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Catholic Priest Under Investigation for Hidden Camera in Men's Room
A Catholic priest in Oregon has been placed on leave following allegations that he planted a hidden camera in his church’s men’s room.
Bil Browning
www.advocate.com/religion/2015/07/14/catholic-priest-under-investigation-hidden-camera-mens-room
Here's What Happens When Two Men Hold Hands While Walking The Streets of Russia
Quality of life may be getting better for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community in America, but that doesn’t mean that our queer brothers and sisters are anywhere near being treated humanely on a global level.
In this new video from ChebuRussiaTV — which has almost 4 million views on YouTube — two men walk the streets of Moscow, Russia while holding hands in a social experiment to demonstrate how LGBT individuals are treated by the world around them. The video shows reactions ranging from verbal attacks to physical assault, with the video ending as a large man forcibly separates and threatens the pair.
The video serves as a necessary reminder about the state of LGBT rights in Russia, where queer individuals have, historically, been subjected to a culture of fear and violence on a regular basis. The social and political climate for LGBT people in Russia garnered national attention just last year surrounding the 2014 Sochi Olympics and Russia’s infamous anti-gay “propaganda” law, which led to several high-profile attacks of LGBT individuals.
Check out the video for yourself above.
(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.
Match Group buys PlentyOfFish for $575million ahead of public flotation
It’s been announced today that PlentyOfFish, which claims to be the be ‘the world’s largest online dating site’, is to be bought by Match Group for $575million (€522million) in cash.
Match Group is part of Barry Diller’s IAC/InterActive Corp. The ‘definitive agreement to purchase’ PlentyOfFish comes ahead of Match Group’s planned stock market flotation later this year, and will undoubtedly help boost the company’s initial share price.
PlentyOfFish launched in 2003 by Canadian entrepreneur Markus Frind. According to its website, it has 90million registered users and 3.6million daily users.
Although the vast majority of users are heterosexual people seeking long-term relationships, it also has gay and bisexual members – some of whom view it as an alternative to apps offering more instant hook-ups.
Sam Yagan, CEO, The Match Group
‘For over a decade I have followed the consistent growth of PlentyOfFish, first within North America, then globally, and most recently across platforms, as one of the most popular mobile dating products in the world,’ said Sam Yagan, CEO of The Match Group in a statement.
‘As more people than ever use more dating apps than ever with more frequency than ever, PlentyOfFish’s addition both brings new members into our family of products and deepens the lifetime relationship we have with our users across our portfolio.’
Match.com launched in 1995. Match Group also owns Tinder, Meetic and OKCupid, among other brands. The deal is subject to approval from the Canadian minister of industry. Should approval be granted, the deal is expected to be finalized early in the fourth quarter of 2015.
According to a company statement, Match Group’s dating sites generated revenues of ‘more than $780 million and profits of more than $260 million in 2013.’
‘We are thrilled to be joining forces with Match,’ said Markus Frind, CEO of PlentyOfFish. ‘My team and I have grown PlentyOfFish into one of the leaders in our category, and I am confident that Match will help accelerate our growth even further.’
It was reported in May that Grindr, one of the world’s most popular dating apps for men, had engaged a company to advise it on the possibility of being sold. The organization has consistently declined to comment on the report.
Some business commentators have speculated that IAC/Interactive Corp might be interested in purchasing Grindr to further add to its roster of dating apps.
IAC have been approached for further comment.
The post Match Group buys PlentyOfFish for $575million ahead of public flotation appeared first on Gay Star News.
David Hudson
www.gaystarnews.com/article/match-group-buy-plentyoffish-for-575million-ahead-of-public-flotation/
David Sedaris Doesn’t Care If His Man Sounds Like Shirley Temple: VIDEO
Last year we wrote about a Kickstarter for David Thorpe’s film Do I Sound Gay? which explores the reason why some people sound stereotypically gay and some don’t. The film opened last weekend in New York City and opens this weekend in L.A., Atlanta, Denver, and Philadelphia.
