Steve Grand goes walking in a jockstrap through New Orleans
Steve Grand. In New Orleans. Wearing a jockstrap. Need we say more?

www.queerty.com/steve-grand-goes-walking-jockstrap-new-orleans-20171122?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+queerty2+%28Queerty%29

British Rapper Stormzy Apologizes for ‘Unacceptable and Disgusting’ Homophobic Tweets

British rapper Stormzy has apologized for tweets unearthed this week in which he used homophobic slurs including the word “fag”.

An example of one of the tweets:

Said the rapper on Twitter:

“I said some foul and offensive things whilst tweeting years ago at a time when I was young and proudly ignorant. Very hurtful and discriminative views that I’ve unlearned as I’ve grown up and become a man..The comments I made were unacceptable and disgusting, full stop. Comments that I regret and to everyone I’ve offended, I am sorry, these are attitudes I’ve left in the past. The homophobic language I used was, embarrassingly, a part of my vocabulary when I was younger and…ignorance made me feel comfortable to use them whilst not understanding the hate and the ramifications they carry. That isn’t an excuse, I take responsibility for my mistakes and hope you can understand that my younger self doesn’t reflect who I am today. Again, I’m sorry to everyone I’ve offended. To the LGBQT community and my supporters and friends, my deepest apologies.”

I said some foul and offensive things whilst tweeting years ago at a time when I was young and proudly ignorant. Very hurtful and discriminative views that I’ve unlearned as I’ve grown up and become a man..

— #GSAP (@Stormzy1) November 22, 2017

The comments I made were unacceptable and disgusting, full stop. Comments that I regret and to everyone I’ve offended, I am sorry, these are attitudes I’ve left in the past. The homophobic language I used was, embarrassingly, a part of my vocabulary when I was younger and…

— #GSAP (@Stormzy1) November 22, 2017

ignorance made me feel comfortable to use them whilst not understanding the hate and the ramifications they carry. That isn’t an excuse, I take responsibility for my mistakes and hope you can understand that my younger self doesn’t reflect who I am today.

— #GSAP (@Stormzy1) November 22, 2017

Again, I’m sorry to everyone I’ve offended. To the LGBQT community and my supporters and friends, my deepest apologies

— #GSAP (@Stormzy1) November 22, 2017

The post British Rapper Stormzy Apologizes for ‘Unacceptable and Disgusting’ Homophobic Tweets appeared first on Towleroad.

British Rapper Stormzy Apologizes for ‘Unacceptable and Disgusting’ Homophobic Tweets

Spreadsheet Phil Fails To Excel
Has Spreadsheet Phil offered something substantial to younger generations in today’s Budget? A quick glance through the policies announced suggests that rather than taking bold steps to rebalance the interests of different generations more fairly, the Chancellor has once again ducked the key issues that are crippling young people – student debt, high housing costs and stagnating wages.

The key issue for young people is housing so the abolition of stamp duty for first-time-buyers on properties up to £300,000 may well seem like a generous offer to younger generations so that they can better compete with buy-to-let landlords. History tells us sadly that this stamp duty exemption will actually do the opposite and lead to an increase in house prices. You just have to look at how market activity increased by 20% when stamp duty was decreased in 2008/9.

Three million apprenticeships, the roll-out of T Levels, and £20 million more for Further Education colleges, is welcome news, but does little for those younger generations already in the world of work with the under-25s once again excluded from the 4.4% increase in the National Living Wage.

The elephant in the room is of course the government’s refusal to deal effectively with student debt beyond the tinkering undertaken a few weeks ago with the freezing of fees at £9,250 a year and increasing the repayment threshold to £25,000. Most graduates will still face a marginal tax rate of 41% for 30 years when you combine the 9% repayment rate, 12% national insurance, and 20% basic rate income tax.

On environmental measures once again the government failed to excel. Given his pledge to clean up the air our children breathe, the Chancellor was totally underwhelming in his promotion of a switch to electric cars, announcing a few measures to increase the number of charging points. In contrast, he again froze fuel duty and boasted that the Conservatives, since 2010, had effectively handed fossil-fuel-burning motorists £46 billion pounds in fuel duty forgone. Young people get to work by bus and train, not cars. The Chancellor gave no help to buses, and only a third off train fares.

