PHOTOS: This Rugby Team Questions Your Perceptions
www.advocate.com/sports/2016/5/05/photos-rugby-team-questions-your-perceptions
Daily Archives: May 5, 2016
North Carolina Governor Won't Back Down on Anti-LGBT Law
North Carolina Governor Won't Back Down on Anti-LGBT Law
On Wednesday, Pat McCrory defended HB 2 in the face of a ruling declaring it in violation of federal law.
www.advocate.com/transgender/2016/5/05/north-carolina-governor-wont-back-down-anti-lgbt-law
Hillary Clinton Takes Aim at Trump in Two Attack Ads
Hillary Clinton Takes Aim at Trump in Two Attack Ads
The Democratic presidential front-runner has set her sights on the general election.
www.advocate.com/politics/2016/5/05/hillary-clinton-takes-aim-trump-two-attack-ads
Beyonce Speaks Out Against Anti-LGBT Law, Says “Y’all Means All”
Beyonce Speaks Out Against Anti-LGBT Law, Says “Y’all Means All”
As the world has surely learned by now, when life lobs lemons at Mrs. Beyoncé Knowles Carter she reflects and then releases a game-changing album filled with rage and pain. When word reached her royal ears about the injustice faced by trans folks in North Carolina who just want to use the rest room of the gender with which they identify, she didn’t go the Springsteen route and cancel a show in protest. She didn’t ape Dolly Parton by saying she’ll perform and address the discrimination from the concert stage. Bey donned a T-shirt emblazoned with a subtle message that touts inclusion for everyone (Y’all means all) and issued a statement that endorses Equality NC as part of her Bey GOOD foundation, which encourages the BeyHive to be more charitable and fight against social injustice.
Here’s the Queen Bey’s full statement on the issue:
North Carolina has been drawing the attention of the masses for new legislation that blocks cities and local governments from passing anti-discrimination measures that could protect gay and transgender people.
It all began earlier this year when Charlotte passed a decree expanding North Carolina’s anti-discrimination laws allowing LGBT people protection in places of public accommodation. The ordinance, which was set to go into effect on April 1st, would allow transgender people to use the bathrooms of the gender they identify as, amongst other progressive rights.
Rather than accepting the progression in LGBT rights, that same night, legislators returned to the state house to overrule the ordinance that would ban discrimination against LGBT people. At a special session, North Carolina’s General Assembly proposed and passed the House Bill 2 (HB2) — what has now come to be known as the “Bathroom Bill.”
As The Formation World Tour makes its stop in the Tar Heel state in the midst of such a controversial time, we think it is important for us to bring attention to those who are committed to being good and carrying on the message of equality in this core of controversy.
Among the many organizations doing the good work to get this bill overturned, there is Equality NC, a local organization dedicated to securing equal rights and justice for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) North Carolinians.
To accomplish these goals, Equality NC tirelessly lobbies the North Carolina General Assembly, executive branch, and local governments, broadcast LGBT news, stories and content, and mobilize our communities on issues that matter, including marriage equality, parental rights, inclusive anti-bullying policies, employment discrimination, hate violence, privacy rights, sexuality education, adoption, domestic partnerships, and HIV/AIDS.
Learn more about how you can support Equality NC by donating, volunteering, becoming an ambassador, attending an event, or simply spreading the word!
Learn more about Equality NC on their website, Facebook or Twitter and shop their merch here.
Win A Copy Of The Movie That Turned Tom Cruise Into A Top Gun
Win A Copy Of The Movie That Turned Tom Cruise Into A Top Gun
Thirty years ago Tom Cruise became a superstar of the first-tier when his adrenaline-fueled action flick Top Gun was released. The film, which chronicles an elite group of pilots competing to be the best in their class and earn the title of “Top Gun,” captured the imagination of a generation and earned a worldwide box office of over $350 million upon its release in 1986. Cruise headlines as the cocky but talented pilot Maverick and Kelly McGillis sizzles as the civilian instructor who teaches him a few things you can’t learn in a classroom. Featuring a sensational soundtrack with unforgettable songs including Berlin’s “Take My Breath Away” and Kenny Loggins’ “Danger Zone,” the film also stars Val Kilmer, Anthony Edwards and Meg Ryan.
Besides establishing Cruise as a top box office draw, Top Gun inspired young people to enlist in the military at a time when recruitment was at an all-time low. Then in 1994 we were forced to reconsider the movies when a young actor-filmmaker named Quentin Tarantino unleashed a torrential monologue on the film’s queer appeal in a costarring role in the 1994 rom-com Sleep With Me and Top Gun‘s legacy was forever changed.
Top Gun will be available as a Limited Edition Blu-ray Combo Steelbook on May 3 and on Digital HD for the first time on May 10. To qualify for a chance to win a copy, simply share your favorite quote from the film in the comments section. We’ll select three winners at random who will be notified by email. The contest ends May 9.
