Warsaw’s Tolerance Rainbow taken down

Warsaw’s iconic rainbow art installation – a symbol of LGBTI tolerance – has been taken down.

Several hundred people watched Wednesday (August 26) night as the plastic flowers were plucked and the metal support structure dismantled.

The 9m Tolerance Rainbow started in 2012 as a celebration of Poland’s EU presidency in Brussels. It was moved to Savior Square in 2012, where it became a symbol of tolerance – and one of controversy.

Politician Stanisław Pięta complained that the ‘hideous rainbow had hurt the feelings of believers’ – it is located next to a Catholic church –  and Priest Tadeusz Rydzyk described it as a ‘symbol of deviancy.’

It was torched seven times in the three years it was in the square, most recently in December.

Warsaw’s Tolerance Rainbow after it was burned in a riot in 2013. (Wikipedia)

‘No other art piece in the country has triggered such a nationwide debate, nor polarized society to such extent in decades,’ Radio Poland noted.

‘I think the Rainbow was a mirror [for our society],’ artist Julita Wojcik told the station.

‘That’s why I actually started to be a voice for the LGBT community. These groups told me the Rainbow did more than they tried to do for years in Poland.’

City authorities, previously supportive, did not extend the rainbow’s contract, which was due to end in December.

Ownership of the controversial work of art has now been assumed by the Centre for Contemporary Art.

The post Warsaw’s Tolerance Rainbow taken down appeared first on Gay Star News.

Darren Wee

www.gaystarnews.com/article/warsaws-tolerance-rainbow-taken-down/

Two more trans murders reported in US

The murders of two more black transgender women were reported in the US this week.

The women were slain earlier in the year but were initially misgendered in police and news reports.

Jasmine Collins, 32, was stabbed to death in Kansas City in June during an argument with a woman over a pair of Vans shoes, according to KCTV.

Tia Townsel was been arrested and charged with second-degree murder.

Collins’ death only came to light this week following the murder of another transgender woman of color, Tamara Dominguez, in the city.

Keyshia Blige, 33, was shot in the shoulder on 7 March while driving with a friend in Aurora, Illinois. She continued to drive but ran into a Jeep and died later in hospital.

Police said the killing was ‘definitely not a hate crime’ and no arrests have been made.

The Chicago Tribune initially misgendered Blige, though later reported that she had been taking hormones since January.

The post Two more trans murders reported in US appeared first on Gay Star News.

Darren Wee

www.gaystarnews.com/article/two-more-trans-murders-reported-in-us/

Ellen Page: It’s ‘borderline offensive’ to call straight actors ‘brave’ for playing gay

Ellen Page has said it is ‘borderline offensive’ to call straight actors ‘brave’ for taking on gay roles.

In an interview with Time, it was suggested that the openly gay actress was ‘brave’ to play a lesbian dying of cancer in her upcoming film Freeheld.

‘Maybe this is a bad thing to say, but I have a hard time when people call actors brave,’ she responded.

‘I don’t really get that, because our job is to read something on a page.’

The 28-year-old added: ‘When people are [called] brave in regards to playing LGBTQ people, that’s borderline offensive.’

‘I’m never going to be considered brave for playing a straight person, and nor should I be.’

Page recently confronted Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz about his discrimination of LGBTI people in the name of ‘religious freedom,’ and she addressed the debate in the interview.

‘The tricky thing about religion is you can’t even have a conversation. You just cannot have a conversation. It doesn’t affect me: For me it goes in one ear and out the other,’ she said.

‘But when you think of young people who are potentially being preached to by said person and their parents believe it, and they happen to be gay or trans or what-have-you, they’re going to have a really, really challenging time.

‘And that’s what’s so sad about it. Getting infused with that amount of shame into your body and into your mind. Potentially getting kicked out of your house. Potentially in a place where you’re homeless and every night of your life is life-or-death. That’s when I have no time for this religious argument.

‘I don’t understand being part of a religion where your religious liberty or your religious freedom is based on other people not being treated equally. I don’t understand that – I really don’t.

Page said she is often told that she will find God and be with a man.

Her response: ‘Well, not gonna happen, but you enjoy your time in heaven. I’ll be down in hell.’

The post Ellen Page: It’s ‘borderline offensive’ to call straight actors ‘brave’ for playing gay appeared first on Gay Star News.

