If Trump Wins, It Won't Be Justice Ginsburg Who's Ashamed

Keeping silent when “President Trump” is a possibility is immoral.

www.advocate.com/commentary/2016/7/14/if-trump-wins-it-wont-be-justice-ginsburg-whos-ashamed

This Yelp Review by Tituss Burgess Is Like 'Beef Jerky in A Ball Gown'

www.advocate.com/arts-entertainment/2016/7/14/yelp-review-tituss-burgess-beef-jerky-ball-gown

Who Burglarized Pulse Nightclub in Orlando, and Why? (Video)

www.advocate.com/crime/2016/7/14/who-burglarized-pulse-nightclub-orlando-and-why-video

In Provincetown for Bear Week? Make Sure to Read Our 2016 Ptown Hacks Travel Guide Here

Bear Week is in full swing in Provincetown, and if you haven’t yet, pick up our 2016 PTown Hacks travel guide at one of many fine businesses around town if you can find it! We’ll tell you what’s new in town this year and other ways to fill your week with food, music, parties, art, and the great outdoors.

This year’s guide has been so popular they have been out of stock almost as soon as we’ve distributed them, so we’ve also made it available for you to read online here and download in PDF form.

Read it:

Or click the button to get a PDF download.

ALSO IN TOWN THIS WEEK:

Alan Cumming Sings Sappy Songs

The one and only Alan Cumming will arrive in Provincetown for a one-night-only show on July 16 at Town Hall Auditorium, hosted by the Crown & Anchor. Alan Cumming Sings Sappy Songs is the name of the hugely acclaimed cabaret show Alan premiered in 2015 at New York’s legendary Cafe Carlyle. This is one show you won’t want to miss and tickets will sell out. There are also some special VIP tickets available which include a special meet-and-greet after the show. More info and tickets HERE.

If you’re in need of a meal, a snack, a drink, or a pick-me-up, think about visiting one of Towleroad’s sponsors like The Red Inn (fine dining in the west end), Strangers and Saints (fine dining in the east end), Central House at the Crown (fine dining in town center), Yolk (all-day breakfast), Relish (delicious sandwiches, prepared foods, and bakery items), Mimere’s Homemade Cafe (breakfast biscuits, coffee, treats) and Joe Coffee and Cafe (coffee and snacks).

The post In Provincetown for Bear Week? Make Sure to Read Our 2016 Ptown Hacks Travel Guide Here appeared first on Towleroad.

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Ariana Grande and Jimmy Fallon Perform Snapchat Duet of ‘Into You’ – WATCH

It was only a matter of time before it happened: the Snapchat music video.

Tonight Show host Jimmy Fallon joined forces with “Dangerous Woman” Ariana Grande to do a Snapchat duet using some of the filters popular in the social media app.

See if your favorites made the cut, below.

The post Ariana Grande and Jimmy Fallon Perform Snapchat Duet of ‘Into You’ – WATCH appeared first on Towleroad.

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Disturbing Viral Video of ‘Gay’ Man Threatened with Gun Spurs Hate Crime Investigation in Detroit

Thousands of people shared a Twitter post earlier this week in which a Detroit man was threatened with a gun on video and mocked for being “gay”. The video has spurred an investigation by police, the Detroit Free Press reports:

“We are aware of it,” said Detroit Police Sgt. Michael Woody. “It was sent to us and we have opened up an investigation on behalf of the victim, although the victim did not come forward. We are investigating it. Obviously, it’s very troubling that anyone would feel comfortable enough to point a weapon at anyone and post it on social media for everyone to see and attacking and singling out a person … regardless of how they identify is outrageous.”

The 32-second video was initially posted at 8:16 p.m. Tuesday and shows a man sitting in a car at the Brightmoor Liquor store, at 22002 Lyndon St., uttering gay slurs. When the second man walks out of the convenience store, the man in the car shouts “Yo” at him to get his attention. The man ignores him initially, but as he passes the window of the car, the man in the car points a gun at him at the 22-second mark of the video while saying, “Take those pants off, bro. What the f–k you on?”

