Gay rugby player Sam Stanley pays touching tribute to boyfriend

Sam Stanley, the professional British Rugby Union player who publicly came out as gay two weeks ago, has posted a touching message on his Instagram feed concerning the support he has received from his partner, Laurence Hicks.

Last week we revealed that although Stanley, aged 23, has only recently made a declaration concerning his sexuality, he has frequently posted images on his Instagram of him and Hicks.

The couple’s age gap has prompted much comment – positive and negative – on social media.

In a posting on Sunday, Stanley said: ‘It’s funny how you can go through so much with someone but feel you have to hide it due to it not being deemed ‘normal’….even in today’s society!

‘My guy @lorenzo_uk ❤️ has played a huge part in my life and as grateful as I am for all the support shown by people worldwide….. Nothing beats the support he has shown me and I couldn’t be without him. Finding that someone who you would do anything for and who also makes life worthwhile is so incredibly satisfying!

‘I really hope people still in the situation I was in not long ago, can find the strength to be themselves and live an honest and open life. You owe it to yourself to #betrue

‘Perceptions need to change and my wish is that one day, in our world, being gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender or whatever isn’t an issue at all!’

It’s funny how you can go through so much with someone but feel you have to hide it due to it not being deemed ‘normal’….even in today’s society! My guy @lorenzo_uk ❤️ has played a huge part in my life and as grateful as I am for all the support shown by people worldwide….. Nothing beats the support he has shown me and I couldn’t be without him. Finding that someone who you would do anything for and who also makes life worthwhile is so incredibly satisfying! I really hope people still in the situation I was in not long ago, can find the strength to be themselves and live an honest and open life. You owe it to yourself to #betrue Perceptions need to change and my wish is that one day, in our world, being gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender or whatever isn’t an issue at all! #family #lovewins #betruetoyourself #gay #straight #lesbian #bisexual #transgender

A photo posted by Sam Stanley (@samstannerz) on Sep 6, 2015 at 2:22am PDT

The message was greeted by his followers with many comments of support.

One, nick_o_pedia, identified with Stanley overt his choice of partner, saying: ‘I am currently with an older man. He is 21 years older. He came into my life at a time when I was struggling to find myself and navigating the waters of being gay alone and afraid. It was love at first sight!

He’s helped me be me and to find my footing. He’s been patient and kind, much like your boyfriend. So I wanted to say, thank you! Thank you for showing the world that age is a number and that love conquers all’

 Another, carloslynchoviedo, simply said: ‘Big hugs to both of you! You are such a great example and role model for relationships with age gap.’

Stanley followed it up Monday with a short video clip of himself, topless, playing guitar and singing Brian McNight’s ‘One Last Cry’. Perhaps if Stanley tires of rugby, a career in entertainment beckons!

I should probably leave it to him but such a great song and one I love to sing and play Brian McKnight – One Last Cry #jamming #music #vocals #acapella A video posted by Sam Stanley (@samstannerz) on Sep 7, 2015 at 1:21pm PDT

The post Gay rugby player Sam Stanley pays touching tribute to boyfriend appeared first on Gay Star News.

David Hudson

www.gaystarnews.com/article/gay-rugby-player-sam-stanley-pays-touching-tribute-to-boyfriend/

Out Author-Filmmaker Chris Johnson Is Spreading The Word About Atheism

New York-based author Chris Johnson insists he never had any issue with being an atheist nor a gay man. But when he saw the impact religious orthodoxy was having on his queer friends, he became inspired to create a book of photographs of and interviews with various prominent atheists.

The result, A Better Life, has been drawing attention and enthusiastic reviews since its release last year. Johnson, a film-school graduate and theatre enthusiast, followed up with a documentary film of the same name, in which he talks to a cross-section of atheists about their philosophy and how being godless has left them no less fulfilled or intact as people. Interview subjects include musician and actor Adam Pascal (Rent), celebrity rock climber Alex Honnold and actor, comedian and SNL alumnus Julia Sweeney. The result is a moving meditation on what life means if we step away from the conventional answers offered by the world’s religions, both big and small. Johnson recently chatted with Queerty about the book and film A Better Life.

