WATCH: Thousands Quit Mormon Church In Wake of Antigay Policy

Thousands of LGBT Mormons quit the Church following its new policy that calls those in same-sex relationships “apostates” and denies their children baptisms.

It was an emotional scene in downtown Salt Lake City on Saturday, where thousands of LGBT Mormons from dozens of states gathered. With 1,000 letters of resignation already submitted online, attorneys received an additional 1,500 letters at the Salt Lake event, which were placed on the lawyers’ letterhead to expedite the process. Some ceremoniously walked to mailboxes to send off their final communication with the church.

“I do feel a sense of relief,” former Mormon Kyler McGhee told KUTV on his decision to leave LDS. “Unfortunately, the Church decided to slam their doors in our face.” 

Many of the participants at Saturday’s event told KUTV they long ago left the church; about five percent of people taking part at the event were believed to be recently active members of LDS.

Nontheless, the Church released the following statement on the event:

“We don’t want to see anyone leave the Church, especially people who have been struggling with any aspect of their life. The Church exists to build people and help them heal, and there isn’t one of us who doesn’t need help at some point in our lives. We hope that today’s guidance from Church leaders and the additional commentary will help provide understanding and context to some who may be considering resigning their membership. It’s extremely important that our members read what leaders have said, and do not rely on other sources or interpretations or what people think they have said.”

The new Church policy characterizes a same-sex relationship as a “serious transgression” and labels those in them as “apostates,” something reserved for those who commit crimes like murder and rape. It bans children of such couples from taking part in the Church and refuses them baptisms. “The policy also marks the first time a Christian church has enshrined a baptismal ban on children of same-sex couples,” according to the HRC.

“Thousands of the Mormon faithful standing with the LGBT community sends a powerful message that love will always win,” Mary Beth Maxwell, HRC’s Senior Vice President of Programs, Research and Training, said in a statement. “Turning children away, asking them to disavow their parents, and devaluing the lives of same-sex couples and their families is shocking to people of faith committed to welcoming all God’s children. We hope that church leaders will reconsider this hurtful and deplorable policy.”

Neal Broverman

www.advocate.com/religion/2015/11/15/watch-thousands-quit-mormon-church-wake-antigay-policy

Ted Cruz vows to fight marriage equality

Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz will not rest until marriage equality is no longer nationwide. In a South Carolina campaign stop. the Texas senator railed against the Supreme Court and its ruling on marriage rights.

‘This is not settled,’ Cruz said yesterday, 14 November, during a speech at Bob Jones University, according to Greenville Online. ‘It’s not the law of the land. It’s not the Constitution. It’s not legitimate, and we will stand and fight.’

The conservative candidate reminded the audience marriage is ‘left to the states and left to the people.’

Yesterday’s event was called the Rally for Religious Liberty  and showcased numerous anti-LGBTI speakers, including Kevin Swanson. The pastor has called for the death of gays and lesbians and for the US to repent because of the sexuality of Dumbledore, the fictional character in the Harry Potter series. This past summer, as Right Wing Watch notes, Swanson insisted ‘the homosexual borg, is the power in the principality of the demonic world itself.’

Cruz exhorted the audience to get out and make a difference in the upcoming election for the White House.

‘When we stand together the truth is mightier than the lies,’ Cruz said, according to Greenville Online. ‘The light is stronger than the darkness. And let me give you the fact that absolutely terrifies them: There are more of us than there are of them.’

According to a 4 November Quinnipiac University poll, Cruz is holding steady in the crowded GOP field. Donald Trump gets 24% of Republican votes. Ben Carson, the former neurosurgeon is at 23%. Coming in third is Marco Rubio, Florida’s senator, at 14%. Cruz takes 13%.

Bob Jones University was founded in 1927 but did not admit black students until 1971. In the 1970s and 1980s the school used the Bible as justification for its racially discriminatory policies (the school banned interracial dating).

In 2000 the university’s third president, Bob Jones III, called Catholicism and Mormonism ‘cults which call themselves Christian.’

