Former Josh Duggar Employer Honoring Kim Davis

Kim Davis, the antigay Rowan County, Ky. clerk who recently served jail time for repeatedly refusing to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, will be awarded the “Cost of Discipleship” award at the Values Voter Summit later this month, Christian Post reports. 

The award is being presented by none other than the Family Research Council, which recently came under the national spotlight as the employer of Josh Duggar, who resigned in May after it was discovered he once sexually abused young girls, including some of his sisters (he was also revealed to be a client of Ashley Madison, a site for married men seeking affairs). 

FRC President Tony Perkins told the Christian Post, “We are pleased to announce that Kim Davis will be honored at this year’s Values Voter Summit. After meeting with her last week, I can tell you that Kim Davis wasn’t looking for this fight, but she is not running from it either.” 

Last year, the Values Voter Summit invited Melissa Klein, the antigay baker who refused to bake a wedding cake for a lesbian couple in 2013, to be a guest speaker. Klein raised a record amount of money from supporters and antigay organizations last year.

“What militant secularists are almost certainly afraid of is what is coming to pass,” Perkins said. “When other people might have cowered in fear, Kim took a stand. And today, millions of Americans stand with her and for the religious freedom upon which our nation was founded.” 

Alexander Cheves

www.advocate.com/religion/2015/9/16/former-josh-duggar-employer-honoring-kim-davis

GOP Candidates Say Jailing Of Kim Davis Is Worse Than Ahmed Mohamed's Arrest

The GOP candidates sidestepped a question during Wednesday night’s undercard debate about Ahmed Mohamed, the 14-year-old Dallas boy who was arrested for building a clock that police assumed was a hoax bomb.

Instead, the candidates said it was far more concerning that Kentucky clerk Kim Davis had been briefly jailed for refusing to sign certificates for gay couples seeking to get married. 

“Right now, the biggest discrimination going on is against Christian business owners and individuals who believe in traditional forms of marriage,” said Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal. “They are throwing this woman in jail in Kentucky. Let’s talk about that.”

And so, they talked about it.

“Kim Davis, I’m not worried about her attacking me,” said South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, “I am worried about radical Islamic terrorists who are already here planning another 9/11. We are at war, folks.”

Former New York Gov. George Pataki then jumped in to make the case that Davis did deserve to be fired for refusing to implement the law. But the broadcast soon cut to a commercial break.

Heading into the debate, there was curiosity about how the candidates would address Mohamed’s controversial arrest earlier in the week. The Dallas student appears to have been accused of making a bomb largely on the basis of his ethnicity. Sympathy poured in for Mohamed as the news of his arrest circulated, and President Barack Obama even invited him to the White House to participate in a science fair.

The initial question about Mohamed asked candidates how they would to strike a balance between vigilance and discrimination.

“Americans don’t discriminate against anyone based on the color of their skin,” Jindal said.

After moderator Jake Tapper pressed him on whether he believed there was discrimination in the U.S., the Louisiana governor backed down slightly.

“I don’t think a 14-year-old should ever get arrested for bringing a clock to school,” he conceded.

Also on HuffPost:

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HRC calls on Pope Francis to welcome LGBTI people back to Catholic Church

Pope Francis is beginning his long-awaited visit to the United States next week and the Human Rights Campaign will be trying to get his attention.

In anticipation of the Pope’s visit, HRC on Wednesday (15 September) released polling data showing that Catholic voters in the U.S. are more supportive of LGBTI equality than the nation’s voters as a whole.

HRC also wants to draw attention to the discrimination being faced by LGBTI Catholics in the US. They will hang a banner on its Washington headquarters that is within view of the Cathedral of St. Matthew where Francis will pray with Bishops next week.

The banner reads: ‘We Are Your Children, Your Teachers, Your Faithful. Welcomed by God. Dismissed By Our Bishops. Pope Francis, Will You Welcome Us Home?’

HRC President Chad Griffin points out that many in the LGBTI community are being fired from their jobs at Catholic schools and being shunned by their church communities.

‘ … While we join in welcoming the Pope to the United States, we will also be urging him to continue to move toward greater acceptance and embrace of members of our community who are longing to hear that their Church welcomes them – and their families–fully. We are all God’s children,’ Griffin states.

The post HRC calls on Pope Francis to welcome LGBTI people back to Catholic Church appeared first on Gay Star News.

