‘Liberal Redneck’ Trae Crowder Brought His Fellow Comedians to a Gay Nudist Retreat: WATCH

“Liberal Redneck” Trae Crowder, known for expounding on topics like Trump, the Republican Convention, Hillary’s emails, and transgender bathrooms, brought his fellow redneck comedians Corey Ryan Forrester and Drew Morgan to perform at “The Gathering”, a gay naturist retreat in the Poconos.

Forrester and Morgan initially thought “naturist” meant something having to do with conservation, and didn’t know that it would mean everyone would have their dicks out.

But the trio let their liberal hang out, and learned a bunch in the process.

Check it out HERE (warning: work-unfriendly).

The post ‘Liberal Redneck’ Trae Crowder Brought His Fellow Comedians to a Gay Nudist Retreat: WATCH appeared first on Towleroad.

‘Liberal Redneck’ Trae Crowder Brought His Fellow Comedians to a Gay Nudist Retreat: WATCH

These Antidepressant Pillows Have Divided Mental Health Campaigners

A range of cushions replicating medication used to treat depression and anxiety have divided mental health campaigners.

The pillows, by interiors brand Jonathan Adler, come in three styles: Xanax (sometimes prescribed for anxiety), Prozax (a common antidepressant) and Quaalude (an illegal sedative).  

While some campaigners believe the pillows “turn a serious issue into a gimmick”, others claim they could help mental ill health become “an accepted part of everyone’s life”. 

The pillows reportedly first sparked a backlash on Instagram after a photo of them was shared by the official Jonathan Adler account. 

According to Metro.co.uk, some commenting claimed the cushions were made in “poor taste” while others thought they were “funny and irreverent”. 

The Instagram post has since been deleted, but the cushions remain available to purchase online. 

“Perk up your sofa with the right pharmaceuticals,” the product description reads.

“Our Prozac Needlepoint Pillow brings our affair with all things medicinal to your pillowscape. Take just one, or follow our professional recommendation to mix the whole assortment.”

Commenting on the mixed reception the products have received, Marjorie Wallace, chief executive of the mental health charity SANE, said the pillows could normalise mental ill health.

“While some people may take offence at these cushions, we do not wish to criticise Jonathan Adler, or to demand their withdrawal from sale,” she told HuffPost UK.

“If there is no intention to cause offence we don’t think it is helpful to be too prescriptive, as it risks creating a climate in which people may be frightened from talking about mental health at all.

“And if we are constantly treading on egg-shells, how can we make mental health an accepted part of everyone’s life?”

But Craig Butler, a mental health campaigner who has previously written about his own experiences of depression, disagrees.

“I’m not a big fan of these,” he told HuffPost UK.

“I’m all for trying to making light of serious issues as it’s important, but this is at a point where society is just establishing mental health as a credible and major issue and my personal opinion is that this jeopardises that. 

“I think things like this just turn a serious issue into a gimmick – it feels cheap to me and I don’t think turning mental health into a novelty is helpful.”

It seems the jury is well and truly out on this one. What do you think of the pillows? Tweet us at @huffpolifestyle to tell us your thoughts.

HuffPost UK has contacted Jonathan Adler for comment and is awaiting response.

Useful websites and helplines:

• Mind, open Monday to Friday, 9am-6pm on 0300 123 3393
• Samaritans offers a listening service which is open 24 hours a day, on 116 123 (UK and ROI – this number is FREE to call and will not appear on your phone bill.)
• Get Connected is a free advice service for people under 25. Call 0808 808 4994 or email: [email protected]

www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/these-antidepressant-pillows-have-divided-mental-health-campaigners_uk_5a02e6f1e4b06ff32c949180

Andrea Jenkins Becomes First Openly Transgender Black Woman to Win Public Office in America

Last night, Andrea Jenkins, a transgender woman of color, was elected to the Minneapolis City Council. She is the first openly transgender Black woman to win public office in the U.S.

Jenkins was not the only transgender woman to declare victory on Election Day. Danica Roem’s win in Virginia’s District 13 election will make her Virginia’s first out transgender public official and the nation’s only out transgender state representative.

“It’s more than just having a seat at the table. It’s having a seat at the table and being able to speak to power,” she told Twin Cities Daily Planet. “It’s about being present, and people knowing you will speak out against injustices. That alone will sometimes limit the number of injustices that happen.”

