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Daily Archives: November 11, 2015
Transparent star blames ‘ignorance’ for defeat of Houston Equal Rights Ordinance
Transparent star blames ‘ignorance’ for defeat of Houston Equal Rights Ordinance
The cast of the Emmy winning comedy Transparent had more than the show’s upcoming second season on their minds when they gathered at the Pacific Design Center in West Hollywood for a splashy premiere party.
It just last week that the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance known as HERO was repealed by voters. The measure aimed at protecting LGBTI people and others against discrimination.
Anti-HERO ads focused heavily on the ‘bathroom myth’ which claimed falsely that the bill would allow anyone of any gender to walk into any bathroom they wanted.
‘It’s never hate that gets us, it’s ignorance,’ Transparent star Jeffrey Tambor told Gay Star News on the red carpet Monday (9 November). ‘It’s non-education. It’s people not paying attention.’
Tambor won an Emmy in September for his performance as transgender woman Maura Pfefferman on the show which will premiere its second season on Amazon Prime next month.
Since taking on the role, Tambor has spoken passionately against anti-trans discrimination.
‘My kids came to the set and they had no problem with this (subject matter) at all,’ he said. ‘It’s the older ones and the ones who think they’re in charge who think that this is the way it goes. Non-education is the villain – keeping people dim and in the dark. That’s what I’m against.’
Steve Duplass, who plays the son of Tambor’s character on Transparent, described himself as ‘very disappointed’ at what happened in Houston.
‘What this show is about is understanding and inclusion and naturally in any movement in life there’s going to be some steps forward and some steps backward,’ Duplass said. ‘I feel very confident that we are moving towards a greater place of love and that will prevail ultimately.’
Out actress Cherry Jones, who has joined the show for its second season, agrees with Duplass.
‘It won’t take long for that to change. Everything keeps changing so fast,’ Jones said. ‘We had a setback there because they were just really good propagandas as they frequently are and we’ve just got to find a way to cut into the propaganda and then it’s going to keep changing rapidly. The days are numbered for that ban in Texas.’
Transparent’s creator Jill Soloway said history will not be kind to those who voted down HERO.
‘I think what was able to happen was that people who trade in hate were able to use hateful messages to arouse public fear,’ Soloway said. ‘Soon enough they will realize that they were on the wrong side of history.
She added: ‘Absolutely trans people need the right to use the bathroom that matches their gender identity. Anybody whose gender non-conforming has to go home to go to the bathroom.’
The post Transparent star blames ‘ignorance’ for defeat of Houston Equal Rights Ordinance appeared first on Gay Star News.
Greg Hernandez
Utah Judge Removes Foster Child from Home Because Parents are Gay: WATCH
Utah Judge Removes Foster Child from Home Because Parents are Gay: WATCH
A judge in Utah has removed a foster child from the home of a gay married couple because he says the child would be better off with heterosexual parents. April Hoagland and Beckie Peirce of Carbon County, Utah believe the judge, who would not cite the “research” which led to his decision, is religiously motivated.
“We are shattered,” said April. Judge Scott Johansen ordered the baby removed from their house in seven days.
The women, who are legally married and were approved as foster parents in Utah earlier this year after passing home inspections, background checks and interviews from DCFS, said the judge told them there was a lot of research that indicated children who are raised in same-sex parent homes do not do as well as children who are raised by heterosexual parents.
“It hurts me really badly because I haven’t done anything wrong,” said April.
The women say the baby has thrived in their home since she arrived three months ago. They want to adopt her and grow their family. They are already raising Beckie’s children who are 12 and 14.
The foster child’s natural birth mother supports Hoagland and Peirce.
Watch:
The post Utah Judge Removes Foster Child from Home Because Parents are Gay: WATCH appeared first on Towleroad.
Andy Towle
Utah Judge Removes Foster Child from Home Because Parents are Gay: WATCH
WATCH: This Fabulous Flash Mob Proposal Proves 'Love Changes Everything'
WATCH: This Fabulous Flash Mob Proposal Proves 'Love Changes Everything'
When video of Justin Utley’s surprise proposal to his boyfriend hit the internet this week, little did he know that he and fiancé Craig Nielson soon would become a viral sensation.
Their video — posted by their friend Elizabeth Flynn to Facebook and shared across a variety of websites, including Towleroad — has been viewed tens of thousands of times, garnering compliments such as “this is what true love looks like,” “this is one of the most beautiful things I’ve seen,” and even a dejected “What I feel ripped off. My proposal was us sitting on the couch like hey lets get married. Then back to watching tv. Lol”
The proposal took place in New York City, on the plaza at Manhattan’s Lincoln Center, and included the Stonewall Chorale performing “Love Changes Everything.” That is a song from Nielson’s favorite musical, Aspects Of Love, and Utley managed to convince the choir to perform as a flash mob to surprise his boyfriend before he popped the question.
Naturally, Nielson said ‘Yaasss!’
