London ousts New York as the world’s capital of exclusive housing

London has overthrown New York City as the city with the world’s most exclusive housing market, a new report has found.

Prices in the British capital are constantly on the up – and while prices soar, so does the number of luxury properties priced from £1 million (€1.35 million, $1.52 million) upwards.

Estate agent Knight Frank’s most recent Global Development Report puts London well before the likes of New York City, Hong Kong and Singapore.

In 2014, 6,250 properties worth between $2 million (€1.77 million, £1.30 million) and $5 million (€3.26 million, £4.43 million) were sold in the British capital, and a further 1,638 clocked in at more than $5 million.

That’s nearly triple the amount of comparable properties being sold in Hong Kong or Manhattan; in Dubai, only 55 properties valued in the $2 million to $5 million price bracket were sold.

Yet despite the high number of properties sold in London, New York holds the crown of being the most expensive city when it comes to super-prime property, with prices ranging between $6,000 (€5,317.26, £3,917.34) and $7,300 (€6,469.34, £4,766.10) per square foot.

In London, a square foot of the same property class costs between $5,500 (€4,874.16, £3,590.90) and $6,500 (€5,760.37, £4,243.79); Dubai, once again, is the cheapest option, with prices between $800 (€708.96, £522.31) and $1,000 (€886.21, £652.89), followed by Los Angeles, where a square foot of super-prime property clocks in at $1,300 (€1,152.07, £848.75) to $1,500 (€1,329.31, £979.33).

The report also found that, over the last ten years, London witnessed a 138% price growth for prime properties, putting the capital in the lead before Hong Kong (93%), New York (78%) and Singapore (69%).

‘The global high-net-worth property buyer has never been more discerning or educated, or had more choice,’ said Ian Marris, heading up Knight Frank’s London Residential Development Team.

‘To attract this kind of buyer, luxury developments clearly need to be best-in-class, but developers also need to keep sight of their ultimate goal, which, of course, is profit optimization, not purely capital receipts.’

Knight Frank credited London’s property boom in parts to the city’s ability to adapt to the housing market’s growth, but also to the rise in population and the resulting growth of the city’s workforce

The post London ousts New York as the world’s capital of exclusive housing appeared first on Gay Star News.

Stefanie Gerdes

www.gaystarnews.com/article/london-ousts-new-york-as-the-worlds-capital-of-exclusive-housing/

Glendale Looks to Protect Arizona Residents and Visitors with LGBT Non-Discrimination Ordinance

The city council directed staff to draft an ordinance that would protect LGBT residents and visitors of Scottsdale from discrimination at home, at work and in public spaces.
HRC.org

www.hrc.org/blog/entry/glendale-looks-to-protect-arizona-residents-and-visitors-with-lgbt-non-disc?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss-feed

Russell Tovey Live-Tweets “Flight From Hell,” Lives To Tweet Another Day

Russell Tovey has had a really tough time, you guys.

It’s been reported that on a recent flight from London to NYC, the British actor and proud masculine man was seated next to, as multiple outlets have described, the “passenger from hell!” Spooky.

Tovey live-tweeted his satanic experience mid-flight.

Things started out optimistic enough:

Tweeting mid air #thisisthefutre #londontonyc X

— Russell Tovey (@russelltovey) October 3, 2015

But quickly Tovey’s row-mate began to show his dark, twisted true nature, mistaking the Brit for — dare we say it? — an Australian:

Guy next to me thought I was Australian X — Russell Tovey (@russelltovey) October 3, 2015

Then he had the audacity to follow up his insulting geographical question with not one, two or even five sneezes, but seven or eight! It’s as if Russell was seated next to the Devil himself:

He’s also stolen my blanket and sneezed around about 7 or 8 times.. I said ‘bless you’ first three… I can’t be bothered anymore X

— Russell Tovey (@russelltovey) October 3, 2015

And it’s kinda embarrassing.. I mean.. How much dust is there up your nose? X

— Russell Tovey (@russelltovey) October 3, 2015

Oh it’s coughing now X — Russell Tovey (@russelltovey) October 3, 2015

But while the coughing eventually subsided, the horror didn’t stop there.

Coughing fit over… Eye mask on… Open mouthed snoring X #7.5hourstogo #awesome — Russell Tovey (@russelltovey) October 3, 2015

Still asleep with my blanket keeping his feet warm… X

— Russell Tovey (@russelltovey) October 3, 2015

I’m actually freezing… Gonna ask for another blanket, he’s not wearing any shoes.. X

— Russell Tovey (@russelltovey) October 3, 2015

Flights from London to NYC are about eight hours, which means that all of this tweeting transpired over the course of thirty-odd minutes.  Before Russell was forced to — it’s almost too awful to even think — ask the flight attendant for an extra blanket, something truly miraculous happened. A passenger who’d been following Russell’s plight from three rows back tweeted him:

@russelltovey I have a spare on in 7A. Interested? ? — @0EmissionCar (@0EmissionCar) October 3, 2015

Non-sneezing civilized identically dressed guys to the rescue!

