John Kasich Says He'll 'Abide By' Supreme Court's Upcoming Gay Marriage Decision
DES MOINES, Iowa — Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R) said Wednesday that if the Supreme Court strikes down his state’s ban on same-sex marriage, he’ll “abide” by the decision.

“If the Supreme Court rules another way, they are the court and the law of the land, and we will abide by it,” Kasich, a potential 2016 presidential contender, told reporters ahead of an appearance at a caucus candidate forum. The two-term governor has not yet announced he’s in the race.

The Supreme Court is set to issue a decision any day in Obergefell v Hodges, which could strike down state bans on same-sex marriage. The lead plaintiff is Ohio resident Jim Obergefell, who wanted to be listed as the surviving spouse on his husband’s death certificate. Obergefell married his partner of 20 years, John Arthur, aboard a medical jet in 2013, while Arthur was dying from ALS, or Lou Gehrig’s disease. Arthur died that October, three months after the couple filed their lawsuit.

Kasich on Wednesday made clear that he continues to believe in what he called “traditional marriage.”

“Too many people worry about polls, election results, focus groups and all this other nonsense,” he said. “I’ve given you my answer. I stand by traditional marriage, but we will see what the court does.”

Kasich’s promise to respect the Supreme Court ruling differs from other GOP presidential hopefuls. In an interview with the Washington Examiner last month, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) said that if elected president, he would take executive action to protect individuals who don’t believe in same-sex marriage.

Former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.), a longtime foe of gay rights, has said he would “fight back” as president if the Supreme Court issues a ruling with which he disagrees. Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee (R) has said states could simply ignore what the court decides.

Kasich made his debut in Iowa on Wednesday, his first public appearance in the state in 16 years — putting an end to some speculation that he would skip the Hawkeye State and focus on the New Hampshire primary.

“When I was here 16-17 years ago, I might get three of you to come here to hear me,” he told a packed crowd at an event hosted by the Greater Des Moines Partnership. “I’m kind of amazed how many of you are here. … I’m not giving away canned hams today, just to let you know.”

A Bloomberg/Des Moines Register poll out earlier this month showed Kasich polling at 2 percent among likely Iowa caucus-goers.

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Is It Weird For A Guy To Wear A Dress? Susan Sarandon’s Son Says No. Hear Him Out.

After Susan Sarandon made a comment about her son Miles and gender norms at TrevorLIVE recently, the internet went nuts over the idea that he sometimes wears dresses.

His gender identity became a topic of conversation as people were apparently baffled that a man would ever slip into a dress unless he’s a drag queen or trans.

In a recent first-person reaction posted on HuffPo, Miles sets the record straight (so to speak), offering an evolved and forward-thinking take on the gender binary.

In short: we all need to chill out. But that’s hardly news.

Here are a few highlights:

On clothing choice:

I wear dresses to embrace femininity (adjective) but not to re-assign my gender to female (noun). I think that it is absurd to think that there is a rigidity to the identity of CIS and Heterosexual males and females — that for a man to wear a dress or for a woman to wear pants must mean that they are LGBTQ.

On identity vs. fluidity:

Isn’t it possible to distinguish between the adjectives of “feminine” and “masculine” and the nouns “female” and “male”? Is it not reasonable for a female to embrace masculinity (like female athletes) or for males to embrace femininity (like male jewelry designers)?

On living an authentic life:

I am not LGBTQ, but I do identify with the concept of allowing yourself to be interested in the things that you are interested in, despite what the external influence of the world around you encourages you to pursue.

We say yes to the dress, or whatever else anyone feels like draping over themselves.

Dan Tracer

feedproxy.google.com/~r/queerty2/~3/3ZNS4P-Fnf4/is-it-weird-for-a-guy-to-wear-a-dress-susan-sarandons-son-says-no-hear-him-out-20150624

One Man’s Unprecedented Victory Over Chinese Electroshock ‘Conversion Clinics': WATCH

While so-called conversion therapy remains prevalent in China, one man, Yanzi Peng, recently brought unprecedented litigation against the local clinic that hypnotized him and gave him electroshock therapy…and he won a surprising legal victory.