Greg Hernandez

www.gaystarnews.com/article/hrc-calls-on-pope-francis-to-welcome-lgbti-people-back-to-catholic-church/

These Two Gay Men With Their Unwanted Advice Are Trying To Ruin It For Everyone

You’re just minding your own business, trying to have a private chat over lunch or maybe you’re walking your dog in the park or spotting a friend with weights at the gym or perhaps you’ve found a scenic spot to take a few selfies and there they are: the Disgustings. They’ll come along and interrupt your day to offer their unsolicited advice because they know everything. They are the smartest gay guys you’d ever want to meet and they want everyone to know their brand of happiness.

Related: Are These Two The Most Disgusting Gays Imaginable?

In this case, they’re a pair of know-it-alls played with knowing authenticity by brilliantly-gifted comic performers Drew Droege and Jordan Firstman, who have collaborated with Gawker and the Hulu show Difficult People to create the second video in what we hope becomes a long-running series.

Get disgusted by watching “Save the Date” below.

Jeremy Kinser

feedproxy.google.com/~r/queerty2/~3/ZN7gRriR2RI/these-two-gay-men-with-their-unwanted-advice-are-trying-to-ruin-it-for-everyone-20150916

George Pataki: I Would Have Fired Kim Davis If She Worked For Me – VIDEO

As expected, the Kim Davis drama was brought up at the Republican Party presidential debate tonight, with the responses differing wildly among the GOP “kids’s table” participants.

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal said discrimination against anti-gay Christians was the biggest form of discrimination facing America today. Sen. Lindsey Graham said, unlike radical Islamic terrorists, he’s not worried about Kim Davis attacking him.

Former New York Gov. George Pataki, who agreed that the Kentucky clerk was “different from Islamic radicals in the Middle East,” had the strongest condemnation of Davis on the panel, saying:

“An elected official can’t say ‘I’m not going to follow that law if it conflicts with my beliefs.’ I think she should have been fired and if she had worked for me I would have fired her.”

Pataki went on to make a well-reasoned point:

There is a place where the religion supersedes the rule of law. It’s called Iran. It shouldn’t be the United States.

You can watch a live stream of the debate here (no cable subscription required).

The post George Pataki: I Would Have Fired Kim Davis If She Worked For Me – VIDEO appeared first on Towleroad.

Kyler Geoffroy

George Pataki: I Would Have Fired Kim Davis If She Worked For Me – VIDEO

Comedians Build Gay Bar on Russian Soil (Sort Of)

Two Swedish comedians are taking a stand-up against antigay Russian legislation.

Simon Gardenfors and Frej Larsson constructed a makeshift gay bar in a Russian-owned area of Finland last weekend, reports the Associated Press.

Located near the village of Saltvik by the Baltic Sea, the building is inspired by the Blue Oyster Bar, a fictional gay bar from the 1984 film Police Academy (see below).

The goal, says the comedians, is to protest Russia’s so-called “gay propaganda” laws, which prohibit public LGBT demonstrations.

Larsson and Gardenfors are also known internationally as musicians, as they rap together in the group Far & Son.

The local Russian consul has filed a complaint with local authorities, who are investigating what they term “some kind of construction.”

Daniel Reynolds

www.advocate.com/comedy/2015/9/16/comedians-build-gay-bar-russian-soil-sort

Farrah Fawcett-Majors Made Me Realize I'm Super Gay

I was eleven years old and I was with my Aunt Marge in Billings, Montana. It was the summer of 1976.

Aunt Marge had made some amazing lemonade and she handed me a cold glass. As we drank, she ran her fingers over my brand new iron-on T-shirt.

“I like her a lot,” she said, taking a sip from her drink and flinging the condensation onto the lush grass.

I nodded to her. “So do I.”

“Where did you find it?” she asked. She was referring, of course, to the iron-on of Farrah Fawcett-Majors I was wearing.

“At the mall,” I said.

“It’s neat,” she said.

Later that day a storm arrived. In Montana, storms don’t arrive. They come pissed off. I was terrified. All I could think of was the scene in The Wizard of Oz where Dorothy keep kicking at the cellar door and couldn’t get in.

I yelped to Aunt Marge. She looked up from her knitting and said, “But it’s only a small storm, dear.” I implored her to please take me to the cellar. Please, please, please.

Hand in hand, we went to the cellar. I clutched her as the wind howled. I gritted my teeth and clenched my toes as Aunt Marge knitted by the amber light from four kerosene lamps.

Years later, I would tell this true story to my therapist in Boston. He was a slender man who smelled like he had run through the gauntlet of perfumes sprayed upon hapless shoppers who are dumb enough to pass by the perfume counter at Macy’s in Herald Square in Manhattan.

