Majority of D-1 NCAA Basketball Coaches Denounce North Carolina’s Discriminatory HB2

In a questionnaire for CBS Sports, a majority of D-1 National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) coaches who responded agreed that the NCAA should ban future tournaments in North Carolina until HB2 is repealed.

CBS Sports reporters Gary Parrish and Matt Norlander asked 110 D-1 coaches across the country: “Should the NCAA refuse to host any more NCAA tournament games in North Carolina until the HB2 law is amended or eradicated?” Fifty-six percent of respondents answered, “yes.”

“Norlander added that ‘a number of North Carolina-based head coaches told me they believe the NCAAT should leave NC until HB2 is changed,’” the Charlotte Observer reported.

The NCAA is not the only sports organization to speak out against the vile law. In July, the NBA stood up to North Carolina lawmakers who refused to repeal HB2 by pulling its 2017 All-Star Game from Charlotte. Despite the NBA’s repeated warnings that it would have to consider moving the high-profile game out of the state if the anti-LGBTQ law was not repealed, the state’s General Assembly shamefully adjourned after 100 days of inaction earlier this month.

A day after the NBA pulled the 2017 All-Star Game from Charlotte, the NCAA also took a decisive step. It announced that all cities bidding to host championship games must submit a survey detailing their non-discrimination laws and policies.

The state’s General Assembly adjourned its short session last month after refusing to fully repeal the discriminatory law, and it is not scheduled to reconvene until January — leaving tens of thousands of people at risk in the interim.

According to a Public Policy Polling (PPP) poll released today, 58 percent of North Carolinians believe HB2 is hurting the state’s economy.

“When we last polled that (economy) question in June only 49 percent thought it was hurting the state’s economy so the high profile cancellation of the NBA All Star game may be helping to fuel those numbers,” PPP reported.

Despite widespread opposition to the law, the General Assembly has been unwilling to even consider repealing the anti-LGBTQ components of the law, including its ban on transgender people accessing restrooms consistent with their gender identity in government offices and schools, and removal of municipalities’ ability to pass LGBTQ-inclusive non-discrimination laws.

www.hrc.org/blog/majority-of-d-1-ncaa-basketball-coaches-denounce-north-carolinas-discrimina?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss-feed

Amber Rose: A Wig Won't Make My Son Gay

The model blasted antigay commenters who objected to her son wearing a wig on Instagram.

www.advocate.com/people/2016/8/10/amber-rose-wig-wont-make-my-son-gay

Trump Using Omar Mateen's Father Against Hillary

The Clinton campaign is forced to disavow the support of Seddique Mateen, who appeared at a rally of hers this week.

www.advocate.com/election/2016/8/10/trump-using-omar-mateens-father-against-hillary

YouTuber Gigi Gorgeous: I Was Detained in Dubai for Being Trans (Video)

Calling the five-hour ordeal “one of the scariest moments of my life,” Gorgeous told fans her story through Instagram. 

www.advocate.com/transgender/2016/8/10/youtuber-gigi-gorgeous-i-was-detained-dubai-being-trans-video

BBC Forced To Apologize For On-Air Homophobic Joke During Olympics Coverage

Paul Hand. Photo via Twitter.

Ah, the kiss cam. That cute, time tested stunt seen at sporting events around the world to keep people entertained during slow moments between the action.

Related: Hockey Fan Gets Surprised Smooch From Man Seated Behind Him

It’s a lot less cute when you add homophobia into the mix, as TV presenter Paul Hand did while commentating on the women’s tennis singles quarterfinals of the 2016 Olympics in Rio.

“Let’s hope they don’t go on to two blokes sat next to each other,” Hand said, after encouraging straight couples to kiss.

Related: Nike Drops Ad Championing Transgender Athlete During Olympics

The BBC has issued an apology, saying, “The comment was ill-judged and we apologise to any of our viewers who were offended.”

And indeed, many were:

Dear @BBCSport, homophobic and Russophobic comments by Paul Hand are hurtful and mean.

— Marta (@MStolzova) August 9, 2016

Disgusting homophobia by @BBCSport‘s commentator Paul Hand during the Tennis. Indefensible.

