Donald Trump Threatens to Rescind Obama Administration’s Directives Supporting Transgender Community

In an interview with The Washington Post, Donald Trump said that if elected president he would rescind the Obama Administration’s historic directives protecting transgender people from discrimination, and instead force the LGBT community to rely on states to “make the right decisions.” Opponents of civil rights have long cloaked discrimination under the guise of so-called “states’ rights.”

“[States] should come up with a policy that’s going to work for everybody and protect people,” he said.

Last week, Trump refused to support the Obama Administration’s ground-breaking guidance that public schools and schools receiving federal money must ensure that transgender students are treated with dignity and allowed equal access to facilities, such as restrooms, consistent with their gender identity.

His support of “states’ rights” over LGBT rights comes as several state leaders, including North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory, Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson, Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, have vowed to embrace discrimination against transgender people by disregarding Obama’s historic directive.

“.@realDonaldTrump says trust @patmccrorync & @gregabbott_tx to protect LGBT community,” HRC President Chad Griffin tweeted. “Appealing as that sounds, no.”

Trump remains dangerously out of step with the majority of fair-minded Americans who believe that LGBT people should be treated equally under the law. Trump has not only promised to use the Supreme Court to roll back nationwide marriage equality, but he’s supported a bill that would lead to more Kim Davis-style discrimination, and said that he would allow states like North Carolina violate federal civil rights laws.

A survey by the HRC Foundation found that three-quarters of transgender students feel unsafe in school settings. A report by the Williams Institute found that half of transgender adults who were bullied in school had attempted suicide. These startling numbers can only be expected to rise if the North Carolina law, and other similar bills proposed in other states, continue to target these young people.

www.hrc.org/blog/donald-trump-threatens-to-rescind-obama-administrations-directives-supporti?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss-feed

7 Asian LGBT advocates to know this AAPI Heritage Month

www.glaad.org/blog/7-asian-lgbt-advocates-know-aapi-heritage-month

'Proud' Papa Caitlyn Jenner Prepares to Be a Grandma (Video)

www.advocate.com/caitlyn-jenner/2016/5/18/proud-papa-caitlyn-jenner-prepares-be-grandma-video

Bangladesh Gay Community In Hiding After Murders (Video)

www.advocate.com/world/2016/5/18/bangladesh-gay-community-hiding-after-murders-video

Want To Attend A “Sex Roulette” Party And Catch HIV From A Handsome Stranger?

You’re nervous and excited when you first arrive at the orgy — everyone there is a major babe alert, DTF, and one mystery guest just happens to be HIV-positive. Ooh-la-la, that last bit is really twisting your gears as you shuffle into the living room.

Goosed with the possibility of catching the virus from one of these handsome strangers — could it be him, the one in the leather harness with that new-car smell? — you rip off your shirt, snort your fresh bottle of Amsterdam poppers, and hurdle yourself into the steamy, thrusty miasma of manflesh.

The downside: you won’t know whether you’ve succeeded in catching HIV for at least a few weeks. Nevertheless, you try to live in the moment, surrendering your body to hunk after hunk, closing your eyes and choosing to believe you’re going to catch the virus because you want it more than any of these other wannabes.

If a sea of new articles from the likes of Dazed Digital, The Sun, The Daily Mail, and The Mirror are to be believed (and we strongly suspect they aren’t), you’ve just attended your first (or maybe your fifth) “sex roulette” party, a troubling and probably totally pretend new trend that’s a new spin on the idea of “bug chasing” or “gift giving.” Even some gay press reported the story as reputable news.

“Doctors” warn that these nefarious sex parties are “on the rise,” according to The Daily Mail.

Well, like, one doctor in Barcelona.

Sex roulette parties where one person is secretly HIV positive and nobody is allowed to use condoms are on the rise, warn doctors.

The parties are usually attended by gay men, who are entertained by the ‘thrill’ of not knowing whether they will be infected or not.

Spanish doctors have noted a rise in the parties where attendees often take anti-viral drugs to reduce the risk of transmission.