Bring back that lovin’ feeling by watching the trailer below.
feedproxy.google.com/~r/queerty2/~3/6yWgyoM_NRA/win-copy-movie-made-tom-cruise-top-gun-20160505
Construction Worker Fired After Being Caught on Video Defacing Pro-LGBT Mural: WATCH
Construction Worker Fired After Being Caught on Video Defacing Pro-LGBT Mural: WATCH
A construction worker was promptly fired after being caught on video defacing a pro-LGBT mural in Jacksonville on Wednesday.
Two local artists had painted the mural in support of the city’s embattled Human Rights Ordinance outside the old Peterson’s 5 & Dime store in the LGBT-friendly Five Points neighborhood on Tuesday.
“You’ve been sharing bathrooms with transgender people your whole life,” it read, above the hashtag #JaxHRO.
The building reportedly is being renovated by owner Steve Williams, an arts advocate who endorsed the mural and supports the HRO. After cell phone video of the vandalism went viral on social media, Williams asked the construction foreman to immediately terminate the guilty employee.
“Anyone who is incapable of respecting ALL humans are NOT welcome on my property,” Williams wrote on Facebook, according to a report from Metro Jacksonville.
Jimmy Midyette of the Jacksonville Coalition for Equality added: “I believe the recent stories from North Carolina, about Target, and our own HRO make this very relevant in Jacksonville. Transgender people should be free to use the restroom of their choice and not be subjected to harassment.”
The City Council was set to consider the proposed HRO this spring, but it was ultimately tabled. Jacksonville remains the second-largest city in the US without an LGBT-inclusive nondiscrimination ordinance, behind Houston.
Watch video of the construction worker who defaced the mural below.
The post Construction Worker Fired After Being Caught on Video Defacing Pro-LGBT Mural: WATCH appeared first on Towleroad.
Beware! Colorado Lawmaker Warns That Gay People Will Demand to Have Sex in Your Guest Bedroom: VIDEO
Beware! Colorado Lawmaker Warns That Gay People Will Demand to Have Sex in Your Guest Bedroom: VIDEO
Devil-obsessed Colorado House of Representatives embarrassment Gordon Klingenschmitt has the distinction of being one of the most ridiculous right-wing loons working in the U.S. at the moment. Whereas the likes of Linda Harvey and Scott Lively are dangerous, Klingenschmitt – despite suggesting that gay people are on a controlled mission to recruit children – comes off with the whiff of comedy gold. For the love of god, he believes that hurricane Gordon was a direct sign of support from the Christian deity itself.
Continuing his special line of Satan-based humor, Klingenschmitt honestly thinks that gay people are driven by a demonic “spirit of persecution” that makes them attack Christians and “demand to have sex in your guest bedroom.”
Speaking on his hysterical “Pray In Jesus Name” program, Klingenschmitt said:
“There is a spirit of persecution that is coming out of this homosexual movement and it’s not enough that they get weddings in their own private churches, they want to come to your church, they want to come to your business, they might even come to your home — if you are a bed and breakfast owner, they’ll come right into your home and demand to have sex in your guest bedroom and there’s nothing you can do, they say, to deny them service because they have a right to violate your freedom.
“That is an evil spirit of persecution. There are also evil spirits influencing them to come after the church and we’ve got to stand up, not necessarily against the humans, we’ve got to stand up against Satan, who is inside of them.”
RELATED: Gordon Klingenschmitt: Trans Folks Shouldn’t Be Allowed in Churches or Public Restrooms
At least the gays don’t want to shag in your bedroom Gordon – yet. Be afraid…..
Watch via Right Wing Watch below.
The post Beware! Colorado Lawmaker Warns That Gay People Will Demand to Have Sex in Your Guest Bedroom: VIDEO appeared first on Towleroad.
North Carolina Republicans Unfazed By Feds’ Warning That HB2 Discriminates
North Carolina Republicans Unfazed By Feds’ Warning That HB2 Discriminates
It’s not clear any North Carolina leaders are prepared to give up on their discriminatory law.
The post North Carolina Republicans Unfazed By Feds’ Warning That HB2 Discriminates appeared first on ThinkProgress.
thinkprogress.org/lgbt/2016/05/05/3775570/north-carolina-doj-reactions/
HRC Alabama Celebrates Defeat of Seven Anti-LGBT Bills this Legislative Session
HRC Alabama Celebrates Defeat of Seven Anti-LGBT Bills this Legislative Session
On the same day the city of Oxford Ala., repealed their vile anti-transgender ordinance, HRC Alabama and its supporters marked the end of Alabama’s 2016 legislative session. While seven anti-LGBT bills were introduced, not a single one passed the state legislature this year.
This was by no means an easy feat. One of our biggest battles came with HB 158, the Alabama Child Placing Agency Inclusion Act, and its Senate Companion, SB 204. These horrific bills would have enshrined discrimination into Alabama law by allowing adoption and foster care agencies — licensed and funded by the state, no less — to reject qualified, prospective LGBT adoptive or foster parents, based on the agency’s religious beliefs. HRC Alabama worked closely with local partners to educate House and Senate members on how harmful these bills would be to the more than 5,500 Alabama children in need of loving homes, and rally support from fair-minded constituents committed to standing against discrimination.