With nine references to “future generations” the government is starting to realise how badly young and unborn people have been treated. Unfortunately the promising rhetoric was not backed up with adequate concrete proposals. Instead, like all recent governments, both left- and right-leaning, the Chancellor veered away from tackling the bigger ticket items such pensions and carbon emissions.

www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/angus-hanton/spreadsheet-phil-fails-to_b_18624112.html

Second Federal Judge Blocks Trump’s Transgender Military Ban

Judge Marvin J. Garbis

A second federal judge has blocked President Donald Trump’s attempt to change the military’s transgender policy. Trump’s July 2017 directive would have banned all new transgender recruits from enlisting, kicked out transgender people currently serving in the military and prohibited transition-related surgery for service members. In a ruling on Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Marvin Garbis, the…

The post Second Federal Judge Blocks Trump’s Transgender Military Ban appeared first on Towleroad.

Second Federal Judge Blocks Trump’s Transgender Military Ban

Grenfell And Improving Humanitarian Support In London

How did the humanitarian efforts to help Grenfell’s survivors fail so badly? The huge public response to the tragedy didn’t translate into coordinated care. It’s time to make sure that when disaster strikes and local councils can’t cope, people aren’t failed again.

Nearly six months on and many families who lost their homes in the Grenfell Tower disaster are still in temporary accommodation. Meanwhile the surrounding community is still crying out for wider support, and despite huge charitable donations practical problems on the ground haven’t been solved.

The Government’s initial review of the relief effort, from its Independent Grenfell Recovery Taskforce, has some stark conclusions about the ways in which the survivors have been failed.

All 20 pages of the report should shame Kensington and Chelsea Council (RBKC). Findings include that it ‘currently does not have a coordinated central means of understanding the full range of survivor needs’, that recovery efforts have been ‘disjointed and seemingly rudderless’, and that failures in supporting survivors were ‘left to fester unchallenged’.

The report also finds that NHS staff have struggled to get information from the council on people who need support. Trauma support and mental health care for those affected by the fire is critical but the report says that poor support across the board ‘has left many survivors feeling let down at their time of greatest need’.

As a London-wide Assembly Member I’ve been trying to get action on these problems since I was first asked to visit and listen to their requests a few days after the fire.

Even in the immediate aftermath it was clear that the council’s approach was becoming bureaucratic and unhelpful to many traumatised survivors, while the problems faced by the wider community were being overlooked.

The Taskforce notes something else I also saw: at this point, council and Red Cross workers were actually being discouraged by the council from venturing out on to the streets, leaving devastated local people feeling both under siege from intense publicity and completely cut adrift.

I sent a series of memos trying to get urgent action on the issues people had raised. They told me that survivors in hotels didn’t have basic support or transport to the relief centre, there was lack of information and support for other local residents, an absence of any information available in other local languages, and non-existent mental health support for the wider community. These are all problems that have still not been completely sorted out.

Where I should direct these urgent requests was a real question. With no clear information on how to reach ‘Gold Command’ – the emergency services major incident command – I send my pleas for help to the Red Cross and the Mayor of London’s office.

The Red Cross team did try to sort out some of the issues, but were fairly limited to distributing aid packages and funds. So, in the end, almost all requests for action ended up back with a council that was in chaos.

Importantly, these included providing ‘key workers’ who were assigned to each family, as a single point of contact to help steer them through the process of getting help. Key workers are crucial in situations where people have lost everything and need both moral support and wide-ranging practical assistance to get their shattered lives back together.

The Taskforce report sets out how many of the council’s key workers were taken from elsewhere in their workforce, hitting capacity, and often had a defensive perspective that damaged what should be a relationship of trust with survivors.

I have heard accounts from residents of key worker failures that tally exactly with the Taskforce’s finding that, as a group, they did not have the ability to challenge the council and fight effectively for Grenfell residents, leaving many survivors without the support they desperately needed. Affected residents told the taskforce that some key workers ‘appear insensitive and more concerned with administrative convenience.’