This 8-minute short documentary (produced by Al Jazeera’s San Francisco based digital channel, AJ+) follows Peng’s legal journey and his work with activists to correct misconceptions among parents of gay and lesbian children that lead them to send their kids to these Chinese electroshock “conversion clinics.”

As Iron, the director of the Beijing LGBT center, says in the film, “We want to let people know that electroshock still exists, and that it hurts our LGBT community.”

The post One Man’s Unprecedented Victory Over Chinese Electroshock ‘Conversion Clinics’: WATCH appeared first on Towleroad.

Michael Goff

One Man’s Unprecedented Victory Over Chinese Electroshock ‘Conversion Clinics’: WATCH

REPORT: Civil Rights Group Accuses N.Y. Schools of Illegal Treatment of Trans Students

The New York Civil Liberties Union says its new report exposes illegal treatment of transgender and gender-nonconforming students throughout the state.

read more

Dawn Ennis

www.advocate.com/education/2015/06/24/report-civil-rights-group-accuses-ny-schools-illegal-treatment-trans-students

Iowa's Görtz Haus Learns That Refusing To Host Gay Weddings Is Bad For Business
The Christian owners of an Iowa wedding venue that turned away a gay couple in 2013 are shuttering their business.

Located in Grimes, Iowa, the Görtz Haus has been operating as an art gallery, bistro and wedding venue for 13 years, but has struggled financially in the two years since owners Betty and Richard Odgaard cited their Mennonite faith when they declined to host Lee Stafford and Jared Ellers’s wedding, USA Today and other outlets are reporting.

Stafford and Ellers quickly filed a discrimination complaint through the Iowa Civil Rights Commission, and although the Odgaards agreed to a $5,000 settlement, two heterosexual couples canceled their planned nuptials at the venue after the case hit the news. Although the deposits were non-refundable, both couples received their money back.

“We knew that the business was going to be in trouble almost immediately,” Richard Odgaard told The Daily Signal. “We had to get rid of the wedding business to avoid another complaint and possibly a higher penalty.”

“I would never discriminate in any area that’s not who I am. I just couldn’t celebrate their wedding because of my faith,” Betty Odgaard told KCCI.

In January, it was announced that the Görtz Haus would stop offering wedding services altogether, but the financial loss has been significant. Now the Odgaards say the business, which previously hosted between 15 to 25 weddings a year, will close, possibly as early as August.

Joking that they “didn’t get the Chick-fil-A response” from locals, the Odgaards say they think things might have turned out differently if their situation had been left to a popular vote or even an area judge.

“I think if people in Iowa would have had a chance to vote on this, it would have never have been this way. People in Iowa are pretty conservative,” Betty told The Daily Signal. Added Richard: “This was all administrative judgement. The [gay couple] had a platform to file their case and we didn’t get our day in court with a jury of our peers.”

Still, as The Des Moines Register points out, the Odgaards have received a fair amount of support. During a recent campaign stop in Iowa, Republican presidential hopeful Sen. Ted Cruz argued that the Odgaards were victims of “liberal fascism,” noting, “The modern Democratic Party has decided their devotion to mandatory gay marriage in all 50 states is so unforgiving that there is no longer room for defending religious liberty.”

Echoing those sentiments was Eric Baxter, senior counsel at the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty that represented the couple and aims “to protect the free expression of all faiths.”

“It’s shocking that the state prefers forcing Betty and Richard Odgaard to close the Görtz Haus Gallery, rather than allowing them make a living without violating their religious beliefs,” he told the Register in a statement.

— 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.

