EXCLUSIVE: The Young Professionals Debut Sexy Cover of Abba's 'S.O.S.'
TYP, featuring out frontman Ivri Lider, premieres a slinky new version of the beloved pop anthem.
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Educators Say Marriage Ruling May Boost School Climate For LGBT Students
Educators Say Marriage Ruling May Boost School Climate For LGBT Students
This piece comes to us courtesy of EdSource, where it was originally published.
ALAMEDA, CALIFORNIA — When the U.S. Supreme Court issued a major civil rights decision on marriage in Loving v. Virginia in 1967, striking down a state law banning interracial marriage, Alameda Unified teacher Gene Kahane was a 3rd-grader in Richmond, California, and didn’t hear about it. News of social change travels faster and farther now –- and almost immediately into the classroom.
Across California and the nation, educators say the Supreme Court decision legalizing same-sex marriage stands to improve, over time, the way gay and lesbian people are talked about at schools, both in the hallways and in the curriculum.
“That decision was heard everywhere,” said Kahane, an Alameda Unified School District high school English teacher and district-identified ally for gay youth.
“I think we’ve crossed a threshold toward acceptance and welcome,” said Todd Savage, president of the National Association of School Psychologists.
Savage and other educators said the ruling will give new momentum to efforts to make schools safer and more inclusive for gay, lesbian and transgender students, as well as the more than 200,000 schoolchildren nationwide -– including at least 30,000 in California -– who have same-sex parents.
Sara Train, coordinator of the Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian Center’s Project Spin, which works with the Los Angeles Unified School District to end bullying, said the ruling is “a path to equality” for gay and lesbian people and “a validation” that will affect school culture.
She referenced the words of Justice Anthony Kennedy in the June 26 Obergefell v. Hodges decision in favor of the right to marry for gay and lesbian couples. “They ask for equal dignity in the eyes of the law,” he wrote. “The Constitution grants them that right.”
And she praised the words of President Barack Obama, who called the ruling “a victory for the children whose families will now be recognized as equal to any other.” Obama referred to the struggles of gay, lesbian and transgender individuals who were able to “endure bullying and taunts” and “slowly made an entire country realize that love is love.”
Train said, “The idea of any LGBT person being a second-class citizen, and not having rights, respect and equal treatment, is now debunked.” At schools, she said, hostility will be tolerated less.
“The ruling is going to make it that much easier for adults in schools to feel OK in talking about LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer) topics and families,” said Johanna Eager, director of the Welcoming Schools project of the Human Rights Campaign Foundation, which provides diversity training to school staff, including those in Oakland and Berkeley. “It gives a legitimacy to having these conversations.”
California has been in the forefront of efforts to update school curriculum to include the gay and lesbian political movement as well as gay individuals and families. The Fair Education Act, or Senate Bill 48, effective in 2012, called for inclusion of topics related to gay and lesbian people as well as disabled individuals. The law also reiterated the state ban on classroom instruction that promotes discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.
But the promise of the Fair Education Act has yet to be realized, Kahane and others said. Widespread inclusion of gay subject matter has stalled while the state revises its social studies and history curriculum framework, the extensive grade-by-grade curriculum guide for teaching the state standards. Revision of the framework began in 2009, paused for six years during the economic downturn and is again underway. The state no longer officially adopts history textbooks but instead approves of textbooks that school districts select.
As the timeline for the revision unfolds, Laura Kanter, director of youth programs at the LGBT Center OC in Santa Ana, said the marriage decision should ensure the gay civil rights movement a place in classes about the workings of the Supreme Court, the Constitution and social change.
“This decision is being lifted up as one of the most important civil rights decisions in our history,” said Kanter, who is a member of the school climate committee for the Santa Ana Unified School District. “I don’t think people can get away with teaching history or government without talking about this.”
Books and materials that reflect the updated framework are likely to be on the shelves by fall 2017, said Bill Honig, vice chairman of the state Instructional Quality Commission. In the meantime, individual teachers are integrating gay and lesbian experiences into history, social studies and English classes, as well as elementary school readings and conversations about families. Students who see themselves reflected in the curriculum are more engaged in learning, research has found.
Hours after the Supreme Court decision, Welcoming Schools and the National Education Association issued “Who Can Marry Whom?” -– a two-page guide to help educators talk about marriage equality.