He wore silk shirts and had gold chains around his wrist and neck. When he talked, he always hit the ‘s’ in every word, sounding like an exhausted snake stretching it’s long body in the summer sun.

I told him the Montana story. He hesitated and looked out of the nearby window. On the windows ledge was a very nice bouquet of fresh lavender.

“Your issue is internal homophobia,” he said as he plucked an invisible piece of lint from his designer sleeve.

“No, it’s not,” I said, feeling itchy and annoyed.

“If you’re at a party with a bunch of people, and they’re talking about their childhoods, do you tell them that from the ages of 11 to 16 you only wore T-shirts with Barry Manilow, Olivia Newton-John, Barbara Streisand and Farrah Fawcett on them?”

“Farrah Fawcett-Majors. Why would I tell them that?”

“You know why.”

“What’s past is past.”

My very gay therapist stared at me for a while. Finally he said, “You can be super smart and insightful and gay, you know. Oh! Our time is up. Have a check for me?”

I didn’t need to run to the library to find the definition of internal homophobia: I was ashamed of being gay.

Ashamed? Me? No way. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized my uber gay shrink might have a point.

I always told people I didn’t know I was gay as a kid. But there it was, a photo of me, at 12, wearing a Farrah Fawcett-Majors T-shirt. In Montana.

No 12-year-old heterosexual boy would do that. Ever. They also wouldn’t say to people “Her proper name is Farrah Fawcett-Majors. She married the Six Million Dollar Man in 1973 and she adopted his name thereafter. So her proper name is Farrah Fawcett-Majors, not Farrah Fawcett.”

And I wondered why the only people who came to my 12th birthday party was a girl named Patty Snyder who ate her hair, and a boy named Steve Parker who was so fat that my mom was told to hide my birthday cake from him. “I don’t want to be the one blamed for Steve’s childhood diabetes, thank you very much Creepy Kid” she said to me.

Right now in my bedroom is a Farrah Fawcett-Majors poster, as well as an Olivia Newton-John poster. I’m writing this post listening to Donna Summer. If there were a fire and the firemen where to break down my door (I’d be so lucky) and empty out my closets in search of the origin of the fire, they’d find a box filled with four wigs, seven Barbie’s, a stack of old Barbara Streisand records and a few dozen, tiny disco balls. They light up.

My internal homophobia has been with me for years. I privately thought that men who sounded super gay, or women who looked super gay, were less than. Less smart or less capable or less something.

I was clearly including myself in that bunch, and now I’ve come to see that the only shame heaped upon me about being fabulously gay came from me, me and me.

I still have to bite my tongue when I see gay guys trying to act super masculine. I’m still ashamed of gay sex sometimes, which is why I obsess over diseases. I hear some gay men say, “If I wanted to have sex with a woman, I’d have sex with a woman. I want sex with a man” and I want to say something, but I don’t. Instead, I go home thinking, “They want to act like they drive a tractor, and I want to go find a new pair of bright, purple socks. Cool.”

Of course, the big take away is loving who we are and not waiting for anyone’s validation is the trick. Funny thing is when we do that, people flock to us like a fabulous moth to an amber flame.

Okay, gotta run. Logan’s Run is on TV. Farrah Fawcett-Majors hair was perfect in that movie.

Oh, is that too gay of me to say?

— 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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Gay waiter in Idaho gets 20% tip from couple with religious pamphlet attached

Britton Weaver says his being gay did not come up once while serving lunch to a middle-aged couple at the Marie Callendars in Boise, Idaho, where he works.

But they figured it out.

The couple, who had seemed nice and polite throughout their interaction, they left him a 20% tip and signed the credit card slip with the word ‘straight.’

They also left him religious pamphlet.

‘It was probably to save my soul. Go change your ways, God will forgive you. That is what the pamphlet says,’ Weaver tells KIVI 6 News.

‘I got a little offended,’ he adds. ‘I got a little angered by it. … I’ve dealt with it my whole life. I just take it as it is.

‘It’s a good thing that it was me and I’m not someone that is mean or someone that’s going to do something crazy about it.’

The post Gay waiter in Idaho gets 20% tip from couple with religious pamphlet attached appeared first on Gay Star News.

Greg Hernandez

www.gaystarnews.com/article/gay-waiter-in-idaho-gets-20-tip-from-couple-with-religious-pamphlet-attached/

Rowan County Couple Ask the Candidates: Will You Defend the Constitution?

