Sweeping LGBTI rights bill to go before Congress this week

Democrats will introduce a sweeping LGBTI rights bill in both chambers of the Republican-controlled Congress on Thursday (23 July).

According to a ‘Dear Colleague’ letter obtained by the Washington Blade, the Equality Act would ban anti-gay discrimination in seven areas: credit, education, employment, federal funding, housing, jury service and public accommodations.

‘Every day, millions of LGBT Americans face the danger of real discrimination and sometimes even violence because of their sexual orientation or gender identity,’ lead sponsor Rep David Cicilline wrote in the letter dated 20 July.

‘In most states, a same-sex couple can get married on Saturday, post pictures on Facebook on Sunday, and then risk being fired from their job or kicked out of their apartment on Monday.’

The Equality Act was named after the first gay rights bill introduced in Congress more than 40 years ago. It would have amended the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to include sexual orientation.

The new legislation comes a week after the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission ruled that LGBTI people were already protected from workplace discrimination under existing federal law.

However, the Republicans control both chambers of Congress, and last year they blocked the Employment Non-Discrimination Act from coming to a vote – and it is likely they will do so again.

If any LGBTI-related legislation passes this Congress, it would probably be the First Amendment Defense Act which, would allow individuals and businesses to discriminate against same-sex couples.

The post Sweeping LGBTI rights bill to go before Congress this week appeared first on Gay Star News.

Darren Wee

www.gaystarnews.com/article/sweeping-lgbti-rights-bill-to-go-before-congress-this-week/

Watch: Gay baker slams ‘Nazis’ for ‘bullying’ Christians who refuse to make them wedding cakes

A gay baker has said he is ‘disgusted’ by ‘Nazis’ in the LGBTI community who bully and shame Christians for refusing to make wedding cakes for same-sex couples.

Jesse Bartholomew made the comments in a video rant he posted on Facebook earlier this month, days after an Oregon bakery was fined $135,000 for refusing to make a wedding cake for a lesbian couple.

‘I cannot tell you how disgusted I am with my fellow gay and lesbian community, that they would stoop so low as to force someone to bake a cake for them who simply doesn’t agree with them,’ he says in the two-minute clip.

‘Why would you want to spend hundreds or thousands of dollars on a wedding cake and pay that money to someone who doesn’t want to make the cake for you? Are you stupid?’

The video has been watch more than 200,000 times since it was uploaded on 9 July.

‘There’s no other bakers out there?’ Bartholomew asks.

‘It’s plain and simple. You are bullying someone. You are forcing someone. You are being a Nazi and forcing someone to bake a damn wedding cake for you when there are hundreds of other gay and lesbians that would gladly have your business. Shame on you.’

Watch the video below:

The post Watch: Gay baker slams ‘Nazis’ for ‘bullying’ Christians who refuse to make them wedding cakes appeared first on Gay Star News.

Darren Wee

www.gaystarnews.com/article/watch-gay-baker-slams-nazis-for-bullying-christians-who-refuse-to-make-them-wedding-cakes/

Gay Man Denied Communion at Mother's Funeral Receives Apologies

Tim Ardillo says he believes he was denied communion because of his same-sex relationship.

read more

Trudy Ring

www.advocate.com/religion/2015/07/21/gay-man-denied-communion-mothers-funeral-receives-apologies

Daniel Day Lewis Experiences Unforgettable Forbidden Romance In “My Beautiful Launderette”

Stephen Frears’s landmark drama, My Beautiful Launderette was one of the four LGBT films released in 1985 that prompted Film Comment magazine to proclaim the arrival of the “Gay New Wave” (the others were Parting Glances, Desert Hearts and Dona Herlinda and Her Sons). Today marks the arrival of a brand new Blu-ray release of the film from the fabulous folks at the Criterion Collection. The Blu-ray includes a fresh new 2K digital transfer of the film and restored mono soundtrack plus conversations with director Frears and the film’s writer Hanif Kureishi.

Co-starring the hot young actor Daniel Day Lewis (in one if his earliest starring roles) as the white punk skinhead who falls in love with Pakistani laundry owner Gordon Warnecke, My Beautiful Launderette is a true gay classic that takes on homophobia and racism in Thatcher-era England and remains a favorite in the canon of LGBT cinema.

Thankfully Criterion landed on a cover design that incorporates the gay content of the film (Daniel Day Lewis licking Gordon Warnecke’s neck — on the right) as an update to the cheesy ’80s aesthetic of the original poster design (left) to appeal to contemporary audiences who will, hopefully, discover anew this wonderful romantic drama.

Jenni

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New York Responds to Critics, Issues Statewide Guidelines for Trans Student Inclusion

Groups that have championed the cause of LGBT students say the new guidelines go a long way toward protecting vulnerable children.

read more

Dawn Ennis

www.advocate.com/education/2015/07/21/new-york-responds-critics-issues-statewide-guidelines-trans-student-inclusion

Robbie Rogers and other LGTBI athletes weigh in on the ‘perfect body’

Robbie Rogers is among the LGBTI athletes who have been asked to weigh in on what they consider to be the ‘perfect body.’

‘I think of it in a different way then most people,’ Rogers tells BuzzFeed. ‘Most people would be, “Six-packs and pecs.” I don’t really care what I look like in a bathing suit during the season as long as I’m able to run eight or nine miles a game.’