Utley, a singer-songwriter originally from Salt Lake City now living in New York, is no stranger to finding the drama in real life. In March 2014, his stirring speech to Utah’s legislature made headlines for his candor; He spoke to the lawmakers about his fears of discrimination, about losing his late boyfriend to a heart attack and then losing his job — all despite trying to conceal his sexuality. Utley said he was raised in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (also known as the Mormon Church) and endured two years of excruciating conversion therapy, sometimes called “ex-gay” or “reparative” therapy, which tries to change a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity.
But Utley’s dark past is behind him now, as he prepares to begin his new, soon-to-be-legally married life with Nielson.
Watch the video from Facebook below and have tissues handy.
This is what true love looks like …. So humbled & blessed to be apart of this #justinlovescraig
Posted by Elizabeth Flynn on Saturday, November 7, 2015
Dawn Ennis
Salt Lake City Is Electing Its First Openly Gay Mayor. Here's Why That's A Big Deal.
Salt Lake City Is Electing Its First Openly Gay Mayor. Here's Why That's A Big Deal.
Salt Lake City is poised to announce its first openly gay mayor next week, reflecting changing social tides in conservative Utah.
Jackie Biskupski (D), who nabbed 52 percent of votes in Tuesday’s election but can’t declare victory until incumbent Mayor Ralph Becker (D) concedes, served as the first openly gay legislator in the Utah state House from 1999 to 2011. She will make history again as the first openly gay mayor of the state capital city, joining only a few openly gay mayors in the U.S.
Biskupski’s apparent victory in the home state of the Mormon church and its long-held opposition to gay rights reflects a shift toward wider LGBT acceptance, experts said.
Pamela Perlich, director of demographic research at the University of Utah’s Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute, explained that being openly gay is less controversial in Utah than it used to be, especially since a federal judge in 2013 made Utah the first state to rule against a gay marriage ban after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned part of the federal Defense of Marriage Act. More people being open about their sexual orientation fosters more inclusion, Perlich told HuffPost.
“It’s easy to exclude somebody you don’t know or establish stereotypes about someone you’re not in proximity with, but not once people found out, ‘My friend is gay or my daughter or my son,'” Perlich said. “That whole thing we see playing out all across nation — that’s playing out in Utah too … You reach these tipping points where it’s just not a big deal anymore.”
The leader of Equality Utah, an LGBT rights group, said he hopes Biskupski’s election galvanizes more people from the gay community to seek public office.
“It is extremely significant to have a lesbian mayor in Salt Lake City,” Troy Williams, Equality Utah executive director, told HuffPost. “The election of Ms. Biskupski sends a clear signal to Utahans that the LGBT community is ready to give back with public service.”
Biskupski’s sexual orientation was largely a non-issue in the mayor’s race. A UtahPolicy poll found last month that three-fourths of likely Salt Lake City mayoral voters said the fact that she would be the city’s first gay mayor would have no bearing on their vote. If anything, being gay gave Biskupski a slight edge: 12 percent polled said Biskupski’s sexual orientation made them more likely to vote for her, while only 10 percent said the opposite.
Biskupski is already planning to make LGBT rights a priority, she told The Salt Lake Tribune on Tuesday. One of her first orders of business will be to meet with the leaders of the Mormon church and discuss its recent policy categorizing same-sex couples as apostates, or religious dissenters, and excluding their children from Mormon rites, such as blessings.
“Hopefully, we’ll have a chance to rethink this a bit and move in a different direction somewhere down the road,” Biskupski told the Tribune.
Also on HuffPost:
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YouTube stars Tyler Oakley and Korey Kuhl are latest gay team to compete on The Amazing Race
YouTube stars Tyler Oakley and Korey Kuhl are latest gay team to compete on The Amazing Race
Tyler Oakley and his best friend and fellow YouTube star Korey Kuhl are one of the teams competing for $1 million on the CBS reality competition The Amazing Race.
The duo, who co-host the popular podcast Psychobabble, will attempt to be the first gay team to win since Josh Kilmer-Purcell and his husband Brent Ridge won season 21 of the show in 2012.
Oakley and Kuhl are among the many social media stars competing in the show’s upcoming 28th season.
Oakley, 26, has more than 7.7 million subscribers to his YouTube channel. His videos have had more than 500 million views since he began loading them in 2007 while a freshman at Michigan State University.
He tweeted to followers: ‘Today i leave to compete on @AmazingRace_CBS with my bestie @koreykuhl!! if you spot us in your country, say hey!’
Kuhl, 30, created his self-titled YouTube channel in July 2012 and met Oakley while the two were students at Michigan State.
He broke the news about competing on Amazing Race with this tweet: ‘Please excuse my absence while I go on The @AmazingRace_CBS with @tyleroakley! this is not a drill!! BYEEEEE!!!’
In addition to Ridge and Kilmer-Purcell, season four was won by two gay men. The then engaged pair Reichen Lehmkuhl and Chip Arndt were the champions in 2004 and later split up.
The post YouTube stars Tyler Oakley and Korey Kuhl are latest gay team to compete on The Amazing Race appeared first on Gay Star News.
