Man Charged in Five Murders Reportedly Targeted Toronto’s Gay Community

Police describe Bruce McArthur as a serial killer and say more charges may be brought against him.

www.advocate.com/crime/2018/1/29/man-charged-five-murders-reportedly-targeted-torontos-gay-community

This ‘Drag Race’ conspiracy theory could change EVERYTHING this season
Game-changer?

www.queerty.com/drag-race-conspiracy-theory-change-everything-season-20180129?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+queerty2+%28Queerty%29

Gay Couple in Hiding Amid Police Threats After Russia Accidentally Registered Their Marriage

Pavel Stotsko / Facebook

On Saturday we reported that Russia had accidentally recognized a gay couple’s marriage. Now they are in hiding after threats from authorities.

Pavel Stotsko and Yevgeny Voitsekhovsky were married in Denmark earlier this month. When they returned to Russia and submitted their passports to a clerk in Moscow, the clerk put marriage stamps on them.

The Guardian reports:

Although homosexuality is not illegal in Russia, gay marriage is. Stotsko said, however, that he had exploited a legal loophole, citing a law that means Russia recognises marriages registered abroad. He posted online photos of the stamps in the passports, a move that sparked widespread outrage. Vitaly Milonov, a Russian MP and the author of Russia’s law banning so-called gay propaganda, said the marriage stamps had no legal validity and likened the couple to “stinking goats”.

The clerk who stamped the passports has been fired and police declared their passports invalid. They’ve also had an administrative case opened against them for “intentionally defacing an official document” according to the Russian rights group LGBT Network.

Some reports says that Stotsko and Voitsekhovsky have fled the country. Russian LGBT Network says they are in a “safe location” and being assisted.

Russian LGBT Network reports:

We will briefly address how the situation with Pavel Stotsko and Evgenii Voitsekhovskii has concluded. The plainclothes law enforcement officers attempted all day to enter their apartment. As witnesses have stated, the officers claimed they only wanted to deliver a court summons (they did not explain anything to Pavel and Evgenii personally), and, for reasons unknown, the officers switched off the electricity in Pavel and Evgenii’s apartment.

When these events became known, lawyers, activists and media reporters were sent to help them out, but even the presence of attorneys did not compel the law enforcement officers to leave. As it turned out, the officers’ main priority was to seize the already known to be invalidated passports (the deputy head of the Moscow police department, A.A. Zakharov, himself came to the scene to try to persuade the men). Negotiations carried on until two o’clock in the morning. In the end, the passports had to be handed over. Pavel and Evgenii are currently at a safe location, and we will continue to assist them.



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Gay Couple in Hiding Amid Police Threats After Russia Accidentally Registered Their Marriage

Internships Cost Job Seekers £1,000 A Month In London And £827 In Manchester
The cost of undertaking an unpaid internship to land a job in “desirable sectors” will now set a jobseeker back  £1,019 a month in London and £827 in Manchester.

According to The Sutton Trust, people from low and moderate-income backgrounds are being prevented from accessing internships – which are “increasingly seen as a requirement before a first job” due to rising rents in the two centres and inflation.

Separately, research carried out for the Trade Union Congress found that 78% of 18-34 year olds could not afford to live in London away from home to become an unpaid intern.

The Trust said that 40% of young people who have carried out an internship have done at least one of them unpaid, leading to concerns that “the significant costs associated with unpaid internships are shutting many less advantaged young people out of careers”.

The Trust is calling for all internships over four weeks (£4976 in London, £3308 in Manchester) to be paying at least the minimum wage of £7.50 per hour and “ideally” the Living Wage of £8.56 (£10.20 in London).

It also recommends that internships are advertised publicly and that recruitment processes are “fair, transparent and based on merit”.

“Failure to do so prevents young people from low and moderate-income backgrounds from accessing jobs in some of the most desirable sectors such as journalism, fashion, the arts and politics,” the Trust report – Internships – unpaid, unadvertised, unfair – states.

