WATCH: YouTube Stars Join HRC to Celebrate Marriage Equality
YouTube stars Raymond Braun and the Rhodes Bros. joined HRC on the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court Friday to witness history.
HRC.org
Monthly Archives: June 2015
Bobby Jindal: It’s Offensive To Equate Interracial Marriage and Gay Marriage Opposition – VIDEO
Bobby Jindal: It’s Offensive To Equate Interracial Marriage and Gay Marriage Opposition – VIDEO
On Sunday’s Meet the Press, host Chuck Todd interviewed Louisiana Governor and Republican Presidential hopeful Bobby Jindal about his views on the Supreme Court’s ruling on same-sex marriage.
Todd focused on whether opposition to same-sex marriage can be equated to past opposition to interracial marriage. Specifically, he referenced President Harry Truman’s opposition to interracial marriage, opposition that was rooted in his interpretation of the Bible, and asked whether Jindal was similarly “comfortable using religion as a way to defend [his] position on marriage?”
As Mediaite reports, the governor took umbrage to this comparison:
“…exactly three times, Jindal said he took offense at that line of questioning, saying “it’s offensive to equate evangelical Christians, Catholics, and others who view marriage as between a man and a woman” with racists.
He said gay marriage opponents still love their fellow man, they just have firmly-held beliefs that marriage should stay between a man and a woman.”
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Sean Mandell
Bobby Jindal: It’s Offensive To Equate Interracial Marriage and Gay Marriage Opposition – VIDEO
Be Dazzled
'Pink Moon,' Film Starring Brandon Tyler Harris, Streaming Free Online
'Pink Moon,' Film Starring Brandon Tyler Harris, Streaming Free Online
An intriguing film that we began covering last year is now available online — and completely for free.
From writer and director Sal Bardo comes “Pink Moon,” a short film following two straight teenagers dealing with an unwanted pregnancy in a world where heterosexuals are under attack and the right to procreate is tightly controlled. The film stars Brandon Tyler Harris, a straight ally who has appeared in “The Big C,” “Smash” and “Law & Order: SVU.”
“There’s an all-out assault on reproductive rights in this country, and the same thing is happening with LGBT rights,” Barado told Interview magazine. “Both of those issues are about personal freedom, and they’re fundamentally connected.” A feature-length version of the film, as well as a music video for “Great Escape,” an original song from the film featuring Cat Martino of synth-pop duo Stranger Cat, are both currently in the works.”
Check out the film for yourself above.
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Get Your Marriage On At These Five Perfect San Francisco Places
Get Your Marriage On At These Five Perfect San Francisco Places
Summer means wedding season. With the conservative Supreme Court putting the ultimate stamp of approval on the freedom to marry, the time could not be better to tie the knot in the LGBT capitol of America, San Francisco, the city of love.
In celebration of equality under the law, we rounded up some unique spots to exchange vows and make it official.
Steps Of History
City Hall is the most historical place for same-sex couples to tie the knot in the City By The Bay–in some ways the birth of the marriage equality movement (inspired in part by former SF mayor Gavin Newsom). Say I do on the front lines of the same-sex marriage battleground registering online.
A great place for the reception is at one of the swanky cool nearby hotels.
Ocean Backdrop
Always dreamed of getting married on the ocean at sunset? Well, you can do both in San Francisco. For a reception and ceremony, dip your toes in the sand at public Ocean Beach. If you want something a little more private with the same breathtaking views, hop up the road at the lovely Park Chalet or famous Cliff House. A lesser symbolic venue is across the Bay in Oakland on Lake Chalet.
Urban Wilderness
Just because you’re in the middle of a city doesn’t mean you discover a peacefully serene location. Get married in the wilderness of San Francisco by holding the ceremony in the Presidio or expansive Golden Gate Park. In the Presidio, you can put guests up at the Inn At The Presidio and even get the Golden Gate Bridge in your photo backdrop if you stage it just right. In Golden Gate Park, reserve unique space for receptions at the de Young Museum or California Academy Of Sciences.
