“Goodbye Deutschland”: 12-jährige Tochter der Büchners auf Mallorca begrabscht

www.huffingtonpost.de/entry/goodbye-deutschland-12-jahrige-tochter-der-buchners-auf-mallorca-begrabscht_de_5a545f20e4b003133ecb977c

Toby Young Quits Office For Students Regulator With Apology For Sexist Tweets And Remarks

Toby Young has quit the Office for Students regulator with an apology for sexist and other offensive remarks he made in the past.

The controversial author and Free Schools founder caved to a torrent of criticism as he announced on the Spectator magazine’s blog that he would not take up the post on the watchdog.

A petition signed by more than 200,000 people demanded he should not be given the post because of a string of sexist Tweets and controversial articles he had written in the past.

Theresa May had said on Sunday that she was ‘not impressed’ by remarks Young had made, but had insisted he should be given a second chance.  He would not remain in the post if he repeated his offensive views, she had added.

Yet only yesterday, ministers defended him in the Commons, even handing out ‘lines to take’ to Tory MPs, accusing Labour of ‘hypocrisy’ over his appointment.

Last week Young said he regrets “politically incorrect” and “sophomoric” comments on social media – including references to the size of women’s breasts – and has deleted up to 40,000 tweets he has posted since 2009.

Critics have also highlighted his attitude to working class students, comments about “inclusivity” in a Spectator column in 2012, and remarks aimed at gay people.

Young announced his shock decision in a pre-dawn blogpost on the Spectator’s Coffee House website on Tuesday morning.

“The caricature drawn on me in the past seven days has been unrecognizable,” he wrote. 

But he admitted: “Some of things I said were ill-judged or just plain wrong and I apologise.”

Yesterday, HuffPost asked the PM’s official spokesman if May would take action if further allegations about Young’s conduct, rather than just his views, were revealed. No.10 said the PM had made her views clear.

There was speculation that Commons Leader Andrea Leadsom had had a conversation with the PM about Young.

But the Downing Street spokesman, asked about the claims, said he was ‘not aware’ of any discussion of the matter between the pair on Monday morning before the reshuffle.

Yesterday, Universities Minister Jo Johnson – whose brother Boris was Editor of the Spectator when many of Young’s articles were published – defended him.

Johnson declared “we want to encourage Mr Young to develop the best sides of his personality”, but said that his experience as founder of West London free school and director of the New Schools Network would be important for the new universities regulator.

But disabled Tory MP Rob Halfon, who chairs the Education Select Committee, called Young’s remarks’ about the political correctness of wheelchair ramps in schools “dark and dangerous”.

www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/toby-young-quits-office-for-students-regulator-with-apology-for-sexist-remarks_uk_5a5463a6e4b003133ecb99d7

Skandal-Autor Sarrazin spricht über Heiko Maas’ Twitter-Gesetz

www.huffingtonpost.de/entry/skandal-autor-sarrazin-spricht-uber-heiko-maas-twitter-gesetz_de_5a544b88e4b01e1a4b18d3de

Adam Rippon Makes History; Becomes First Openly Gay U.S. Male Olympic Skater

Adam Rippon, who with his selection to the U.S. Olympic team on Sunday, will become the first openly gay U.S. American male figure skater to compete in the Winter Olympics when he travels to the games next month in Pyeongchang, South Korea.

Rippon, 28, said that when he came out in 2015 he “started to own who I am as a person.”

“When I was young and still in the closet, I read a lot of articles about other people and their coming out stories and I watched YouTube videos on other people sharing their stories and that’s really what made me feel okay to be myself,” Rippon said during an interview with HRC.

“I told myself that if I ever had that platform to say anything, I would say something,” Rippon continued. “I think the more visibility we have as an LGBT community the more normal it becomes for a young kid who lives in a small town like I’m from—I’m from a small town in Pennsylvania. I think that if you can share your story, you bring more normalcy to whatever situation that someone young may be feeling that they’re in.”

Rippon also has a sense of humor about being a role model, joking that being a gay athlete is “exactly like being a straight athlete except with better eyebrows.”

“I’m so thankful for those other people who came before me and took those steps so that someone like me could read their story and feel okay,” Rippon told HRC. “I hope somebody who was in my shoes when I was younger can see me and have that feeling of, ‘yeah, being gay rocks.’”

Rippon will likely be joined in South Korea by openly gay Canadian pairs skater Eric Radford. Openly gay freestyle skier Gus Kenworthy is also expected to make the U.S. Olympic team. Kenworthy, who won silver at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, where he struggled with Russia’s oppressive anti-LGBTQ agenda, came out publicly a year later. HRC honored him with the HRC Visibility Award last year.

HRC applauds these incredible athletes and wishes them best of luck.

Coming out is a deeply personal journey that looks different for each individual. Learn more by visiting HRC’s Coming Out Center.

www.hrc.org/blog/adam-rippon-makes-history-becomes-first-openly-gay-us-olympic-skater?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss-feed