The Trust cited the recent Taylor review, which examined modern working practices, in its report. The review concluded that “it is clear to us that unpaid internships are an abuse of power by employers and extremely damaging to social mobility”.

Minimum wage legislation makes many unpaid internships illegal “but the law is not properly enforced”, the Trust said, citing, as evidence, the fact the government recently confirmed that there have been no recorded prosecutions in relation to interns and the National Minimum Wage.

Key Points:    • Organisations continue to offer internships which are unpaid, and offer internships without formally advertising them. • A internship would cost a single person £1,019 a month in London and £827 in Manchester.  • Over 40% of young people who have carried out an internship have done at least one of them unpaid. • There are 70,000 interns in the UK at any one time. • Roughly 10,000 graduates are carrying out an internship at six months post-graduation, with 20% of them doing so unpaid. • There are concerns that some employers are either unaware that their interns should be paid, or that some employers are exploiting the lack of clarity in the law to avoid paying their interns.
The Sutton Trust said that since 2014, there has been “some moves in the right direction” by employers, such as Pret a Manger, who started paying their interns. The Brit Awards also introduced 10 paid internships to help “open up access to the music industry”, it said, and there are reports that publishing houses are increasingly introducing paid internships.

However, the Trust lamented that organisations were continuing to advertise for unpaid interns online and through “informal networks”.

Examples of internships advertised this month which the Trust highlighted include – a major fashion designer who was looking for an unpaid design intern to work for two-to-three months in the lead-up to their London Fashion Week show and an MP who advertised a six-month internship with “no set hours and only expenses covered”.

The role involved undertaking research, analysis and briefings on upcoming issues, the Trust said. It declined to name the MP.

“Given that MPs are already considerably more likely to be from a privileged background than the constituents that they represent, it is extremely disappointing that MPs continue to offer unpaid internships, locking less well-off young people out of politics,” the report reads.

“Additionally, concerns have also been raised by the APPG on Social Mobility that internships in politics are often given out to family and friends of politicians, rather than being openly advertised.”

In the UK there are around 70,000 internships each year and research by the Trust shows that 10,000 graduates are in unpaid internships six months after graduation, “though many more will do them at other times”.

There are no official figures on the number of interns in the UK, but IPPR analysis has found that around 11,000 internships per year are formally advertised online and an annual survey by the the Department for Education found that 6% of businesses surveyed providing some form of paid or unpaid internship.

However, the graduate careers guidance service Prospects carried out an online survey of almost 9,000 16-25 year olds in 2017 and found that 48% had undertaken an unpaid internship.

The Trust is backing a bill by Conservative peer Lord Holmes of Richmond “tightening” minimum wage legislation to ban unpaid internships over four weeks long. The bill is also been supported by the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Social Mobility and the government’s Social Mobility Commission, the Trust noted.

Sir Peter Lampl, Founder and Chairman of the Sutton Trust and Chairman of the Education Endowment Foundation, said: “Around 40% of young people who have carried out an internship have done so unpaid. All internships over four weeks should be paid at least the minimum wage of £7.50 per hour.  Failure to do so prevents young people from low and moderate-income backgrounds from accessing jobs in some of the most desirable sectors such as journalism, fashion, the arts and politics.

“All internship positions should be advertised publicly.  Large numbers of internships are never advertised and instead offered through informal networks.  This practice locks out young people without connections.  Also, the process by which potential candidates are selected for internships should uphold the same standards of recruitment as for other jobs.”

Unpaid internships, the Trust said, are a “particular problem” in sought-after professions such as the arts and media, where the Social Mobility Commission has reported a dramatic rise in the number of unpaid internships.

Sharon White, CEO of the broadcasting regulator Ofcom, recently called on TV executives to stop using unpaid internships, due to concerns that they are limiting access to the industry.

While the Trust said “the best unpaid internships can kick-start a career, there is evidence that undertaking an unpaid internship can actually reduce future earnings”. Recent work from the Institute for Social and Economic Research, it said, found that three years after graduating, former unpaid interns earned less than those who went immediately into paid work or further study.

