12 LGBT Celebs Who Spoke Out About Harassment, Abuse
Plenty of queer people are saying, “Me too.”
www.advocate.com/crime/2017/10/17/12-lgbt-celebs-who-spoke-out-about-harassment-abuse
Daily Archives: October 17, 2017
RA
Donald Trump to Address Anti-LGBT Heritage Foundation: WATCH LIVE
Donald Trump to Address Anti-LGBT Heritage Foundation: WATCH LIVE
Just days after addressing the phobes at the Values Voter Summit, Donald Trump is set to address the anti-LGBT conservative think tank Heritage Foundation on Tuesday night.
The address is scheduled for 7:30 pm ET.
Although the Heritage Foundation’s work isn’t limited to anti-LGBT advocacy, the think-tank for decades has made restrictions on LGBT rights a significant part of its portfolio. The think-tank has written policy and legal briefs against same-sex marriage and opposed non-discrimination protections for LGBT people.
Earlier this year, the Heritage Foundation sent out an notice to U.S. House members to urging them to ban vote of a legislative ban on transition-related health care for transgender people in the U.S. military.
After the Justice Department this month issued “religious freedom” guidance undermining LGBT rights, the Daily Signal, the blog for the Heritage Foundation, proclaimed the action was a “promise kept” by Trump.
The post Donald Trump to Address Anti-LGBT Heritage Foundation: WATCH LIVE appeared first on Towleroad.
Equality Act Reaches 100 Corporate Cosponsors
Equality Act Reaches 100 Corporate Cosponsors
Today, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the nation’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) civil rights organization announced it had recruited 104 top businesses — employing more than 5.8 million people — as corporate cosponsors on the Equality Act. By joining HRC’s Business Coalition for the Equality Act, these companies have stepped up to support full federal equality for LGBTQ people through the Equality Act, landmark federal legislation that would provide the same basic nondiscrimination protections to LGBTQ people as other protected groups under federal law.
“The more than 100 businesses that have joined HRC’s Business Coalition for the Equality Act are sending a loud and clear message that the time has come for full federal equality,” said HRC President Chad Griffin. “This is a milestone in corporate support for the Equality Act, and we urge Congress to listen to this growing chorus of American businesses and protect all LGBTQ people from discrimination.”
The Equality Act creates clear, consistent protections against discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity in employment ensuring that LGBTQ employees are hired, fired, and promoted based solely on their performance. In addition, the bill provides protections from discrimination for LGBTQ people in housing, education, credit and jury service. It would also prohibit discrimination in public accommodations and federal funding on the basis of sex, sexual orientation and gender identity. Today, in 31 states, LGBTQ people remain at risk of being fired, evicted or denied services because of who they are.
First introduced in 2015 by Representative David Cicilline (D-RI) and by Senators Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) and Cory Booker (D-NJ), the Equality Act is currently co-sponsored by 241 members of Congress.
The overwhelming majority of Americans across the political spectrum support full federal equality for LGBTQ people. Polling released last year by the nonpartisan Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) found that support for a bill like the Equality Act topped 70 percent nationally, including a majority of Democrats, Republicans and Independents. PRRI’s groundbreaking survey included 42,000 interviews in 50 states and found majority support for the Equality Act in all 50 states.
Major corporations in the HRC Business Coalition for the Equality Act include Abercrombie & Fitch Co.; Accenture; Adobe Systems Inc.; Advanced Micro Devices Inc.; Airbnb Inc.; Alcoa Inc.; Amazon.com Inc.; American Airlines; American Eagle Outfitters; American Express Global Business Travel; Apple Inc.; Arconic; Ascena Retail Group Inc.; Automatic Data Processing Inc.; Bain & Co. Inc.; Bank of America; Best Buy Co. Inc.; Biogen; Boehringer Ingelheim USA Corp.; Booz Allen Hamilton Inc.; Boston Scientific Corp.; Broadridge Financial Solutions Inc.; Brown-Forman Corp.; CA Technologies Inc.; Caesars Entertainment Corp.; Capital One Financial Corp.; Cardinal Health Inc.; Cargill Inc.; Chevron Corp.; Choice Hotels International Inc.; Cisco Systems Inc.; The Coca-Cola Co.; Corning Inc.; Cox Enterprises Inc.; CVS Health Corp.; Darden Restaurants Inc.; Delhaize America Inc.; Diageo North America; The Dow Chemical Co.; Dropbox Inc.; E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Co. (DuPont); eBay Inc.; EMC Corp.; Facebook Inc.; Gap Inc.; General Electric Co.; General Mills Inc.; Google Inc.; HERE North America LLC; The Hershey Company; Hewlett Packard Enterprises; Hilton Inc.; HP Inc.; HSN Inc.; Hughes Hubbard & Reed LLP; Hyatt Hotels Corp.; IBM Corp.; Intel Corp.; InterContinental Hotels Group Americas; Johnson & Johnson; JP Morgan Chase & Co.; Kaiser Permanente; Kellogg Co.; Kenneth Cole Productions; Levi Strauss & Co.; Macy’s Inc.; Marriott International Inc.; MasterCard Inc.; Microsoft Corp.; Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams; Monsanto Co.; Moody’s Corp.; Nationwide; Navigant Consulting Inc.; Nike Inc.; Northrop Grumman Corp.; Office Depot Inc.; Oracle Corp.; Orbitz Worldwide Inc.; Paul Hastings LLP; PepsiCo Inc.; Procter & Gamble Co.; Pure Storage Inc.; Qualcomm Inc.; Replacements Ltd.; S&P Global Inc.; Salesforce; SAP America Inc.; Sodexo Inc.; Symantec Corp.; Synchrony Financial; T-Mobile USA Inc.; Target Corp.; Tech Data Corp.; TIAA; Twitter Inc.; Uber Technologies Inc; Under Armour Inc; Unilever; Warby Parker; WeddingWire Inc.; Whirlpool Corporation; Williams-Sonoma Inc.; and Xerox Corp.