The LA Galaxy player says he starts to think about his weight – things like body fat and muscle mass – when he is getting set to play a season for his Major League Soccer team.

Julie Shaw, basketball coach at LaVerne University, puts an emphasis on health over appearance.

‘A perfect body is a body that you’re comfortable with, one that is healthy for you,’ she says.

‘Perfection is I think at tomes unattainable – especially when you’re talking about health and your body. I think we all have to own our bodies and know what’s good for us and know what’s healthy for us.’

The post Robbie Rogers and other LGTBI athletes weigh in on the ‘perfect body’ appeared first on Gay Star News.

Greg Hernandez

www.gaystarnews.com/article/robbie-rogers-and-other-lgtbi-athletes-weigh-in-on-the-perfect-body/

Former TV Star Reveals How Internalized Homophobia Led To Being The Drunkest Guy In The Room

Novelist and former Channel 4 News culture editor Matt Cain may have been out, but he certainly wasn’t proud.

He’d endured a decade of homophobic bullying in grade school where he learned to eat his lunch in a toilet stall to avoid being spat at by other kids, or worse. On the bus he’d feel everyone’s pointed fingers as they chanted a single word: queer.

When he was around 16, he details in a first-person account on Buzzfeed, he discovered a magic solution to come out of his shell and get people to like him: alcohol.

After getting hammered, he was loud, confident, funny and above all else, popular. It didn’t occur to him that as he got older, his peers became less homophobic. The equation was simple and reliable — alcohol = likability.

“I was ready to do anything to get the party going and the first person everyone wanted at any drink-fuelled celebration. I went from being the most unpopular person in school to the most popular person at sixth-form college, and, later, university,” he writes.

He came out at 17 and began drunkenly sleeping around, and quickly learned that his self-deprecating stories of sexual encounters played great at the pubs among his straight friends.

“Yes, I was having fun – of sorts – but it continued right through my twenties, and as I approached 30 my life was revolving around an endless cycle of drinking, casual sex, and unhealthy relationships with unsuitable men,” he recounts. “I was constantly having to up the ante by getting drunker and dirtier just to maintain the momentum. On more than one occasion I found myself going home with a man with an unusual profession just because I thought it would make a good anecdote.”

Just after turning 30, he hit rock bottom. For the first time, his reliance on alcohol began to come into focus. Once it did, he looked deeper to discover why he was destroying himself in the first place.

“I was trying to annihilate my real self because there was something about that person that I still hated…I began to realise that even though I’d come to feel happy being gay, having grown up in a world where I was constantly told that my sexuality was disgusting and therefore I was disgusting had cast a long shadow of self-loathing.

“You don’t have to look far among gay men, particularly those brought up before attitudes began to change, to see this self-destructive pattern repeated and repeated.”

Five years into sobriety, he started to experiment with drinking again.

“I wrote myself a set of rules, the foremost of which is never to drink when unhappy. Also, to not sacrifice my dignity for the sake of entertaining others. And to ensure I go home before I’m tempted to jump into bed with an unsuitable man.

“I’ve had the occasional mishap. But on the whole, armed with more self-awareness and a desire to take care of myself, I’m doing well. The angry edge that used to accompany my nights out is gone. The objective, to punish myself, has disappeared.”

Now he channels all those juicy stories into his novels. His first, Nothing But Trouble, got its name from how people used to refer to him.

You can read his full story here, and please, let’s all stop punishing ourselves!

Dan Tracer

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News: John Kasich, ‘Religious Freedom’, Philip of Macedon, Taye Diggs

> Ohio Governor John Kasich (R) announces he’s running for President. But where does he stand on LGBT issues?

> Op-Ed in NYT: “Is Polygamy Next?”

> Mitch McConnell won’t rule out a vote on federal anti-gay ‘religious freedom’ (aka license to discriminate) bill.

> Gay mythical monsters need love too.

> Perez Hilton, who once was known for outing celebrities, weighs in on Gawker’s outing scandal. 

> Charlize Theron invited President Obama to a strip club. 

> Miley Cyrus to host the VMAs.

> Grave of Phillip II of Macedon, father to Alexander the Great, reportedly identified. 

> Man eats Chipotle for 153 days in a row–and counting.

> Dan Savage eviscerates the ban on drag acts at Glasgow’s ‘Free Pride’: “The takeaway will be this: ‘If queer people can kick other queer people out of a pride celebration for making other queers uncomfortable… shouldn’t we be able to kick out queer people who make us uncomfortable, too?’”

> First look: Disney & Pixar’s The Good Dinosaur.

> Diner owner gets flack for yelling at a screaming child.

> Is Taye Diggs transforming the role of Hedwig?

> Clueless meets The Golden Girls. 

> Donald Trump gives out Lindsey Graham’s cell phone number at rally in response to Graham calling Trump a jackass.

Probably getting a new phone. iPhone or Android?

— Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) July 21, 2015

The post News: John Kasich, ‘Religious Freedom’, Philip of Macedon, Taye Diggs appeared first on Towleroad.

Sean Mandell

News: John Kasich, ‘Religious Freedom’, Philip of Macedon, Taye Diggs