HRC Hosts Roundtable on LGBT Refugees and Asylum Seekers
On Wednesday, over 80 guests gathered in HRC’s Equality Forum to discuss challenges faced by LGBT asylum seekers and refugees in the United States.
HRC.org
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Gareth Thomas Reveals New Partner With Sexy Bathtub Photo
Gareth Thomas Reveals New Partner With Sexy Bathtub Photo
We’ve been together about a year now. We moved in together after about a month, a month and a half. I know so many people gay, or straight, who have regrets and just wish they’d not missed out on something good. I don’t want to regret something, I wanted to give it a go. It did seem pretty quick but we’re better than we ever have been after living together for a year. We thought ‘if it is right to us then bollocks to what anyone else thinks.’ If anyone thought it was too soon we’ve proved them wrong as now we’ve got our own house in Wales, we’re settled and life is good. I was 39 and Ian was 50. We’re not teenagers anymore and we live or die by our decisions and not by what other people decide for us.”– Former rugby superstar Gareth Thomas speaking about his boyfriend Ian Baum and posing in a bubble bath with him for a cover story for Attitude magazine
Jeremy Kinser
Facebook Begins Enforcing 'Real Name' Policy, Disproportionately Affecting GLBT Performers
Facebook Begins Enforcing 'Real Name' Policy, Disproportionately Affecting GLBT Performers
Facebook requires members to use their real names, a fact of which most folks are likely unaware due to the policy largely being unenforced, a decision quite possibly made due to the substantial blowback Google Plus received with their mandatory real name policy that they only recently rescinded. However, Facebook is now cracking down on their policy and the fallout is a disproportionate effect on LGBT individuals and drag performers in particular.
In a remarkably tone-deaf response in an interview with Business Insider, a Facebook representative said:
If people want to use an alternative name on Facebook, they have several different options available to them, including providing an alias under their name on their profile, or creating a Page specifically for that alternative persona.
As part of our overall standards, we ask that people who use Facebook provide their real name on their profile.
Fan Pages and Musician/Group categories are how stars like Lady Gaga, Madonna, RuPaul, and will.i.am keep their obvious stage names.
Sister Roma of the San Francisco chapter of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence is presently one of the more high-profile dissenters to the policy. When Roma, who now has to go by Michael Williams in order for his Facebook account to remain active, was told to create a Fan page he responded:
I use this site to keep up with friends and simply don’t want employers or crazy stalker people to log on and search me . I want my friends to find me…I detest the idea of having a fan page. I’m not fucking Britney Spears. I have friends, not fans.
Saying additionally:
Bottom Line: I’ve been Sister Roma for 27 years. Ask anyone what my name is, in or out of drag, and they will tell you it’s Roma. #MyNameIsRoma.
Which brings to the forefront something that Facebook may not be considering: safety. While no doubt some users adopt pseudonyms for the purposes of trolling or harassment, no small number adopt fake names to protect their privacy and safety, and when that privacy is broken it can lead to disastrous results as one particularly devastating incident on Google Plus revealed.
This mandatory outing could be especially destructive for LGBT youth who need the protection of anonymity to connect with friends and resources without subjecting themselves to the hatred of peers…or even their own family. Going to Sister Roma again, she posted a message she received from a friend when the name change went into effect:
Here is an example of the comments i have received regarding Facebook’s legal name change policy:
“The name I was born with is the name of a victim, a lonely little boy who hated himself.
That is NOT who I am.
Adding to all of the chaos and shady business, Roma went to reply to a message from Sister Unity and found that the entire thread had been censored, along with other conversations that had discussed Facebook’s name change policy.
Then there’s the whole question of “How does Facebook enforce this?” Unlike Google Plus, users don’t have to submit photographic proof of identity when they sign up, so it seems to be that enforcement his highly subjective and is going to target people with obvious stage names rather than people who are simply creating a fake profile with a real-sounding name. Enforcement is also very spotty; Roma and some Sisters have been forced to change their names, while other Sisters like Nancy Drew Blood and performers like Heklina have their drag names intact.
A Change.org petition has been started to demand that Facebook allow performers of all types be allowed to use their stage names and is seeking 2,800 signatures. As of right now, Facebook hasn’t commented any further on the issue.
Christian Walters
SCANDALE ! : Corruption de mineurs par le Lobby LGBT, dans une école maternelle
SCANDALE ! : Corruption de mineurs par le Lobby LGBT, dans une école maternelle
Cette vidéo abjecte démontre la réalité du projet des élites maçonniques de ce pays ! D’aucuns diront que c’est encore une rumeur ! Si vous faites ça à la sortie d’une école,…
www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUyCuZTcZY4&feature=youtube_gdata
(09.12.14) TONIGHT! TONIGHT! TONIGHT! #IgniteDMV & #K5Entertainment Are Back At Your Favorite Friday Night Spot… We Present #ClimaxxxFridays At #AquaNightClub (1818 New York Avenue NE DC)… Everyone FREE Before 12 With Text!!! (Text "PartyBoyz" To 5454
Hot Sheet: September 12, 2014
Hot Sheet: September 12, 2014
Our top 10 entertainment and events highlights this week include the Queer Art Expo, hot doctors, wild and crazy Roosevelts, and Jason Gould and his mom.
