Salt Lake City Is Electing Its First Openly Gay Mayor. Here's Why That's A Big Deal.

Salt Lake City is poised to announce its first openly gay mayor next week, reflecting changing social tides in conservative Utah.

Jackie Biskupski (D), who nabbed 52 percent of votes in Tuesday’s election but can’t declare victory until incumbent Mayor Ralph Becker (D) concedes, served as the first openly gay legislator in the Utah state House from 1999 to 2011. She will make history again as the first openly gay mayor of the state capital city, joining only a few openly gay mayors in the U.S.

Biskupski’s apparent victory in the home state of the Mormon church and its long-held opposition to gay rights reflects a shift toward wider LGBT acceptance, experts said. 

Pamela Perlich, director of demographic research at the University of Utah’s Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute, explained that being openly gay is less controversial in Utah than it used to be, especially since a federal judge in 2013 made Utah the first state to rule against a gay marriage ban after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned part of the federal Defense of Marriage Act. More people being open about their sexual orientation fosters more inclusion, Perlich told HuffPost.

“It’s easy to exclude somebody you don’t know or establish stereotypes about someone you’re not in proximity with, but not once people found out, ‘My friend is gay or my daughter or my son,'” Perlich said. “That whole thing we see playing out all across nation — that’s playing out in Utah too … You reach these tipping points where it’s just not a big deal anymore.”

The leader of Equality Utah, an LGBT rights group, said he hopes Biskupski’s election galvanizes more people from the gay community to seek public office. 

“It is extremely significant to have a lesbian mayor in Salt Lake City,” Troy Williams, Equality Utah executive director, told HuffPost. “The election of Ms. Biskupski sends a clear signal to Utahans that the LGBT community is ready to give back with public service.”

Biskupski’s sexual orientation was largely a non-issue in the mayor’s race. A UtahPolicy poll found last month that three-fourths of likely Salt Lake City mayoral voters said the fact that she would be the city’s first gay mayor would have no bearing on their vote. If anything, being gay gave Biskupski a slight edge: 12 percent polled said Biskupski’s sexual orientation made them more likely to vote for her, while only 10 percent said the opposite. 

Biskupski is already planning to make LGBT rights a priority, she told The Salt Lake Tribune on Tuesday. One of her first orders of business will be to meet with the leaders of the Mormon church and discuss its recent policy categorizing same-sex couples as apostates, or religious dissenters, and excluding their children from Mormon rites, such as blessings.

“Hopefully, we’ll have a chance to rethink this a bit and move in a different direction somewhere down the road,” Biskupski told the Tribune.  

Also on HuffPost: 

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YouTube stars Tyler Oakley and Korey Kuhl are latest gay team to compete on The Amazing Race

Tyler Oakley and his best friend and fellow YouTube star Korey Kuhl are one of the teams competing for $1 million on the CBS reality competition The Amazing Race.

The duo, who co-host the popular podcast Psychobabble, will attempt to be the first gay team to win since Josh Kilmer-Purcell and his husband Brent Ridge won season 21 of the show in 2012.

Oakley and Kuhl are among the many social media stars competing in the show’s upcoming 28th season.

Oakley, 26, has more than 7.7 million subscribers to his YouTube channel. His videos have had more than 500 million views since he began loading them in 2007 while a freshman at Michigan State University.

He tweeted to followers: ‘Today i leave to compete on @AmazingRace_CBS with my bestie @koreykuhl!! if you spot us in your country, say hey!’

Kuhl, 30, created his self-titled YouTube channel in July 2012 and met Oakley while the two were students at Michigan State.

He broke the news about competing on Amazing Race with this tweet: ‘Please excuse my absence while I go on The @AmazingRace_CBS with @tyleroakley! this is not a drill!! BYEEEEE!!!’

In addition to Ridge and Kilmer-Purcell, season four was won by two gay men. The then engaged pair Reichen Lehmkuhl and Chip Arndt were the champions in 2004 and later split up.

The post YouTube stars Tyler Oakley and Korey Kuhl are latest gay team to compete on The Amazing Race appeared first on Gay Star News.