Raquel Willis, National Organizer for the Transgender Law Center, broke the news in a viral tweet.

So proud of movement auntie, Andrea Jenkins, who became the first openly trans woman of color elected to the city council of a major U.S. city. She’ll represent Ward 8 of Minneapolis! So much history being made tonight! #AJ4W8 #TransFolksCanWin #ElectionDay pic.twitter.com/AJqvDt9E7q

— Raquel Willis (@RaquelWillis_) November 8, 2017

Jenkins, who won the Ward 8 seat, was a policy aide to the council’s Vice President Elizabeth Glidden and has spent decades as an activist and leader in her community. Her campaign slogan was, “Leadership, Access, Equity.”

HRC congratulates Jenkins on this immense victory.

www.hrc.org/blog/andrea-jenkins-becomes-first-openly-transgender-black-woman-to-win-public-o?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss-feed

Secretary Tillerson: Stand Up for Egypt’s Suffering Gays

The government of Abdel Fattah el-Sisi is using LGBT people as scapegoats. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson can help stop his reign of terror.

www.advocate.com/commentary/2017/11/08/secretary-tillerson-stand-egypts-suffering-gays

North Korea Is ‘a Hell No Person Deserves’, Trump Tells Kim Jong Un

President Donald Trump personally addressed North Korea’s ruler Kim Jong Un in a speech to the South Korean parliament Wednesday that had a marked change from the billionaire’s usual aggressive rhetoric. “The weapons you are acquiring are not making you safer, they are putting your regime in great danger. Every step you take down this dark…

The post North Korea Is ‘a Hell No Person Deserves’, Trump Tells Kim Jong Un appeared first on Towleroad.

North Korea Is ‘a Hell No Person Deserves’, Trump Tells Kim Jong Un

Four Practices For Becoming An Incredible Listener
When was the last time you deeply listened to someone?

Listening is essential to developing relationships and connecting with others on a deeper level.

We all love to be listened to in a way that allows us to feel seen, heard, felt and understood, when this happens we feel a deep sense of connection and fulfilment.

We thrive off of human to human interactions, and we thrive even more when those interactions are deeply connecting experiences where all involved feel seen and heard.

By becoming a better listener we will create more customers in our business, we will create more loving and connected intimate relationships, we will create more deeper friendships and we can become better leaders in our organisations.

Here are four practices to become a better listener: Presence Is Everything

If you’re not present in a conversation, then you may as well put your hand up for the other person to stop speaking, say your goodbyes and walk off.

Without presence, conversations may as well not happen. It’s not serving to either person to have a half life conversation where only one person involved or even neither person is interested.

Have you ever had those kind of conversations where you are speaking to someone and they hardly seem to be there with you? They are looking around the room, or glancing at their phone, or checking the time on their watch.. It doesn’t feel good right?

Presence goes far deeper than this though.

Listening is a type of meditation, when we are listening to others we are in a practice of quieting the mind’s chatter, normally the worst listeners are already thinking of something that they want to say and try to say it before the other person has finished, they are also very distracted by judgmental thoughts and feelings whilst talking and listening.

So the best way to practice being a good listener is to treat it like a meditation, let go of your attachment to thoughts that are coming and going and “feel into” the conversation (when we get really present, we can normally feel another person’s energy, like their nervousness or excitement).

Create A Safe Space For The Conversation

Creating a safe space doesn’t mean having a specific place where you interact with people, instead it means practicing non-judgment so when people talk to you anywhere and at any time they can literally feel in their bodies that you will not judge what they say.

When someone feels they won’t be judged by you they will open up in ways they have never done so before. Within the safe space you have created with your non-judgemental listening people can trust you deeply and because of that you will experience more depth and connection in your relationships with others.

Get Really Curious

When we listen it is essential that we are really curious about another person.

Not, of course, faking interest, but instead having a deep and genuine curiosity about another human being.

Listening isn’t just a passive activity where we are silently taking in what another person is saying with heavy lidded nods in their direction, but instead it is about actively listening too.

Active listening is where we listen in a way that we can see that their are greater depths to what someone is saying. If we delve a little deeper with our questions with genuine curiosity we can connect on a deeper level.