The post Ted Cruz vows to fight marriage equality appeared first on Gay Star News.

James Withers

www.gaystarnews.com/article/ted-cruz-vows-to-fight-marriage-equality/

Paris Attack Survivor’s Viral Facebook Post is Both Terrifying and Hopeful

Isobel Bowdery, a survivor of the attacks at the Paris Bataclan concert hall, wrote a Facebook post about her experience that has been shared more than half a million times since its posting yesterday, and liked by more than two million.

For good reason. Bowdery played dead while dozens were murdered around her, but she already has a wise perspective on the tragedy and she’s sharing it with the world.

Wrote Bowdery on Facebook, in a post accompanied by a photo of her blood-stained shirt:

you never think it will happen to you. It was just a friday night at a rock show. the atmosphere was so happy and everyone was dancing and smiling. and then when the men came through the front entrance and began the shooting, we naiively believed it was all part of the show. It wasn’t just a terrorist attack, it was a massacre. Dozens of people were shot right infront of me. Pools of blood filled the floor. Cries of grown men who held their girlfriends dead bodies pierced the small music venue. Futures demolished, families heartbroken. in an instant.

Shocked and alone, I pretended to be dead for over an hour, lying among people who could see their loved ones motionless.. Holding my breath, trying to not move, not cry – not giving those men the fear they longed to see. I was incredibly lucky to survive. But so many didn’t. The people who had been there for the exact same reasons as I – to have a fun friday night were innocent. This world is cruel. And acts like this are suppose to highlight the depravity of humans and the images of those men circuling us like vultures will haunt me for the rest of my life. The way they meticoulsy aimed at shot people around the standing area i was in the centre of without any consideration for human life. It didn’t feel real. i expected any moment for someone to say it was just a nightmare.

But being a survivor of this horror lets me able to shed light on the heroes. To the man who reassured me and put his life on line to try and cover my brain whilst i whimpered, to the couple whose last words of love kept me believing the good in the world, to the police who succeded in rescuing hundreds of people, to the complete strangers who picked me up from the road and consoled me during the 45 minutes I truly believed the boy i loved was dead, to the injured man who i had mistaken for him and then on my recognition that he was not Amaury, held me and told me everything was going to be fine despite being all alone and scared himself, to the woman who opened her doors to the survivors, to the friend who offered me shelter and went out to buy new clothes so i wouldnt have to wear this blood stained top, to all of you who have sent caring messages of support – you make me believe this world has the potential to be better. to never let this happen again. but most of this is to the 80 people who were murdered inside that venue, who weren’t as lucky, who didnt get to wake up today and to all the pain that their friends and families are going through. I am so sorry. There’s nothing that will fix the pain. I feel priviledged to be there for their last breaths. And truly beliving that I would join them, I promise that their last thoughts were not on the animals who caused all this. It was thinking of the people they loved.

As i lay down in the blood of strangers and waiting for my bullet to end my mere 22 years, I envisioned every face that I have ever loved and whispered I love you. over and over again. reflecting on the highlights of my life. Wishing that those i love knew just how much, wishing that they knew that no matter what happened to me, to keep belieivng in the good in people. to not let those men win. Last night, the lives of many were forever changed and it is up to us to be better people. to live lives that the innocent victims of this tragedy dreamt about but sadly will now never be able to fulfil. RIP angels. You will never be forgotten.

The post Paris Attack Survivor’s Viral Facebook Post is Both Terrifying and Hopeful appeared first on Towleroad.

Andy Towle

Paris Attack Survivor’s Viral Facebook Post is Both Terrifying and Hopeful

VIDEO: SNL on Insanity of Anti-Trans Bathroom Madness

If you thought Saturday Night Live wasn’t paying attention to Houston’s defeat of the proposed anti-discrimination ordinance called HERO, you’d be wrong.