Today, Vulture published a charming new clip from the film, which offers an enlightening look at perceived masculinity vs perceived femininity, featuring author David Sedaris talking about his partner of more than 20 years, Hugh Hamrick.
The New York Times also published a fascinating mini-doc on the film featuring two of its other subjects, and you can watch that HERE.
The post David Sedaris Doesn’t Care If His Man Sounds Like Shirley Temple: VIDEO appeared first on Towleroad.
Andy Towle
David Sedaris Doesn’t Care If His Man Sounds Like Shirley Temple: VIDEO
Rick Santorum Calls Out Scott Walker for Wife's Disagreement on Marriage Equality: 'Spouses Matter'
Santorum has pounced on Scott Walker’s wife Tonette admitting she’s ‘torn’ on the issue of same-sex marriage as an apparent weakness in Walker’s resolve on the issue.
Mitch Kellaway
A Bill to Finally End the Abuse of Teens at Residential Treatment Programs and "Boot Camps"
This piece was co-authored by Jodi Hobbs, the founder and President of the Survivors of Institutional Abuse (SIA) organization, which provides healing services to a national network of survivors
At one Southern California boot camp designed to help at-risk youth, a 16-year-old boy had reportedly been placed “in a dark room and beaten” and a 14-year-old girl arrived home “with bruises covering her arms.” Another child had broken bones. Staff purportedly threatened children that they “would be found and get hurt badly” if they exposed the truth.
But these types of abuses at residential treatment programs are sadly nothing new.
In 1989, 17-year-old Jodi Hobbs was involuntarily admitted to Victory Christian Academy (VCA), a private therapeutic boarding school in San Diego, California. Unbeknownst to Jodi and her family at the time, a 15-year-old girl had died just one year earlier at a construction site while under the “reform” school’s care. There were few questions about the girl’s death – ruled an accident at the time – but it soon became clear that more should have been asked about activities occurring within the facility’s 12-foot gates.
Enrollment to VCA was largely fueled by word-of-mouth as parents all over Southern California fell prey to advertisements that the program could correct “troubled” girls. It was not until many years later, that dozens of individuals would come forward alleging that they were victims of physical, mental, and even sexual abuse by staff at VCA, and the many other programs like it.
At VCA, Jodi witnessed young girls who were made to eat their own vomit after having been force-fed and she even recalls intervening in two suicide attempts. Instead of receiving medical attention, facility operators sent both girls to the “Get Right Room,” a locked and windowless closet where “misbehaving” children were isolated for hours, days and sometimes weeks on end, and forced to listen to taped religious sermons.
After numerous allegations of abuse, California authorities threatened to step in unless VCA went through the process to get licensed as a legitimate care facility. Eventually, the FBI raided the facility in 1991 and the program was forced to shut down due to fire code violations. Unsurprisingly, it relocated to Florida where licensing requirements were much weaker and re-opened under a new name to evade its reputation. But its past actions followed the facility to Florida, where even more reports of abuse soon surfaced. Ultimately, a series of chilling investigative reports published by the Tampa Bay Times led to low enrollment and the program shut down for good in 2013.
This deceptive practice of moving abusive facilities from state to state to dodge regulation has been replicated by many other programs across the country because of disparate state regulations. Operating in several forms – juvenile boot camps, wilderness programs, and behavior modification efforts – many types of residential treatment have been the subject of serious reports of abuse at one time or another.
Some of these camps even specialize in “modifying the behavior” of LGBT youth by administering “gay conversion therapy.”
Rebecca Lopez, 18 and a California resident, was sent to a camp in Northern California in 2011 where she says she faced discrimination and alienation for being gay. David Wernsman, 26, was sent to an American-owned facility in the Dominican Republic shortly after coming out, where camp operators beat him with a leather strap for minor infractions.
