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Cop dyes his hair pink to support gay rights and stand up to bullying
A police officer in Toronto, Canada, got a makeover to show his support for gay rights and stand up to bullying.
www.wthr.com/story/28776644/cop-dyes-his-hair-pink-to-support-gay-rights-and-stand-up-to-bullying
Sport: Just a game or a tool for development?
Sport serves multiple purposes: it is a wonderful proxy for a controlled conflict , an “us and them” situation where people or groups can measure forces symbolically, it serves for exercise, it serves for the fun of playing and… can be a useful tool for development, bringing people together.
english.pravda.ru/society/anomal/09-04-2015/130239-sport_game_tool-0/
Carson wants to keep LGBT issues 'personal'
Potential presidential candidate Ben Carson doesn’t want to talk about LGBT issues. The neurosurgeon insisted Thursday on CNN’s “New Day” that the topic is “a personal issue” that should be left to private forums — not discussed in a public forum like…
www.abc-7.com/story/28759795/carson-wants-to-keep-lgbt-issues-personal
Health clinic settles first transgender bias lawsuit by U.S. agency
(Reuters) – A Florida health clinic has agreed to pay $150,000 to a transgender former employee who claimed she was fired because she transitioned to a woman, in the first case of its kind brought by the U.S. government.
6 Questions With A Gay Imam, Daayiee Abdullah
Imam Daayiee Abdullah is the spiritual leader of the Light of Reform mosque in Washington. An American-born convert to Islam, Abdullah may also be the only openly gay imam in the U.S.
For years, he has cared for the spiritual needs of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Muslims. On his calendar this May is an annual retreat for LGBT Muslims and their partners, organized by the Muslim Alliance for Sexual and Gender Diversity. The retreat brings Muslims together to talk about faith and sexuality.
HuffPost Religion recently talked with Abdullah. His responses have been edited for clarity and length.
Were you a very spiritual person growing up?
I was definitely a very spiritual child.
Growing up in Detroit in the 1960s, I knew people from all over the world. All types of families had come there because of the auto industry. I had schoolmates that were black and Korean. I was exposed to Hindu gods and Buddhists, a variety of Christian faiths, both Protestant and Catholic.
I was raised Southern Baptist, but by the time I was 8, I knew it wasn’t for me. I felt as if my religion wasn’t resounding with me and that there was something else out there. And one day when I was talking to my parents, I told them what I thought. They said they couldn’t tell me what to believe in, but that I needed something to believe in. They allowed me to search.
When I grew older, I started practicing Buddhism. I worked as a court stenographer for some time before going to law school. I spent several months abroad at a university in Beijing. That was where I was first began to really study Islam, through my friendship with the Uighur Muslim community in China. I converted to Islam in China when I was 29.
Overall, it was the form of prayer that really spoke to me. As a Christian and a Buddhist, I felt like I was always in supplication, always asking for something. In Islam, prayer is a surrendering, a giving-away. You’re giving God your problems, letting it go and leaving yourself open. Prayer in Islam left me full of peace.
Are you with someone now, and if so, how did you fall in love?
I came out to my parents before I became a Muslim. I was 15 years old. I knew from a young age that I was uniquely different.
My last relationship ended about six months ago. We ended because he couldn’t take the pressure from the community and his family. He didn’t want to be out. That was an ongoing tension between us. He wasn’t very comfortable with me being in public. And that continues to be a problem in many Muslim communities.
What is your ministry like?
There’s a wide variety of people coming for Friday prayers at my mosque in D.C. It’s a diverse group of people across ages and races. We have an inclusive, open-mosque concept, where women can participate in and lead prayer and religious activity. The number of people fluctuates — from 15 to 20 for prayer services, to 70 people for social events.
This fall, I’m hoping to launch a new initiative, an online school for Islamic liberation theology. I’m trying to bring in scholars from China, Brazil, the Middle East, the U.K., so that critics can’t stuff the conversations we’re having into an East vs. West dynamic. I want to create a core of progressive Muslim voices from around the world.
You’ve become known as America’s first openly gay imam. Is that a title you embrace? How do you see and approach this responsibility?
I really believe all of this came about not because of any action on my part, but because of a need in the community for someone people can identify with. So I embrace the title from that perspective, but I continue to let people know that my ministry is much broader and more encompassing than that.
Let’s talk about the retreat you’ll be attending this spring. What are people searching for when they come?
The retreats have become opportunities for people to interact with people just like themselves. Many of them are broken because of people shaming them. They lack self-esteem. They don’t feel equal to everyone else.
Generally, they spend the retreat trying to reconcile their particular sexual orientations with the traditional mythology that’s promoted within their faith communities. It’s coming to grips with that.
There’s this idea that to be a Muslim, you have to act a certain way, look a certain way. People end up accepting culture as a standard instead of faith. For example, wearing a niqab is a cultural requirement, but it isn’t a requirement for piety. But people who are introduced to Islam through that background think that’s what being a Muslim is. You need to look beyond that and find what resonates inside you.
Once LGBT Muslims understand the cultural biases that are often used when interpreting Islam, it’s a new awakening. It helps them to understand that no matter what, they are good people. In the conversations people have at the retreat, they find they are just as equal, just as faithful as anyone else.
What do you wish other Muslims would understand about you?
That there’s no difference. I want them to stop focusing on culture and start thinking about the standards of what it means to be a good person. Don’t judge people by their color, gender or orientation. Look at what qualities the person exhibits when they interact with you and with others.
Gay Muslims aren’t often treated very well. But people are people, no matter their race, country, religion or sexual orientation. We need to look at the whole person. Because God is very merciful.