Greg Hernandez
Report: Utah Judge Orders Child Removed from Home of Same-Sex Parents
British Tabloids Falsely Claim Ben Whishaw’s ‘London Spy’ Investigated for ‘Steamy Gay Sex Scene’ – VIDEO
British Tabloids Falsely Claim Ben Whishaw’s ‘London Spy’ Investigated for ‘Steamy Gay Sex Scene’ – VIDEO
British tabloids The Sun and The Mail Online falsely reported on Wednesday that the UK’s Office of Communications, known as Ofcom, was investigating the BBC gay drama London Spy because of alleged complaints over a “steamy gay sex scene” between stars Ben Whishaw and Edward Holcroft.
However, Ofcom has received only one complaint and told The Huffington Post UK that no investigation is under way.
A spokesman said: “We assessed one complaint about a sex scene in London Spy on BBC Two.
“In our view the scene was appropriately scheduled after the watershed. We therefore won’t be investigating the programme.
“Our broadcasting rules do not discriminate between scenes involving opposite sex and same sex couples.”
The “watershed” referred to above is defined as “the time when TV programmes which might be unsuitable for children can be broadcast.” The watershed starts at 9 PM and ends at 5:30 AM.
RELATED: Ben Whishaw Stars in BBC Romance Drama About a Gay Spy: WATCH
The headline from The Mail Online originally looked like this:
Before being ultimately corrected to this:
The Sun, meanwhile, ran this salacious piece in its Wednesday print edition.
Check out some screen grabs of the scene that caused the false reporting, here:
Then watch a preview of London Spy episode 2 coming next week, below:
The post British Tabloids Falsely Claim Ben Whishaw’s ‘London Spy’ Investigated for ‘Steamy Gay Sex Scene’ – VIDEO appeared first on Towleroad.
Sean Mandell
Raphaelle
Pierre Ouimet posted a photo:
WATCH: Thousands of Mormons Plan to Abandon the Faith This Weekend
WATCH: Thousands of Mormons Plan to Abandon the Faith This Weekend
A Utah attorney is planning to help thousands of Mormons formally leave the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, after LDS leaders announced a new policy barring children of LGBT people from baptism until they are 18.
Attorney Mark Naugle told Salt Lake City TV station KIVI that he has already heard from an estimated 1,400 people who would like his help filing formal letters of resignation, which are required to officially cut ties with the Mormon Church and remove one’s name from the church rolls that list all members worldwide.
Naugle will also attend a demonstration Saturday afternoon that organizers are billing as a “Mass Resignation from Mormonism Event.”
At press time, 995 people indicated that they planned to attend the event held at City Creek Park in Salt Lake City, according to the event’s Facebook page. Noting that the event is “for anyone ready to resign from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and those who wish to support them,” demonstrators plan to gather at the park to finalize and sign paperwork, then march en masse to Salt Lake’s Temple Square to deposit the letters in a mailbox near the Church’s international headquarters.
Organizers promised that an attorney “affiliated with the event” will be on hand to “offer advice and to make sure our resignations are processed immediately and without ward leader intervention,” and two notary publics will be present to notarize the letters of resignation.
The new policy, which appeared in an online update to the Mormon Church’s layperson leadership manual on Friday, declares that “a natural or adopted child of a parent living in a same-gender relationship, whether the couple is married or cohabitating, may not receive a name and a blessing.” The update also, for the first time, lists marrying a person of the same sex as “apostasy” — the rejection of church teachings that requires excommunication.
Since the change was revealed, Mormon leaders have responded to growing backlash by portraying the new policy as one that “originates from a desire to protect children in their innocence and in their minority years.” The policy was also reportedly intended as a “clarification” that same-sex couples have a legal right to marry nationwide, but “that is not a right that exists in the Church.”
But many LGBT Mormons aren’t buying that logic, pointing that it seems to fly in the face of recent moves viewed as conciliatory towards LGBT members, including the LGBT-inclusive nondiscrimination ordinance recently passed in Utah with the outspoken support of the Church.
Just yesterday, Kate Kendell, the executive director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights, who was raised Mormon, announced that she was formally quitting the church, citing the “cruel” new policy that she contends punishes children of LGBT parents.
“It is impossible for me to be a part of a religion that would attack its own members and punish them by denying their children involvement in the church,” wrote Kendell.
In an op-ed for The Advocate, non-practicing Mormon author and gay, married father Brian Andersen agreed, reflecting on the touching moment when he witnessed his daughter blessed by her grandfather and celebrated by her relatives, many of whom are still active LDS members.
“It saddens me to know that the innocent children of other LGBT parents — other apostates — will no longer be allowed to bring this pure joy to Mormon families,” writes Andersen. “This new policy is counterintuitive to the fundamental valuing of family that is central to the Mormon faith in which I was raised.”
Watch KIVI’s report on the mass resignations below.
Sunnivie Brydum
www.advocate.com/religion/2015/11/11/watch-thousands-mormons-plan-abandon-faith-weekend