This is appalling to hear and getting this support right from now is vital. The council is trying to recruit new, better-skilled and independent key workers but we need to learn from what went wrong and make sure that experienced people are ready to take on this role again when disasters strike.

A missing piece of the puzzle may lie at the London level. The Mayor has hardly had a role in the wider relief effort outside GLA-controlled emergency services. The council’s recovery work has been overseen by Whitehall, but there is a further part City Hall could play.

The London Assembly has been looking at the Grenfell relief effort in our Oversight Committee. We have heard from the chair of the London Resilience Forum about delays in bringing in outside help as RBKC failed to immediately activate a request for an on-call ‘Local Authority Gold’ from another borough to step in.

This was a necessary step to allow money to be spent from RBKC funds by others but handover took until Friday 16 June, two days after the fire, to be completed.

I have listened to residents completely bewildered by these delays who can’t understand why – when it was obvious RBKC could not cope – this help could not have been imposed on the council.

It’s clear that some on-call, external practical help should be available for immediate use during incidents like this to stop delays in setting up proper relief.

The difference an immediate and unconditional ‘post-emergency service’ like this could have made at Grenfell was obvious to all of us who listened to residents in those first few days.

We already have the excellent Team London at City Hall – a legacy of the 2012 Games –directing volunteers at major sporting and cultural events. The Mayor did send some of these volunteers to Grenfell from 20-29 June, but they could take on more responsibility in future. With extra training Team London members could provide a post-emergency team of independent key workers, ready to be advocates assigned to affected families, listening to their complex needs and helping them access practical help.

The key worker role is not unlike what I do as a councillor when I take on complex casework, and there are many former councillors and people with skills and experience from working at Citizens’ Advice and voluntary organisations who could be willing to take on this role when needed.

Having these kinds of people on call could have saved RBKC from diverting its personnel, worked more effectively with survivors, and saved public money overall.

Following up our last Grenfell meeting, the Oversight Committee is due to discuss the issue of the wider relief effort on 23 November, and I hope that the Mayor and GLA will agree that there is a role for them in plugging the gaps that left so many residents feeling let down after this disaster.

www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/grenfell-and-improving-humanitarian-support-in-london_uk_5a15463be4b009b331ad75ea

#AM_Equality Tipsheet: November 22, 2017

A SECOND FEDERAL JUDGE BLOCKS ENFORCEMENT OF DISCRIMINATORY TRUMP-PENCE BAN ON MILITARY SERVICE BY TRANSGENDER TROOPS: The decision by U.S. District Judge Marvin J. Gabris in Maryland came just hours before yesterday’s oral arguments in a third case challenging the unconstitutional ban, and also explicitly affirms the right of transgender troops to access medically-necessary care. The third case, filed by Lambda Legal and OutServe-SLDN, was brought in Seattle on behalf of two individuals who seek to join the military and one current service member who seeks appointment as an officer; as well as HRC; the American Military Partner Association (AMPA); and Gender Justice League, a gender and sexuality civil and human rights organization headquartered in Seattle. U.S. District Judge Marsha Pechman says she’ll make a decision in the Seattle case by December 8. In October, U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly in Washington put the first hold on the Trump-Pence trans troop ban. More from The Washington Post and The Associated Press.

• A documentary that follows four transgender military service members is slated for release in 2018. It’s directed by Gabriel Silverman and Fiona Dawson (@fionajdawson), and produced by Jamie Coughlin. More from Deadline.

.@HRC proudly joined Peter Renn of @LambdaLegal, Peter Perkowski of @OutServeSLDN, Staff Sergeant Cathrine Schmid & Danni Askini of @GenderJusticeWA to urge the District Court to halt the discriminatory #TransBan. pic.twitter.com/KnoafEqJrg

— HumanRightsCampaign (@HRC) November 21, 2017

HRC & WEST ELM PARTNER ON ‘LOVE IS LOVE’ #GivingTuesday EFFORT TO SUPPORT LGBTQ EQUALITY: HRC is proud to join forces with West Elm to launch a special “Love is Love” effort next week on #GivingTuesday, a global day that encourages giving back to your community. To honor the day, West Elm is committing 100 percent of the proceeds from the sale of items in its “Love is Love” line, available online and in stores. More from HRC.