Queerty: America is still a very religious place. How much resistance and criticism have you had with this book and movie?

Chris Johnson: Due to the fact that my book and film have a fundamentally positive angle, I get less open criticism from religious people. If I had made a film called Fuck You God, the pushback would have been a lot greater. I think many religious people are taken aback by such a positive message, and don’t know how to react. However, the ideas presented in the film and book are pretty controversial. In the United States, many people think that without God, you have no moral compass, or that you must be missing something important in your life. Often, we are seen as grumpy, curmudgeonly people, and I wanted to challenge that stereotype and show atheists discussing the big questions in life and living a beautiful life — free from the constraints of religion and theism. If you think this is the only life you have, it affects how you view your life and the world around you. If there is no God up there pulling the strings, or influencing the world, it’s up to us to make the positive changes we want to see and improve the lives of others.

Do you feel there’s a connection between your sexual orientation and your atheism?

I was lucky — I was never religious and never had much of a struggle accepting my sexual orientation. However, many of my friends in the LGBT community who grew up in religious environments faced enormous struggles accepting their sexual orientation or gender identity. The constant obsession with controlling peoples’ sexuality through religion always baffled me. It’s amazing to me how much people seem to care about the consensual sexual practices of others. It’s really sad how religion can make people care about the wrong things. We have a country right now where people are spending millions of dollars, enormous resources, time and energy trying to stop consenting adults from getting married just because a religious book tells them it’s wrong. What a complete waste of time. If only we could use all those resources to actually do something good in the world.

Was there an odd lesson you learned from any of the many people you interviewed in your travels?

Probably the thing that stuck with me the most was something Julia Sweeney talks about in the film. She mentions reflecting on the happiest moments in your life and how, at the end of the day, these memories are all we have to look back on. That really stayed with me throughout this journey. I’ve tried to be in the moment more when traveling and savoring the moments along the way. It can be difficult to not get lost in the day-to-day rat race of life, but it’s important to take a step back sometimes and savor the moments you’re living. As John Lennon once said, “Life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans.”

Why do you think there’s still such a passionate anger with atheism?

Well, I think there’s a good reason to be angry. Religious influence still has an enormous negative effect on this country and people around the world. LGBT people are committing suicide, people are being killed, rights being trampled on — all in the name of religion, and those are things we need to stand up against and try to change. I think that anger can be an effective tool in creating change and is completely understandable given the situation we are in. However, one of the reasons I started this project in the first place was to add to that conversation, a piece that I felt was missing — that was the positive side of atheism. We can talk about how the others get it wrong until we’re blue in the face, but if we don’t talk about how we get it right, we’re missing a huge part of the conversation, and that’s what I’m trying to show with this film.

Do you ever think of getting a T-shirt made that reads “GODLESS QUEER”?

[Laughs] No, but I should! I wonder where I would get the most amount of flack for that?

What’s the strangest question you have ever got at a question-and-answer session after a film screening?

Most of the questions at the Q&As have been really great. The film has really resonated with people around the world, and I’ve been struck at how people from various background have been moved by the themes and messages of it. In terms of the strangest question, at one screening, a woman noticed that I was wearing glasses at the screening but did not wear glasses in the film and asked me if that was a deliberate choice. I said yes. [Laughs] It was just easier that way.

For more information on Johnson, his book, film and dates for screenings and speaking engagements, go here.

Watch the film’s trailer below.

Jeremy Kinser

feedproxy.google.com/~r/queerty2/~3/XpqabDzrGN0/out-author-filmmaker-chris-johnson-is-spreading-the-word-about-atheism-20150909

Find out what happened when International Mr. Leather 2015 visited Uganda

Let’s call him a superhero for the modern age.

 

Patrick Smith, the winner of International Mr. Leather 2015 and Senior Manager of Business Development for Marvel Studios, has just returned from an LGBTI outreach project in Uganda.

The married muscleman met with 2014 Nobel Peace Prize nominee and LGBTI activist Dr. Frank Mugisha during his trip, as well as Rev. Mark Kitimba, leader of the Unitarian Universalist Church.

‘My experience in Uganda was life-changing,’ Smith says. ‘I look forward to returning to the US and telling the story of LGBT people in Africa, so that we can raise awareness and help their cause from abroad.’

