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Arkansas Judge Uses Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwiches to Explain Pro-Equality Ruling
An Arkansas Judge threw some delicious shade at an antigay state official in yesterday’s ruling affirming the legality of more than 500 same-sex marriages in the state.
Matt Baume
Why Caitlyn Jenner Deserves an ESPY
My 11-year-old son, Christopher, came home last night and told me about a discussion he had at school with his classmates. They talked about Caitlyn Jenner.
I’ve openly discussed this subject with my husband, Chris, and I’ve not filtered my words, in and outside the presence of our son. But I’ll admit, I was a little surprised to learn that this topic has been on our son’s radar as well.
In an attempt to get at what he knows and perceives — to understand the opinion he is forming about transgender people specifically, and about issues of sex and gender generally — I asked Christopher what he thinks about the Caitlyn Jenner news.
He verbalized his thoughts in this way: “It’s when sometimes, you’re a boy and you feel like a man, or you’re a girl and you feel like a woman, but sometimes you’re a boy but inside, you feel like a woman or you’re a girl but you feel like a man, and you want to look like what you feel.”
After hearing this, my husband and I were at once proud and humbled: proud that we are raising a boy who appeared to have no trace of judgment in his voice, and humbled by the fact that despite what we may or may not try to inculcate in him, our son will come to his own conclusions, and these conclusions will inform his opinion.
I feel only slightly negligent that I didn’t bring this subject up with him sooner. I wrongly assumed he wouldn’t understand; that he was too young or immature to get it. Children have a greater capacity for understanding and acceptance than we give them credit for. In his own way, Christopher is attempting to make sense of things I never had to confront when I was that age.
Which is why I am so glad that Caitlyn Jenner has been so brave.
Which is why I’m so glad ESPN is recognizing her bravery with the Arthur Ashe Courage Award.
I say that if an awards show can continue to promote a dialogue that needs to be had — that has been sadly late in the making — then let’s give Caitlyn lots of other awards. It is 2015, after all, and it’s about time we stop pretending that we are more accepting than we truly are. It is time we keep nurturing the conversation.
Yesterday, Bob Costas, a sportscaster I’ve admired for a long time, was aghast. He said ESPN’s decision was an attempt to raise ESPN’s viewership — never mind that the ESPYs this year will not even be telecast on ESPN, but on ABC. And I hardly doubt that ESPN struggles with gaining an audience as approximately three out of four Americans watch ESPN on TV.
Costas went so far as to say he felt that the award should go to someone more deserving, someone who has been more recently actively involved in sport.
In fact, ESPN has had a history of giving the award to those not actively or even closely associated with sport.
In 2002, the Arthur Ashe Courage Award was given posthumously to Todd Beamer, Mark Bingham, Tom Burnett and Jeremy Glick — four passengers aboard United Airlines Flight 93, who lost their lives on September 11. In 2009, Nelson Mandela received the Courage Award, and to my knowledge he never played amateur or pro sports.
Via a statement, ESPN said, “Sometimes courage is demonstrated over the course of a lifetime and sometimes it is demonstrated in a single act that shines a light on an important contemporary issue.”
I would be hard pressed to name a more contemporary culture issue that has inspired so much discourse, which intersects so directly with sports, and is being pervasively discussed and debated in every pocket of America — from our children’s classrooms to our own homes to the pages of our daily newspapers to the screens on our television.
Arthur Ashe, for whom the ESPY Award for Courage was named, once said: “Whereas, I don’t see myself as Jackie Robinson or even as Rosa Parks, neither trailblazer nor pawn of history, I do think I’m just a little bit of progress.”
The greatest human athlete of our time told the world that she is transgender. It took her her entire life to harness enough strength, enough bravery, to stand up and say this. In my opinion, she’s more than just a little bit of progress, and she deserves to be seen and heard. I for one can’t wait to hear her acceptance speech when she gets her ESPY.
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HRC in San Francisco with Jim Obergefell as Love Can’t Wait Tour Continues
Today, HRC is at San Francisco City Hall with Jim Obergefell, named plaintiff in the marriage equality case now before the U.S. Supreme Court.
HRC.org
“Girl, He Hit The Pole” Is The Best News Interview You’ll See Today — Or Ever!
Not since ex-gay Antoine Dodson arrived on the scene with his tale of the bedroom intruder who was raping everybody have we been so riveted by a first-hand news report. On his way back from buying a “piece of burger from Burger King,” Courtney Barnes, a very spirited Mississippian with a lime green ponytail and matching nail polish who has appeared on So You Think You Can Dance, witnessed a “horrible, tragic” automobile accident involving a Jackson, MS police officer. In Barnes’ skilled hands this recount becomes an emotional monologue that would make Tennessee Williams weep with envy.
We mean, it was so intense that Barnes’ hunger just went away.
“When I seen the accident, girl, I just began to be nosy and had to understand that somebody was experiencing this difficult moment,” Barnes shares before taking a short break to compose himself so he can continue to break it down for the MS News Now reporter.
“Girl, he hit the pole!” Barnes tells TV viewers. “The police car just twist around like a tornado, girl, and the lord just shook it up and the man got injured and now the the police don’t know if his life is gonna make it or he just gonna tap out.”
Can someone Autotune this STAT? Check out the dramatic interpretation below.
H/t: LoveBScott
Jeremy Kinser
Russia and Qatar May Lose 2018 and 2022 FIFA World Cup Finals Due To Corruption Scandal
Concerns that international soccer federation FIFA has awarded the 2018 and 2022 World Cup events to countries with severe anti-gay laws could be addressed – albeit indirectly – following corruption charges against the organization.
Many commentators and soccer fans were shocked two weeks ago when top FIFA officials were arrested in Switzerland in a bribery case brought by US prosecutors.