.@HRC’s #LoveisLove collection is back! And for #GivingTuesday, @WestElm is spreading the love across a Love is Love mug, trinket dish, candle, dinnerware and ornament. t.co/QmJWayNyoF

— HumanRightsCampaign (@HRC) November 21, 2017

WHAT WE’RE READING (& LISTENING TO) WEDNESDAY: NPR, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health found that 18 percent of all LGBTQ Americans refrain from seeing a physician out of fear of discrimination. NPR’s Ezra David Romero (@ezraromero) spoke with Alex Galvan, a gay man who struggled to come out to his doctor; Dr. Kathryn Hall, a pediatrician working to increase LGBTQ competency and friendliness among other doctors; and Nick Vargas, a leader at a Visalia, Calif.-area LGBTQ center. More from NPR.

PA HOUSE RULES COMMITTEE STRIPS ANTI-TRANSGENDER AMENDMENT FROM CHILD HEALTH INSURANCE BILL: Last month, the Pennsylvania State Senate advanced a dangerous and discriminatory anti-transgender amendment to the reauthorization of the state Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). Introduced by State Senator Don White, the amendment would have eliminated transition-related surgical services for transgender youth. The House Rules Committee stripped White’s transphobic amendment. More from Penn Live.

TRANS WOMAN WINS SUIT AFTER BEING WRONGLY DENIED TENURE: A federal jury found that Rachel Tudor was discriminated against while at Southeastern Oklahoma State University because she is transgender. More from The Associated Press.

MUST WATCH — ONCE DENIED, LGBTQ COUPLE FINDS JOY IN FOSTER PARENTING: Nicole and Sam tell the moving story of their struggle to be certified as foster parents because Sam is a transgender man. Experiences like theirs are why the HRC Foundation developed a groundbreaking new guide designed to help foster care and adoption agencies recruit, certify and support qualified transgender and non-binary adults to become resource parents for young people who need safe, welcoming homes. Watch this beautiful story here.

EUROPEAN COURT OF JUSTICE OPENS HEARING ON RECOGNIZING MARRIAGE EQUALITY: The hearing may have implications for the six countries in the European Union that do not have marriage equality, civil partnerships or recognize same-sex unions performed in other countries. More from The Associated Press and The New York Times.

RELIGIOUS LEADERS SPEAK OUT AGAINST ANTI-LGBTQ NASHVILLE STATEMENT: An array of Christian theologians signed the Boston Declaration, which takes aim at The Nashville Statement — a vicious, anti-LGBTQ manifesto issued recently by a group of evangelical leaders unconscionably using religion to attack LGBTQ people. More from Religion News Service.

LGBTQ ADVOCATE BEN DILLINGHAM PASSES: Dillingham, 72, is believed to be the first openly gay elected official in San Diego, and later served as a state legislator. He was an advocate in the fight against AIDS, and earned the Crystal Torch award from HRC. More from The Los Angeles Times.

ANTI-LGBTQ ZIMBABWE PRESIDENT ROBERT MUGABE RESIGNS: Mugabe, who once described LGBTQ people as “dogs and pigs” and believes they “should rot in jail,” resigned after being placed on house arrest by the country’s military. LGBTQ advocates applaud the resignation. More from The Washington Blade.

WHAT WE’RE THANKFUL FOR THIS THANKSGIVING: We’re thankful for the municipalities, corporations, bakers, chefs and restaurateurs standing up for LGBTQ people in the face of federal and state attacks on our rights. We’re thankful for the recently-elected lawmakers who will make history serving their communities and fighting for LGBTQ equality. We’re thankful for films like Moonlight; shows like Orange is the New Black; books like I Am Jazz; and changemakers like Gavin Grimm (@GavinGrimmVA) and Raymond Braun (@raymondbraun). And we’re thankful for our countless members, supporters and allies who fuel our fight and stand on the right side of history.