He added: ‘I always said that as International Mr. Leather, I would go to places in the world not just with established leather communities, but to places where LGBT people still exist on the fringes of society.’

Smith, who is Canadian but now lives in LA, has said he takes ‘inspiration from the many superheros clad in their tight leather gear’ through his work at Marvel.

He continued: ‘It’s important to raise awareness of the persecution of gays and lesbians in other parts of the world. We may have it pretty good in the US, but the situation is so bleak in so many other places.

He won the coveted award at a ceremony in Chicago in May, and is also Mr. Los Angeles Leather 2015.

We think we’re in love.

Join me at the GayDays Anaheim pool party! Tickets: bit.ly/1HX6Jgs

A photo posted by Patrick Smith (@patrickjonsmith) on Aug 19, 2015 at 9:05pm PDT

The post Find out what happened when International Mr. Leather 2015 visited Uganda appeared first on Gay Star News.

Jamie Tabberer

www.gaystarnews.com/article/find-out-what-happened-when-international-mr-leather-2015-visited-uganda/

European man on trial for homosexuality in Dubai after reporting robbery

An unnamed European man is facing sodomy charges in Dubai after he reported being robbed by two Pakistani men that he allegedly met through a gay website.

According to a report by Emirates 24/7 the 34-year-old connected online with one of his robbers six months ago and maintained an online acquaintance with him.

Earlier this month the man, who’s nationality has not been released to the media, invited his Pakistani friend and another man to come to his apartment.

However on arrival the two Pakistanis stripped and assaulted the European man before carrying him to the bedroom where they tied him to the bed, stuffing a ball in his mouth to keep him quiet.

The pair then allegedly took three laptop computers, two mobile phones, two cameras, seven watches and a digital headset before fleeing the apartment,

The victim reported the robbery to officers from the Dubai Police Force.

However when the suspects were apprehended one of them allegedly admitted meeting the European through the gay website and an investigation was opened into the victim as well.

The European man could potentially be jailed for up to 10 years if charges of consensual sodomy can be proved against him.

However most foreigners that have been convicted in Dubai for having consensual gay sex in recent year have been given prison sentences from a month to a year and been deported from the United Arab Emirates on release from prison.

The two Pakistanis face charges of unlawful detention of a person, robbery and assault while one of them has also been charged for possessing a fake passport.

Only 10-15% of the population of Dubai are citizens, with the rest being foreign guest workers or resident expats, with most of those coming from India or Pakistan.

The post European man on trial for homosexuality in Dubai after reporting robbery appeared first on Gay Star News.

Andrew Potts

www.gaystarnews.com/article/european-man-on-trial-for-homosexuality-in-dubai-after-reporting-robbery/

Watch what happens when a gay couple hold hands at a soccer match in Portugal

After a video of a gay couple holding hands in Lisbon became the most watched LGBTI YouTube video in Portugal, Lorenzo and Pedro decided to repeat in the social experiment ‘homophobic’ north of the country.

The couple were warned that reactions would be very different in ‘homophobic’ Oporto  and they could even be killed.

Lorenzo and Pedro immediately accepted the challenge.

‘The goal was to see how people react in this areas of the country when they see a gay couple holding hands and exchanging some affections‘ they told Gay Star News.

‘We were two days in various areas of Oporto: from the iconic tourist areas, through the most “dangerous” places of the city.

‘We even went to the Dragon Stadium in a day of a soccer game, which is known to be not acceptive of gay couples.’

During their two days in Oporto, they kissed at an outdoor restaurant sat on each other’s lap on a bench, but amazingly they did not receive a single negative response.

‘Contrary to popular opinion, we felt not only comfortable and safe in Oporto, but accepted as we did Lisbon,’ they say in the video.

‘Once again, we got loads of looks. Sometimes, people look will, comment or even laugh a little at when seeing something new and different. And this is completely normal in the early days of acceptance.’

They added: ‘Our hope is that videos like this will lose their and walk with pride  one knowing that they’re safe and accepted.’