Greg Hernandez

www.gaystarnews.com/article/youtube-stars-tyler-oakley-and-korey-kuhl-are-latest-gay-team-to-compete-on-the-amazing-race/

Report: Utah Judge Orders Child Removed from Home of Same-Sex Parents
A juvenile court judge in Utah has ordered a child removed from the home of her married foster parents because they are a same-sex couple. 
HRC.org

www.hrc.org/blog/entry/report-utah-judge-orders-child-removed-from-home-of-same-sex-parents?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss-feed

British Tabloids Falsely Claim Ben Whishaw’s ‘London Spy’ Investigated for ‘Steamy Gay Sex Scene’ – VIDEO

British tabloids The Sun and The Mail Online falsely reported on Wednesday that the UK’s Office of Communications, known as Ofcom, was investigating the BBC gay drama London Spy because of alleged complaints over a “steamy gay sex scene” between stars Ben Whishaw and Edward Holcroft.

However, Ofcom has received only one complaint and told The Huffington Post UK that no investigation is under way.

A spokesman said: “We assessed one complaint about a sex scene in London Spy on BBC Two.

“In our view the scene was appropriately scheduled after the watershed. We therefore won’t be investigating the programme.

“Our broadcasting rules do not discriminate between scenes involving opposite sex and same sex couples.”

The “watershed” referred to above is defined as “the time when TV programmes which might be unsuitable for children can be broadcast.” The watershed starts at 9 PM and ends at 5:30 AM.

RELATED: Ben Whishaw Stars in BBC Romance Drama About a Gay Spy: WATCH

The headline from The Mail Online originally looked like this:

Before being ultimately corrected to this:

The Sun, meanwhile, ran this salacious piece in its Wednesday print edition.

Check out some screen grabs of the scene that caused the false reporting, here:

Then watch a preview of London Spy episode 2 coming next week, below:

The post British Tabloids Falsely Claim Ben Whishaw’s ‘London Spy’ Investigated for ‘Steamy Gay Sex Scene’ – VIDEO appeared first on Towleroad.

Sean Mandell

www.towleroad.com/2015/11/british-tabloids-falsely-claim-ben-whishaws-london-spy-being-investigated-for-steamy-gay-sex-scene-video/

WATCH: Thousands of Mormons Plan to Abandon the Faith This Weekend

A Utah attorney is planning to help thousands of Mormons formally leave the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, after LDS leaders announced a new policy barring children of LGBT people from baptism until they are 18. 

Attorney Mark Naugle told Salt Lake City TV station KIVI that he has already heard from an estimated 1,400 people who would like his help filing formal letters of resignation, which are required to officially cut ties with the Mormon Church and remove one’s name from the church rolls that list all members worldwide. 

Naugle will also attend a demonstration Saturday afternoon that organizers are billing as a “Mass Resignation from Mormonism Event.” 

At press time, 995 people indicated that they planned to attend the event held at City Creek Park in Salt Lake City, according to the event’s Facebook page. Noting that the event is “for anyone ready to resign from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and those who wish to support them,” demonstrators plan to gather at the park to finalize and sign paperwork, then march en masse to Salt Lake’s Temple Square to deposit the letters in a mailbox near the Church’s international headquarters. 

Organizers promised that an attorney “affiliated with the event” will be on hand to “offer advice and to make sure our resignations are processed immediately and without ward leader intervention,” and two notary publics will be present to notarize the letters of resignation. 

The new policy, which appeared in an online update to the Mormon Church’s layperson leadership manual on Friday, declares that “a natural or adopted child of a parent living in a same-gender relationship, whether the couple is married or cohabitating, may not receive a name and a blessing.” The update also, for the first time, lists marrying a person of the same sex as “apostasy” — the rejection of church teachings that requires excommunication. 

Since the change was revealed, Mormon leaders have responded to growing backlash by portraying the new policy as one that “originates from a desire to protect children in their innocence and in their minority years.” The policy was also reportedly intended as a “clarification” that same-sex couples have a legal right to marry nationwide, but “that is not a right that exists in the Church.”

But many LGBT Mormons aren’t buying that logic, pointing that it seems to fly in the face of recent moves viewed as conciliatory towards LGBT members, including the LGBT-inclusive nondiscrimination ordinance recently passed in Utah with the outspoken support of the Church.  

Just yesterday, Kate Kendell, the executive director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights, who was raised Mormon, announced that she was formally quitting the church, citing the “cruel” new policy that she contends punishes children of LGBT parents. 

“It is impossible for me to be a part of a religion that would attack its own members and punish them by denying their children involvement in the church,” wrote Kendell.  