— 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.
Andy Cohen And Sandra Bernhard Hilariously Narrate Madonna’s Apocalyptic Musical Fantasy
When Madonna’s apocalyptic video for “Ghosttland” premiered earlier this week, it immediately reminded us of the Queen of Pop’s fabled faux-lesbian relationship with Sandra Bernhard back in the late ’80s. It seems we weren’t the only ones as Watch What Happens Live host Andy Cohen invited the caustic comic to join him in viewing the music clip for the first time and providing live commentary.
“She’s twirling,” Cohen notes. “She’s giving us a little Stevie.”
Bernhard adds that the famed gap between Madge’s teeth is back. “It comes and goes,” she adds, wondering if it’s just part of that hideous grill the pop icon insists on wearing.
After the two finish watching, Bernhard admitted that she still misses the intense friendship she shared with Madonna but hasn’t seen her in person or spoken with her in quite a while.
“It’s been a long time,” Bernhard revealed. “People post pictures of us from the day, [and] I get a little sad. I get melancholy for that time.”
Watch the two watch the Queen below.
Jeremy Kinser
Shangela is 'Uptown Fish' in Her New Music Video: WATCH
How do you explain what “fish” is to someone who only understands beef?
Drag Race alum-turned-actress Shangela dropped a new music video this week, taking on Bruno Mars and explaining to her chickens of the sea how to describe “a diva so fabulous that she must have been sent by the mermaid goddesses of the ocean.”
Watch her school, AFTER THE JUMP…
Andy Towle
WATCH: U.S. Surgeon General Opposes Conversion Therapy
More officials within the Obama administration are stating their support for growing efforts to ban so-called conversion therapy on minors nationwide.
Sunnivie Brydum
www.advocate.com/ex-gay-therapy/2015/04/10/watch-us-surgeon-general-opposes-conversion-therapy
Howard University Students Decry Hate With #BlackLoveMatters
Howard University students have a history of standing up for what they believe in.
Students of the historical black university in Washington, D.C., protested LGBT intolerance on Monday, congregating on campus with rainbow flags and holding signs that read “God Loves Everyone.” The demonstration was staged in direct opposition to the Westboro Baptist Church anti-LGBT event near campus.
#BlackLoveMatters also floated around Twitter Friday, a hashtag with echoes of #BlackLivesMatter and recent protests made in the wake of fatal police shootings of black men and women in the U.S. Universities across the country have drawn attention to the movement, including the design of academic courses devoted to it.
Young people these days know how to be heard.
See the Howard campus demonstration below, in pictures taken by student activists on campus.
Out at #HowardUniversity with @HeyyLyd. WBC isn’t welcome in our city. #BlackLoveMatters pic.twitter.com/CvgviXHsrl
— Farrah (@reallyfarrah) April 10, 2015
Howard students turn their backs to WBC #HUUnited #ThinkMoor #BlackLoveMatters #BlackOut pic.twitter.com/X4Ii7qs9GB
— Elsa (@naturallyelsa) April 10, 2015
#blacklovematters #blacklivesmatter #blackgirlsmatter #queergirlsmatter WE MATTER pic.twitter.com/NQmBiFF0Q9
— QWEEN EL (@ericabaduyou) April 10, 2015
Happening at Howard University RT @2LiveUnchained: #BlackLoveMatters pic.twitter.com/oZYpZGj5ix
— ShordeeDooWhop (@Nettaaaaaaaa) April 10, 2015
Standing in solidarity with students to stand up for #AllBlackLivesMatter #BlackLoveMatters #BlackLivesMatter pic.twitter.com/MuLg78cKIR
— Cydney Brown (@cydbrown) April 10, 2015
Yes it does! Thank you for all that you do! RT “@2LiveUnchained: #BlackLoveMatters #HowardUniversity pic.twitter.com/GKeVlSIAHS“
— LTkd_PRO (@LTkd_PRO) April 10, 2015
Howard students embrace after demonstration #HUUnited #BlackLoveMatters pic.twitter.com/LAjABC2DTy
— Elsa (@naturallyelsa) April 10, 2015
— 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.
White House Officials Make Powerful Video About the Harm Caused by Gay 'Reparative Therapy': VIDEO
In the wake of President Obama’s historic statement this week speaking out against gay “conversion therapy”, a group of White House staffers led by Amanda Simpson, Executive Director of the U.S. Army Office of Energy Initiatives, and the first openly transgender woman Presidential appointee ever, created a video to discuss the dangers of this harmful practice.
Simpson also sent a message to the White House email list which you can read on the White House site.More powerful, however, are the voices of these staffers.
Watch the video, AFTER THE JUMP…
Additionally, the U.S. Surgeon General Vice Admiral Vivek H. Murthy, M.D. released a statement today calling for state and federal action to protect minors from conversion therapy.
“Being gay is not a disorder. Being transgender is not a malady that requires a cure. Had I been Leelah Alcorn’s physician, I would have told her exactly that. And that’s the message I want other doctors, nurses, health professionals, and public health leaders to help get out to parents and children who may be confronting these issues.”
Participants:
Jay Davis, Advisor for Digital Strategy and Engagement, Environmental Protection Agency
Yohannes Abraham, Special Assistant to the President and Chief of Staff for the Office of Public Engagement and Intergovernmental Affairs
Amanda Simpson, Executive Director, Army Office of Energy Initiatives
Megan Smith, Chief Technology Officer of the United States
Douglas Brooks, Director of the Office of National AIDS Policy
Valerie Jarrett, Senior Advisor to the President
Andy Towle
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