Stop Giving Unasked Advice

Not many people really care for an unasked opinion or advice on something they are sharing with you.

People often just want to be listened to, when we share our problems or our challenges with others we simply want to be heard and seen by another. We want to feel that we are understood and that what we have to say is important to that person who we trust enough to share the information with.

Of course there is a time and a place to call someone out in a loving way, I am not advocating that we step on eggshells around others and never say what we really think. What I am saying is that people don’t always need advice, many are more than capable of figuring things out for themselves.

In fact deeply and actively listening to someone can be far more powerful for helping someone than advice ever could be, for this kind of listening allows space for the talker to have introspective insight.

Listening is a practice,

Just like any skill it takes dedication and commitment to become great and luckily most of us will have plenty of opportunities to practice listening to others.

We can all become incredible listeners and the rewards are plentiful.

For more articles on subjects like this one visit –
georgehowardinspire.com/If you would like to join my private Facebook group “Creating The Freedom To Be Relentlessly You”, then you can do so here – www.facebook.com/groups/georgehowardinspire/

www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/george-howard1/4-practices-for-becoming-_b_18491244.html

The Top 10 Unexpected Heroes of The Resistance

www.advocate.com/people/2017/11/08/top-10-unexpected-heroes-resistance

Missguided Applauded For Featuring Unretouched Photos Of Models With Stretch Marks

People are loving Missguided’s latest images and not just because the clothes are cute. 

Some of the models featured are shown celebrating their natural beauty, with stretch marks seen on their chest, hips and thighs entirely unretouched.

This may not seem like a big deal to some (stretch marks are, after all, a natural part of the being human), especially after ASOS chose to forego the airbrushing during their summer 2017 campaign. 

But it is still rare to see stretch marks in the notoriously perfectionist fashion industry.

To see beautiful women represented in their true light is a breath of fresh air. 

Naturally the news was picked up by a few on Twitter, who shared their appreciation with Missguided.

The high street brand seems to be turning over a new leaf with their take on inclusivity in fashion and applauding body diversity.

Some Twitter users stressed the significance of this on the topic of diversity and body positivity. 

But one user was a little more sceptical, believing Misguided (and other high street brands) have no choice but to follow the changing attitude towards body image in fashion. 

Either way, it’s a welcome change. 

www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/unretouched-missguided-models_uk_5a02cd11e4b06ff32c947040

LAPD Investigates Rape Claim Made Against Gossip Girl’s Ed Westwick

The Los Angeles Police Department has confirmed they are investigating actress Kristina Cohen’s rape accusation against Ed Westwick.

Earlier this week, Cohen shared a lengthy Facebook post alleging that Westwick sexually assaulted her at his house three years ago.

Westwick has denied the allegations, insisting that he “does not know” Cohen and has never “forced himself in any manner, on any woman”.

Daily Mail in the early hours of Wednesday morning (8 November) that they are now “investigating a sexual assault case”, following Kristina Cohen’s post.

In her initial Facebook post, the actress described making a trip to Westwick’s house for a dinner party with her then-boyfriend, but grew uncomfortable and wanted to leave when the ‘Gossip Girl’ star allegedly crossed a line with an inappropriate joke.

She wrote: “I went and laid down in the guest room where I eventually fell asleep, I was woken up abruptly by Ed on top of me, his fingers entering my body. I told him to stop, but he was strong.

“I fought him off as hard as I could but he grabbed my face in his hands, shaking me, telling me he wanted to fuck me.

“I was paralysed, terrified. I couldn’t speak, I could no longer move. He held me down and raped me.”

In his rebuttal, Westwick tweeted yesterday (7 November): “I do not know this woman. I have never forced myself in any manner, on any woman. I certainly have never committed rape.”

Read Kristina Cohen’s full post on Facebook.

Useful helplines and websites:

• Victim Support – Visit victimsupport.org.uk or call 0808 168 9111 Sexual Abuse Referral Centres – Find a SARC
• Rape Crisis – Visit rapecrisis.org.uk or call 0808 802 9999 The Rape and Abuse Line – Visit rapeandabuseline.co.uk or call 0808 800 0123 (answered by women) or 0808 800 0122 (answered by men).

www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/ed-westwick-gossip-girl-accused-rape_uk_5a02be99e4b06ff32c946594