Man 'Insulted' by Glamour Choosing Caitlyn Jenner Returns Wife's Woman of the Year Award

A New York City police officer has returned a posthumous honor for his late wife — the only female member of the New York Police Deprtment killed in the September 11, 2001, attacks —because, he said, he was “shocked and saddened” that Glamour gave the same award to Caitlyn Jenner.

The former Olympian received the Transgender Champion award last week at its Women of the Year ceremony in New York.

Officer James Smith wrote an open letter to the magazine and posted it on Facebook, reports BuzzFeed. His wife, Moira Smith, died while rescuing people from the World Trade Center on 9/11, and he wrote that he found Jenner undeserving of the same award.

“I find it insulting to Moira Smith’s memory, and the memory of other heroic women who have earned this award. I can only guess that this was a publicity stunt meant to resuscitate a dying medium. After discussing this slap in the face to the memory of our Hero with my family, I have decided to return Moira’s award to Glamour magazine.”

A spokesperson for Glamour told BuzzFeed in a statement that the magazine stands by its decision to honor Jenner.

“Glamour was proud to honor Police Officer Moira Smith in 2001 and we stand by our decision to honor Caitlyn Jenner among our class of winners in 2015. Caitlyn Jenner has helped shine a light on the problems faced by transgender youth and given voice to a community that is often unheard. Glamour’s Women of the Year Awards recognizes brave, bold women who in their individual ways have all made a significant difference in the world.”

Jenner was not the first transgender woman awarded Woman of the Year; Laverne Cox was honored in 2014.

A spokesperson for Jenner declined comment to BuzzFeed.

Dawn Ennis

www.advocate.com/caitlyn-jenner/2015/11/16/man-insulted-glamour-choosing-caitlyn-jenner-returns-wifes-woman-year

This Is What It's Like To Be An LGBT Syrian Fleeing For Your Life

LGBT refugees from across the Middle East flock to Turkey, escaping Islamist militias, sexual assault, and death threats. But what they find there leaves many in despair. J. Lester Feder reports for BuzzFeed News.

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Lead plaintiff in landmark Supreme Court gay marriage case endorses Hillary Clinton

Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton took a long time to officially ‘evolve’ and support same-sex marriage but now that she has, she is getting high-profile LGBTI support.

Jim Obergefell, the lead plaintiff in the US Supreme Court case that made same-sex marriage legal in all 50 states last June, announced Monday (16 November) that he is endorsing Clinton for president.

‘We have fought to not only change laws, but to change hearts, and now we need a president who will help us fight to eliminate the injustices that occur regularly in our community, and the best person to do that is Hillary Clinton,’ Obergefell said in a statement to Washington Blade.

Obergefell went on to describe the former Secretary of State and US Senator from New York as ‘a proven leader who will not only ensure that states are implementing marriage equality, but will work to end discrimination in our community whether it’s by passing the Equality Act or through state measures.

‘I refuse to let Republicans undo the progress that we’ve made, and that is why we need Hillary Clinton in the White House because she will be by our side as we break down barriers and finally reach full equality for all.’

During an appearance at Keene State College in New Hampshire last month, Clinton talked about what factored in to her giving full support to marriage equality after years of saying she favored only civil unions for same-sex couples.

‘Largely because of my strong opposition to discrimination of any sort and my personal relationships with a lot of people over the years, I certainly concluded that marriage equality should be the law of the land,’ she said.

‘I was thrilled when the Supreme Court made it the law of the land and I will enforce marriage equality.’

Clinton then took the question a step further by pointing out what work still needs to be done.

‘A lot of states now, because of the constitutional decision, you can get married on Saturday and get fired on Monday because we still permit discrimination in employment and in public accommodations,’ she said.

The post Lead plaintiff in landmark Supreme Court gay marriage case endorses Hillary Clinton appeared first on Gay Star News.

Greg Hernandez

www.gaystarnews.com/article/lead-plaintiff-in-landmark-supreme-court-gay-marriage-case-endorses-hillary-clinton/

Man Fears His Past Encounters With Strangers Is Inhibiting His Ability To Love

A U.K. man fears he may have destroyed his chances of ever find true, meaningful love because once upon a time he worked as a male escort.

“I have recently found myself struggling to be intimate in long-term relationships,” the man writes in to advice columnist Pamela Stephenson Connolly at The Guardian. “I’m a gay man, and left a loving but sexless, five-year relationship six months ago.”