At the One Archives Foundation in Los Angeles, a repository of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender materials, staff members and volunteers scurried to collect copies of newspapers and magazines that announced the ruling –- artifacts that will become primary source materials for students of the gay and lesbian equality movement, said Jamie Scot, project manager for One Archives. Scot immediately updated a visual timeline of gay and lesbian history, used in some high schools, to include a new entry for June 26, 2015, headlined “Love Wins.”
And Kahane, a member of Alameda Unified’s LGBTQ Round Table, an advisory group, received an email from a student celebrating the court decision and thanking him for creating a safe setting for classroom discussions of gay-themed literature. Such works included “The Hours,” by Michael Cunningham, a fictional account of the life of author Virginia Woolf that includes a gay male narrator. The student was glad that the literature had not generated “an ugly response,” Kahane said.
California has been a national leader in protecting gay, lesbian and transgender students from harm through legislation known as Seth’s Law or Assembly Bill 9, effective in 2012, which strengthened anti-bullying laws. But attitudes in schools haven’t always kept pace, according to a 2013 survey of 888 California lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender high school students by the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network, an Oakland-based national advocacy group.
Of the students surveyed, 90 percent reported hearing “gay” used in a negative way and 80 percent reported regularly hearing homophobic remarks from other students. Twenty-four percent said they regularly heard school staff making negative remarks about how masculine, feminine or gender-conforming a person was.
Nationwide, students who are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender report higher incidents of mental health issues, including feeling sad and wanting to harm themselves, than heterosexual students, according to a 2014 study of more than 72,000 adolescents published in the American Journal of Public Health. The study found that 23 percent of lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender youth had attempted suicide in the year prior to being surveyed, compared with 6.6 percent of heterosexual youth.
But that disparity nearly disappears in schools that create positive environments for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students, according to a separate 2014 study published in the American Journal of Public Health. Supportive school climates were identified by factors that included the presence of Gay-Straight Alliance groups, anti-harassment policies, relevant trainings for staff, and curriculum on gay-related topics.
The process can take time.
“I’ve become more patient about some of the problems,” Kahane said. Some teachers, particularly at the elementary school level, are “fearful of pushback from parents,” he said. But for him, he said, “This work has been a privilege.”
— 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.
Educators Say Marriage Ruling May Boost School Climate For LGBT Students
Educators Say Marriage Ruling May Boost School Climate For LGBT Students
This piece comes to us courtesy of EdSource, where it was originally published.
ALAMEDA, CALIFORNIA — When the U.S. Supreme Court issued a major civil rights decision on marriage in Loving v. Virginia in 1967, striking down a state law banning interracial marriage, Alameda Unified teacher Gene Kahane was a 3rd-grader in Richmond, California, and didn’t hear about it. News of social change travels faster and farther now –- and almost immediately into the classroom.
Across California and the nation, educators say the Supreme Court decision legalizing same-sex marriage stands to improve, over time, the way gay and lesbian people are talked about at schools, both in the hallways and in the curriculum.
“That decision was heard everywhere,” said Kahane, an Alameda Unified School District high school English teacher and district-identified ally for gay youth.
“I think we’ve crossed a threshold toward acceptance and welcome,” said Todd Savage, president of the National Association of School Psychologists.
Savage and other educators said the ruling will give new momentum to efforts to make schools safer and more inclusive for gay, lesbian and transgender students, as well as the more than 200,000 schoolchildren nationwide -– including at least 30,000 in California -– who have same-sex parents.
Sara Train, coordinator of the Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian Center’s Project Spin, which works with the Los Angeles Unified School District to end bullying, said the ruling is “a path to equality” for gay and lesbian people and “a validation” that will affect school culture.
She referenced the words of Justice Anthony Kennedy in the June 26 Obergefell v. Hodges decision in favor of the right to marry for gay and lesbian couples. “They ask for equal dignity in the eyes of the law,” he wrote. “The Constitution grants them that right.”
And she praised the words of President Barack Obama, who called the ruling “a victory for the children whose families will now be recognized as equal to any other.” Obama referred to the struggles of gay, lesbian and transgender individuals who were able to “endure bullying and taunts” and “slowly made an entire country realize that love is love.”
Train said, “The idea of any LGBT person being a second-class citizen, and not having rights, respect and equal treatment, is now debunked.” At schools, she said, hostility will be tolerated less.