In 2008, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) documented over 1,300 reports of maltreatment by staff at a variety of programs spanning across 34 states, including substantiated accounts of starvation, excessive use of physical restraints and isolation, severe verbal abuse and intimidation, and neglectful medical practices. The GAO made clear that the lack of federal oversight and a loose patchwork of state regulations failed to properly license and monitor residential facilities which put an already vulnerable population of children at higher risk for multiple forms of abuse, and even death.
Abusive facilities that operate under the guise of providing real therapy have no place in our society and families who turn to residential programs for help, often as a last resort, must know that their children are safe and in the care of professionals. That’s why legislation is needed.
To fix these problems, a bipartisan bill in Congress will be introduced today to hold residential treatment programs accountable to a set of minimum health and safety standards, including strong anti-discrimination protections for LBGT youth and youth with mental health illnesses. This legislation will also crack down on offenders who attempt to move abusive facilities across state lines by requiring all states to improve their licensing and oversight processes, and help families weed out bad programs from the good ones by requiring programs to publicly disclose their licensing status and any history of violations.
There are hundreds of good residential treatment programs that provide services which can truly help youth recover and transition from serious behavioral problems or traumatic experiences. But without stronger federal regulation and oversight, programs that engage in abusive practices will continue to slip through the cracks, leaving behind traumatized and abused children and families.
Rep. Adam Schiff (D-California) represents the 28th District of California and is the author of the Stop Child Abuse in Residential Treatment Programs for Teens Act of 2015. Jodi Hobbs is the founder and President of the Survivors of Institutional Abuse (SIA) organization, which provides healing services to a national network of survivors.
— 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.
Kenya anti-gay political group protests Obama visit by asking 5,000 men to go naked
A Kenyan political group is protesting US President Barack Obama’s visit by asking 5,000 men and women to go naked.
The Republican Liberty Party, a far-right anti-abortion, anti-homosexuality group, have sought permission to hold the ‘peaceful protest’ on 22 and 23 July.
Leader Vincent Kidala sent a letter to the county commander yesterday (13 July), with the intention to show Obama and the Kenyan people the ‘differences’ between the sexes.
‘The procession shall be carried out by approximately 5,000 totally naked men and women to protest over Obama’s open and aggressive support for homosexuality,’ he said in the letter.
‘The party’s main objective is for him to see and understand the different [sic] between a man and a woman’.
Kidala has confirmed the veracity of the letter, telling local media the party will get in touch with a ‘network of prostitutes’ in order to reach the expected goal of 5,000 people.
He has claimed the prostitutes have agreed to participate free of charge as they will ‘lose customers’ if homosexuality is legalized.
Denis Nzioka, a LGBTI rights activist in Kenya, has described the protest as the ‘height of stupidity’.
‘This is a kneejerk reaction after only 25 showed up at their last homophobic rally,’ he told Gay Star News. ‘I’m trying to figure out how exactly they figure 5,000 people will show up with no clothes on to protest Obama and gay rights.
‘This time, not even 25 people will show up.’
He added: ‘They want to show to the people and to Obama the “differences” between men and women, that a penis enters a vagina. That’s how they think, and that’s how stupid and ridiculous and ignorant this is. The Republican Liberty Party just trying to stay relevant.’
Kenyan lawmakers have attempted to put a gag order on Obama in order to stop him from mentioning LGBTI rights while he is in the country later this month.
However State House has ignored this call, allowing the US president to speak freely.
Same-sex activity is illegal in Kenya, punishable by up to 14 years in prison.
The post Kenya anti-gay political group protests Obama visit by asking 5,000 men to go naked appeared first on Gay Star News.
Joe Morgan
Trans Activist Jay Kallio Is Fighting Cancer And Needs Your Help
While we all see hundreds upon hundreds of crowdsourcing efforts come around (“world’s best belt!” or “movie about hamsters and platypus!” or “let’s make potato salad!”), some just stick out and demand attention — much like the individuals they benefit.