HRC.org

www.hrc.org/blog/entry/rowan-county-couple-ask-the-candidates-will-you-defend-the-constitution?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss-feed

Towleroad Interview: ‘EastSiders’ Creator and Star Kit Williamson Talks Season 2, Shares Exclusive Clip

In its first season, web series EastSiders won over audiences with its thoughtful portrayal of a relationship in turmoil, steeped in realism and just the right amount of humor. With the release of three new episodes from the show’s second season, EastSiders continues to explore the idea of connection with its signature depth and style. Now, however, the show’s taking a much broader perspective.

That partially comes down to expanding the show’s cast to include a wealth of fascinating new characters, as well as pushing the series’ central couple, Cal (played by creator-writer-director Kit Williamson) and Thom (Van Hansis), into unfamiliar territory, including an open relationship.

But don’t go thinking Williamson is out to create a morality tale. “I really wanted to tackle open relationships with irreverence and to allow it to be commonplace in their relationship,” he said. “I think that a lot of people are worried about depicting LGBT characters as promiscuous or drunk or whatever the case may be, but I don’t think the fact they’re promiscuous or drunk makes them more or less interesting. It’s just facts of who they are, and I wanted to approach characters with flaws and complexities as non-judgmentally as possible. I think we spend too much time judging each other.”

We chatted with Williamson about the new episodes and what’s to come for these characters. See what he had to say about the headspace that Cal and Thom each occupy, diversifying the cast, and his favorite scene of the season, below.

(WARNING: Spoilers ahead…)

Towleroad: How did you decide when you wanted to pick back up with these characters in terms of their timeline?

Kit Williamson: I knew that I wanted some time to have passed, because to step right back into the same headspace the characters were occupying at the end of season one would’ve felt like rehashing the same storyline to me. They needed some time to get past what had caused things to fracture in season one. I wanted them to deal with an entirely new set of relationship issues beyond simple jealousy.

TR: We’re seeing a lot of of secondary characters from the first season back in much richer ways, and we’re seeing even more additions this season. What was the impetus for wanting to expand this world?

KW: It was useful for me to imagine what these characters were doing, because it helped flesh out the world of these friend groups and these people to know about Jeremy’s sister, Bri, for example. And Brea Grant, who plays Bri, makes a very brief appearance as a pot-smoking confidante for him in season one. In part, Brea is a great friend of mine and an incredible actress, and I welcome any opportunity to write anything for her. It was fun for me to imagine where Jeremy would go if he hit rock bottom, and the first thing I thought of was his successful lesbian sister’s house. That’s where I would go if I had a successful lesbian sister and my life fell apart. I would love to be her au pair.

TR: With the addition of these characters, we’re also seeing a lot more diversity in the cast this season. As someone in the position of writer, director and executive producer, how conscious were you of telling diverse stories?

KW: You know, I always wanted to honor the diversity of the neighborhood as much as I could. Knowing that I’m still on a very limited budget, I don’t have access to the same casting process that a show on HBO does, for example. Working with the resources that you have is important and so is looking outside your own social circle as much as you can. We definitely had a much, much richer pool of diverse talent to choose from in season two, and I wanted to take advantage of that, because the neighborhood is really diverse. We definitely got some feedback on the first season that it wasn’t as diverse as some people would like, and that’s something I agreed with. I had wanted to represent a wider array of people, but I really only held a casting for one role in season one. We were able to cast additional roles in season two and to keep an eye out for diversity in a way that I hope feels truthful to the show and enriches it.

TR: Something else that makes the show really special is the way you structure the story. You play a lot with time, jumping backward, jumping forward. What is it about that device that you’re attracted to in terms of storytelling?

KW: I think the way that we remember events and the way it actually happened is very rarely accurate. Especially in season two, I wanted to play with the idea that maybe Cal, for example, has a distorted memory of how things went down and how much agency he actually had in his decision-making process. More than anything I think that the journey to the consequence is as interesting as the consequence of an action. I enjoy playing with time and seeing what headspace people were actually occupying as they were f*cking up their lives.

TR: Of course, season two also begins with a time jump, moving forward in time a bit from where we last left folks in season one. What can you tell us about what’s going on in Cal and Thom’s headspaces when we join them?