The video, first posted to Twitter, has since been taken down, but not before copies of it found their way to YouTube. And the man who used the gun spoke out about it, and was praised by some Twitter users:

The @Binswanson account posted a live Periscope video Wednesday on Twitter confirming he brandished the gun at the man, took questions from Periscope users and said more gay slurs. Many Twitter users blasted the man who shared the video and pointed the gun at the man. Others laughed and congratulated him for what he did.

Watch the video:

The post Disturbing Viral Video of ‘Gay’ Man Threatened with Gun Spurs Hate Crime Investigation in Detroit appeared first on Towleroad.

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TEDx Talk: Why LGBTQ Equality Is Gender Equality

This post originally appeared in the Huffington Post.

My name is Sarah McBride, I’m 25 years old, a native of Wilmington, Delaware, a proud graduate of American University, a movie buff, a policy nerd, a sister and a daughter.

It took me 21 years to muster up the courage to say those last words, “sister” and “daughter.” Today, they are among my proudest identities and, tonight, I’m able to walk out on this stage as the woman that I am. But, I have to admit, it hasn’t always been that way.

I remember as a child, lying in my bed at night praying that I would wake up the next day and be a girl, to be my authentic self, and to just have my family be proud of me. I remember looking into the mirror struggling to say just two words, “I’m transgender.”

It was a fact I thought about every waking hour of every single day. With every penny thrown, with every birthday candle blown out, my wish was always the same.

For every trans person, it feels a little different. For me it felt like a constant homesickness. Not a homesickness in my own body, but a homesickness in my own life. It was an unwavering, unyielding ache in the pit of my stomach that only went away when I began to embrace my true self. When I could be seen as me.

But I kept that inside. Buried deep. I told myself that if I could make staying in the closet worthwhile by succeeding and making a difference in the world — that those things would fill the void in my life. It seemed, as I grew up, like my dreams and my identities were mutually exclusive.

During my sophomore year at American University, I was elected president of the student body. At the same time, I was struggling with my identity and whether or not to come out as transgender.

In the end, though, I had to be true to myself. My life was passing me by and I was done wasting it as someone I wasn’t. I came out to my family on Christmas day in 2011 and I came out to my friends during the following weeks. And then, eventually, on the last day of my term as student body president, I told the world that I was really Sarah McBride in an op-ed in the AU student newspaper. I have to be honest, that I was scared about the possible reaction from the university community, but all I got was support.

At the same time, though, people sometimes tried to express their support by saying, “I hope you are happy now.”

“I hope you are happy now.” It seems like such a small motivation for transitioning, for taking the steps that I felt I needed to take for me to have my inner gender identity to seen and respected.

I didn’t transition to be happy, I transitioned to be me. I didn’t transition to create a positive, but to remove a negative; to alleviate a nearly constant pain and incompleteness. Transitioning didn’t bring me happiness; it allowed me to be free to pursue *every* emotion; to think more clearly, to live more fully; to survive. To be seen. To be me.

And while transitioning freed me in many ways, there’s no question that in becoming myself, I faced new barriers.

Like all women, my path to womanhood is unique. No two paths are the same. Each of us travel with different privileges, challenges, and perspectives — some limiting, others illuminating.

And as someone who at least tried to think critically about the phobias and the “isms” and the discrimination in the world, I thought I more or less understood what to expect. In the end, though, I had been so, understandably, consumed with the transphobia that would come my way, I didn’t fully realize the misogyny and sexism I would face.

And it was everywhere: from the subtle to the blatant, a world of contradictions and double standards.

I never realized just how disempowering and unsafe it feels to have a stranger feel entitled to comment on my looks or body. Inviting comments for having the audacity to walk down the street. If I wasn’t smiling, I was told to smile. If I am smiling, its a special invitation for even more comments.

You’re treated like both a delicate infant and a sexualized idol in the same instant. Your thoughts are dismissed and your emotions minimized. Your insecurities emphasized and your body objectified. The simple and mundane decisions that I never had to think about in the morning before, soon became central to avoiding a thousand judgments.