No, Roger Stone and Donald Trump Are Not LGBT Allies
No, Roger Stone and Donald Trump Are Not LGBT Allies
Chris Barron (pictured in inset) contended that conspiracy theorist Stone and Donald Trump are both allies, but the record shows otherwise.
www.advocate.com/politics/2017/10/17/no-roger-stone-and-donald-trump-are-not-lgbt-allies
Pabllo Vittar
Obama picks brilliant gay artist Kehinde Wiley to paint his official portrait
Obama picks brilliant gay artist Kehinde Wiley to paint his official portrait
Wiley is best known for his vibrant, large scale paintings of Black subjects.
Well-Known Singer’s Disappearance Linked to Torture and Murder of Gay Men in Chechnya
Well-Known Singer’s Disappearance Linked to Torture and Murder of Gay Men in Chechnya
The founder of activist group Russian LGBT Network has alleged that the disappearance of a well-known singer in August is linked to the state-sanctioned torture and murder of gay men in Chechnya.
Speaking at a news conference on Monday, Igor Kochetkov said he had “received confirmation of our earlier presumption” that Zelimkhan Bakayev (above), who was last seen on August 8th in Chechen capital Grozny, was “detained by Chechen authorities due to suspicion of homosexuality.”
RELATED: Chechnya ‘Gay Purge’ Victim Comes Forward with Horrific Tale of Beating in Bloody Cellar
The press conference coincided with the release of a new report by Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta on alleged abuses against gay men in Chechnya. Novaya Gazeta was the first media outlet to publish reports of those abuses.
The family of Bakayev has pressed the authorities in vain for information concerning his whereabouts.
RFERL reports:
The mystery over his fate deepened last month when a video posted on YouTube showed a man resembling Bakayev claiming to be in Germany. But the video, which was swiftly picked up by government-controlled media in Chechnya, contained no evidence that the singer was, in fact, in Germany.
The video also showed the man — described in the YouTube teaser as Bakayev — smoking an unlit hookah pipe in a room with the curtains completely drawn. On a table in the room was a can bearing the logo of an energy drink sold in Russia but not in Germany, while Russian media noted that furniture in the room was made by Russian producers.
Officials in Chechnya have suggested that Bakayev simply left the country.
Kochetkov told the news conference that police in Chechnya declined to open a criminal case in connection with Bakayev’s disappearance.
Kochetkov added that other individuals linked to the entertainment industry in Chechnya were subjected to “torture” as the authorities “tried to get information about their acquaintance” with Bakayev and “whether they had sexual relations” with him.
The first alleged victim of the Chechen crackdown on gay and bisexual men also appeared at the press conference.
Maksim Lapunov said that he was detained on the street in Grozny at the end of March by men dressed in civilian clothes.
He claimed that he spent almost two weeks in detention during which he was regularly beaten and tortured. Spending most of that time in a cellar, he said he saw fresh blood stains on the floor and was subjected to repeated beatings.
He added that interrogators tried to force him to reveal the names of others gay men in Grozny.
Lapunov believes he was released only because there were numerous witnesses to his detention, and his relatives reported him missing in the Perm region, where he is originally from.
Following his release, he said he could “barely crawl.”
The Russian LGBT Network said that since April, it has been contacted by 79 people in connection with the antigay campaign in Chechnya. Of those, 27 people were allegedly kidnapped and tortured.