What can unpaid interns do to challenge their pay? The Sutton Trust says: “An unpaid intern can report an organisation to the government’s Pay and Work Rights Helpline, or can take a case to a tribunal. However, this is a potentially difficult process for an intern who is relying on their placement to help them break into an industry, and risks them losing access to the references and contacts that they have worked unpaid to build. “Additionally, even if an intern does take a case to a tribunal, under the current law an employer often can still claim that the intern was under no obligation to attend work, or had no obligation to give notice that they would no longer attend – making them unentitled to the minimum wage.”

The Sutton Trust’s recommendations:

1) All internships longer than one month should be paid at least the National Minimum Wage To open up access to internship opportunities, interns should be paid at least the National Minimum Wage (£7.05 per hour for 21-24 year olds, or £7.50 for over 25s). Preferably, interns should be paid the Living Wage of £8.75 (or London Living Wage, £10.20, in London). The current law should be tightened to ban unpaid internships over four weeks in length.

2) Internship positions should be advertised publicly, rather than being filled informally Large numbers of internships are never advertised, and instead offered through informal networks, for example to friends or family of staff. This practice locks out talented young people without connections, limiting their opportunities and hampering their social mobility. All internships should be advertised publicly, so that regardless of connections, all potential applicants can apply.

3) Recruitment processes should be fair, transparent and based on merit As well as being openly advertised, the process by which potential candidates are selected for internships should be fair and transparent – upholding the same standards of recruitment as other jobs. All internships should be awarded on merit to the best candidate, not based on personal connections.

www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/internships-the-sutton-trust_uk_5a6ef406e4b01fbbefb3860b

Two More Out Athletes Join Olympics, Setting Record

Eight out athletes will make for the most inclusive Winter Olympic Games to date.

www.advocate.com/sports/2018/1/29/two-more-out-athletes-join-olympics-setting-record

Cher nails an ABBA classic in the new ‘Mama Mia!’ sequel trailer that has everyone talking

www.queerty.com/cher-nails-abba-classic-new-mama-mia-sequel-trailer-everyone-talking-20180129?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+queerty2+%28Queerty%29

Boston Gay Men’s Chorus Makes Super Bowl Bet with Philadelphia Gay Men’s Chorus

The Boston Gay Men’s Chorus in Provincetown, December 2017

The Boston Gay Men’s Chorus has made a musical Super Bowl wager with the Philadelphia Gay Men’s Chorus.

According to a press release from BGMC: “If the New England Patriots defeat the Philadelphia Eagles in the Feb. 4 Super Bowl in Minneapolis, the Philadelphia Chorus will perform ‘Please Come to Boston’ by Dave Loggins for the BGMC YouTube Channel. If the Eagles are victorious, BGMC will perform ‘Philadelphia Freedom’ and make it available online.

FLASHBACK: Lady Gaga Rocks NRG Stadium with Super Bowl Halftime Show: WATCH

Said BGMC Executive Director Craig Coogan: “This is a friendly wager, but we’re taking it seriously. The Philadelphia Gay Men’s Chorus is a talented ensemble, but our football team is better than theirs.”

Replied Joseph Buches, Artistic Director of The Philadelphia Men’s Chorus: “We were delighted to accept this challenge from the Boston Gay Men’s Chorus. Nick Foles is young and healthy, unlike New England’s quarterback, whose name escapes me. We’re confident that we’ll emerge the winner of this contest.”

The New England Patriots face the Philadelphia Eagles in this year’s Super Bowl, which takes place this Sunday, February 4, in Minneapolis.

The post Boston Gay Men’s Chorus Makes Super Bowl Bet with Philadelphia Gay Men’s Chorus appeared first on Towleroad.

Boston Gay Men’s Chorus Makes Super Bowl Bet with Philadelphia Gay Men’s Chorus