KW: I wanted every character to have a radically different experience and journey than they had in season one. For example, Jeremy is this sexy, mysterious woodworker in season one, if you catch my drift. In season two, he’s really hit rock bottom and he’s living with his lesbian sister and taking care of her kids. There are not a lot of things less sexy than that, smoking pot while the kids are upstairs watching television. Similarly, Cal and Thom had a very traditional relationship before things broke apart between them in season one. I didn’t want to explore the same kind of ideas of connecting, because I think there are so many ways that people connect with one another, and I’m not here to argue for one over the other. I think that their attempts at opening up their relationship are just as fraught and perilous as their attempts at monogamy were, because they weren’t communicating openly and honestly with one another. Despite the openness of the relationship in season two, they have some of the same issues. With all of the characters, the need to connect with one another and the way in which we misfire when we communicate what we want and need in relationships is the central subject.

TR: Personally, I ship Kathy and Ian pretty hard, and things are not looking so great for them when we join them. What can you tell us about where they’re at in their relationship when we pick up in season two?

KW: In season two, Ian has finally reached his breaking point with Kathy. Kathy is the type of person that likes to test the limits of people’s patience with her, almost as a sport. It comes from a really deep, profound insecurity and fear of getting rejected and hurt. She wants to make you reject her so that you don’t come to the conclusion that she’s not worthy based on her intrinsic nature. I know a lot of people like that and I can relate to that, personally. We all sometimes lash out at people we really care about because we’re afraid of them rejecting us, so we de facto make it happen. For Ian, I think he’s finally at his breaking point, and we’re about to see a very different side of Ian as he starts to play the field and embrace a not-so-nice-guy Ian.

TR: I’m really excited about the blossoming relationship between Quincy and Douglas. What is it about Quincy’s character that you wanted to explore more?

KW: First, I wanted to give Stephen Guarino more screen time because he’s a comedic genius, and he’s such a joy to write for. When we had the opportunity to bring Willam into the cast, I knew I wanted to see Willam both in and out of drag. So, that kind of becomes the central conflict in their relationship, trying to figure out who they are to one another when they’re not performing. Because they meet each other in a professional context as being these loud, crazy characters that work together promoting parties, there’s that question of what is normal, which is one of those questions at the heart of this season, as Quincy kind of expresses a desire to have more of a traditional relationship with his eccentric, fabulous drag queen boyfriend.

TR: A lot of the dialog feels so natural. How much of it is improv, or how much of that character building is collaborative with the actors?

KW: There is definitely some improv in the show, because I personally am not precious about my dialog. I just want whatever’s truest for the actor, whatever comes out of the moment. I will always choose the truth of the moment over my own words. There’s actually not that much improv in the actual series. Definitely, Stephen and Willam have some great improv, and, honestly, any time there’s a large group scene, I give everyone free reign to throw in ad libs and moments, because it doesn’t make sense that everyone stands around taking turns as they talk, because people rarely do that in life.

TR: That sounds very different than what you hear about working on Mad Men, which is very particular. What from working on Mad Men did you bring to working on EastSiders?

KW: Working on Mad Men and getting to see how that set works was really educational for me, because it gave me something to work toward, something to strive toward, in terms of how you organize a set and the fastidiousness and attention to detail that every single person on that set brings to their very specific job. It couldn’t be more different though from what we have to work with. We have, for six half-hours of television, less of a budget than five minutes of a show like Mad Men or Looking. Obviously, everyone’s running around doing 30 people’s jobs, but trying to act as though the stakes are that high, as though as much money is changing hands as on a show like Mad Men or Looking is a real challenge. It helps you to make the show greater than the sum of its line items in the budget.

TR: From these first three episodes, do you have a favorite scene?

KW: Probably the brief scene, shot in one shot, with Quincy and Douglas, when Quincy comes in to use the bathroom in the club and Douglas makes his interests known and asks him for molly.

TR: Any other tidbits you can reveal about what’s to come in the back half of the season?

KW: I would just say that anybody who’s concerned that this is an argument for promiscuity should stay tuned and check out the consequences that befall some of the characters. Let’s just say that we have the entire cast of Gayby working as the staff of an STD clinic.

TR: Have you already started thinking about season three?

KW: I do have an idea, and it’s a really good one. For now, I just have to put one foot in front of the other and get through our launch on Vimeo, and then the release of the DVD and launch on other digital platforms in November. Then, hopefully, I’ll have time to come up for air and start writing.

The first three episodes from season two of EastSiders are now available on Vimeo On Demand.

The post Towleroad Interview: ‘EastSiders’ Creator and Star Kit Williamson Talks Season 2, Shares Exclusive Clip appeared first on Towleroad.

Bobby Hankinson

Towleroad Interview: ‘EastSiders’ Creator and Star Kit Williamson Talks Season 2, Shares Exclusive Clip