During last night’s “Weekend Update” segment, anchor Colin Jost reported on the many Houstonians who were fleeced into thinking HERO — which would have protected 15 classes of minorities, including sexual orientation and gender identity — was all about male sexual predators sneaking into women’s restrooms.

Jost introduced commentator Pete Davidson, who eviscerated that oft-heard and malicious argument.

“The theory is that men, in their relentless quest to watch women go to the bathroom, are going through years of hormones, surgery, changing their name, their wardrobe, coming out to their family, all for that big payoff of peeing in a room without urinals,” Davidson says.

Watch the clip below:

Neal Broverman

www.advocate.com/transgender/2015/11/15/video-snl-insanity-anti-trans-bathroom-madness

REVIEW: Longhorns

Longhorns is a light-hearted period-piece comedy.

Set on a Texas university campus in 1982, writer/director David Lewis brings us the story of Kevin (Jacob Newton) – a young guy fighting against his gay sex fantasies, determined to be straight.

Increasingly confused by his homo-erotic friendships with buddies Justin (Kevin Held), Steve (Dylan Fox), and Danny (Stephen Matzke), it’s not until Kevin meets Cesar (Derek Efrain Villanueva) that he begins to accept that he’s gay.

1982 is an interesting point in time in which to set a gay coming-of-age comedy. It was 1982 when the world began to realise the havoc that the HIV virus was causing to the health of gay men. It seems strange that Lewis specifically sets the story in 1982 but makes no reference to AIDS or the growing hysteria that was being fuelled by the emergence of the HIV virus.

Putting historical context to one side, Longhorns seems to have its heart in the right place, the cast and characters are likeable, and there’s plenty of full-frontal male nudity.

Read more from Gareth Johnson

Read more movie reviews

The post REVIEW: Longhorns appeared first on Gay Star News.

Gareth Johnson

www.gaystarnews.com/article/review-longhorns/

Thousands of Mormon Faithful Resign From Church In Support of LGBT Community

Ban on baptism for the children of same-sex couples spurs mass resignation
HRC.org

www.hrc.org/blog/entry/thousands-of-mormon-faithful-resign-from-church-in-support-of-lgbt-communit?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss-feed

Hundreds of Mormons Resign in Mass Protest of Church’s Anti-Gay Rules: WATCH

Hundreds of Mormons took part in a rally at Salt Lake City’s City Creek Park on Saturday and resigned from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in disagreement with the church’s policies regarding gay people.

The Salt Lake Tribune reports that the turnout was larger than expected and overwhelmed organizers:

At one of several tables, attorney Mark Naugle helped Mormons expedite their paperwork to resign their memberships in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Their forms were then dropped into a file box, which was rapidly filling 90 minutes after the event began, for mailing to nearby LDS Church headquarters to have those members’ names removed from the faith’s rolls.

“We’ve talked to at least 800 people,” Naugle said. “It’s absolutely more than I expected.”

At its peak, the line to drop off resignation papers snaked through the park along State Street, turned east along 2nd Avenue, then curved slightly north along Canyon Road.

This week the LDS Church clarified rules in its handbook regarding children of same-sex parents after news of the rules sparked an uproar and inspired the mass resignation that took place Saturday and is still ongoing.

The new rules said that members of the church in same-sex marriages will be considered apostates against whom leaders of the church must enforce discipline.

Additionally, children of members in same-sex marriages will be barred from baptism and church membership until they pass the age of 18 and disavow same-sex cohabitation and marriage. Also, entrance into the church would then have to be approved by church leaders.

On Friday, LDS Church leaders sought to quell the uproar by clarifying the rules, though the clarification is unlikely to satisfy most who are angry about them.

 Watch a video report from the Salt Lake Tribune:

The post Hundreds of Mormons Resign in Mass Protest of Church’s Anti-Gay Rules: WATCH appeared first on Towleroad.

Andy Towle

Hundreds of Mormons Resign in Mass Protest of Church’s Anti-Gay Rules: WATCH

Fired gay priest: Catholic church ‘needs its own Stonewall’

Catholic priest Krzysztof Charamsa, who was defrocked after publicly coming out as gay, has said the Catholic Church needs a revolution led by homosexual Christians.