— (((JP Kesseler))) (@jpkesseler) August 9, 2016

Wow!! @BBCSport I think someone needs a word with Paul Hand. Why shouldn’t the camera have picked out two guys?!?! t.co/93k1Zgrx2G

— Gary Patrick Brown (@gpb1979) August 9, 2016

And this is what is wrong with some people in society. Sad. Paul Hand hang your head in shame t.co/Fk3sh31HmD

— Andy Bigh Hargreaves (@therealbig_h) August 9, 2016

Watch video of the “joke” below.

This year’s Olympic Games has a record number of out athletes, one of whom, Team Brazil’s Isadora Cerullo, got engaged to her girlfriend in Rio after her rugby match with Team Australia.

Related: Tom Daley Unwittingly Steals Spotlight From Equally Adept, Speedoed Daniel Goodfellow

Some of the athletes have been subjected to homophobic slurs from crowds, in particular members of the American women’s soccer team. Team USA includes several out lesbians. The head coach, Jill Ellis, is also a lesbian.

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Colton Haynes On The Struggle Of Being A Gay Heartthrob, Infamous XY Photos

It would be easy to write Colton Haynes off as a pretty boy, an Instagay thirst trap, etc. But the truth is it’s damn hard to hate on someone who comes off as profoundly wounded as the former Aarow star does.

“If one more person tells me I have champagne problems I’m going to break the champagne bottle over their head,” Haynes tells Out’s R. Kurt Osenlund. In the magazine’s September cover story, the 28-year-old actor talks candidly about his well-publicized battle with anxiety, and all the other issues that have contributed to it.

Related: Watch Colton Haynes’ Butt Do A Jiggle For Team USA

Haynes opens up about that infamous XY cover shoot (“This was, like, the cover of Vogue for me. I was like, ‘This is it! I’m going to be in a magazine!’ I truly thought it was going to be this serious moment in my career.”) and his PR team’s efforts to scrub the photos from the Internet once his star began to rise (we were even threatened with legal action if we ran the photos). Haynes says he worried about how that was perceived by the LGBT community: “I looked like I was fucking gay-bashing,” he says. “Like I hated myself or I hated the gays, which was never the intention at all. I was just young and trying to make it in this town and doing what these people were telling me to do.”

He takes The Real O’Neals star Noah Galvin to task for his comments back in June criticizing the way Haynes came out, revealing that Galvin had initially expressed support. “When I came out, Noah tweeted, ‘Welcome to the family,’ and ‘So proud of you,’” he says. “Then, all of a sudden, I’m the worst, I’m a terrible person, and I’m a shame to the gay community.” His thoughts on Galvin’s public mae culpa? “I think anyone in their right mind would call bullshit on that.”

Related: Colton Haynes Publicly Responds To Being Called “The Worst” By Noah Galvin

But the story isn’t all celebrity in-fighting and gay-on-gay shade. It gets kind of dark. Haynes claims that a former manager dropped him for being gay and suggested prostitution as a viable career alternative. He opens up about the trauma of high school bullying after he came out to a classmate at 14, which led to a troubled adolescence of drug experimentation and running away from home.

And then there’s his father’s suicide: “I was told that my dad killed himself because he found out I was gay.”

Here’s hoping Haynes gets a big hug from one of his three celebrity crushes—John Cena, Idris Elba, Ryan Reynold—sometime soon!

Read the full story here.

feedproxy.google.com/~r/queerty2/~3/RjWQOvCEHFk/colton-haynes-struggle-gay-heartthrob-infamous-xy-photos-20160810

Brazil’s First Gold Medalist in Rio Overcame Unimaginable Hardship With Help from Longtime Girlfriend

Rafaela Silva, the first (and so far only) medalist to give host Brazil a gold medal, had a very tough road leading up to her recent Olympic glory.

On Monday, Silva was nearly flawless while competing in the women’s 57kg (125.5 lbs) Olympic tournament. She won all five of her matches without giving up a single score to earn Brazil’s first gold medal of these Games. She defeated Sumiya Dorjsuren of Mongolia, the world’s No. 1 ranked fighter in the weight class.

She became an instant national hero and a figure who’s now adored by millions of Brazilian fans who were finally able to hear their national anthem played during a national ceremony.

But how things change, when you are on top.

Four years ago in London, Silva was a medal hope for Brazil but got disqualified after performing an illegal hold on a preliminary round during a fight with Hedvig Karakas of Hungary. She then became the target of vicious, racially-charged attacks on social media. She fell into a deep state of depression and considered leaving the sport.