Wine Country
If rolling hills and/or the best wine in the world is your thing, then look no further than the North Bay Area. The resorts and vineyards eager to host your reception and ceremony are endless. Peruse GayCities’ user favorites and the best according to San Francisco Travel. These include Domaine Carneros, V Sattui, Buena Vista Winery, Vintner’s Inn, Chateau St. Jean Winery, Auberge du Soleil and Farmstead at Longmeadow Ranch.
If you really want to gay it up though, plan it around an Out In The Vineyard event or commission the gay wine country experts to help plan one of your own. You’ll want to spend plenty of time in San Francisco on your way there and back, of course.
Take A Cruise
Yes, on a boat. For an intimate nautical experience, charter your own yacht or private boat for ceremony and/or reception. The views are be ever changing and the absolute best of the entire Bay. (Just make sure nobody in the party gets seasick!) There’s several companies to charter through, and nearby bars and clubs to after you dock.
Find a gay-approved wedding vendor in the Bay Area and beyond through Purple Unions. Or, browse San Francisco Travel and the GayCities San Francisco Guide to find places and businesses for planning one of your own.
Gabe Cooper
Unmanned SpaceX Rocket Explodes Moments After Liftoff: VIDEO
Unmanned SpaceX Rocket Explodes Moments After Liftoff: VIDEO
An unmanned SpaceX rocket headed to the International Space Station launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida exploded mid-air Sunday morning as the result of a major malfunction.
The shipment was carrying more than 4,000 pounds of cargo, including food for astronauts, spare parts and an adapter built to allow future manned missions to dock at the space station.
The adapter, which weighs more than 1,000 pounds by itself, was built by Boeing and plays an essential role in the government’s plan to send astronauts to space via manned rockets instead of shuttles.
It was first failure in 19 launchings of the Falcon 9 rocket built by Space Exploration Technologies of Hawthorne, Calif., better known as SpaceX.
This episode follows the failures of two other cargo rockets. In October, an Antares rocket, built by Orbital ATK, exploded on the launching pad in Virginia. In May, a Russian Progress rocket spun out of control, unable to reach the space station.
The six astronauts on the space station are not in any immediate danger, with several months of supplies.
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Sean Mandell
Unmanned SpaceX Rocket Explodes Moments After Liftoff: VIDEO
Tuntathlon 2015
When Going to the Store With Your 10-Year-Old Gay Son Is a Political Act
When Going to the Store With Your 10-Year-Old Gay Son Is a Political Act
When you have a well-documented, young, gay son, you get a lot of questions. Everything from, “How does he know he’s gay?” to “Are you sure he’s gay?” to “No, really, HOW ARE YOU SURE?”. And now that it’s been almost four years since he “came out of the closet,” (we need a new phrase for kids who announce their orientation when they’ve never been in a closet. Nor ever knew there was a closet in which to get stuck in) after people ignore our answers to those first three questions, they begin to ask questions about puberty, everyone’s least favorite metamorphic bodily change. “Well, he’s going to be in puberty soon, sooooooo…” followed by a bunch of eyebrow wagging, hand waving and leering smiles, anything to avoid the term “butt sex,” the only thing people who ask questions like this seem to know/care about when it comes to gay men.
Our kid is not having sex, of any kind, yet. Although he’s as tall as a 14-year-old, he’s 10 and so far, puberty has involved emotional outbursts and stinking really bad after sweating (and the seven hairs on his upper lip he calls his mustache — Fredrick Nietzsche he’s not). It was the stinky part that got us into a situation the other day.
He and I have been playing tennis each day this summer and afterwards, we had to take showers, regardless of his protests that he doesn’t need one. He was getting out of the shower one day when we realized we needed dog supplies and my wife, Amelia, threw him the top shirt off the pile of folded, clean laundry on the table in front of her. He pulled it on as we loaded the three boys into the Wagon Queen Family Truckster and headed out.
As I drove to the store, Amelia kept the kids busy talking about how we were not buying any hamsters, birds, fish, turtles or even feeder crickets as pets. Suddenly, she turned around and told me to look at his shirt. I moved the rearview mirror down and saw, on his white shirt, six-inch tall, black letters that said, “Likes Boys,” just like one of his favorite Glee characters wore on the show. Uh-oh.
