PHOTOS: The 'Always Loyal' Vets

Christopher Harrity

www.advocate.com/books/2015/11/11/photos-always-loyal-vets

Lesbian couple traveling with daughter accuse Qantas of ‘blatant homophobia’ after being asked to move for husband and wife

The lesbian couple traveling with their daughter have accused Qantas of ‘blatant homophobia’ after they were asked to move for a husband and wife.

Kristina Antoniades, a 35-year-old lawyer, and her partner Merrin Hicks were traveling business class from Brisbane to Melbourne on Monday (9 November) when Hicks was asked to move seats so a straight couple could sit together.

‘I thought that would be the end of it but once the plane took off the flight manager asked why Merrin was seated next to the man and his wife seated behind them,’ Antoniades wrote in an emotional Facebook post.

‘I again advised the flight manager that we were a family and wanted to be seated together. She asked me why I had taken it upon myself to move the wife away from her husband. I advised her that we were in our designated seats.

‘She demanded to see our boarding passes. We produced them and again she asked why we were not allowing the married couple to be seated together.

‘I again told her that Merrin was my partner and Lily our daughter. I told her we had just as much right to be seated together as the married couple.

‘She simply walked away. She did not offer an apology.’

Antoniades said she was left feeling humiliated and tears after the incident.

A spokesperson for Qantas – which has an openly gay CEO – said they had contacted the couple to apologize for the ‘unfortunate misunderstanding.’

‘We have been in contact with the passengers to apologize for the situation, where we were faced with two separate groups of customers asking to switch seats to sit together, including an elderly couple,’ she said.

The post Lesbian couple traveling with daughter accuse Qantas of ‘blatant homophobia’ after being asked to move for husband and wife appeared first on Gay Star News.

Darren Wee

www.gaystarnews.com/article/lesbian-couple-traveling-with-daughter-accuse-qantas-of-blatant-homophobia-after-being-asked-to-move-for-husband-and-wife/

Ben Carson’s Campaign Proves The GOP Have Totally Lost It

Another Republican presidential candidate debate, and another opportunity to wonder how the party got into such a mess. The debate itself was remarkable because it took a cast of characters that wandered in from Alice in Wonderland and made them boring. In the midst of this yawn fest, Marco Rubio came off best, if only because he possesses superior varsity debate skills and didn’t have to answer tough questions about his flip-flopping on immigration. 

Everyone else played their assigned roles: Trump was a blowhard, Fiorina the hard-charging CEO, Cruz the true believer, and Bush the incredible shrinking man.

And then there’s Ben Carson.

Carson has been having his moment in the sun, leading in some Iowa polls, apparently because some people mistake his low-key demeanor for reason. His debate performance only solidified that impression. But Carson illustrates pretty much everything that’s wrong with the GOP these days.

For one thing, he’s an extremist. Carson first came to widespread attention when he had to cancel a commencement speak at Johns Hopkins after he let loose a torrent of homophobic comments. Of course, that only endeared him to the party base. But homophobia is the least of it. Carson is a follower of far-right conspiracy theorist labeled by the conservative National Review as an “all-around nutjob.”

Cleon Skousen believed that Communists had burrowed into every level of government, industry and culture in America with the intention of destroying American life. Carson has simply transferred the Skousen’s rants to the “secular progressives” that he regularly complains about.

Carson has been pretty good at imitating a nutjob on his own. For a renowned brain surgeon, he’s remarkably stupid, with beliefs that are inexplicable in a man of science. There’s his belief that the Biblical figure Joseph built the pyramids as triangular grain elevators. He’s condemned Charles Darwin as inspired by Satan. He’s argued that if Nazis hadn’t had stringent gun laws, the Holocaust might never have happened.

Then there are the people that Carson surrounds himself with. First and foremost among these is Armstrong Williams, one of those fringe figures who makes a handsome living in the conservative political entertainment complex. Armstrong rose to fame defending Clarence Thomas, his former boss, and rode the connection to make himself a media figure, with his own TV and radio shows.