Similar experiments in Moscow, Kiev and Jerusalem, however, have had less happy results. The couples in those cities were bombarded with anti-gay slurs and one ended in a Neo-Nazi attack.

Watch the video below:

The post Watch what happens when a gay couple hold hands at a soccer match in Portugal appeared first on Gay Star News.

Darren Wee

www.gaystarnews.com/article/watch-what-happens-when-a-gay-couple-hold-hands-at-a-soccer-match-in-portugal/

Survivor ‘outraged’ Eye of the Tiger was played at Kim Davis rally, may sue

Survivor guitarist Frankie Sullivan is ‘outraged’ his song Eye of the Tiger was played at a rally for Kim Davis and has said he may sue.

The Kentucky clerk was released Tuesday (8 September) after spending five nights in jail for refusing to issue gay marriage licenses, despite a Supreme Court ruling against her.

A sobbing Davis, arm-in-arm with Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, walked onstage to address the thousands of supporters who gathered outside Carter County Detention Center in Grayson – while Eye of the Tiger roared through loud speakers.

Survivor’s representative told TMZ they are ‘determined to protect the integrity of their music’ and were considering legal action.

‘NO! We did not grant Kim Davis any rights to use “My Tune -The Eye Of The Tiger.” I would not grant her the rights…’ Sullivan wrote on the band’s official Facebook page.

‘I would not grant her the rights to use Charmin!’

He added: ‘See Ya really SoooooooonnnnnnN!!!!!!’

Watch Kim Davis address her supporters below:

The post Survivor ‘outraged’ Eye of the Tiger was played at Kim Davis rally, may sue appeared first on Gay Star News.

Darren Wee

www.gaystarnews.com/article/survivor-outraged-eye-of-the-tiger-was-played-at-kim-davis-rally-may-sue/

Fayetteville Voted on LGBT Rights Again

Voters in Fayetteville, Arkansas once again voted on a fully inclusive nondiscrimination ordinance after repealing a similar ordinance last year.

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Bil Browning

www.advocate.com/arkansas/2015/09/08/fayetteville-voted-lgbt-rights-again

Mike Huckabee Thinks He Knows The Constitution Better Than The Supreme Court

GOP presidential candidate Mike Huckabee blasted the Supreme Court on Tuesday for allegedly going beyond its authority to interpret the Constitution and making law. His listeners were a crowd rallying in support of Kim Davis, the recalcitrant Kentucky county clerk just released from jail. 

Hopefully, they didn’t believe what Huckabee told them.

“We do not want this country to become the smoldering remains of what was once a great republic, where the people rule,” the former Arkansas governor told the crowd. That vision of America should not be “exchanged for a place where five unelected lawyers think that they can rule,” he said.

“We’re here to say, ‘No, they cannot,'” Huckabee declared.   

He was referring to the Supreme Court’s June decision finding that gays and lesbians have a constitutional right to marry. Davis has famously — or infamously — opposed that ruling in her refusal to issue marriage licenses to all comers in Rowan County. 

Huckabee’s mention of “five unelected lawyers” was borrowed from the landmark decision itself. In his dissenting opinion, Chief Justice John Roberts wrote that the “five lawyers” — otherwise known as his fellow justices — who ruled in favor of gay couples “have closed the debate and enacted their own vision of marriage as a matter of constitutional law.”

“Stealing this issue from the people will for many cast a cloud over same-sex marriage, making a dramatic social change that much more difficult to accept,” Roberts wrote.

It’s not clear that a more majoritarian process, such as the Kentucky state legislature passing a law, would have persuaded Davis to go along with the new legal reality. But not even the Roberts Court was willing to suggest her religious liberty arguments sounded good. Last week, the high court declined to get involved in her case and to let her disobey a federal judge’s order. Defiance of that order was what ultimately landed Davis in jail for contempt of court.

Though the Supreme Court’s refusal to intervene last week was issued without an explanation, it at least indicated that the justices aren’t eager to advance the culture war between gay rights and religious rights that Huckabee is pushing.

Nodding to the separation of powers and “the genius of our Constitution,” Huckabee told Davis supporters on Tuesday that the Supreme Court’s power is “limited” and that it “can only review a law.” Reasonably true.