These guys are actually following my tweets from 3 rows behind me! Say hello to @0EmissionCar hahaha #mental X pic.twitter.com/TguXZUJazE

— Russell Tovey (@russelltovey) October 3, 2015

And they all lived happily ever after.

Me & @Schoppi_A met @russelltovey on our plane. Thank you @Lufthansa_DE @Lufthansa_USA “Always You” pic.twitter.com/oS8i9yDR4T — @0EmissionCar (@0EmissionCar) October 3, 2015

That was a close one.

Dan Tracer

feedproxy.google.com/~r/queerty2/~3/Pb7VpAztG4k/russell-tovey-live-tweets-flight-from-hell-lives-to-tweet-another-day-20151008

Huckabee: The Pope Should Fire People for Making Him Look Uninterested in Kim Davis

Mike Huckabee has said that “elitist forces” in the Vatican have downplayed the meeting between Pope Francis and Kim Davis (right), and says the Pope should fire those who made him look like he wasn’t interested in the meeting, Right Wing Watch reports:

“I’d like to think that at some point the pope might start reading the press clips and maybe fire some of the people who are trying to represent him.”

Last week, anti-gay litigation group the Liberty Counsel made false claims that the pope had actively sought out a meeting with Davis and offered her unconditional support in her refusal to do her job.

Related: Mike Huckabee Compares Inviting LGBTs to Meet the Pope with Giving Alcoholics an Open Bar: VIDEO

Distancing itself from the Liberty Counsel, the Vatican later claimed that Davis was one of several people who met the pope and the meeting “should not be considered a form of support of her position in all of its particular and complex aspects.”

However, Huckabee insists that Davis and the pope “visited privately…for about 15 minutes” and that “elitist” forces are trying to downplay the pope’s support for her cause.

He added that outside of the elitist cabal, everyone else realizes that the Davis case could mark “the beginning of the criminalization of Christianity.”

“Now, why the Vatican is trying to downplay this meeting, the only thing I can figure is that many of the very liberal elements, not only of the media, but in some cases of the Catholic Church want to distance themselves because in their elitist world, Kim Davis is an unpopular figure.

“But I’m telling you, wherever she goes and wherever I see people, in every airport I get on a plane and people say, ‘Thanks for standing up for Kim Davis.’ It’s very different because people realize that this is the beginning of the criminalization of Christianity if we don’t stand up to it.”

Last month, Huckabee said that he would be willing to go to jail in Kim Davis’ place.

Listen to Huckabee’s comments below.

The post Huckabee: The Pope Should Fire People for Making Him Look Uninterested in Kim Davis appeared first on Towleroad.

Michael Fitzgerald

Huckabee: The Pope Should Fire People for Making Him Look Uninterested in Kim Davis

Washington YMCA Turn Its Back on Trans Members Over Unfounded Fears

On the heels of a new “bathroom bill” in Wisconsin and just days after bathroom usage became an issue for one transgender student in Missouri, a YMCA near Seattle is embroiled in its own bathroom battle.

The Y in Tacoma, Wash., attempted to make its bathroom policies more accommodating to transgender individuals, reported Seattle TV station KOMO. But the facility encountered a backlash from members, what the station called “a flood of phone calls, emails and social media postings.”

So the YMCA recinded its new policy, which would have allowed transgender members to use the locker room of their choice. 

Those in charge of the athletic facility gave KOMO this explanation for the policy change: “a non-transgender individual might pose as a transgender [sic] to gain access to our locker rooms and expose themselves to children and cause harm to children.” 

“We are asking that our transgender members use our private changing room at our family facilities,” YMCA spokesperson Michelle LaRue told KOMO. 

The change and the reason for it were denounced by leaders of Tacoma’s LBGT community. Michelle Douglas, executive director of Rainbow Center, told KOMO, called it “divisive.”

“It’s the wrong move,” she said. “We really are in support of policies that let people choose the restroom and locker room of the gender that they identify with. Period.”

Douglas told the station she worried the change would give members the false impression transgender people, or those in transition, are more likely to prey upon children.

“They’re not linked, but it does link that in people’s minds and it’s incredibly offensive,” she said.

Indeed, studies have found that transgender people are much more likely to be the targets of harassment and violence when using gender-segregated spaces like restrooms or locker rooms, rather than the perpetrators of such crimes. In fact, there has never been a verified instance reported of someone “pretending” to be transgender to enter gender-segregated spaces and cause harm to cisgender individuals.

Nevertheless, the false assumption that transgender people are deceiptful and have nefarious motives behind their desire to exercise basic human bodily functions persists, and continues to give rise to misguided policies and legislation that isolates and stigmatizes transgender people. 