Darren Wee

www.gaystarnews.com/article/ellen-page-its-borderline-offensive-to-call-straight-actors-brave-for-playing-gay/

South Dakota Keeps Trans-Inclusive School Sports Policy

However, legislators may challenge it — even trying to require genital exams.

read more

Trudy Ring

www.advocate.com/transgender/2015/08/27/south-dakota-keeps-trans-inclusive-school-sports-policy

Op-ed: How San Francisco Is Beating HIV

After a frustrating, decades-long stagnation in rates of HIV transmission, there’s a breakthrough in San Francisco. With information and strategy we can overpower HIV.

read more

Brenden Shucart

www.advocate.com/print-issue/current-issue/2015/08/27/op-ed-how-san-francisco-beating-hiv

Texas couple claims homophobic hotel chef refused to cater their wedding

Daren Merchant and Rick O’Connor decided to get married after 24 years together.

But they say they were in for a rude awakening when they picked for their reception the Hilton Garden Inn  just north of Dallas where Merchant’s daughter is an employee.

Merchant took to Facebook to complain that his daughter overheard the hotel chef voicing his opposition to the event.

‘The chef was refusing to do the dinner for the reception,’ Merchant tells KDFW-TV. ‘He had major issues with us being a gay couple,’ said Merchant. ‘…About us having the right to be married, about it creating the apocalypse, about it causing all sorts of other issues, comparing us to Caitlin Jenner.’

Merchant complained to Hilton management but said he was not taken seriously until he shared the incident on social media.

‘I tweeted a short sentence about the issue and all of the sudden Hilton took notice,’ he wrote on Facebook.

Still, he wrote that it took more than a week for the hotel manager to contact him and received further run around’ and was ‘passed back and forth.’ It was then that he wrote about the incident, in detail, on his Facebook page.

‘I am actually shocked that in the day and age that something like this still happens as in the 24 years Rick and I have been together we have never had to face this from any corporation in any industry,’ he wrote.

The story quickly spread and on Thursday (27 August), Merchant finally felt like he was being taken seriously.

He posted an update on Facebook saying he had received a call from the President of Texas Hotel and Lodging Association calling on behalf of the hotel and they had ‘a very long conversation.’

Merchant wrote that the two had discussed ‘a very agreeable solution’ but did not share specifics. He did say he was assured there had been a ‘staffing change.’

‘I do feel that his intentions are honorable and both Rick and I agreed to take his resolution to heart and seriously consider it.,’ he wrote.

Merchant thanked everyone for their support but wants hotel management to be left alone at this point because they have ‘come across to me as being very sorry that the situation occurred and they truly understand and are sorry for the stress this has caused us.’

The post Texas couple claims homophobic hotel chef refused to cater their wedding appeared first on Gay Star News.

Greg Hernandez

www.gaystarnews.com/article/texas-couple-claims-homophobic-hotel-chef-refused-to-cater-their-wedding/

WATCH: Donald Trump Still Can't Explain His Marriage Equality Opposition

The top-polling Republican presidential candidate avoided answering a direct question like a political pro.

read more

Sunnivie Brydum

www.advocate.com/politics/election/2015/08/27/watch-donald-trump-still-cant-explain-his-marriage-equality-opposition

With kids grown, Caitlyn Jenner ready to display Olympic gold medal again – her ‘most prized possession’

Caitlyn Jenner is ready to dust off the gold medal she won as Bruce in the decathlon at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal.

The victory led to Jenner being declared ‘The World’s Greatest Athlete,’ scores of endorsement deals and being featured on a box of Wheaties breakfast cereal.

But the parent of six and stepparent of four reveals in a new video that she put away her gold medal long ago and currently keeps it in the bottom drawer of a vanity where she keeps her make-up.

Why has Jenner, 65, been hiding it what she calls ‘my most-prized possession’ for so long?

‘I’m so proud of it,’ she says in a new WhoSay video. ‘However, I never wanted my kids to feel like they had to have a gold medal in order to be considered a success. I didn’t want them to constantly compare their own achievements to my time in the Olympics, so I haven’t displayed my medal.’

But that is about to change.

‘Now that all of my kids are adults and out of the house, I think it might be time to put this baby up,’ Jenner says.

The post With kids grown, Caitlyn Jenner ready to display Olympic gold medal again – her ‘most prized possession’ appeared first on Gay Star News.