Needless to say, Williams has been reliably homophobic. He has also been accused of sexually harassing a male employee in a suit that was reportedly settled out of court.  Ethics have never exactly been Armstrong’s long suit; in 2005, he lost his media gig when it turned out the Bush White House paid him $241,000 to promote its No Child Left Behind legislation.

So what role does Williams play in the Carson campaign? He’s the business manager.

Which raises the question of whether Carson is running a campaign or a business himself. At times, he stops campaigning to sell books and spends the bulk of the money he raises on raising more money, not on campaign expenses. His candidacy has all the earmarks of a resume-building experience meant to inflate his book-writing and speech-making fees.

And finally, there’s Carson’s relationship with the truth, which leaves a lot to be desired. He’s come out with a series of tales about his youth that sound suspiciously embellished at a minimum.

But here’s where the psychosis of the GOP base comes into clearest view. Carson could be a sociopathic liar, and the base wouldn’t care. Carson chose the right defense: he’s being attacked for who he is, not what he said. It’s all part of the vast left-wing media conspiracy.

That may be the saddest commentary of all. The Republican party has created followers who no longer care about objective facts. Anything that disrupts their world view can be dismissed as pure bias. By any reasonable standard, Carson should be a punch line. Instead, he’s a front runner.

Carson may eventually fade from the scene, but those voters will not. The question now is, how can a party survive when it is so divorced from reality?

JohnGallagher

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Kim Davis, Germaine Greer win Gay and Lesbian Outrageous, Ridiculous and Ignorant comment awards

Kim Davis and Germaine Greer have been named the homophobes of the year at Australia’s Gay and Lesbian Outrageous, Ridiculous and Ignorant comment awards.

The winners are nominated and voted for by the public and the results of the GLORIAs, which are organized by New South Wales legislative council member Penny Sharpe, were announced on Wednesday (11 November).

The Kentucky clerk won in the international category for her refusal to issue marriage licenses to gay couples, and feminist Greer took the grand prize for her views on transgender women.

Last month, she said ‘just because you lop off your dick and then wear a dress doesn’t make you a fucking woman’ in an expletive-laden rant to the BBC.

Nick and Sarah Jensen, a straight couple who promised to get a divorce if gay marriage was legalized in Australia, won the religion category.

‘My wife and I, as a matter of conscience, refuse to recognize the government regulation of marriage if its definition includes the solemnization of same-sex couples,’ they said.

And retired Australian footballer Sam Newman won in the sports category for calling Michael Sam’s draft kiss an ‘annoyingly gratuitous act’ that ‘no heterosexuals do that when they are drafted.’

The post Kim Davis, Germaine Greer win Gay and Lesbian Outrageous, Ridiculous and Ignorant comment awards appeared first on Gay Star News.

Darren Wee

www.gaystarnews.com/article/kim-davis-germaine-greer-win-gay-and-lesbian-outrageous-ridiculous-and-ignorant-comment-awards/

Dallas bans transgender discrimination

Dallas has banned discrimination against transgender people, just one week after voters overwhelming repealed the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance.

The Dallas City Council on Tuesday (10 November) unanimously approved an amendment to the city’s non-discrimination ordinance that explicitly bans discrimination in employment, housing and access to public spaces based on gender identity.

‘We’re a very diverse city and we want to make sure everyone is protected,’ said Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings after the vote.

Transgender residents and workers were already protected under a broad definition of sexual orientation in the city’s 2002 anti-discrimination ordinance, but Tuesday’s amendment clarified the charter’s language by adding ‘gender identity and expression.’

‘Today, the Dallas City Council took action to strengthen protections for transgender Americans and reaffirm their commitment to equality and justice for every person,’ said Human Rights Campaign President Chad Griffin.

‘In the wake of a vicious campaign in Houston that attacked transgender people and led to the repeal of common sense protections, Dallas today sent a vital message that they will fight to protect and advance the rights of transgender people.’

The post Dallas bans transgender discrimination appeared first on Gay Star News.

Darren Wee

www.gaystarnews.com/article/dallas-bans-transgender-discrimination/

Kim Davis's Lawyer to Houston Mayor: 'Why Don't You Just Resign?'

Mat Staver, the lawyer who has been front and center in the controversy over Kentucky marriage licenses has some advice for out Houston Mayor Annise Parker: resign and let someone else do the job. 