While we live in an island of blue in a very red state, our young boy wearing this shirt is still a political act, a statement that many of our fellow citizens do not agree with. After my wife started writing about our eldest’s coming out, we received many negative reactions, so we know firsthand not everyone is OK with gay people, especially very young gay people. And now our son was wearing a shirt that shouted to the world how his heart leaned. It is a shirt he has owned for years, but one we have very subtlety controlled when he wore, because he should not have to deal with people’s questions and comments during a trip to the store. Would people be cool or major jerk faces? We had to be prepared for the worst without letting him know what was going through our minds. We have always felt there was nothing wrong with him, and we weren’t about to make him think that had changed now.
I’ve always called the pet store the poor man’s zoo, and our kids love to watch all the little animals run in wheels, or swim or hang out on plastic tree limbs and crap everywhere, so we decided that I would take the kids to the animals and the wife would get what we had come for. I’m 6’4” and people tend to keep their stupid opinions to just words and nothing physical when I stand by my kids. If it was only that easy all the time.
Our 5-year-old immediately ran over to the rescue cats in their cages in one part of the store, our 8-year-old wanted to watch the turtles be all turtlely, and our eldest was going to see what the hamsters were up to. Oh, to be three places at once. I was able to herd them together just in time for our eldest to roam off and find his mom. I shoveled the other kids in his direction and we got to shopping. We had been there for nearly five minutes and nothing horrible had happened. Yet.
And then, things did start to happen: smiles. People would look at his shirt as he looked at dog toys and they smiled. The fuzzy-headed lady with the tennis ball-sized dog, the couple loaded down with all the cat equipment you can legally buy at one time and the lady who checked us out all smiled at him. At us.
Maybe they smiled because he looks older and they can accept a 14-year-old gay boy more than a gay 10-year-old child. Maybe they smiled because attitudes are changing and our society is starting to accept that if people are born gay, there are gay babies and gay toddlers and gay little kids. Maybe they didn’t even notice the shirt and they just smiled at my enthusiastic young son. As we make strides legally (thank you, Supreme Court!) and more people all over the country see LGBT people as just people — people at home owner association meetings, taking up space on the bus, arguing with their partners in the store about what kind of jelly to buy — hopefully, there will be more smiles for all the gay kids out there just wanting to live their lives, tell their parents their music sucks and that they just don’t understand.
Perhaps things are getting better and we’re just getting to the age where our gay boy is just another gay kid. It would be nice to think of him as just another kid, but maybe that’s asking too much too soon. For now, I’ll take the smiles.
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Things People Ask Gay Dads (But Probably Shouldn’t)
Things People Ask Gay Dads (But Probably Shouldn’t)
It’s no real surprise that gay dads are subjected to bizarre lines of questioning from (hopefully) well-intentioned strangers.
And the below video does the topic justice.
But for god’s sake — and someone correct us if we’re wrong — can we all agree that nobody should ever approach a stranger and ask how much they paid for their baby?
Other questions like, “Who does the mommy stuff?” and “How does the sperm work? Yours? His?” are almost as cringe-worthy, but fairly believable.
Watch below:
Dan Tracer
CNN Reporter Made an Embarrassing Mistake About the ISIS Flag She Spotted at London Pride: VIDEO
CNN Reporter Made an Embarrassing Mistake About the ISIS Flag She Spotted at London Pride: VIDEO
CNN’s London reporter Lucy Pawle was extremely concerned by an ISIS resembling-flag she spotted in London’s Gay Pride parade and wondered why no one else was reporting on it.
Said Pawle: “If you look at the flag closely, it’s clearly not Arabic. In fact, it looks like it could be gobbledegook. But it’s very distinctively the ISIS flag.”
The reason Pawle could not make out Arabic is that the flag was a parody, its script made up of images of various sex toys.
CNN has since removed the report from its website.
Watch below:
(h/t gawker)
CNN looking at an ISIS-mocking dildo flag and taking it seriously is the second-best flag news this month
— Kelsey D. Atherton (@AthertonKD) June 27, 2015
The post CNN Reporter Made an Embarrassing Mistake About the ISIS Flag She Spotted at London Pride: VIDEO appeared first on Towleroad.
Andy Towle
CNN Reporter Made an Embarrassing Mistake About the ISIS Flag She Spotted at London Pride: VIDEO