Advocate.com Editors
www.advocate.com/arts-entertainment/hot-sheet/2014/09/12/hot-sheet-september-12-2014
If You Don't Go After It, Someone Else Will
If You Don't Go After It, Someone Else Will
Everything eventually surfaces in one way or another. As gay men, sometimes we find ourselves subconsciously choosing to do everything in our power to avoid looking foolishly vulnerable and admittedly undesirable in the face of other gay men, but at the end of the day, doing that almost NEVER makes us feel any stronger or masculine by a long shot. By bottling everything up, you almost always look like you’re hiding something in the face of your friends who only want to pull you aside and give you the gulping truth. You can’t have your cake and eat it too girl.
The suckiest blow to the gut for any gay man is when his dream babe starts hooking up with the guy he’s mildly interested in seeing. When that happens, all hell breaks loose. You are so taken back that you without a doubt can’t understand how to process all those set of emotions rushing through you. Not keeping in mind that the business with those two boys hooking up has nothing to do with you, and that just because you’re lonely doesn’t mean that you should selfishly occupy the down time you have with someone you are not even that into for the sake of not being with yourself.
The only promise that can come about out of all of that lying is that you are not being honest with yourself, with that guy who might like you more than you like him, and to the guy who you really want to get to know, but who has no idea you exist because you haven’t put yourself out there to him yet. One some level we are grown enough to subconsciously acknowledge this to ourselves, but no one is ever really ready to accept it. Our egos have a hard time allowing us to do so.
As a pain in the ass as it is to accept, most likely, there is someone else out there desiring the same person you are, so if you aren’t brave enough to assert yourself to that guy, then someone else will happily do so. Chances are, when you take the risk, you WILL at least know what you have to work with, go on or move on from. You have to run the distance if you expect to finish.
All caught up in dreamland, I didn’t fully realize until lately that the guy I liked since my freshman year in college doesn’t like me, and not just in the boyfriend type of way, but that he probably doesn’t like me as a person. Yeah, I could be overreacting. In the past, I would love to give all the reasons why this guy wouldn’t possibly give me the time of day, but I never got anything from him, even after my few attempts to initiate something. It was like talking to a brick wall.
What I learned from that situation is that the longer you wait to make a move, the less interested everyone becomes. You begin to ask yourself. Where is the mystery? Whether or not that person will reciprocate the same feelings you have is not the heart of the conflict to be solved. They might have some inkling of an idea because some other person has probably mentioned you to them, and they were waiting for you to say something all that time, but by not saying anything, you ended up looking cowardly and worse than if you were to say anything at all.
Of course in our wild, emotionally, untamed hearts, the object of our affection belongs to us. The moment you hear otherwise, that some other dog is barking up that tree, then you want to hurt a bitch, when, they were never even yours.
In the end, we all want validation and love that is so inconvenient. Unless, one doesn’t care, and in that case that sort of person will show you their true colors; otherwise, don’t we all want to get to that reassuring place?
We all have the tendency to build up the guys we’re interested in dating. In our eyes, they are perfect, and we vaguely see the little to zero flaws they do possess. By remembering that Tom, Dick and Harry are human too, and that they have needs and insecurities they want to fulfill like everyone else, we lessen the pressure. No matter what, there is always someone better out there, always. And knowing that makes the dream not so unattainable.
Barbra Streisand's son on duet with his mom and why he took so long to pursue music
Barbra Streisand's son on duet with his mom and why he took so long to pursue music
Jason Gould: ‘My mother’s such an idon. I thought, “I can’t open my mouth, people would compare” and I just didn’t think I’d ever want to go there’
gregh
Ben & Jerry’s Joins Amicus Brief to the Supreme Court Supporting Marriage Equality
Ben & Jerry’s Joins Amicus Brief to the Supreme Court Supporting Marriage Equality
Everyone’s favorite LGBT-friendly ice cream company, Ben & Jerry’s, has taken another step for LGBT equality, signing onto an amicus brief supporting marriage equality.
HRC.org
How Being Trans Could Mean Being Told To Take A Hike At The Polls This November
How Being Trans Could Mean Being Told To Take A Hike At The Polls This November
We won’t get into why strict voter-ID laws are horrible, oppressive and racist — you can do you own homework there.
But the fact remains that ten states currently have laws on the books that make it increasingly difficult to exercise your constitutional right to vote, and a new study indicates that among the disenfranchised in the upcoming midterm elections are 24,000 transgender people.
According to “The Potential Impact of Voter Identification Laws on Transgender Voters in the 2014 General Election,” authored by the Williams Institute’s Jody L. Herman, Ph.D., transgender people who have transitioned but do not have proper paperwork reflecting their gender will be turned away at the polls.
“Lawmakers should not overlook the consequences of enacting stricter voter ID laws on transgender voters,” said Herman. “Election officials must consider the potential impact of these laws in the upcoming November elections. Voter ID laws create a unique barrier for transgender people who would otherwise be eligible to vote.”
The states where people will face problems are: Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Mississippi, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and Wisconsin.
“Some voters may not have the means or the ability to present the required voter identification for a variety of reasons, such as poverty, disability, or religious objection. Transgender people have unique barriers to obtaining accurate IDs needed to vote. As these ten states begin planning for their fall elections, educating poll workers is crucial in order to ensure that transgender voters in their states have fair access to the ballot,” added Herman.
View the full report here.
Dan Tracer