During a conference Monday, she remembered those dark days:  “People told me: ‘The place for you is as a monkey in a cage.’ But my place is in sports, in judo.”

It was tough. But thankfully, there was love.

For the last three years, the 24-year old sergeant in the Brazilian Marine has counted on girlfriend Thamara Cezar for love and emotional support. Brazilian newspaper O Globo reported Wednesday that Cezar manages everything in the life of the gold medal-winner, so that the only thing Silva needs to worry about is to train and to win.

Cezar takes care of their three dogs (whom they call their “children”), she works as Silva’s PR person,  talking to the press and managing Silva’s social media accounts, and she does everything in the apartment they share in Rio.

She can’t cook and she’s also very messy, Cezar told O Globo. Silva didn’t deny it: “I’m not good at doing anything, really. I can only fight,” she said.

Silva grew up in the Cidade de Deus favela, one of Rio’s most dangerous neighborhoods, made famous by the 2002 film City of God  (which was directed by Fernando Meirelles, one of the three creative directors for the Rio 2016 opening ceremony.)

Speaking to Brazilian news channel Sportv after her win, Silva couldn’t even speak for a few seconds, trying to fight off her tears: “They said judo wasn’t for me, and that I was a shame to my family.”

Well, how sweet it must feel to prove everybody wrong!

“When you are next to somebody, and even without saying anything she makes you feel good.”

Top photo credit: Rafaela Silva / Instagram

The post Brazil’s First Gold Medalist in Rio Overcame Unimaginable Hardship With Help from Longtime Girlfriend appeared first on Towleroad.

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Belize Supreme Court Strikes Down Last Remaining Gay Sex Ban in Central America

Belize’s Supreme Court has struck down the nation’s gay sex ban, bringing to an end anti-gay law that was a holdover from the British colonial era.

The ban was reportedly the last such anti-gay law in Central America.

News of the ruling first broke on Twitter.

We won on all counts. Speechless. Omg. Speechless

— UniBAM Belize (@UNIBAMSupport) August 10, 2016

#Belize: Chief Justice rules in favor of Caleb Orozco 📸 #LoveFM #Belice #Biz #LGBT pic.twitter.com/GysCYu6zid

— Mardo A. L. Urbina (@MALUrbina) August 10, 2016

Belize: Claimant Caleb Orozco celebrates as Supreme Court kills last remaining gay ban in Central America… t.co/n15c4HMv0W

— Andrés Duque (@Blabbeando) August 10, 2016

News just in from Belize: court rules anti-gay criminal laws unconstitutional. A major victory for human rights! pic.twitter.com/4yIQfCQffQ

— Téa Braun (@TeaBraun) August 10, 2016

Proud of advocates & the Supreme Court in #Belize, striking down so-called “sodomy” law #HumanRights @freedomtomarry t.co/VvkckqbrFL

— Evan Wolfson (@evanwolfson) August 10, 2016

Background on the case which challenged ban via Human Dignity Trust:

“Belize’s Criminal Code (Section 53) criminalises “carnal intercourse against the order of nature” which includes consensual sexual conduct between adult males in private. The law, which though rarely used carries a ten-year prison sentence, disproportionately impacts on the lives of gay men. Caleb Orozco, a Belizean gay man and a prominent human rights defender, launched a challenge to Section 53 in the Supreme Court of Belize. The case was heard in May 2013 and judgment was reserved by Chief Justice Kenneth Benjamin. …

The criminalisation of consensual male homosexual conduct is a legacy of British colonial rule. A total of 77 jurisdictions around the world still make same-sex intimacy a crime. Of these countries, 39 are within the Commonwealth and this includes all-but-one (the Bahamas) of the countries in the Commonwealth Caribbean. […]

Mr Orozco, supported by the Human Rights Interested Parties, seeks a declaration that s. 53 violates the Constitution to the extent it criminalises consensual adult conduct in private. He requests the Court to “read down” s. 53 so as not to apply to such conduct. The section would remain in force to cover non-consensual sex with a male or sex with an animal, since neither of these is currently covered under other provisions of the Criminal Code.”

The post Belize Supreme Court Strikes Down Last Remaining Gay Sex Ban in Central America appeared first on Towleroad.

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