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Bexley, Ohio Passes Non-Discrimination Ordinance

Last night, the City Council of Bexley, Ohio voted unanimously (with one abstention) to pass a non-discrimination ordinance.
HRC.org

www.hrc.org/blog/entry/bexley-ohio-passes-non-discrimination-ordinance?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss-feed

Watch Armed Gays Throw A Fit When Not Allowed Into Pride With Their Guns

A gay “right to bear arms” group was kicked out of Capital Pride in Olympia, WA over the weekend for entering the festival armed for a small battle.

As cities around the country gear up for their Pride festivities, there’s much to celebrate. But we simultaneously find ourselves staring down the barrel of yet another horrific act of deadly gun violence in the wake of the South Carolina church shooting.

That’s not to say we shouldn’t revel in our beautiful queer selves, but making a bogus civil rights statement with guns at a crowded Pride festival? Come on.

In the below videos, the 2nd amendment group spars with Pride organizers.

The festival’s stance is straightforward — “We don’t want your guns here,” a female organizer said. “Plain and simple.”

The activists, on the other hand, try manufacturing Pride’s civil rights focus into a great hypocrisy for wishing to omit the presence of deadly weapons.

“We would love for you to be here, but not the guns,” the same organizer tells them.

The group was unsuccessful at entering the first day, and returned the following afternoon to continue the stunt. Eventually, police were called and they were officially asked to leave.

We’ve got a long, long way to go…

Watch below:

Dan Tracer

feedproxy.google.com/~r/queerty2/~3/Xx04xRC73-0/watch-armed-gays-throw-a-fit-when-not-allowed-into-pride-with-their-guns-20150624

Pro Wrestler ‘Money’ Matt Cage Comes Out As Gay

Independent professional wrestler ‘Money’ Matt Cage, whose real name is Matt Hullum, came out last week in a note he posted to Facebook, Outsports reports:

Hullum, 26, said he was tired of lying and feeling the burden of stress and depression.

Hullum lives in La Salle, Ill., outside Chicago, and makes his living traveling the indie pro wrestling circuit. He went to high school in Las Vegas and told Outsports that he began wrestling after graduating. He wanted to share his post because “I figured my story could be a motivation to others in similar situations.”

In the note posted on Facebook, titled “Here goes nothing…”, Cage wrote:

One of the biggest fears in my life has been rejection. I’m not sure why. I was never the most popular kid in school or in my neighborhood, but I always had a plethora of friends in many different cliques. I was never really rejected by anyone that I hung out with in one clique for hanging out with people in another, yet I always feared being rejected. But as I’ve grown older and continued down the road of adulthood, I have discovered that I truly don’t care as much about rejection anymore. And I why should I? My friends will like me for me, flaws and all. My family will love me for me. My peers will respect me for my work. And complete strangers can think whatever they want, because they’re strangers and they don’t know me.

That being said, it makes it much easier to post here publicly that I’m gay.

[…]

I truly have nothing to hide anymore. I spent the majority of my life lying, hiding and depressed because I felt like I couldn’t truly be who I wanted to be and live freely as I saw fit. I had to act and that’s not me. I, nor anyone else, should have to do that.

Though Cage is not the first professional wrestler to come out as gay (WWE Superstar Darren Wilson had that distinction), Cage wrote that he had been concerned about his sexuality affecting his career as a professional wrestler but decided to come out to escape the burden of fear:

Hopefully nothing changes, but if any relationships change from this post, I’ll know that I didn’t need those people in my life anyway.

I hope that the fans, the promoters and everyone else don’t change their opinions of me. I was the same person yesterday as I am right now, just now, I have a bit more weight lifted off of my shoulders. The stress, depression & worrying that has always come from this is something nobody should have to deal with. Depression is a very real thing, and some people don’t understand that. People often times cannot empathize. But know this: we are all human beings. We all have our own way, traits, personalities & things that make us our own person. Keep that in mind.

Congratulations, Matt!

The post Pro Wrestler ‘Money’ Matt Cage Comes Out As Gay appeared first on Towleroad.

Sean Mandell

Pro Wrestler ‘Money’ Matt Cage Comes Out As Gay