Formerly a high-ranking Mosignore in the Vatican, Charamsa was fired from all positions on 3 October, after he came out as gay; more than two weeks later he was defrocked by a Polish bishop.

Speaking to Austrian TV channel Servus TV’s chat show Talk im Hangar 7, in a discussion on the situation on the Catholic Church and whether Pope Francis is set to fail, Charamsa said he felt the church had to apologize to him.

‘I told my church: I’m gay and I demand for you to respect me, and I’m not going to ask anyone for forgiveness. Not even you, my dear church,’ he said.

‘Because it’s you who has to ask me for forgiveness for all the hate and the oppression you brought into my heart while I entrusted myself to you and served you.’

The Vatican, Charamsa said, had been ‘infiltrated by a political war’ going against everything the evangelium stands for.

‘It’s hard, if not impossible, to change something in the Vatican. The Vatican is not going to be able to free itself,’ he said.

‘It needs international help – control and reforms. Those introduced by the pope are currently being counteracted.

‘The Vatican is an institution where a downright pope-phobia rules.’

As for changing things, the former Monsignore said he believes the only way to bring on change would be in the form of a revolution – or, as he put it when speaking to the Washington Post, the Catholic Church needs its own version of Stonewall.

‘I’m convinced that the church needs a revolution of homosexual believers who are being discriminated against, whose lives are destroyed,’ Charamsa said.

‘These days I receive many mails and letters from those believers who are opening their hearts to me, saying: finally. Finally there’s someone telling the Church it’s enough.’

The post Fired gay priest: Catholic church ‘needs its own Stonewall’ appeared first on Gay Star News.

Stefanie Gerdes

www.gaystarnews.com/article/fired-gay-priest-catholic-church-needs-its-own-stonewall/

Madonna Gives Tearful, Defiant Speech on Paris Attacks at Stockholm Concert: WATCH

On her Rebel Tour Saturday night at the Globe Arenas in Stockholm, Sweden, Madonna put her guitar down and offered a tearful, touching, and powerful tribute to Paris and condemned the terrorists who brutally took lives on Friday night.

Said Madonna:

“This whole show is about celebrating life. And standing up for your rights. Fighting for what you believe in. It’s been very hard for me to get through this show and not forget about what happened last night. So I need to take this moment to acknowledge the tragedy. The tragic killings, assassinations and the senseless ending of precious life that occurred last night in Paris In many ways, I feel torn. Like why am I up here dancing and having fun when people are crying over the loss of their loved ones?”

She added:

“However, that is exactly what these people want to do. They want to shut us up. they want to silence us. And we won’t let them….As much [terrrorism] that does occur, there’s more goodness. We are here to claim it.

I was going to cancel my show tonight but then I thought to myself, why should I give that to them. Why should I allow them to stop me, to stop us, from enjoying freedom? All of the places that people were killed were places that people were having fun – were enjoying themselves, eating in restaurants, dancing, singing, watching a soccer match. These are freedoms that we take for granted of course, and we must not. But they are freedoms that we deserve!”

There are people who have a respect for human  life, and there are people that do atrocious, degrading, and unforgivable things to other human beings. But we will never ever ever change this world we live in, if we do not change ourselves, if we do not change the way we treat one another on a daily basis…in the simplest ways. we must start treating every human being with dignity and respect.”

RELATED: More Than 120 Killed in Coordinated Terrorist Attacks in Paris

Madonna led the crowd in a long moment of silence during which she wept. Upon resuming the concert, she asked the crowd to join her in singing “Like a Prayer”.

Watch:

The post Madonna Gives Tearful, Defiant Speech on Paris Attacks at Stockholm Concert: WATCH appeared first on Towleroad.

Andy Towle

Madonna Gives Tearful, Defiant Speech on Paris Attacks at Stockholm Concert: WATCH