New Yorker Jay Kallio (above, at NYC Gay Pride in June) is a transgender man and lifelong LGBT and AIDS activist. He and life partner Eleanor Cooper provided critical compassion and caregiving during the worst of the AIDS crisis, and Kallio suffered serious illness as result of a 2000 HIV vaccine trial (Cooper passed away in 2010).
After being struck by breast cancer in 2008, Kallio has found treatment and mere survival to be a challenge. A NY Times profile drew attention to the transphobia he faced, which resulted in a delayed diagnosis and decreased survival odds — he since developed terminal lung cancer — while Kallio’s Medicaid and fixed disability income doesn’t cover crucial elements like painkillers or to join a potentially lifesaving clinical trial at Johns Hopkins University.
HuffPo picked up Kallio’s story last month and posted a video that elaborates on the appalling situations some transgender individuals endure when faced with these dire medical conditions.
Friends from Facebook support group Queer Exchange have swooped in to assist, setting up a $15,000 GoFundMe campaign that will offset costs of everything from oxygen tanks to food to desperately needed apartment repairs (one member of Queer Exchange discovered he didn’t even have a working toilet).
While odds for survival are against Kallio, already the effort has proven profound, he tells us. “It has fueled me to generate yet another bout of activist energy I did not believe I had in me to politically change the system for the better,” he says. “I am fighting to the best of my ability against the dreadful Medicaid HMO which is refusing to pay for access to the immunotherapy drugs which are providing a great blast of hope to many cancer patients with the type of aggressive cancer I have, who were previously without hope of prolonged life, quality of life, or significant remission, even cure. Without the GoFundMe campaign, I would still be back wondering how to get cab fare to the Emergency Room for my pulmonary embolus, and how to get the portable oxygen machine I appeared to need to get out of the house long enough to attend a doctor appointment, not holding rallies and lobbying legislators! That is what the Queer Exchange-generated fund has done for me!”
Lawrence Ferber
NASA Space Probe Reaches Pluto After 3 Billion Mile Journey: VIDEO
At approximately 7:49 a.m. ET this morning, NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft, after a three billion mile, nine year journey, reached as close as it will get to Pluto. The craft buzzed as close as 7,800 miles (12,500 kilometers) above the surface as part of an historic journey to gather information and data about Pluto and its moons.
The image you see above is the last image taken before the Pluto flyby, taken on Monday, July 13, from a distance of 476,000 miles.
The New Horizons team was giddy as the craft reached its destination in the Pluto system.
You can see them celebrate in the video below at about 19:00. Science and astronomy luminaries including Bill Nye were on hand for the event.
NPR reports:
A trove of information is expected to be released Tuesday — particularly tonight, after NASA reconnects with the New Horizons craft that’s been focused on gathering information about Pluto.
In addition to a delay of more than 4 hours (due to the probe’s distance from Earth), information will trickle back to NASA at a rate that would frustrate many Internet users.
Alice Bowman, the New Horizons mission operations manager, says the data rate is around 1,000 bits per second, with a maximum of around 4,0000. That’s just a fraction of the traditional 56K speed of U.S. dial-up accounts.
A key revelation that’s already come out about Pluto concerns its size — NASA says its diameter is 1,473 miles, or 2,370 kilometers, ending a debate that has raged since the planet’s discovery in 1930.
We’ll be posting any new and exciting images as they come in. Here’s a computer simulation of the Flyby posted by NASA. No doubt many more photos and videos of the event will be forthcoming.
YES! After over 9 years & 3+ billion miles, @NASANewHorizons #PlutoFlyby was at 7:49am ET. t.co/Czrvonxugd pic.twitter.com/aSucgORofT
— NASA (@NASA) July 14, 2015
The post NASA Space Probe Reaches Pluto After 3 Billion Mile Journey: VIDEO appeared first on Towleroad.
Andy Towle
NASA Space Probe Reaches Pluto After 3 Billion Mile Journey: VIDEO
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