Kochetkov added he has evidence that 15 people handed back to their relatives have subsequently disappeared.
Watch Lapunov speak at the press conference below.
The post Well-Known Singer’s Disappearance Linked to Torture and Murder of Gay Men in Chechnya appeared first on Towleroad.
Trump to address anti-LGBTQ Heritage Foundation this evening
Trump to address anti-LGBTQ Heritage Foundation this evening
The Heritage Foundation promotes anti-LGBTQ policy including the push for so-called “religious exemptions” and holds close ties to the White House
NEW YORK – GLAAD, the world’s largest LGBTQ media advocacy organization, today released research on the anti-LGBTQ record of the Heritage Foundation and their deep connections within the Trump Administration prior to President Trump’s speech tonight at their annual meeting. This speech comes less than one week after Trump became the first sitting president to appear the Family Research Council’s Values Voter Summit, a gathering of some of the most extreme and fringe anti-LGBTQ activists in the country.
“President Trump is actively courting organizations who use hatred and fearmongering to target the rights of the LGBTQ community,” said Sarah Kate Ellis, President and CEO of GLAAD. “As Trump continues to push for religious exemptions to legalize discrimination against the LGBTQ community against the will of the American people, he must be held accountable for his ties to these fringe anti-LGBTQ groups.”
Former Heritage Foundation staffer Roger Severino has been credited with helping champion the Trump Administration’s so-called “religious exemptions” in healthcare from his post as the head of the Health and Human Services’ Civil Rights Office. This anti-LGBTQ agenda run counter to a recent study by the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) which showed that a majority of Americans oppose anti-LGBTQ “religious exemption” laws.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION: Heritage Foundation’s Connections to the Trump White House
- Trump appointed anti-LGBTQ activist and former Heritage Foundation employee, Roger Severino, to lead the Health and Human Services Civil Rights Office.
- Trump nominated Heritage Foundation’s Former Chief of Staff and Assistant to the President, Mark Esper, for Secretary of the Army.
- Trump recently hosted a private dinner with Heritage Foundation founder Ed Feulner.
- Heritage materials hosted on the official White House website by Heritage Foundation’s Senior Legal Fellow, Hans von Spakovsky, who was selected to spearhead the Commission on Election Integrity tasked with investigating Trump’s unsubstantiated allegations that “millions of people” voted illegally in the 2016 election.
- Heritage Foundation fellows appointed to roles as Director of the National Institute of Justice at the Department of Justice and Deputy Director of the Office of Personnel Management.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION: Heritage Foundation’s Anti-LGBTQ Activism
- Hosted a “gender dysphoria in children” panel rooted in the rejection of trans youth that featured a panelist from the fringe, discredited, extremely anti-LGBTQ American College of Pediatricians [October 2017].
- Published a report (co-authored by Roger Severino) that targeted the trans inclusive non-discrimination protections under Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act, arguing that it would threaten “freedom of conscience and the independence of physicians [January 2016].
- Heritage panelist defended the discredited and dangerous practice of so-called “conversion therapy” therapy [March 2015].
- Attacked NJ Gov. Chris Christie for banning so-called conversion therapy for LGBTQ youth in an article authored by senior research fellow Ryan Anderson [September 2013].
- Argued against LGBTQ inclusive employment non-discrimination protections by targeting the trans community: “Finally, especially related to issues surrounding “gender identity” and “transgender” employees, this law could require employment policies that, with regard to a number of workplace conditions, undermine common sense.” [November 2013].
- Peddled a very flawed and discredited anti-LGBTQ Regnerus study that argued, against the consensus of social scientists and profession child welfare groups, that children of gay parents are worse than those raised by two parents of the opposite sex [June 2012].
- Came out against the Employment Non-Discrimination Act arguing that it workplace protections for LGBTQ workers is a step for marriage equality [September 2009].
- Argued that legislators should not “appease” the LGBTQ community by allowing even civil unions because it would open the door to full LGBTQ equality: “It’s time to hold accountable those lawmakers who have opened the door for this court ruling by trying to appease homosexual rights activists with laws that allow civil unions. You cannot have peace at any price with those who seek to conquer and vanquish our values.” [May 2008].
October 17, 2017
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www.glaad.org/blog/trump-address-anti-lgbtq-heritage-foundation-evening
Survivor of Gay Concentration Camp in Chechnya Comes Forward
Survivor of Gay Concentration Camp in Chechnya Comes Forward
Maxim Lapunov is the first to formally alert Russian authorities of the region’s queer persecution.
www.advocate.com/world/2017/10/17/survivor-gay-concentration-camp-chechnya-comes-forward