Greg Hernandez

www.gaystarnews.com/article/with-kids-grown-caitlyn-jenner-ready-t-display-olympic-gold-medal-again-her-most-prized-possession/

Antigay Activist Josh Duggar Checks Into Rehab To Control His Sexual Urges

It’s been one hell of a summer for reality TV star/antigay activist Josh Duggar, and not in a good way.

Trouble for the married father-of-two began back in May when he confessed to molesting two of his sisters in their sleep, resulting in a media superstorm that ultimately cost his family their TLC reality show. Last week, “family man” Duggar again made national headlines when it was revealed he had not one but two profiles on Ashely Madison, a dating website that helps facilitate extramarital affairs.

Related: Josh Duggar’s Ashley Madison Account Revealed, Meanwhile Parents Pitch Reality Show About Child Sex Abuse

Now, the former executive director of the FRC says he’s checking into a “treatment center” after admitting he was “unfaithful” to his unsuspecting wife, Anna, while she was busy carrying his children.

In a statement, Josh’s parents, Jim Bob and Michelle, said they were “deeply grieved” by Josh’s actions but “thankful for the outpouring of love, care and prayers for our family during this most difficult situation.”

They also said they predict a “long journey toward wholeness and recovery” but they believe that with Jesus on his side, Josh will be OK.

“His wrong choices have deeply hurt his precious wife and children and have negatively affected so many others,” the statement said. “During this time we continue to look to God—He is our rock and comfort. We ask for your continued prayers for our entire family.”

We’re pretty sure it’s going to take more than a few extra prayers to fix this mess.

Related: The Antigay Duggars Are Officially 19 Kids And Canceled

h/t: Pink News

Graham Gremore

feedproxy.google.com/~r/queerty2/~3/_RzH8sdpQS4/antigay-activist-josh-duggar-checks-into-rehab-to-control-his-sexual-urges-20150827

Texas Values President Jonathan Saenz: Gay Army Has Occupied America And Is Coming For Your Pastor

Gay people are like an Army that has occupied America, and now they’re about to start targeting pastors and churches, according to one Texas-based anti-LGBT hate group.

Texas Values President Jonathan Saenz, whose wife famously left him for a woman, wrote in a fundraising email Thursday:

America today is occupied territory. The enemies of religious freedom occupy every power center from government to academia. Everyone (SIC) except its spiritual core. Thank God, that power isn’t centered in Washington. It flows from the faith and values of its people, from a thousand churches and faith-filled homes across Texas and beyond.

That makes our pastors the Leaders of the Resistancee (SIC).

How does an invading army break the will of an occupied people? First, it identifies its Resistance Leaders. Next, it isolates and demoralizes them, making them think they’re alone and powerless. Then it breaks them––before the people can rally to their defense.

This is why your pastor is truly in the cross-hairs. Armed with not only the recent egregious Supreme Court same-sex ‘marriage’ decision but a host of lower-court rulings and guidelines, the pro-homosexual left is scouring Texas—America’s last stronghold of resistance—seeking “weakest link” communities and churches for a pre-emptive strike.

Thankfully, pastors can save us from the gays, according to Saenz, but only if Texas Values can raise $25,000 to educate them about the so-called “Pastor Protection Act.” 

The law, passed earlier this year, is designed to protect pastors and churches from being forced to participate in same-sex weddings. As such, it merely reaffirms existing protections under the First Amendment, and Texas’ two openly LGBT lawmakers both voted in favor of it. But don’t tell that to Saenz:

So it’s not enough for only a few well-informed pastors to know about our state’s new Pastor Protection Law. Every member of the Texas clergy and every Texas church must know they’re shielded against being forced to solemnize, perform, or celebrate a same-sex ‘marriage’ in violation of their beliefs.

Does your pastor know? What about other pastors and churches in your community?

I have been through a lawsuit for my First Amendment rights before, as a law student defending the rights of the campus pro-life group I was leading. It’s no picnic. If more people know about the Pastor Protection Law we can help keep pastors out of court or jail and in the pulpits, and out in their community where they do their best work!

The post Texas Values President Jonathan Saenz: Gay Army Has Occupied America And Is Coming For Your Pastor appeared first on Towleroad.

John Wright

Texas Values President Jonathan Saenz: Gay Army Has Occupied America And Is Coming For Your Pastor