Related: Young Man Seeks Advice For Obsession With Bigger Guys, Can’t Get Enough Belly

He continues: “I find sexual encounters with strangers exciting, and worry that I can’t be intimate with someone I like. When I was a broke student, I turned to escorting a handful of times.”

The man wonders if this may have tarnished his ability to love.

“I am now worried that this has been to the detriment of my goals of a fulfilling, loving relationship,” he writes.

Being a psychotherapist who specialized in sexual disorders, Connolly has no trouble getting to the root of the troubled man’s problem.

Related: Straight Man Seeks Advice After Sleeping With His Married Boss

“Your ability to compartmentalize relationships and to separate love and sex does not necessarily hamper your ability to form a satisfying, long-term bond,” she begins. “But do you really want that right now?”

Keeping the fire stoked in a long-term relationship, she continues, requires some work.

“It seems that your relationships so far have used the immediacy or novelty of attraction to fuel a short-term encounter,” she observes, “but the far more difficult task is to adeptly deal with the vicissitudes of sharing daily living with another human being while maintaining the erotic spark.”

“True intimacy,” she says, “involves allowing yourself to see, and be seen, by your partner. … Perhaps you are not willing to reach so far at this point in time? Does it really matter? If you are not ready now, maybe you will crave a deeper union with the right person at a future time.”

What do you think? Could this man’s past encounters with strangers have stained his ability of ever finding real love? Sound off in the comments section below.

Related: Bi Guy Writes For Advice After Doing The Nasty With His Fiancee’s Father

Graham Gremore

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Charlie Sheen to Announce He’s HIV Positive?

Charlie Sheen is set to appear tomorrow on NBC’s Today show and media outlets are speculating Sheen will reveal he is HIV positive. Today has confirmed only that Sheen will sit down with Matt Lauer to “make a revealing personal announcement.”

Rumors began to swirl last week in British tabloids that an “A-list” “womanizer” had caused Hollywood to become “gripped with fear” after news of his HIV status spread.

People Magazine reports:

Charlie Sheen is going on theToday show to discuss being HIV-positive, sources tell PEOPLE.

According to top Hollywood publicist and crisis manager Howard Bragman, he was approached by people close to Sheen six months ago to deal with the crisis, but never dealt with him directly. “The interview could open up a lot of sympathy for him, but he has to be concerned about a fear of litigation from former sexual partners. You don’t take that lightly.”

Bragman says he was informed that Sheen “is getting treatment, and a lot of people in his life know about it.”

TMZ adds that Sheen’s reveal may have been hastened by threat of legal action:

We’re told he’s known about his status for more than a year and he kept a lid on the information.

We’re told things changed when Charlie confided in several friends he thought were confidants … it turned out they weren’t, and spread the word he was HIV positive.

That led to several of Charlie’s former partners contacting him and threatening a lawsuit because they were unaware of his status when they had interaction with him. Our sources say Charlie settled several of the cases and, in return for money, got confidentiality agreements.

We’re told one of the settlements occurred late last month.

Back in 2011, Sheen appeared on the Today show to try and do damage control regarding his public meltdown surrounding his ouster from the CBS sitcom Two and a Half Men.

The post Charlie Sheen to Announce He’s HIV Positive? appeared first on Towleroad.

Sean Mandell

Charlie Sheen to Announce He’s HIV Positive?

PHOTOS: For Pride We Go to Rio

Advocate.com Editors

www.advocate.com/pride/2015/11/16/photos-pride-we-go-rio

No, Mr. President, Values Are Not Universal
In the immediate aftermath of Friday’s horrendous tragedy in Paris, President Obama made a statement in which he condemned the violence as “an attack on all of humanity and the universal values that we share.”

These words could not be more misguided, and represent the key failure of his administration.

If anything, the devastation in Paris highlights that there are no shared values of humanity. Rather, there are competing value systems that are so at odds with each other that what happened in France — while unthinkable to a majority of the world’s population — is seen as a victory by a sizable and growing number of people.

As a queer activist, I have been particularly horrified by the values around gender and sexuality espoused by many religious extremists around the world. It is patently false to suggest that even the more moderate views that I have around these topics — for example, that men are not superior to others — are somehow “universal.” This idea is violently opposed, and its inverse brutally imposed, by many.

