money for testicular cancer research. More info on that here.
Would you tea bag Tom?
Dan Tracer
Number Of Countries Criminalizing Homosexuality Has Fallen From 92 to 76 Since 2006: REPORT
Number Of Countries Criminalizing Homosexuality Has Fallen From 92 to 76 Since 2006: REPORT
A report issued yesterday by ILGA shows that the number of countries banning gay sex has fallen from 92 to 76 since 2006.
Detailed findings in the report include:
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There are 117 UN member countries where same sex sexual acts between adults in private are legal.
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Among the 76 countries where gay sex is illegal, Chad introduced a new Penal Code last year punishing anyone who has sex with persons of the same sex.
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Eight States officially legislate for the death penalty, but only five (Mauritania, Sudan, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Yemen) actually implement it.
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Four states – Algeria, Lithuania, Nigeria and Russia – have implemented ‘propaganda of homosexuality laws.’
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Discrimination in employment based on sexual orientation is now prohibited in 63 countries, including Chile, Samoa, Namibia and city of Buenos Aires in Argentina.
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Seven countries have a constitutional prohibition to discrimination based on sexual orientation.
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Hate crimes based on sexual orientation are considered an aggravating circumstance in 34 countries.
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Incitement to hatred based on sexual orientation is prohibited in 31 countries.
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Marriage equality is legislated for in 18 countries.
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Joint adoption by same-sex couples is legal in 19 countries including Luxembourg, Malta, Austria and Ireland.
Report authors Aengus Carroll and Lucas Paoli Itaborahy said:
“While in 2006 – said the Authors – 92 countries criminalized same-sex sexual acts between consenting adults, we now see this number falling down to 76 countries in 2015. However, the situation is still unacceptable: more than one-third of the world’s States consider same-sex sexual activity illegal. On the other hand, although 2013 saw an alarming rise in the number of States considering a new wave of criminalization through ‘homosexual propaganda’ laws, in fact only a small number actually implemented them.”
Read the full report and see the 2015 Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual Map of World Laws, AFTER THE JUMP…
PDF: old.ilga.org/Statehomophobia/ILGA_State_Sponsored_Homophobia_2015.pdf
Jim Redmond
www.towleroad.com/2015/05/ilga-report-number-of-countries-banning-gay-sex-falls-to-76.html
@mobilisnoo's poster for #IDAHOT2015 in @orange Group #LGBT #Like #GAY #GAYfr #Follow #17may #IDAHOT #Teaser #Communication #Lesbienne #Bi #Trans #Orange
The Gay Conspiracy to Destroy Christianity — Really!
The Gay Conspiracy to Destroy Christianity — Really!
The ancient, bland doyen of the religious Right, Phyllis Schlafly — a conspiracist, fanatical Catholic, anti-feminist, anti-gay mother of a gay son — has been wheeled out yet again to pontificate about “Cakegate,” that sad attempt by daft conservatives to turn cakes into the last battle of the culture war. The war to “Christianize” America sputters to an end with the Bittereinders circling the wagons in a last ditch effort to stop gays from eating wedding cake.
Ms. Schlafly said:
They [gays] want to wipe out the Christian religion. And most of these other religions do not recognize same-sex marriage. I assume there are some Muslim bakers and photographers and other people who have been harassed, but they’re not being attacked and they’re not being criticized.
Why haven’t Muslim-owned bakeries had problems? Well, first, how many bakeries are there in the country? There are 6,000 retail bakeries in the United States. How many of them have been involved in the “Cakegate” controversies? I find two: Masterpiece Cakeshop in Colorado and Sweet Cakes in Oregon.
The way the far Right has “wailed” and “rented their garments”, you’d think thousands of bakers have been carted off to FEMA concentration camps in black helicopters for disobeying the unknown commandment: “Thou shalt not make cakes for gays, saith the Lord.” Schlafly finds a gay conspiracy to destroy Christianity because two bakers, who say they are Christians, violated anti-discrimination laws in their state.
That’s two out of 6,000 commercial bakers — hardly a representative sample. Why wasn’t one of them been Muslim?
Muslims makes up less than one percent of the population of the United States. If Muslims owned bakeries in direct proportion to their population the number of Muslim-owned bakeries for the entire country would total 54.
Beyond just the low number of Muslims in the country, there is another problem. According to the Public Religion Research Institute, which did a study of how various religious groups perceive gay marriage, 42 percent of American Muslims support same-sex marriage.
If this matched the bakery situation then there are around 31 Muslim-owned bakeries, which are also anti-gay. The chance of randomly walking into one of them would be one in 194, the odds of walking into one and ordering a wedding cake for a same-sex marriage is vastly smaller. If the entire test run — that is the number of cases filed under discrimination laws — is just two, then the chances of one of those two being owned by Muslims is almost non-existent.
In other words, the likelihood an anti-gay bakery would be owned by a Muslim is itself remotely low. That they are also anti-gay is even lower. Many anti-equality business-owners are still happy to make a profit, so the final number of Muslim, anti-gay, anti-profit bakers, has to be rather miniscule.
You don’t need a gay conspiracy — and old Phyllis is a conspiracist from decades ago — to explain why the two bakery cases involved Christian-owned businesses.
Given that 70 percent of the population consider themselves Christian, if you were to pick two bakers at random, chances are pretty good both would be Christians.
Who are the opponents of gay marriage? The largest group of anti-gay haters are white evangelicals, 66 percent of whom oppose marriage equality. Baptists are the worst, with 72 percent in opposition.
Evangelicals, the most hidebound anti-gay bigots in the country, make up about 25 percent of the population. If they owned bakeries in proportion to their numbers that would be 1500 bakeries run by fundamentalists. Over two-thirds of them would be anti-gay. The chance of randomly walking into one of them is one in six. In other words, the lack of Muslims in the country — making up less than one percent of the population — explains why they haven’t been involved.
More importantly, American Muslims are more supportive of same-sex marriage than American evangelicals.
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