And in finding my own womanhood, I was told that if I was “too feminine,” I was caricature or inauthentic — as if masculinity is some sort of natural state of being, a default, a preference. But if I wasn’t feminine enough, I told I wasn’t a “real” woman. Pop-culture, television, movies, music, politics, fashion, all telling all of us what it means to be a “real” woman.

I had finally come out of the closet, only to find myself stuck in the kitchen.

And it became clear very quickly that the same forces that say, “no, you are not a woman” are the same ones that say there is only one way to love, only one way to act, only one way to live, only one way to dress, only one role to play. And those forces, they’re not just the same people, they’re the same beliefs and dogmas.

It’s why the fight for LGBTQ equality is so inextricably linked to the fight for gender equality. Homophobia, transphobia, and sexism, they’re all rooted in the same prejudice: the belief that one perception at birth — the sex we are assigned — should dictate who we are, who we love, how we act, and what we do.

And that’s why LGBTQ equality is gender equality and gender equality is LGBTQ equality. And when we fully, and I mean fully, realize that as feminists, as LGBTQ people and allies, and as a society, then we will be able to build a world where every little kid can know that they can grow up and successful, they can be independent, they can be gay, they can be trans, or anything else that this society says is mutually exclusive with being feminine or being a woman; that we can be any or all of those things and still be seen, still be valued, and still be respected as the equal humans that we all are.

Our dreams and identities do not have to be mutually exclusive. Working together to fight sexism, transphobia, homophobia — and yes, racism and ablism — they won’t be.

The above post was from a Mid-Atlantic TEDxTalk.

www.hrc.org/blog/tedx-talk-why-lgbtq-equality-is-gender-equality?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss-feed

#AM_Equality Tip Sheet: July 14, 2016

UNANIMOUS SUPPORT FOR TRANS CLEVELANDERS DAYS BEFORE RNC: Yesterday, the Cleveland City Council voted unanimously to approve anti-discrimination legislation protecting the right of transgender people to use restrooms and other facilities consistent with their gender identity. The vote came just days ahead of the 2016 Republican National Convention, which is being held in Cleveland. A slew of anti-LGBTQ provisions have been approved this week by the GOP’s policy subcommittee, including a provision supporting anti-transgender discrimination, a provision calling for a Constitutional amendment undermining marriage equality, and another supporting the discredited and dangerous practice of so-called “conversion therapy.” More on the new legislation here.

• Read about the Republican Party’s anti-LGBTQ platform provisions and others pushing the the GOP to the far right at Mother Jones, and check out this interview with GOP platform committee’s first openly-LGBTQ delegate Rachel Hoff. Hoff’s emotional attempts to make her party more inclusive were soundly rejected.

ALBANY DUMPS DUKE OVER HB2: Albany University has cancelled its basketball game against Duke because of New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s stance against the anti-LGBTQ law. Duke was scheduled to play Albany at Cameron Indoor Stadium in November, but due to Cuomo’s executive order banning all non-essential state travel to North Carolina while HB2 remains in effect, Albany is looking for a new opponent. More from Fox News Sports.

• DOJ seeks to dismiss McCrory’s bogus lawsuit: To streamline its case against North Carolina’s discriminatory HB2, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has asked a judge to dismiss Governor Pat McCrory’s lawsuit against the federal government. According to The Associated Press, “The federal government argues that McCrory’s lawyers ‘rushed to the courthouse’ because they knew the Justice Department planned to sue the state.”
• More on the real cost of HB2: In the nearly four months HB2 has been in effect, the Tar Heel State has taken a hit of at least $329.9 million in lost business, and in taxpayer money used to defend the measure — including funding Gov. Pat McCrory’s road trips to explain why he signed discrimination into law. More from HRC.
• Party Pooper! McCrory cancels a pro-equality garden party at the Governor’s mansion hosted by Progress NC. The Charlotte Observer has more.