• For many LGBTQ people, this time of year means some difficult conversations about identity, particularly around the subject of religion. HRC shares some tips and strategies for handling these conversations here.

READING RAINBOW

Refinery29 lists 12 strategies to stand up for transgender women of color; Advocate reviews the LGBTQ&A podcast

The team that brings you #AM_Equality will be spending the next few days seeing how much pie they can eat in one sitting and shopping the sales at our favorite high-scoring stores on the Corporate Equality Index. See you on Monday!

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

www.hrc.org/blog/am-equality-tipsheet-november-22-2017?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss-feed

Director Silas Howard: From S.F.’s Fringe Scene to the Big Time

Trans filmmaker Silas Howard went from Transparent to directing Jim Parsons, Claire Danes, and Octavia Spencer.

www.advocate.com/current-issue/2017/11/22/director-silas-howard-sfs-fringe-scene-big-time

TV Icon and Teen Idol David Cassidy Dead at 67

Partridge Family TV icon and teen idol David Cassidy is dead at 67 after suffering from organ failure amid a battle with dementia,.

Said his publicist JoAnn Geffen said Tuesday evening in a statement: “On behalf of the entire Cassidy family, it is with great sadness that we announce the passing of our father, our uncle, and our dear brother. David died surrounded by those he loved, with joy in his heart and free from the pain that had gripped him for so long. Thank you for the abundance and support you have shown him these many years.”

Cassidy was born to actor Jack Cassidy and Evelyn Ward. His father divorced Ward when he was in grade school and married Shirley Jones. who later played his mother Shirley Partridge in The Partridge Family, which ran for four years in the early ’70s and many after that in syndication.

David Cassidy & Shirley Jones pic.twitter.com/IlwBdmvUvb

— MrGoldenOldies (@Golden0ldies) November 18, 2017

Wrote Bloomberg:

It was an era for singing families — the Osmonds, the Jacksons. “The Partridge Family” never cracked the top 10 in TV ratings, but the recordings under their name, mostly featuring Cassidy, Jones and session players, produced real-life musical hits and made Cassidy a real-life musical superstar. The Partridges’ best known song, “I Think I Love You,” spent three weeks on top of the Billboard chart at a time when other hit singles included James Taylor’s “Fire and Rain” and Smokey Robinson and the Miracles’ “The Tears of a Clown.” The group also reached the top 10 with “I’ll Meet You Halfway” and “Doesn’t Somebody Want to be Wanted” and Cassidy had a solo hit with “Cherish.”

“In two years, David Cassidy has swept hurricane-like into the pre-pubescent lives of millions of American girls,” Rolling Stone magazine noted in 1972. “Leaving: six and a half million long-playing albums and singles; 44 television programs; David Cassidy lunch boxes; David Cassidy bubble gum; David Cassidy coloring books and David Cassidy pens; not to mention several millions of teen magazines, wall stickers, love beads, posters and photo albums.”

Tributes to Cassidy began pouring out on Twitter.

Cassidy’s brother Shaun, a teen icon in his own right, expressed thanks to fans for their support several days ago, but as of this posting had yet to tweet a statement:

Thank you for all your love and good wishes for David. It means the world to all of us.

— Shaun Cassidy (@shaunpcassidy) November 18, 2017

Said his Partridge Family brother Danny Bonaduce: “I have known, loved, and admired David Cassidy for 48 out of my 58 years. He has been as kind to me as any real brother could ever be. We’ve been through a lot together and he was always there for me. This loss is huge. RIP my dear friend.”

I️ have known, loved, and admired David Cassidy for 48 out of my 58 years. He has been as kind to me as any real brother could ever be. We’ve been through a lot together and he was always there for me. This loss is huge. RIP my dear friend. pic.twitter.com/eKdRyAuW2B

— Danny Bonaduce (@TheDoochMan) November 22, 2017

So very sad to hear of David Cassidy passing away He was always so kind and sweet to me. Our shows were both on Friday nights and deep down I dreamt of being a Partridge. His memory and love will live on in my ❤️forever. Love you David. Prayers to his family

— Maureen McCormick (@MoMcCormick7) November 22, 2017

so sad to hear of the passing of david cassidy… he was always so kind to me – such a pleasure to have had him on my show… sending love and prayers to his family… R.I.P. friend ❤️ pic.twitter.com/tsFkNiJzFc

— Harry Connick Jr (@HarryConnickJR) November 22, 2017

The post TV Icon and Teen Idol David Cassidy Dead at 67 appeared first on Towleroad.