Last year, FIFA was accused of failing to properly address homophobic and racist chants at World Cup fixtures in Brazil.
Russia and Qatar are slated to hold the 2018 and 2022 events respectively.
However, according to The New York Post, a top FIFA official said that the events could be moved to alternative host countries because of bribe accusations.
Domenico Scala, chairman of FIFA’s audit and compliance committee, said “if evidence should emerge that the awards to Qatar and Russia only came about thanks to bought votes, then the awards could be invalidated.”
In January, out gay soccer player Robbie Rogers said FIFA is sending a message that gay people’s “lives don’t matter.”
Last month, former NBA player Jason Collins attacked FIFA’s Russia and Qatar World Cup plans because of anti-gay laws in both countries.
Meanwhile, the bidding process for the 2026 World Cup has been suspended amidst the investigation into corruption at FIFA.
Jim Redmond
www.towleroad.com/2015/06/corrupt-russia-and-qatar-may-lose-2018-and-2022-world-cup-finals.html
Patrick Stewart Eloquently Supports Equality… And Antigay Bakery
The actor and LGBT ally posted a detailed defense of his support for a Northern Ireland bakery that refused to make a cake celebrating marriage equality.
Dawn Ennis
Bob Costas Says Caitlyn Jenner Getting Arthur Ashe Award Is A 'Crass Exploitation Play'
Bob Costas thinks that Caitlyn Jenner receiving the Arthur Ashe Courage Award is an exploitative move by ESPN.
“I wish Caitlyn all the happiness in the world and all the peace of mind in the world. However, it strikes me that awarding the Arthur Ashe Award to Caitlyn Jenner is just a crass exploitation play — it’s a tabloid play,” Costas said on “The Dan Patrick Show” Monday. “In the broad world of sports, I’m pretty sure they could’ve found someone -– and this is not anything against Caitlyn Jenner –- who was much closer to actively involved in sports, who would’ve been deserving of what that award represents.”
He added that someone outside the Kardashian clan could have better fit the bill.
“That’s not to say that it doesn’t take some measure of personal courage to do what Caitlyn Jenner has done, but I think every year we look across the landscape of sports, and we find prominent people and kids in high school and amateur athletes who I think more closely fit the description of what they’re looking for or should be looking for there,” he said. “And I think this is a play to pump up audience[s] the way lots of things are put on television, to attract eyeballs, not because of the validity, but because of whatever the kind of gawker factor is.”
ESPN confirmed on June 1 that Jenner — who won the gold medal for the decathlon in the 1976 Summer Olympics, beating Russia and solidifying her position as one of the greatest athletes in the world — will receive the award at the ESPYs in July. The announcement came on the heels of Jenner’s groundbreaking Vanity Fair cover after coming out as transgender during an interview with Diane Sawyer on “20/20” in April.
The Arthur Ashe Courage Award is given to individuals “whose contributions transcend sports.”
“In the past few months, the overwhelming outpouring of support from all over the world for my journey has been incredible,” Jenner said in a press release from ESPN. “However, being honored with this award, which is named after one of my heroes, is truly special. For the first time this July, I will be able to stand as my true self in front of my peers.”
You can also listen to whole interview:
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Meet the Nine Justices that Could Bring Marriage Equality Nationwide
This summer, the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) will finally announce a decision on nationwide marriage equality.
HRC.org
Hairdresser Bans Homophobes From Entering His Salon With This Awesome Sign
The sign in the window of Russell Hughes’ hair salon in Prestatyn, North Wales, reads: “If you are racist, sexist, homophobic or an a**hole… don’t come in.”
Hughes posted it there earlier this week after a father, who has evidently never stepped foot in a hair salon, was shocked to learn that the well-dressed man about to cut his son’s hair… was gay!
Related: Gay Couple Puts A Homophobic Vandal In His Place With This Hilarious Note
Hughes told the Daily Post: “It was a normal busy day at the salon when a man called in with his wife and child, who must have been about 10 years old. I was already with a client and so I asked my colleague Richard if he would do it.”
That’s when the trouble began.
“The man came up to me at that point and said: ‘I’m not being funny but did you just say that lad’s going to cut my son’s hair’, to which I replied ‘yes’,” Hughes continued. “He then said, ‘Well I assume he’s gay and I don’t want him cutting my lad’s hair so could you do it’, to which I said no because I’m gay as well.”
The horrified father grabbed his son and promptly left, vowing never to return to the salon again.
The other stylist, Richard, says he could hardly believe what happened.
“You don’t expect to be treated like that in this day and age,” he said. “I’ve worked at the salon for seven years and have never experienced anything like that before.”
“I think Russell’s new sign will make sure people like that don’t come in here again.”
Related: Video Game Shop’s Perfect Response To Vandal’s Antigay Graffiti
Graham Gremore
Coca-Cola Releases 'Choose Happiness Over Tradition' Pro-LGBT Ad
Pride season is here and Coca-Cola is once again showing its support for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community.
A Reddit user snapped this picture in Amsterdam last week of a new ad from the beverage giant that depicts what appears to be a queer family with the phrase “‘We choose happiness over tradition.’ – the Van Bergen family.”
Coca-Cola released the ad in conjunction with the company’s #choosehappiness campaign, which “is centered on the concept that young people are the directors of their own happiness, and that they represent a new generation who instinctively choose to be happier,” according to the campaign’s website.
“The Coca-Cola Company values and celebrates diversity,” a representative from The Coca-Cola Company told The Huffington Post. “This ad was developed as part of our Choose Happiness campaign, launched in North West Europe in May. The campaign encourages us all to spread happiness, while fostering unity, diversity and respect.”
Coca-Cola has previously showed support for the LGBT community through their advertising, including a Superbowl commercial in 2014 that featured two gay dads.
(h/t Towleroad)
— 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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