GRIMM’S CASE HEADS TO SCOTUS: Transgender teen Gavin Grimm’s case against the Gloucester County School Board, which has barred him from accessing the boy’s bathroom, has been appealed to the Supreme Court of the United States. Following the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling in favor in Grimm, opponents filed an emergency application to the Court. Should SCOTUS decide not to take the case, the 4th Circuit decision will stand and Grimm and all transgender kids in the 4th Circuit (MD, NC, SC, VA and WV) will continue to be able to access bathrooms consistent with their gender identity in schools that accept federal funds. More from Reuters.

MISS. AG REFUSES TO DEFEND HB1523: Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood announced he won’t appeal a federal judge’s ruling blocking the state’s anti-LGBTQ HB1523, saying it’s “not in the best interests of the state of Mississippi or its taxpayers.” This comes just two days after Gov. Phil Bryant asked the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit to stay the decision pending his appeal of the ruling. More from The Clarion Ledger.

• Meanwhile, the Campaign for Accountability today released a revealing report tracking how national anti-LGTBQ groups, working through smaller local organizations, are driving the movement to legalize discrimination through so-called religious refusal legislation, like Mississippi’s HB1523.

“LOVE MAKE THE WORLD GO ROUND:” Check out Lin-Manuel Miranda and Jennifer Lopez’s beautiful tribute to the victims of the Orlando tragedy last month. Proceeds from downloads on iTunes will benefit the Hispanic Federation for the Somos Orlando Fund. Watch their performance here.

• Gay Puerto Rican box Orlando Cruz has dedicated his next fight to the victims of the shooting — four of whom were his friends.

KENTUCKY ROLLS OUT NEW MARRIAGE LICENSES: Starting Friday, Kentucky clerks will issue new marriage licenses giving both people tying the knot the option to select “bride,” “groom” or “spouse.” The new licenses also do not require a county clerk’s signature (looking at you, Kim Davis). More from WTVQ.

DETROIT POLICE INVESTIGATE ANTI-LGBTQ CRIME GONE VIRAL: Earlier this week, a horrifying video of a man pointing a gun and yelling homophobic slurs at a man he believed to be gay went viral on Twitter. From the video, Detroit Police identified the location of the incident, and opened an investigation on behalf of the victim. More from Detroit Free Press.

• Another gay man was attacked in Bronx over the weekend. Marquis Devereaux was walking home early Sunday when we was knifed by men hurling anti-LGBTQ slurs.

A LESSON IN EQUALITY: The Associated Press reports that California is set to become the first state in the nation to include prominent LGBTQ leaders and milestones in the fight for equal rights in required curriculum for history classes. The curriculum is being reviewed today by the State Board of Education.

JOLLY GOOD – UK’s NEW PM HAILS MARRIAGE EQUALITY AS BRITISH ACHIEVEMENT: In one of her first appearances as the United Kingdom’s Prime Minister, Theresa May referred to marriage equality as a progressive achievement for the country. May has had a mixed voting record on LGBTQ rights, but has more recently declared support for equality. More from OUT Magazine.

• PM May makes haste appointing new cabinet members, including Justine Greening as Education Secretary and Minister for Women and Equalities. Greening is the first LGBTQ woman to serve in the UK cabinet. More from Independent.

READING RAINBOW

Gay Star News breaks down a study showing that three-quarters of lesbian and bisexual women aren’t out at work… Americas Quarterly takes a look at the LGBTQ movement in the Dominican Republic after the Orlando shooting… The New York Times shares the stories of LGBTQ-affirming therapists… Fast Company outlines how to find LGBTQ-friendly employers… American Quarterly highlights how the Dominican LGBTQ movement is recovering after Orlando… and New York Daily News profiles Robert Sepulveda Jr., star of LOGO’s new show ‘Finding Prince Charming.’

Have news? Send us your news and tips at [email protected]. Click here to subscribe to A.M. Equality and follow @HRC for all the latest news. Thanks for reading!

www.hrc.org/blog/am-equality-tip-sheet-july-14-2016?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss-feed