In an op-ed for The Advocate, non-practicing Mormon author and gay, married father Brian Andersen agreed, reflecting on the touching moment when he witnessed his daughter blessed by her grandfather and celebrated by her relatives, many of whom are still active LDS members.

“It saddens me to know that the innocent children of other LGBT parents — other apostates — will no longer be allowed to bring this pure joy to Mormon families,” writes Andersen. “This new policy is counterintuitive to the fundamental valuing of family that is central to the Mormon faith in which I was raised.”

Watch KIVI’s report on the mass resignations below. 

Sunnivie Brydum

www.advocate.com/religion/2015/11/11/watch-thousands-mormons-plan-abandon-faith-weekend

Jesus Has Been Reimagined As A Trans Woman

The Bible doesn’t say Jesus was transgender, but this playwright has decided to tell it that way anyway. 

Jo Clifford stars in a one-woman show called “The Gospel According to Jesus, Queen of Heaven” that depicts Jesus as a transgender woman. The show toys with many other biblical parables, and a screening of a past performance will be shown on November 15 at the Outburst Queer Arts Festival in Ireland.

“There’s a little sermon that reminds the audience that Jesus never had a single word of condemnation for transpeople,” Clifford told The Huffington Post. “The show is a reminder that we have existed throughout this world and many cultures have accepted and celebrated our existence.”

But not everyone agrees with her. The show received some serious backlash when it debuted at the Glasgay! arts festival in 2009. Droves of angry Christian protesters picketed the theater, holding signs that read “God: My Son Is Not A Pervert.” Box office staffers received death threats, and a plain-clothed police officer was in attendance at the live performance to make sure Clifford didn’t get attacked. 

“I was very upset and very traumatized,” she told HuffPost. “It brought back distress from early emotional abuse that I suffered.”

Clifford identifies as a trans woman, but the 65-year-old spent years suppressing her authentic self. Writing and performing theater pieces allowed her to explore her feelings and realize she was happier identifying and presenting as a woman.

“Being an artist helped me enormously because I would always make female characters the central characters of the play and I could live out in my imagination the female identity in my life,” she said. 

Clifford is also a practicing Christian, but was estranged from her faith for many years.

“It was very clear to me that the only way I could belong to the church was through being in the closet and living a lie,” she said. Now, she credits her renewed Christian devotion to a particularly LGBTI-friendly church she attends in Edinburgh. 

“Gospel According to Jesus Queen of Heaven” has received far less negative responses since that first show. In fact, Clifford has performed in churches and theaters across the country, and has even garnered interest from international theaters. 

“It’s been moving and exciting to see how many Christian people are supporting me now, as well as non-believers,” she said. “It seems to speak to them in a way that I find really beautiful.”

For more information about the play, head here.

Also on HuffPost:

— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

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Trans boy in Texas to critics: ‘You’re not the person to tell me who I am’

No one can tell 12 year old Evan Singleton that he is too young to be living his life as a male.

It was three years ago that the transgender boy from Texas began living as a boy and he is very articulate in his response to anyone who thinks he’s too young to transition and to be taking puberty blockers.

‘I’d say, “Well, you’re not the person to tell me who I am,”‘ Henderson tells Al-Jazeera America in a segment that re-aired after the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance was defeated last week.

Henderson is quite clear on who he even believes has the right to share their opinion about his gender identity with him.

‘Unless I’m bugging them, unless I’m going, “Haha, I’m trans,” they have no right to come into my life and tell me what I need to do,’ he says. ‘That’s what my parents are for, and my parents are doing a great job raising me. I do my chores, I clean my room, and I help out. Not to gloat, but I’m a great kid, I’m getting A’s and B’s in school, and they have no right to come telling us, our family, what to do.’

Singleton is enrolled in a program for trans youth in Dallas at Children’s Medical Center called Genecis (GENder Education and Care, Interdisciplinary Support).  According to the program’s website, puberty blockers is standard of care that grants time to gender dysphoric adolescents as they contemplate their long-term gender identity.

His mother had gone to more than 100 doctors and could not find anyone to treat her child until the family went to Children’s Medical Center Dallas.

‘If I went through puberty, I probably would have been one of those kids who just slice off their breasts,’ Singleton says. ‘And then, my mom would come in and be like, “Oh my gosh!” and then I’d probably go to a mental institution. It [would] probably be really awful.’

He is home schooled now after being subjected to bullying at school for being trans.