Watch KOMO’s report on the YMCA’s change, below.

Elizabeth Daley

www.advocate.com/transgender/2015/10/08/washington-ymca-turn-its-back-trans-members-over-unfounded-fears

Gay Adoption Is Not Always Easy
My partner, DJ, and I had always wanted kids and a family. Despite the fact that we had an amazing life, had traveled the world and had many wonderful young children in our extended family — we still felt as if there was a hole in our lives. Something was missing and when we saw other couples strolling their baby, playing in the park or going to Disney we quickly realized what it was. We both absolutely adored children and we knew the time was ripe for us to expand our family.

As a gay couple, we realized that we basically had three options — surrogacy, in vitro fertilization (IVF) or adoption. We quickly ruled out IVF due to the extraordinarily high costs and no guarantee of success. We ruled out surrogacy after our only real candidate pulled out at the last minute. We finally agreed that adoption was our best option. We knew it would not be an easy task and we were prepared for a very long wait. We had done our best to cut back on our spending and had saved up enough to begin the process. Within a few weeks we had found an adoption facilitator that we liked and we were on our way.

I will never forget the exact moment when the phone rang and it was our adoption facilitator calling to inform us that we had been matched with a birth mother. After months of waiting, preparing and completing the dreaded home-study; we had finally done it. We beat the odds and had matched with a birth mother in nearly record time. We both stood in our California townhome and cried as we shared the news with our friends and family. We dreamed of holding our infant in our arms, taking her to the park and traveling to introduce our baby to our friends and family. We agreed to an open-adoption and we could not wait to meet our new adoptive family. We envisioned them being a close part of our family for the rest of our lives.

Sadly, our adoption process did not go as we had planned. In fact, for 206 of the most difficult days of my life we were subjected to manipulation, habitual lies, theft and fraud by our birth mother. She stole from us, she stole from our family, she abused her children, she lied about serious medical issues with the baby, she lied about the sex, she threatened the adoption almost daily if she did not get her way and she lied numerous times about going into labor. Our adoption experience was so extreme, that it was called one of ‘the most difficult domestic adoptions’ by several industry experts. While we did succeed in adopting our beautiful baby girl, it was not without repercussions. As a result of our birth mother’s behavior and mental issues, it will likely take many years for both of us to overcome the severe trauma that we endured. In addition, we had to completely cut ties with her and our dreams of having an open adoption ended the day we signed the adoption paperwork.

Yet despite our horrific ordeal, we will forever be thankful to our birth mother. Not only did we overcome what seemed like insurmountable roadblocks, but we walked away with our little angel, Amelia. Words cannot describe the love that we feel for our now 11 month old little baby girl. Looking back, we would go through the entire experience again because Amelia brings so much joy and happiness to our lives. We are two of the happiest fathers in the world, and Amelia makes us smile almost constantly. We have been very active parents and we take Amelia with us everywhere we go. In less than a year of life, she has been to Florida, Santa Cruz, Cleveland, Ann Arbor and we even took her hiking in Yosemite National Park. She has brought to us a new meaning to the words ‘unconditional love.’ To us, being parents and having our own family is truly a dream come true.

In hindsight we realize we made too many mistakes to count in regard to our adoption. There were clear warning signs about our birth mother from the very first time we met her. We were blinded by the desire to become parents and ignored all of the ‘red flags.’ We so badly wanted to become Daddies that we allowed a sick individual to take over our lives with manipulation, lies and mental torture.

Our adoption experience was extreme and very rare. While nearly all adoptions are stressful and complex, most are relatively a smooth and a beautiful process. With open-adoptions, more often than not the birth mother becomes a member of the family. If I had to offer advice to other gay or straight couple’s that are considering adoption it would be to simply ‘do your homework.’ Thoroughly vet out the adoption agency that you plan to use and ask for references. When you are matched with a birth mother, be sure you really get to know her before making a commitment. Review all of her records, get personal references and ask the agency for her background history. Speak to her several times before committing and meet her in person if that is possible. Set clear communication and financial boundaries. Finally, spend time with her and really get to know her and her family.

We hope our story will help others be better prepared for ‘what can go wrong’ in the adoption process. The full story plus a full chapter on adoption tips is available in my new book, Anything for Amelia.

— 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.

www.huffingtonpost.com/andrew-branham/anything-for-amelia_b_8248036.html?utm_hp_ref=gay-voices&ir=Gay+Voices

Mom punishes homophobic son by making him walk around Walmart in a tutu

A mom has come up with a rather unusual way of punishing her son for making homophobic comments; making him walk around a Walmart in a tutu.

Police in Rock Hill, South Carolina were called after they had received complaints that a 10-year-old boy had been walking around in the discount store in a strange dress.