Parker has vowed that in her remaining days in office, she will continue to fight for an equal rights ordinance that voters overwhelmingly rejected last week. And that is why Staver told a radio audience he believes it’s time for her to step aside, according to Right Wing Watch.

He said this without a hint of irony, given that Staver has rebuffed all suggestions that his client, Rowan County clerk Kim Davis, should resign from her elected position if she won’t do her job of issuing marriage licenses to everyone, including same-sex couples. 

Stare heads a right-wing conservative law firm which the Southern Poverty Law Center includes in its list of hate groups and extremists, Liberty Counsel. 

Staffer’s co-host on their “Faith and Freedom” radio program, Matt Barber — named this summer one of the 13 biggest trolls in media by The Advocate —  alleged the election results so upset Parker that she is now urging companies to boycott her own city.

That’s not exactly accurate. Parker told reporters last week: 

“I fear that this will have stained Houston’s reputation as a tolerant, welcoming, global city. I absolutely fear that there will be a direct economic backlash as a result of this ordinance going into defeat and that’s sad for Houston.”

But in reply to Barber’s point, Staver declared that Parker ought to simply resign and “let somebody else do” the job if she feels that she cannot represent the “taxpayers and citizens” that she was elected to serve:

“That is like a CEO of a company who says you need to boycott our company, stop buying products from our company because we have a policy that I, the CEO, don’t agree with even though the board of directors has ultimately voted for this policy, so stop patronizing our company. Well, you know what, if that’s what your feeling is, resign from the company. Mayor, if you want people to boycott Houston, why don’t you just resign and let somebody else who wants to run the mayor’s office and represent the city of Houston and all of the taxpayers and citizens of Houston? Why don’t you just let someone else do it because, frankly, you haven’t been doing a very good job.”

Listen to the radio program featuring Mat Staver and Matt Barber, below.

Dawn Ennis

www.advocate.com/politics/2015/11/10/kim-daviss-lawyer-houston-mayor-why-dont-you-just-resign

This Is What LGBT Life Is Like Around The World

As a gay couple in San Francisco, Jenni Chang and Lisa Dazols had a relatively easy time living the way they wanted. But outside the bubble of the Bay Area, what was life like for people still lacking basic rights? They set off on a world tour in search of “Supergays,” LGBT people who were doing something extraordinary in the world.

In 15 countries across Africa, Asia and South America — from India, recently home to the world’s first openly gay prince, to Argentina, the first country in Latin America to grant marriage equality — they found the inspiring stories and the courageous, resilient and proud Supergays they had been looking for.

See more on this topic at TED.com.

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Cynthia Nixon: Homeless LGBTI youth doing sex work the ‘AIDS crisis of this generation’

Out actress Cynthia Nixon believes that the LGBTI movement is on the verge of an identity crisis.

‘We’ve come so far so fast after being on the outside for so long and now what?’ the Sex and the City alum told HuffPost Live on Tuesday (10 October).

But she does believe focus must be put on ‘how many LGBT kids we have living on the street and doing sex work I think that’s the AIDS crisis of this generation.’

She adds: ‘It’s kind of a secret crisis that we’ve got to do much better at even acknowledging.’

Nixon has an ally in out singer Miley Cyrus who spoke of the issue at the Los Angeles LGBT Center’s Vaguard Awards where she was honored over the weekend.

‘There are more than 1.6 million runaway or homeless young people in the US each year with 40 percent of homeless youth identifying as LGBTQ,’ Cyrus said as she accepted her award.

‘And in just Hollywood where we are all sitting royally with all of our food in front of us and all of these fancy-a– clothes … there are more than 6,100 homeless people under the age of 24 on the streets on any given day and more than one in four of these people have experienced hate crimes due to their race, sexual orientation or their gender identity.’

The post Cynthia Nixon: Homeless LGBTI youth doing sex work the ‘AIDS crisis of this generation’ appeared first on Gay Star News.

Greg Hernandez

www.gaystarnews.com/article/cynthia-nixon-homeless-lgbti-youth-doing-sex-work-the-aids-crisis-of-this-generation/