That last bit is rather perplexing to us: hordes of gay men are flocking to bareback orgies, enticed by the prospect of potentially catching the HIV virus while also decreasing their chances of catching the disease by taking anti-viral drugs? Isn’t that like playing Russian Roulette with an unloaded gun?

Speaking to el Periodico, Dr. Josep Mallolas of Hospital Clinic Barcelona sounds very, berry worried about these totally fabricated “sex roulette” parties currently sweeping across the land.

“There is everything,” he begins philosophically. “Sex roulette parties, or sex parties you can only attend if you already have HIV.” (The door guy at those parties really has his work cut out for him.)

Dr. Mallolas claims some of these parties are known as “blue” parties because… because that’s the color of anti-viral pills like Truvada, you see.

Kate Morley, a “psychosexual therapist,” has been widely quoted as saying, “Going to sex roulette parties is about the risk, partygoers think the higher the risk, the stronger the thrill.”

“In the case of sex parties,” she says, “the intense high is as you combine orgasm with high adrenaline.”

And suddenly, we yearn for the simpler days of auto-erotic asphyxiation.

So. Do you think this could this possibly be a real trend? Or, like us, do you think this is a sorry attempt to drum up some good old-fashioned gay panic (and plenty of clicks.)

feedproxy.google.com/~r/queerty2/~3/61raC04bAEg/want-attend-sex-roulette-party-catch-hiv-handsome-stranger-20160518

Mykki Blanco’s New Video is a Queer Romeo and Juliet Tragedy About Outsiders: WATCH

Mykki Blanco’s new video “High School Never Ends” takes Shakespearean tragedy to new places.

The clip, directed by Matt Lambert, takes Romeo and Juliet as its inspiration but replaces “fair Verona” with rural Germany.

Says Blanco: “I had once thought Europe was my safe haven from American white supremacy, and how wrong I became.”

Shot by cinematographer Martin Ruhe, “High School Never Ends” is “a heartbreaking story about outsiders—in this case, queer ones” and ends in graphic bloodshed.

According to Blanco and Lambert, the video is also about the ongoing refugee crisis in Europe.

Said Lambert: “It never once overtly comments on orientation or race, but only ideas of ‘us’ and ‘them’.”

The track was produced by and features Woodkid. The video was produced by Iconoclast in collaboration with The FADER and !K7.

Watch (warning: graphic):

The post Mykki Blanco’s New Video is a Queer Romeo and Juliet Tragedy About Outsiders: WATCH appeared first on Towleroad.

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Seth Meyers Takes a Closer Look at Perverts, Republicans, and Transgender Bathroom Lies

“Why is everyone fighting about bathrooms now?” Seth Meyers asks in his latest edition of ‘A Closer Look’.

First, a brief history.

Says Meyers:

“Separate bathrooms for men and women began in the 1800s when women started working in factories. Women need bathrooms whereas men where shocked to learn that women even used bathrooms. They just assumed back then that everything women ate just turned to babies. Which is why – true story – to this day we call children ‘little sh*ts’.”

RELATED: Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick Can’t Explain What Transgender Means, Has a Total Meltdown: WATCH

But more importantly, “America has a long history of using bathrooms to scare people,” Meyers notes, before destroying the ridiculous statements of right-wing Republicans like Texas Lt. Governor Dan Patrick and failed presidential candidate Ted Cruz.

“The idea that trans people are a dangerous presence in bathrooms or a threat to children is a lie. And worse, it’s not even a new lie. It’s the oldest lie in the book.”

Watch:

The post Seth Meyers Takes a Closer Look at Perverts, Republicans, and Transgender Bathroom Lies appeared first on Towleroad.

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What Reproductive Rights Activists Can Teach Us About Defending LGBT Equality

Our friends and allies in the reproductive rights movement have been here before and have a gold mine of advice on effectively fighting state-sponsored religious bigotry.

www.advocate.com/politics/2016/5/18/what-reproductive-rights-activists-can-teach-us-about-defending-lgbt-equality