Sam Smith OK With Being Called “A Faggot” Just Not “Fat”
– Four-time Grammy snatcher Sam Smith opens up about his body issues after dramatic weight loss.
Related:
Sam Smith Was A Victim Of Homophobic Bullying
Howard Stern Loves Sam Smith Because He’s Chubby And Gay
Sam Smith Isn’t Fat And Here’s The Shirtless Pic To Prove It
Les Fabian Brathwaite
Irish Pastor Says Gay Relationships Are Never 'Consensual,' Compares Homosexuality to Rape: VIDEO
Image from Twitter
With just over four weeks to go until Ireland’s marriage equality referendum, the “no” campaigners are taking a leaf from American anti-gay activists like Scott Lively in their attempts to sway voters.
Following a failed attempt last week by a small number of religious leaders to add a “conscience clause” to the referendum, Pastor Craig Ledbetter of the Bible Baptist Church in Cork has compared homosexuality with rape and adultery.
In an interview with the Irish Examiner, Ledbetter argued that a same-sex sexual relationship can never be consensual:
“Homosexuality is wrong, just like rape and just like adultery.
“We are dealing with one party believing he is right in what he is doing, so it is not really consensual. Two people can consent to adultery or consent to rob a bank, but that doesn’t make either of those things right.
“If they want a sexual relationship they can get the blessing of the State but that should not amount to re- defining marriage which is exclusively the preserve of a man and a woman.”
Recognizing that his bizarre opinions could convince many people to vote in favor of the referendum, he also complained that there has been no serious discussion on same-sex marriage in the Irish media apart from “a few fake TV debates.”
Ledbetter has since claimed that he was misquoted.
Strange how people quote me about same sex marriage but have no idea what I actually said. Rape is sexual sin as is adultery & homosexuality
— Craig Ledbetter (@craigledbetter) April 18, 2015
Last week, Christian activists including Iona Institute mouthpiece Breda O’Brien (right) attacked former Irish President Mary McAleese for comments in support of same-sex marriage. Yesterday, O’Brien said that gay people and unmarried heterosexuals should abstain from sex in order to live a Christian life. A petition to revoke the Iona Institute’s charitable status is less than 2,000 signatures short of the required 15,000.
A March Irish Times poll found that 74 percent of the electorate intend to vote in favor of same-sex marriage.
Watch the Iona Institute’s The Case For Man/Woman Marriage video and a parody detailing “the right kind of discrimination,” AFTER THE JUMP…
Jim Redmond
www.towleroad.com/2015/04/anti-gay-irish-pastor-compares-homosexuality-with-rape-adultery-video.html
Op-ed: New Jersey's Most Antigay Teacher Shouldn't Have Her Job
Scott Lyons lived through Patricia Jannuzzi, Immaculata High School’s notoriously homophobic teacher, and he doesn’t want one more LGBT student to endure the same lesson.
Scott Lyons
www.advocate.com/commentary/2015/04/20/op-ed-new-jerseys-most-antigay-teacher-shouldnt-have-her-job
12 Mother's Day Cards For Cool Moms, Not Regular Moms
Mother’s Day is coming. Back away from the corny Hallmark cards.
For everyone celebrating the mothers (and/or mother figures) in their life this year, we’ve got your back. Here’s a selection of funny, cute and cheeky cards for any mom with a sense of humor. Because who wants rhyming prose when you could have pug puns?
Here are 12 funny Mother’s Day cards we love:
1. An apology for the rough times:
“This Mother’s Day, I Would Like To Apologize For..”
2. An appreciation of the important skills she taught you:
“Thanks for teaching me how to use a big-girl potty.”
3. A serious understatement:
“I suppose you’re a reasonable mother”
4. An acknowledgement of what she just can’t say:
“I love how we don’t have to say out loud that I’m your favorite child.”
5. A much-needed thank-you:
“Thanks for not psychologically damaging me.”
6. An admission she’s been waiting to hear:
“You were right about everything.”