“The ruling is going to make it that much easier for adults in schools to feel OK in talking about LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer) topics and families,” said Johanna Eager, director of the Welcoming Schools project of the Human Rights Campaign Foundation, which provides diversity training to school staff, including those in Oakland and Berkeley. “It gives a legitimacy to having these conversations.”
California has been in the forefront of efforts to update school curriculum to include the gay and lesbian political movement as well as gay individuals and families. The Fair Education Act, or Senate Bill 48, effective in 2012, called for inclusion of topics related to gay and lesbian people as well as disabled individuals. The law also reiterated the state ban on classroom instruction that promotes discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.
But the promise of the Fair Education Act has yet to be realized, Kahane and others said. Widespread inclusion of gay subject matter has stalled while the state revises its social studies and history curriculum framework, the extensive grade-by-grade curriculum guide for teaching the state standards. Revision of the framework began in 2009, paused for six years during the economic downturn and is again underway. The state no longer officially adopts history textbooks but instead approves of textbooks that school districts select.
As the timeline for the revision unfolds, Laura Kanter, director of youth programs at the LGBT Center OC in Santa Ana, said the marriage decision should ensure the gay civil rights movement a place in classes about the workings of the Supreme Court, the Constitution and social change.
“This decision is being lifted up as one of the most important civil rights decisions in our history,” said Kanter, who is a member of the school climate committee for the Santa Ana Unified School District. “I don’t think people can get away with teaching history or government without talking about this.”
Books and materials that reflect the updated framework are likely to be on the shelves by fall 2017, said Bill Honig, vice chairman of the state Instructional Quality Commission. In the meantime, individual teachers are integrating gay and lesbian experiences into history, social studies and English classes, as well as elementary school readings and conversations about families. Students who see themselves reflected in the curriculum are more engaged in learning, research has found.
Hours after the Supreme Court decision, Welcoming Schools and the National Education Association issued “Who Can Marry Whom?” -– a two-page guide to help educators talk about marriage equality.
At the One Archives Foundation in Los Angeles, a repository of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender materials, staff members and volunteers scurried to collect copies of newspapers and magazines that announced the ruling –- artifacts that will become primary source materials for students of the gay and lesbian equality movement, said Jamie Scot, project manager for One Archives. Scot immediately updated a visual timeline of gay and lesbian history, used in some high schools, to include a new entry for June 26, 2015, headlined “Love Wins.”
And Kahane, a member of Alameda Unified’s LGBTQ Round Table, an advisory group, received an email from a student celebrating the court decision and thanking him for creating a safe setting for classroom discussions of gay-themed literature. Such works included “The Hours,” by Michael Cunningham, a fictional account of the life of author Virginia Woolf that includes a gay male narrator. The student was glad that the literature had not generated “an ugly response,” Kahane said.
California has been a national leader in protecting gay, lesbian and transgender students from harm through legislation known as Seth’s Law or Assembly Bill 9, effective in 2012, which strengthened anti-bullying laws. But attitudes in schools haven’t always kept pace, according to a 2013 survey of 888 California lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender high school students by the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network, an Oakland-based national advocacy group.
Of the students surveyed, 90 percent reported hearing “gay” used in a negative way and 80 percent reported regularly hearing homophobic remarks from other students. Twenty-four percent said they regularly heard school staff making negative remarks about how masculine, feminine or gender-conforming a person was.
Nationwide, students who are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender report higher incidents of mental health issues, including feeling sad and wanting to harm themselves, than heterosexual students, according to a 2014 study of more than 72,000 adolescents published in the American Journal of Public Health. The study found that 23 percent of lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender youth had attempted suicide in the year prior to being surveyed, compared with 6.6 percent of heterosexual youth.
But that disparity nearly disappears in schools that create positive environments for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students, according to a separate 2014 study published in the American Journal of Public Health. Supportive school climates were identified by factors that included the presence of Gay-Straight Alliance groups, anti-harassment policies, relevant trainings for staff, and curriculum on gay-related topics.
The process can take time.
“I’ve become more patient about some of the problems,” Kahane said. Some teachers, particularly at the elementary school level, are “fearful of pushback from parents,” he said. But for him, he said, “This work has been a privilege.”
— 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.
Run on property sees London firm sell flats worth £140 million in 4 hours
Run on property sees London firm sell flats worth £140 million in 4 hours
London’s property market is hotly contested, but people queuing around the block for 36 hours to snag a new home is unusual.