‘I’d sit alone. I’d eat alone,’ Singleton says. ‘I had no one to talk to. It hurt very much … [My classmates] hurt my feelings … they tried so hard to make me break down and do something and to make me lose control.’

The post Trans boy in Texas to critics: ‘You’re not the person to tell me who I am’ appeared first on Gay Star News.

Greg Hernandez

www.gaystarnews.com/article/trans-boy-in-texas-to-critics-youre-not-the-person-to-tell-me-who-i-am/

Uh-Oh, Turns Out This Celebrity Hairstylist’s Products Cause Baldness

Some might argue that bald is a good look right now — hey, it definitely works for Taye Diggs.

But if you’re one of the 200 plaintiffs in a class action lawsuit agains “hairstylist to the stars” Chaz Dean and marketer Guthy-Renke, chances are it wasn’t the look you were going for.

The suit alleges that Dean’s WEN line of products, contrary to their claims of keeping your locks fresh and hydrated, actually cause severe scalp irritation and baldness.

Related: Man Claims Propecia Made His Weenie Shrink Then Drove Him To Insanity

“I had started to get a bald spot, and then I found another one in the back, and that’s when I kind of started to get worried,” Tanya Norman, one of those represented, said. “I started bawling. I couldn’t stop crying.”

We’d be crying, too!

Celebrities like Brooke Shields, Angie Harmon and Alyssa Milano have all endorsed the WEN line.

Related: PHOTOS: Guys With Receding Hairlines Are Sexy As Hell

Dean operates a bougie hair boutique out of Hollywood, CA, where he may suddenly find his client roster thinning as rapidly as his customers’ hairlines.

“What we understand about the product and how it causes hair loss is it contains virtually no cleanser,” attorney Amy Davis said. “It’s like using lotion to wash your hair, so instead of removing the product, when you rinse it off, it just becomes impacted in your hair follicle.”

The federal judge has issued a stay in the case, and the parties are proceeding to mediation.

via CBS Local

Dan Tracer

feedproxy.google.com/~r/queerty2/~3/PmBQl7QtVHQ/uh-oh-turns-out-this-celebrity-hairstylists-products-cause-baldness-20151111

Australian Senate Says No to Plebiscite on Marriage Equality – VIDEO

The Australian Senate on Wednesday voted against holding a national vote, or plebiscite, on same-sex marriage and called on newly elected Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to allow a free vote in the parliament on the issue.

Turnbull has previously said a plebiscite should be held to resolve the debate over marriage equality in Australia.

9News reports:

The upper house on Wednesday backed a Greens motion to urge Mr Turnbull to give Liberal politicians a free vote by the end of the year, noting a national plebiscite could encourage hate speech.

Legislators in the senate suggested that the parliament should vote on marriage equality rather than waste time and money on a national plebiscite. Out gay senator Robert Simms (above), spokesman for the Green Party on LGBTI issues and marriage equality remarked, “Australians don’t want another opinion poll on this issue. They want the Parliament to legislate.” Via Gay News Network:

“Momentum continues to build for marriage equality in this country,” Simms said.

“Today the Australian Senate rejected a divisive and costly plebiscite and instead called on the Prime Minister to grant a free vote on marriage equality.” […]

The motion passed “on the voices” with no precise count taken of who was for or against but a clear majority was in favour of the motion.

Meanwhile, Australia was publicly criticized at the United Nations for its failure to afford same-sex couples equal marriage rights. Via Marilyn Stowe: 

Ireland, the Netherlands, Sweden, Spain and Iceland all singled out Australia for not allowing same sex couples to marry. The Swedish delegation asked what steps Australia would take to correct this issue. They also asked if the country would “provide full recognition of same-sex marriages from overseas”.

The delegates from Holland asked what action Australia was going to take to ensure that “same-sex couples and people with diverse sex and genders will be granted access to the civil institution of marriage”. Irish delegates called on Australia to “to take steps towards equal recognition of same-sex marriage”.

Only 2 weeks ago, Australia’s new Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull reiterated his support for a plebiscite before the House of Representatives.

Many opponents of a plebiscite fear that a national vote would only give homophobes a platform to spew their bigotry, harming the nation’s LGBT community.

Check out this great examination of the perils of a plebiscite down under via Same Same, below.

The post Australian Senate Says No to Plebiscite on Marriage Equality – VIDEO appeared first on Towleroad.

Sean Mandell

Australian Senate Says No to Plebiscite on Marriage Equality – VIDEO