7. A tribute to “Mean Girls:”
“You’re a cool mom.”
8. A nod to all the roles she plays:
“My cheapest therapist.”
9. A punny endearment:
“Nothing beets you.”
10. A “Gilmore Girls” reference:
“You’re the Lorelai to my Rory.”
11. A “Puggin'” cute card:
“I puggin’ love you.”
12. A congratulatory note:
“Great job Mom, I turned out awesome”
Visit HuffPostWomen’s profile on Pinterest.
— 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.
'Beer Pong Rapist' Sentenced To 150 Years In Prison For Sexually Assaulting Numerous Male Victims: VIDEO
A Maryland man was sentenced to 150 years in prison on Wednesday after he was found guilty earlier this year on 11 counts of second- and third-degree sexual offenses reports the AP. Prosecutors say 40-year-old Joey Poindexter, dubbed the “Beer Pong Rapist,” who met his victims in beer pong tournaments and bars, was convicted of assaulting five men, but prosecutors believe there are at least two dozen more unidentified victims after police found that Poindexter recorded and took dozens of photos on his phone of himself assaulting several unconscious, incoherent men; prosecutors believe that Poindexter assaulted an additional 30 men. Ramon Korionoff of the Montgomery County State Attorney’s Office stated the series of rapes began in 2011 and expressed disgust with Poindexter’s actions.
Said Korionoff:
“Completely heinous and terrible sexual assaults. He did this knowing full well that he was taking advantage of people that were intoxicated.”
Other reports state that the series of assaults may have occurred over the span of the last 10 years. Surveillance video from one bar in College Park, Md. shows Poindexter, a property appraiser, buying a Long Island Iced Tea for one of his victims, which the victim consumed, with Poindexter escorting the drugged victim outside. The victim awoke the next morning in Poindexter’s home to find himself wearing a pair of Poindexter’s shorts and found his clothes in a pile next to him on the floor. The victim, who had no memory of the previous evening, approached police with the suspicion that he was sexually assaulted. The victim questioned Poindexter, while wearing a police wire, about the night’s events with Poindexter responding, “If it makes you feel any better, I don’t have any (expletive) AIDS, if anything did happen.”
Additional victims later came forward after investigators issued a public appeal for the case; some victims had no inclination they had even been assaulted until they were shown photo and video evidence. Poindexter’s lawyer says her client intends on appealing the 150-year sentence.
Watch CBS Baltimore’s coverage of the sentencing, including a statement from Poindexter’s lawyer, AFTER THE JUMP...
Anthony Costello
Op-ed: I Met My Best Friend on Grindr
Many gay men have mastered the art of not letting sex kill a friendship. Thanks, smartphones.
Neal Broverman
www.advocate.com/commentary/2015/04/20/op-ed-i-met-my-best-friend-grindr
'An Ordinary Family Who Would Do Anything To Protect Our Kids'
DETROIT — On a Monday last month, Michigan couple Jayne Rowse and April DeBoer were camped out at their kitchen table, using one of the few afternoons they both had off work to deal with family business. DeBoer was on the phone, sorting out a health care issue for one of their kids. She and Rowse were also chatting and joking with Dana Nessel, sounding more like old friends than an attorney and her clients preparing for a U.S. Supreme Court case.
Rowse and DeBoer first met Nessel in 2011 to file what they assumed would be simple paperwork. After facing a driving scare when a truck nearly collided with their van head-on, they felt new urgency about drawing up plans for what should happen to their children if one or both of the women were to die.
But they quickly learned that, as lesbian parents of adopted children, standard estate planning wouldn’t be simple. There was no legal assurance that their kids, each adopted by only one parent, would be allowed to stay with the other if the official parent died, Nessel explained. This set off the chain of events that will take Rowse and DeBoer to the Supreme Court this month for a landmark marriage equality case.
Justices will hear their case challenging the constitutionality of Michigan’s gay marriage ban, as well as related complaints from couples in Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee.