TV Icon and Teen Idol David Cassidy Dead at 67

Age Isn’t An Excuse For Jack Maynard’s Offensive Tweets, But It Could Be What Redeems Him

Can a celebrity change their spots? That’s a question I’ve been asking myself a lot lately.

A number of stars have made headlines in recent weeks after offensive historical tweets came back to haunt them.

The latest is YouTube star Jack Maynard.

Most people over the age of 18 hadn’t even heard of the Vlogger before he entered the ‘I’m A Celebrity’ jungle on Sunday night.

After amassing 1.2million subscribers to his YouTube channel, combined with 700K Instagram followers and 600K Twitter followers, it’s fair to say he’s a big cheese on social media, and this was the 22-year-old’s chance to take it up a notch or ten.

But he blew it.

Just two days after entering the jungle he made a swift exit after a series of homophobic and racist tweets, posted between 2011 and 2013 when he was a teenager, surfaced.

His removal from the show was orchestrated by his management, who were keen for him to “defend himself” – and no doubt, for them to protect their dollars.

Prior to him quitting ‘I’m A Celebrity’, his reps issued an apology on his behalf.

He was “ashamed” about the tweets, and whilst they admitted that “age is no defence” they still insisted he “was a lot younger” when he sent them.

And here lies the crux: is age an excuse?

British fashion and beauty vlogger, Zoella, is another young star who was recently at the centre of a similar Twitter storm after she posted a series of offensive tweets between 2009 and 2012.

She’s 27 now, That would have made her between 19 and 22 when she tweeted about “lesbos”, “trannys” and “fat chavs”.

The tweets were subsequently deleted and an apology was issued. She, just like Jack Maynard, insisted she “would never say those things now” and was “sorry if I have offended anyone”.

Her statement, whilst not as offensive as the tweets themselves, still stuck in some people’s craw with its dismissive tone – mine included.

The use of “if” and the arrogant yeah-I-said-it-but-let’s-move-on-because-I-was-young-and-I-have-a £50-beauty-advent-calendar-to-flog-thanks tone didn’t convince me – or many others – that Zoella was sorry at all. It seemed more of an inconvenience.

She should try telling that to the thousands of young people who are bullied every day at school and online for being different.

Both Zoella and Jack could do with taking a leaf out of Stormzy’s book. The British rapper also had a load of historical tweets unearthed where he repeatedly used homophobic language.

Within hours he had issued a thoughtful apology citing the fact that he was “young and proudly ignorant”.

But the difference in his response compared to say Zoella’s was that he addressed the homophobic language head on and apologised to the LGBTQ community directly. Above all, it really sounded genuine.

Zoella and Jack owe their careers to their young fans. Easily influenced young fans – most of whom are the same age as they were when they thought it was ok to tweet offensive stuff online. If they see their idols doing it, then the message is that it’s ok for them to do the same.

Whilst immaturity definitely played a part in their behaviour, it could also be the thing that redeems them.

There is a huge opportunity here for the likes of Jack and Zoella, who has been a victim of online bullying herself, to admit that yes, they screwed up, but they‘re going to make it right.

Because people do change, as Stormzy is testament to. And with age comes maturity, insight and experience, so if Zoella and Jack have really changed, as they say, shouldn’t they use their position of influence to make a greater stand against any kind of prejudice?

Instead of another beauty tutorial or funny video, a vlog about online bullying and the importance of being kind to one another would be far more powerful.

The message would come through a lot louder and clearer to their fans if they did, and even the non-fans amongst us would be far more willing to forgive and forget.

And they have a bigger platform to do that than most.

www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/age-isnt-an-excuse-for-jack-maynards-offensive-tweets-but-it-could-be-what-redeems-him_uk_5a15719ae4b09650540e7994