Galliard Homes’ Maine Tower – part of the Harbour Central development transforming a former industrial site in London’s Canary Wharf into a vertical village – has sold out in record time, despite construction having not yet started.
Prices ranged from £370,000 (€, $) for a studio flat up to £1.25 million (€, $) for a three bedroom apartment; with Crossrail due to open in 2018, prices are expected to surge.
Buyers who managed to get one of the 230 available studio, one, two or three bedroom flats can expect to move into their new homes in a few years, with the project set to be completed in early 2019.
The Maine Tower is part of Canary Wharf’s new ‘vertical village’.
Designed by international architects Rolfe Judd, the 41-story tower will provide a total of 297 apartments – for the launch, Galliard Homes held back premier and penthouse residences.
Half the buyers, from first time buyers to investors, were UK-based with the remaining 50% including buyers from Greece, Italy, India and the Middle East.
The most eager person started queuing 36 hours before the launch, held in a luxurious marketing suite adjacent to the development site; when the launch event officially started, more than 100 people were standing in line.
The post Run on property sees London firm sell flats worth £140 million in 4 hours appeared first on Gay Star News.
Stefanie Gerdes
Italian Sports Magazine Features Hot Rugby Players Making Out On The Cover; Endures Obligatory Backlash
Italian Sports Magazine Features Hot Rugby Players Making Out On The Cover; Endures Obligatory Backlash
A bold move: sticking two kissing rugby players on the cover of your Italian sports magazine. It’s an editorial decision that’s guaranteed to drum up significant backlash in such a stubbornly homophobic country.
Admirably, the July 11 issue of SportWeek features two swarthy fellows named Giacomo and Stefano fused in a passionate liplock alongside the only-slightly taunting caption, “Who’s afraid of a kiss?”
As of this report, no bishops have hurdled themselves from Vatican windows, nor is a motley parade of white-haired ladies tottering through Sicily wailing and beating their breasts. But some randos drifting through the Twitterverse had some dipshit things to say, so lets focus on them:
“That’s disgusting,” wrote one.
“You’re painfully conformist and ideological,” chimed in another.
Meanwhile, on the other side of life, several Twitterers praised the mag and the brave teammates/boyfriends of amateur Rome squad Libera Rugby:
“I’m not afraid… but many Italians are, and its fear and ignorance that create homophobia.”
The magazine — which features several stories on homosexuality in sports and Italy’s first gay-friendly rugby team — illuminates the fact that Italy is still the only Western European country that won’t recognize gay marriage or civil unions.
h/t: Gay Star News
Derek de Koff
Madonna Gives Famous Friends More Screen Time in ‘Bitch I’m Madonna’ Remix: WATCH
Madonna Gives Famous Friends More Screen Time in ‘Bitch I’m Madonna’ Remix: WATCH
“Bitch I’m Madonna”, a track off of the Material Girl’s new album Rebel Heart, has been remixed by Sander Kleinenberg and given a new remixed music video as well that showcases all the celebrity cameos from the original, making the cameos a little more prominent this time around.
Miley Cyrus, Beyoncé, Katy Perry, Nicky Minaj, Chris Rock, Kanye West and Rita Ora are all back for round two, but Cyrus, Beyoncé and Perry receive more screen time than in the first Jonas Akerlund-directed version. Purple strobe lights and a grittier feel fill the remix video, which still features Minaj’s verse, and ends with Madonna panting on the floor.
Watch the new video below.
Which do you prefer, the remix or the original?
The post Madonna Gives Famous Friends More Screen Time in ‘Bitch I’m Madonna’ Remix: WATCH appeared first on Towleroad.
Sean Mandell
Madonna Gives Famous Friends More Screen Time in ‘Bitch I’m Madonna’ Remix: WATCH
Catholic Priest Under Investigation for Hidden Camera in Men's Room
Catholic Priest Under Investigation for Hidden Camera in Men's Room
A Catholic priest in Oregon has been placed on leave following allegations that he planted a hidden camera in his church’s men’s room.
Bil Browning
www.advocate.com/religion/2015/07/14/catholic-priest-under-investigation-hidden-camera-mens-room
Here's What Happens When Two Men Hold Hands While Walking The Streets of Russia
Here's What Happens When Two Men Hold Hands While Walking The Streets of Russia
Quality of life may be getting better for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community in America, but that doesn’t mean that our queer brothers and sisters are anywhere near being treated humanely on a global level.