Unlike many states, Michigan’s adoption code doesn’t allow for joint or second-parent adoption, which also affects heterosexual unmarried couples. Some lawmakers have attempted to change the restrictions over the years, with no success.
Rowse and DeBoer never imagined their case would reach the highest court, and were initially reluctant plaintiffs — Nessel was the one who encouraged the couple to take the approach of suing the state, and their 2012 lawsuit was only intended to address adoption, not marriage.
“It’s been a journey, an accidental journey. We’re accidental activists,” DeBoer told The Huffington Post. “We’re just an ordinary family who would do anything to protect our kids.”
Jayne Rowse, April DeBoer and their four children.
The DeBoer-Rowse family lives in a modest home in Hazel Park, a Detroit suburb. The nurses work at two different hospitals on midnight shifts; DeBoer’s mother, Wendy, helps out with the childcare.
When Wendy DeBoer arrived at the home, grandkids in tow, cheerful chaos interrupted the grownup business. Nolan, 6, was asked to produce a folder from his backpack. “Bribery snacks” were evenly distributed. Rylee, 2, clung to April DeBoer, but was persuaded with a hug and a warning countdown to play in the other room with 6-year-old Jacob and 5-year-old Ryanne. A rescue bulldog is the final member of the DeBoer-Rowse clan.
Rowse is the legal parent of the boys, and April DeBoer is the legal parent of the girls. They adopted their first child in 2009, 10 years after they met. They kept their relationship friendly for several years while they each attended nursing school, but started dating seriously in 2005 and then fell in love. They held a commitment ceremony in 2008 that they consider as serious as a marriage.
“It’s been that long?” DeBoer asked Rowse, the one who keeps track of meaningful dates. “Time flies when you’re having lots of kids,” Rowse replied.
Adopting their third child, Jacob, after two years as his foster parent, was one of the moments DeBoer regards as pivotal to her decision to take an active role in the fight for LGBT rights.
“The night before we adopted him, I sat in my room and I cried,” she said. “Although he would be ours, I would lose all legal rights to him at that point. So what should have been the happiest day of our lives — which it was — [also had] a sad undertone.”
Jayne Rowse and son Jacob attend a news conference on March 6 in Los Angeles. (Photo by Valerie Macon/Getty Images)
The legal relationship is important for a variety of things most parents would take for granted, and not having it could prevent a parent from things like putting their child on their health insurance, making medical decisions or signing a school permission slip.
Nessel said it’s a “bizarre irony” that adoption restrictions coexist with laws that allow her clients to jointly foster, and with a state agency that often asks for their help when foster children require special care.
DeBoer and Rowse have fostered children who require special care, and two of their children have developmental disabilities. Rylee, who spent less than an hour playing with her siblings that Monday before she crawled back into DeBoer’s lap, has some difficulties hearing and is still learning to talk, though her parents have seen improvement each month since they adopted her in the fall.
“These are people who just can’t say no to a child in need,” Nessel said. “If these women jointly are good enough to be foster care parents to these children, why are they not both good enough to be adoptive parents?”
Jayne Rowse gets a hug from her attorney Dana Nessel while attending a rally on Oct. 16, 2013, in Detroit.
DeBoer and Rowse are hopeful about the outcome of their case, but careful not to get overeager after experiencing a series of unwelcome surprises from the courts.
“We felt that [U.S. District Court Judge Bernard Friedman] … would just see our way and abolish it and be done, and we would walk out all happy and go about our merry lives,” Rowse said.
Friedman instead suggested their case actually hinged on same-sex marriage, and invited them to amend their complaint to challenge the ban voters enshrined in the state constitution in 2004.
Jay Kaplan, staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan’s LGBT Project, said his organization was also caught off guard by Friedman’s move. At the time, national marriage equality advocates didn’t consider Michigan a viable place for a lawsuit, Kaplan said, in part because of the conservative-leaning appeals court. Those factors made some worry about what precedent would be set for future case if the court ruled against DeBoer and Rowse.