Leaders from several of the nation’s top child advocacy organizations also released a letter condemning this type of legislation. The letter reads in part: “The undersigned nonpartisan, nonprofit organizations are dedicated to ensuring safety, permanency and wellbeing for children and families that are connected to adoption and foster care. This includes providing leadership that improves laws, policies and practices through sound research, analysis, education and advocacy….. As such, we are in opposition to SB 204, The Alabama Child Care Provider Inclusion Act.”
Anti-LGBT lawmakers also introduced a slew of mean-spirited, unnecessary bills including HB 159, which would have allowed health care service providers to refuse service based on their religious beliefs; and HB 130, legislation that would have protected clergy from performing same-sex weddings, a right already granted to them under the First Amendment of United States Constitution.
Another empty resolution that was a direct attack on the Constitutional right of same-sex couples to marry was SJR 39. This was nothing more than a symbolic attempt by state lawmakers to express their animosity towards the historic Supreme Court of the United States marriage equality decision in Obergefell v. Hodges last June. It would have been a slap in the face to loving and committed same-sex couples throughout the state, though it would not have impinged upon marriage equality in Alabama. .
HRC Alabama worked closely throughout the legislative session with our partners at the SPLC and the ACLU of Alabama to beat back the state’s anti-LGBT bills. This year, with the introduction of nearly 200 of these egregious bills in 35 states, our opponents ramped up their efforts this session, but so did we. As Alabama’s State Legislature adjourns, only 22 bills remain in 7 states.
3 Weeks Later: McCrory & NC Assembly Leadership Have Still Not Fulfilled Open Records Request on HB2
3 Weeks Later: McCrory & NC Assembly Leadership Have Still Not Fulfilled Open Records Request on HB2
Today marks three weeks since the HRC and Equality NC filed an open records request seeking information from the office of Gov. Pat McCrory, Senate President Pro Tempore Phil Berger, and House Speaker Tim Moore about their communications with anti-LGBT activists to pass the disastrous HB 2 into law. With the legislation rammed through the legislature in a special, single day session with little opportunity for debate, the plot thickened this week when a Republican State Senator slipped up and admitted there had been private discussions about the plan to rush HB 2 through “for weeks.” But so far McCrory, Berger, and Moore have refused to be transparent about their scheme to pass the radical and deeply discriminatory measure.
Gov. McCrory and state lawmakers are under increasingly intense pressure to repeal HB 2, including from the U.S. Department of Justice who determined the discriminatory measure violates federal civil rights law, including Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Title IX of the Education Amendments Act of 1972. With billions in federal funding at risk, the Justice Department has given Gov. McCrory until Monday to address the situation ‘by confirming that the State will not comply with or implement HB 2.’”
“What are Pat McCrory, Phil Berger, and Tim Moore hiding?” asked HRC President Chad Griffin. “They rammed through this disastrous bill in just 9 hours, and have spent the last 43 days lying to the public about what they did and why they did it. One Republican State Senator recently admitted there were weeks of secret meetings and calls to plot the HB2 sneak attack. It’s time McCrory, Berger, and Moore come clean to the people of North Carolina, because the millions of people harmed by Hate Bill 2 deserve to know the truth.”
“The people of North Carolina deserve to know the truth behind the passing of HB 2,” said Equality NC Director of Advancement Matt Hirschy. “If this bill is as common sense as Senator Berger, Speaker Moore and Governor McCrory claim, then there should be nothing to hide. Every single day that goes by, North Carolina loses more of its economic edge. $500 million in lost economic opportunities should be enough to justify an investigation into how this harmful bill was passed.”
Neither the Governor, who signed the bill in the dead of night the very day it was introduced, nor the sponsors of the bill seem to understand the gravity of what this piece of legislation has done. For that reason, HRC and Equality NC invoked the North Carolina Public Records Law to gain access to any communications the Governor, the Executive Branch, or the General Assembly had among each other or with the kind of extreme anti-LGBT special interest groups who often craft and push this language. Specifically, the organizations are demanding that the government release any communications legislators or the Governor or his staff have had with the so-called North Carolina Values Coalition or the Alliance Defending Freedom.
Nearly 200 leading CEOs and business leaders have urged Gov. McCrory and the North Carolina General Assembly to repeal the deeply discriminatory law that’s bad for business and bad for North Carolina. Mayors and governors across the country are banning travel to the state, musicians are cancelling concerts, and the New York Times editorial board called North Carolina a “pioneer in bigotry.” The NBA has threatened to pull next year’s All-Star Game in Charlotte, NASCAR has spoken about its opposition publicly, and the NCAA has said it won’t schedule events – including the Final Four – in cities that don’t have fully-inclusive non-discrimination laws. Major film studios and corporations, from PayPal to Deutsche Bank, have stopped investments in the state because of the new law. The United Kingdom’s Foreign Office has even warned its LGBT citizens of the risks of traveling to North Carolina.