In fact, even here in the U.S., many values that I consider core to my existence and to that of my fellow queer siblings are hardly universal; they may not even be the majority view. It would be lazy activism, if it is activism at all, for people like me to sit back and think that deep down everyone believes what I do, and that I do not have to fight for my basic liberties and bodily integrity. Even if we feel safe ourselves (which we should not), we should never be so complacent as to not speak out against worldviews that lead to the persecution of the less fortunate.

So what values is Obama alluding to as being universal? The basic humanity of others? This is a value to which ISIS and others like them are not only opposed, but in fact represent an existential threat.

In his endless quest for political correctness and to prove that we can find consensus if we search hard enough, Obama has expressed with the most striking clarity yet his failed worldview and chief political strategy. It is a strategy that has impeded him in virtually every policy-making arena into which he has entered during his seven years as president, from reforming the healthcare system to bringing relief to immigrants.

It is a dangerous ideology for anyone who opposes extremism to adopt. For those of us who are queer, who are feminist, and who believe in human rights, we put ourselves in grave danger if we accept the premise that we do not have to fight for our values — both for ourselves and for those around the world who are oppressed because of their gender or sexuality. It is intellectually dishonest, it is feckless, and it will fail.

We must be deliberate about how we articulate and defend our values, or else we might as well not have them. In his refusal to recognize this, Obama has stood for virtually nothing and accomplished as much. It is a core and unforgivable failure of leadership, and it is a stunning disservice to those whose lives were shattered by the brutality of Friday’s attacks.

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REVIEW: Jamie’s Italian – Angel, London

I was in Angel and needing a quick bite to eat before heading to a show at Sadler’s Wells theatre – eventually opting for Jamie’s Italian for a pasta fix.

It is perhaps a little too easy to be hyper-critical of chain restaurants like Jamie’s Italian, but if I was Jamie Oliver and it was my name above the door I’d be disappointed that this outpost of his empire is lacking in soul.

The lighting was good. The music was okay.

The staff were friendly and efficient enough, but lacking any real engagement. There was some sort of special dinner menu on offer, but no one mentioned it to me. A restaurant like this can’t be the most exciting place to work, but it was clear that everyone was just going through the motions.

I ordered a bowl of carbonara. It came out incredibly quickly – literally minutes after the waitress had taken my order – and it wasn’t very good. It wasn’t terrible but it lacked any depth of flavor.

The whole thing was somehow a little depressing.

Jamie’s Italian is part of a restaurant chain. You get what it says on the tin.

Read more from Gareth Johnson

Read more restaurant reviews

The post REVIEW: Jamie’s Italian – Angel, London appeared first on Gay Star News.

Gareth Johnson

www.gaystarnews.com/article/review-jamies-italian-angel-london/

Indy Star Reissues Support for Non-Discrimination Law

Last week, The Indianapolis Star published an editorial regarding the effort to pass explicit statewide LGBT non-discrimination protections in Indiana. 
HRC.org

www.hrc.org/blog/entry/indy-star-reissues-support-for-non-discrimination-law?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss-feed

Bisexual Boxer Who Beat His Homophobic Opponent To Death Is Getting A Biopic

Soon, we can add bisexual boxer Emile Griffith to the ranks of LGBT people who’ve gotten their own biopic.

Deadline is reporting that Room director Lenny Abrahamson has optioned the book A Man’s World: The Double Life Of Emile Griffith, and wants to co-write and direct a film version.

Griffith was a ’60s boxer who won world titles in multiple weight classes, but was best known for beating Benny “The Kid” Parret to death on live TV after Parret grabbed his butt and called him a maricón (the Spanish version of “faggot”).

From what Abrahamson told Deadline, the movie sounds like it’ll be completely different than what we’ve seen before of LGBTs on film:

“As a character study, Griffith is incredibly compelling. There was a gentleness and innocence about him, and he never seemed conflicted about his sexuality; indeed he found joy in it. He inhabited two worlds — the underground gay scene in New York in the ’60s and the macho world of boxing. The societal stigma at that time was dreadful and created a crushing pressure on him.”

We’re looking forward to it. Let’s just hope it does a little better than the last LGBT period piece we got. That one didn’t go over too well.

Check out the infamous Parret fight below to take a look at Griffith in action.

Rob Smith

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