In this new video from ChebuRussiaTV — which has almost 4 million views on YouTube — two men walk the streets of Moscow, Russia while holding hands in a social experiment to demonstrate how LGBT individuals are treated by the world around them. The video shows reactions ranging from verbal attacks to physical assault, with the video ending as a large man forcibly separates and threatens the pair.
The video serves as a necessary reminder about the state of LGBT rights in Russia, where queer individuals have, historically, been subjected to a culture of fear and violence on a regular basis. The social and political climate for LGBT people in Russia garnered national attention just last year surrounding the 2014 Sochi Olympics and Russia’s infamous anti-gay “propaganda” law, which led to several high-profile attacks of LGBT individuals.
Check out the video for yourself above.
(h/t Towleroad)
— 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.
Match Group buys PlentyOfFish for $575million ahead of public flotation
Match Group buys PlentyOfFish for $575million ahead of public flotation
It’s been announced today that PlentyOfFish, which claims to be the be ‘the world’s largest online dating site’, is to be bought by Match Group for $575million (€522million) in cash.
Match Group is part of Barry Diller’s IAC/InterActive Corp. The ‘definitive agreement to purchase’ PlentyOfFish comes ahead of Match Group’s planned stock market flotation later this year, and will undoubtedly help boost the company’s initial share price.
PlentyOfFish launched in 2003 by Canadian entrepreneur Markus Frind. According to its website, it has 90million registered users and 3.6million daily users.
Although the vast majority of users are heterosexual people seeking long-term relationships, it also has gay and bisexual members – some of whom view it as an alternative to apps offering more instant hook-ups.
Sam Yagan, CEO, The Match Group
‘For over a decade I have followed the consistent growth of PlentyOfFish, first within North America, then globally, and most recently across platforms, as one of the most popular mobile dating products in the world,’ said Sam Yagan, CEO of The Match Group in a statement.
‘As more people than ever use more dating apps than ever with more frequency than ever, PlentyOfFish’s addition both brings new members into our family of products and deepens the lifetime relationship we have with our users across our portfolio.’
Match.com launched in 1995. Match Group also owns Tinder, Meetic and OKCupid, among other brands. The deal is subject to approval from the Canadian minister of industry. Should approval be granted, the deal is expected to be finalized early in the fourth quarter of 2015.
According to a company statement, Match Group’s dating sites generated revenues of ‘more than $780 million and profits of more than $260 million in 2013.’
‘We are thrilled to be joining forces with Match,’ said Markus Frind, CEO of PlentyOfFish. ‘My team and I have grown PlentyOfFish into one of the leaders in our category, and I am confident that Match will help accelerate our growth even further.’
It was reported in May that Grindr, one of the world’s most popular dating apps for men, had engaged a company to advise it on the possibility of being sold. The organization has consistently declined to comment on the report.
Some business commentators have speculated that IAC/Interactive Corp might be interested in purchasing Grindr to further add to its roster of dating apps.
IAC have been approached for further comment.
The post Match Group buys PlentyOfFish for $575million ahead of public flotation appeared first on Gay Star News.
David Hudson
www.gaystarnews.com/article/match-group-buy-plentyoffish-for-575million-ahead-of-public-flotation/
David Sedaris Doesn’t Care If His Man Sounds Like Shirley Temple: VIDEO
David Sedaris Doesn’t Care If His Man Sounds Like Shirley Temple: VIDEO
Last year we wrote about a Kickstarter for David Thorpe’s film Do I Sound Gay? which explores the reason why some people sound stereotypically gay and some don’t. The film opened last weekend in New York City and opens this weekend in L.A., Atlanta, Denver, and Philadelphia.
Today, Vulture published a charming new clip from the film, which offers an enlightening look at perceived masculinity vs perceived femininity, featuring author David Sedaris talking about his partner of more than 20 years, Hugh Hamrick.
The New York Times also published a fascinating mini-doc on the film featuring two of its other subjects, and you can watch that HERE.
The post David Sedaris Doesn’t Care If His Man Sounds Like Shirley Temple: VIDEO appeared first on Towleroad.
Andy Towle
David Sedaris Doesn’t Care If His Man Sounds Like Shirley Temple: VIDEO