They said the boy was wearing women’s boots, a tutu, a women’s undergarment, a T-shirt with ‘various permanent market writing underneath’.

The police report also claims the boy’s head was shaved ‘in an unusual manner, bald on top with a patch of wig on the front of his head’. To top things off, the word ‘BAD’ was written in black marker on the back of the boy’s head.

The boy’s mother told police she was ‘punishing her son for fighting and making homophobic remarks in school,’ according to The Herald.

She added the boy had ‘ongoing attitude problems’ and ‘corporal punishment has been ineffective’.

So, in an attempt to make him behave better, she was ‘attempting to embarrass’ him.

Rock Hill Police spokesman Mark Bollinger told the Washington Post the county’s department of social services had been notified regarding the women’s parenting skills.

‘We’re not going to charge the mother with anything,’ he said. ‘The incident apparently shocked some customers and some of the staff, and they gave us a call.’

The post Mom punishes homophobic son by making him walk around Walmart in a tutu appeared first on Gay Star News.

Joe Morgan

www.gaystarnews.com/article/mom-punishes-homophobic-son-by-making-him-walk-around-walmart-in-a-tutu/

#ThrowbackThursday: “I Can Finally Say I am Truly Happy”

Since coming out with HRC in 2014, Ellen Page has continued to share the positive impact coming out has had on her life.
HRC.org

www.hrc.org/blog/entry/throwbackthursday-i-can-finally-say-i-am-truly-happy?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss-feed

Bryant University Assistant Basketball Coach Chris Burns Comes Out

Bryant University assistant basketball coach Chris Burns has revealed he’s gay in a first-person essay published on Outsports. This officially makes Burns the first Division One men’s college basketball coach to ever publicly come out.

USA Today Sports reports that Burns announced the news to his team several weeks back, telling them, “There are parts of this business that lead me to believe what I’m about to tell you is not acceptable here… This is something I struggle with. It’s made me think I’m not supposed to be here… I’m a gay man.”

Senior forward Curtis Oakley told USA Today Sports, “There was an initial shock factor, but everyone was like ‘Yo, Burns, we rockin’ with you. It was all love.”

Duke coach Mike Krzyzeweski said, “One act of courage produces another. When I think of this, I think of tossing a big stone into a lake or a pond. The ripples he’s creating are huge. To me, it’s a huge step in the right direction for our sport because it can allow others who don’t feel like they can be who they are to do the same.”

Burns writes in the Outsports essay:

Since I started telling people in college basketball over the last few months, I’ve realized my fears were far worse than reality. I’ve realized that people, for the most part, are human beings first. For a guy who’s relatively cynical and can be negative, the reactions of people in my sport and in my life have shut me right up and reenergized my hope in the human spirit, in empathy….

Like the people before me, I hope my story empowers someone, even if it’s just one person. But it’s a process for everyone.

My advice: Take your time and be comfortable. Everyone’s personal journey is special and unique, and no one should feel pressure to do anything they aren’t comfortable with.

But always know this: When the time comes to share your true self, you will feel so much love and relief and hope and freedom. It’s a truly special feeling, and I just can’t thank enough every single person who has helped guide and support me to this point.

H/t: LGBTQ Nation

Jeremy Kinser

feedproxy.google.com/~r/queerty2/~3/gu8WEB38Zvs/bryant-university-assistant-basketball-coach-chris-burns-comes-out-20151008

Applause Rings Out as Marriage Equality Advances in Ireland: VIDEO

Applause broke out in Ireland’s government buildings yesterday as the Marriage Equality Bill passed all stages, reports RTE.

The legislation makes Ireland the first country in the world to bring in same-sex marriage by popular vote.

Minister for Justice Frances Fitzgerald (right) said:

“This is a day to thank the people of Ireland for their vote on May 22nd.

“I am very privileged to be here today. This is an important step towards the enactment of the bill and I look forward to bringing this bill to the Seanad [the upper house of the Irish legislature] very soon and enacting this bill in the next few weeks.”

Sinn Féin’s Mary Lou McDonald said “this is a moment of joy in this chamber” while Fianna Fáil’s Robert Troy added it was a “momentous day on our journey towards a more equal republic”.

Noting that the current system only allows same-sex couples to marry from 9-5pm on weekdays, former justice minister Alan Shatter said that efforts must be made to ensure gay couples can get married on Saturdays.

Rapturous applause as the Marriage Equality Bill completes all stages in the Dáil. #marref pic.twitter.com/rLv325v2GY

— Craig Dwyer (@DwyerCraig) October 7, 2015

(Frances Fitzgerald image via Wikimedia)

The post Applause Rings Out as Marriage Equality Advances in Ireland: VIDEO appeared first on Towleroad.

Michael Fitzgerald

Applause Rings Out as Marriage Equality Advances in Ireland: VIDEO