“It was something new, and it was hard to predict what might happen,” Kaplan said. “It was great to see a judge wanted to address the issue of marriage equality, but it was also scary.”
DeBoer, Rowse and their attorneys — a small team working pro bono — felt they had little choice but to do as Friedman said, and the lawsuit went to trial last year. For several days, the plaintiffs sat quietly in court as experts for the state explained research that implied their children would be better off with heterosexual parents. Friedman ultimately decided in the plaintiffs’ favor, refuting much of the state’s expert testimony and the argument that the gay marriage ban was enacted by voters and therefore shouldn’t be decided in the courts.
“In attempting to define this case as a challenge to ‘the will of the people,’ state defendants lost sight of what this case is truly about: people,” Friedman wrote in his decision.
Photo of Jayne Rowse, April DeBoer and three of their children.
Same-sex couples had a brief window to legally marry before the case was appealed the following day. Several county clerks performed more than 300 weddings on a Saturday. Those newlyweds marked their one-year anniversary last month.
DeBoer, Rowse and Nessel can’t hide their disappointment about having spent years on a case that has yet to change to their situation or change the law that won’t let them jointly adopt. The couples who married last year, however, are a tangible reminder of why their effort has been worthwhile.
“The driving thing is the people who say, ‘Thank you for allowing us to get married on that one day, to show the world our 27 and a half years counted,’” Rowse said.
She, DeBoer and their children will all go to Washington to hear oral arguments in the Supreme Court case.
“The closer we get to the arguments and the decision, the more emotional it gets for both of us,” DeBoer said. “Jayne usually keeps me grounded. I’m known to be the one who cries. … To get her to cry is very, very unusual, and we have succeeded twice in the last couple weeks.”
Jayne Rowse looks at April DeBoer as she reacts during a news conference in Ferndale, Michigan, after a federal judge struck down the state’s ban on gay marriage on March 21, 2014.
The kids are too young to understand exactly what’s at stake, but they know enough to be filled with anticipation for the day when, as they think of it, the whole family will get married — preferably at a big party with clowns and balloon animals.
“Every time we leave the house dressed up, Ryanne asks, ‘Is today the day? Are we going to get married today?’” DeBoer said. “We’re like, ‘No, we’re just going to a meeting,’ and she’s like, ‘Well, when is that day?’”
“Now we get to tell her, ‘Hopefully in June.’”
April DeBoer holds up a sign in Detroit as she and her partner Jayne Rowse attend a rally in favor of same-sex marriage on October 16, 2013.
— 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.
My gay Philadelphia: Jim Werner on the City of Brotherly Love
The Fagabond.com gives us a tour of the gayborhoods of Philadelphia – birthplace of America
jamiet
www.gaystarnews.com/article/my-gay-philadelphia-jim-werner-city-brotherly-love200415
Drag Race’s Max Malanaphy Has An Evil Sense Of Humor As Much As The Next Lady
‘Tis the seventh season of RuPaul‘s Drag Race, and Max Malanaphy — the elegant, eloquent, and slightly emaciated artiste of the cast — sailed through the competition as a front-runner, having worn her trademark grey wigs with enough aplomb to win two challenges. Alas, her time was cut short, perhaps too soon, and she was the seventh contestant told to “sashay away.”
Queerty: You are clearly influenced by Old Hollywood. Who are your icons? I imagine you as a little boy dressing up like your favorite movie stars.Max Malanaphy: Oh, there has always been much dressing up. Lauren Bacall, Judy Garland, Anne Baxter, the clever ones, there is so much to be inspired by in entertainment. It’s always been magic for me.
The other contestants have teased you about being prudish, but your looks in the competition freely show lots of skin. Even your audition video, which is stunning by the way, is rather erotic. Where is the line between sexuality and vulgarity? 
Your philosophy for winning this competition: would you say you were inspired by Machiavelli’s ruthless theory of “the end justifies the means”? Or are you more aligned with the methodical strategies of Sun Tzu?Ruthless. Forever more.
Jeremy Kinser
You must be 18 years old or older to chat