But then came his warning that “the founders never gave that one branch of government the power to make a law.”

Huckabee added, “That is reserved for the representatives of the people. Our founders were so concerned that they said that should we ever come to the place that we allow a court to run amok of its purpose, then we would be living under what is no less than judicial tyranny.”

Huckabee was thin on the specifics of how to tell when a court is running “amok.” But it can be gleaned from his comments Tuesday — and a January interview with talk show host Hugh Hewitt — that he thinks that Supreme Court rulings on constitutional issues aren’t final and that state officials may flout them when they disagree.

In the Hewitt interview, Huckabee said there has to be an “agreement” between the Supreme Court and “the other two branches of government” for something to become the law of the land. Anything less, he said, could potentially lead to a “confrontation.”

That thinking reveals a clear misunderstanding of basic civics, not to mention Arkansas’ own appalling constitutional history.

This is U.S. History 101: It was settled over two centuries ago that the Supreme Court is the final arbiter on the meaning of the Constitution and of the constitutionality of any laws that may conflict with it. The text of the Constitution provides that it is “the supreme law of the land” and that all other sources of law — including the states and their constitutions — are bound by it.

Alternatively, Huckabee could look to a gubernatorial predecessor of his for clues on how misguided his comments are.

Following the Supreme Court’s 1954 ruling in Brown v. Board of Education, Arkansas and its governor, Orval Faubus, stood in staunch opposition to desegregating the state’s public schools. They claimed that Brown didn’t bind them.

That resistance led to the Supreme Court’s ruling four years later in Cooper v. Aaron, which directly involved the Little Rock, Arkansas, school district. With one voice, the justices declared that Brown was indeed “the supreme law of the land.”

Why? Because the Supreme Court’s interpretation of the Constitution, they said, is “of binding effect on the States.”

In addition, the court pointed out that state officials take an oath to support the Constitution. No official can later wage a battle against that Constitution “without violating his undertaking to support it.”

That’s awfully reminiscent of what Kim Davis is doing with her opposition to issuing marriage licenses — which, in the view of one scholar, may be a sinful act in and of itself. And it’s a constitutional lesson that should make Huckabee think twice before he tells people that a Supreme Court ruling doesn’t bind them.

Daniel Marans contributed reporting.

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Twitter Goes Wild With Contempt for Kim Davis

She may no longer be in contempt of court, but many clever Twitter have expressed contempt for the antigay Kentucky clerk.

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Trudy Ring

www.advocate.com/media/2015/09/08/twitter-goes-wild-contempt-kim-davis

One Woman's Journey Growing Up Transgender And Mormon

Transmormon, a documentary recently selected to be part of National Geographic’s Short Film Showcase, explores what it’s like growing up transgender and Mormon. The story is told through the eyes of Eri Hayward, a transgender woman raised in a Mormon community in Utah, and her family.

“For the longest time I kind of had this fantasy… that a fairy godmother would come and turn me into a girl and make everything better,” said Eri, who was assigned male at birth. “It was such an escape for me.”

Eri’s father, Ed, recalled her saying as a 4-year-old, “Daddy, I want to be a girl.” Ed said he thought it was a “phase” his child was going through, a theory that seemed to be corroborated in Eri’s teenage years when she started dressing in more masculine styles and dating a girl. But that didn’t last long, either.

Eri had been ordained to the priesthood in the LDS church and was the first assistant to the bishop, her father said. But one day when she didn’t show up to church he went to check on her, and Eri told him she was gay. It was her way of explaining to her family and friends what was going on with her, without having the language yet to describe that she was in fact transgender.

“I don’t think I succumbed to my body, I think I succumbed to my spirit and what it needed,” Eri said. “When it comes down to it, the only thing I can believe in is the relationship between me and God.”

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints believes gender to be an “eternal” aspect of a person’s identity. The church refuses to baptize anyone planning on undergoing sex-reassignment surgery and will not ordain transgender people to the priesthood. Elective sex-reassignment surgery “may be cause for formal church discipline,” according to the church’s handbook.  

Watch the short documentary below to learn how Eri eventually came out as transgender to her family and how this impacted her relationship to her Mormon faith: 

 

Also on HuffPost:

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