Why Orlando is the theme park capital of the world – in 8 twists, turns and drops

Universal Studios Florida, The Wizarding World of Harry Potter and beyond: welcome to adrenaline junkies’ paradise

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jamiet

www.gaystarnews.com/article/why-orlando-theme-park-capital-world-%E2%80%93-8-twists-turns-and-drops280115

Op-ed: Prejudice, Parental Choice, and the Death of Leelah Alcorn

Why parents can sometimes be the harshest bullies to their children.

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Rachel Pepper

www.advocate.com/commentary/2015/01/30/op-ed-prejudice-parental-choice-and-death-leelah-alcorn

QUIZ: What Is Your Kink IQ?

A new book, Kinky Gay Sex: A Game Plan, makes us wonder if we have gone a little vanilla. Take the quiz and see what your kink quotient is.

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Christopher Harrity

www.advocate.com/health/love-and-sex/2015/01/30/quiz-what-your-kink-iq

Idaho Won't Add LGBT Protections to Nondiscrimination Law

The ‘Add the Words’ bill, which would have banned anti-LGBT discrimination, died in a party-line committee vote today.

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Trudy Ring

www.advocate.com/politics/2015/01/29/idaho-wont-add-lgbt-protections-nondiscrimination-law

Twitter Troll Bryan Fischer Reportedly Canned, But Trolling To Carry On
Forced to choose between battling the radical homosexual agenda and supporting Israel, which some motivated evangelical Christians believe will be central to Judgment Day, one Christian group has made its choice clear: Surrender to the agenda.

A conservative, anti-LGBT group has fired its longtime spokesman and issue-analysis director Bryan Fischer after the group’s sponsoring of a Republican National Committee trip to Israel drew attention to his views — though it’s not as if his views weren’t widely known already.

Fischer, who regularly trolls Twitter with outlandishly bigoted comments, is unabashed. Rachel Maddow first reported on MSNBC Wednesday that the American Family Association’s dismissal of Fischer follows reports that the group would be footing the bill for about 60 members of the RNC to travel on a “spiritual” trip to Israel through its American Renewal Project subsidiary.

Fischer has suggested the Nazi Party was founded by gay people, that Adolf Hitler intentionally recruited gays to the party, that the First Amendment only applies to Christians, that homosexuality should be criminalized and that an underground railroad is needed to protect children from gay parents. He has also said that African American welfare recipients are “people who rut like rabbits.”

He will remain the host of his AFA-sponsored radio show. On Thursday, Fischer denied that he had been fired, saying on his radio show that he had given up his role as spokesman because the multiple positions were sowing confusion about the the organization’s official stances. He did not immediately respond to a direct message on Twitter requesting clarification.

Coverage by the Israeli newspaper Haaretz and letters sent by the civil-rights group the Southern Poverty Law Center to the RNC may have invited Fischer’s firing by putting political pressure on the committee. In an article published Thursday, Haaretz noted that the SPLC designates the AFA as a hate group.

The SPLC sent a letter to RNC officials earlier this month asking it to not participate in the Israel trip because of the Fischer’s comments about Jews, LGBT people, Hispanics, African-Americans and women. On Wednesday, AFA’s general counsel responded to the SPLC and said the organization rejects Fischer’s views.

While the Christian activist who is running the trip, David Lane, told Haaretz he organized it out of evangelical love for Israel and that Israel’s “best friends” are American evangelicals, the group may find Israel’s record on LGBT issues rather intolerable.

Israel allows LGBT people to serve openly in the military, recognizes same-sex marriages performed outside the country and has outlawed employment discrimination based on sexual orientation. The country is so progressive minded toward the LGBT community, and so outspoken about it when under pressure from the international community, that critics of Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and Gaza argue that the country uses LGBT rights as a public relations tool — otherwise known as “pinkwashing” — to obscure human rights issues relating to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Since marriage is an exclusively religious institution in Israel, however, and is dictated by anti-gay marriage, ultra-Orthodox rabbis, LGBT people are not yet able to marry within the country, and housing discrimination against gay couples, even in liberal Tel Aviv, appears to be common.

www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/01/29/rnc-israel-trip-_n_6574602.html?utm_hp_ref=gay-voices&ir=Gay+Voices

Anti-LGBT Bill Defeated in Virginia Subcommittee

A subcommittee in the Virginia House of Delegates vetoed a “conscience clause” bill earlier today that would have allowed discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity.
HRC.org

www.hrc.org/blog/entry/anti-lgbt-bill-defeated-in-virginia-subcommittee?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss-feed

Rome, Italy City Council Votes to Establish Register for Civil Unions

Andy Towle

www.towleroad.com/2015/01/romes-city-council-votes-to-establish-register-for-civil-unions.html

Not Really Fired: Bryan Fischer Will Continue to Spew Hate

The American Family Association is trying to lower Fischer’s profile, but he still has an AFA-affiliated radio show to promote his homophobic bile.

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Trudy Ring

www.advocate.com/politics/2015/01/29/not-really-fired-bryan-fischer-will-continue-spew-hate

Idaho Republicans Reject Gay Rights Measure

By Laura Zuckerman
Jan 29 (Reuters) – A bill granting job and housing protections for gay and transgender people in socially conservative Idaho was stalled by Republican lawmakers on Thursday after three days of emotionally charged hearings that drew more than 1,000 residents to the Capitol.
A Republican-led House of Representatives committee voted 13-4 along party lines to prevent legislation that would add “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” to Idaho’s nondiscrimination law from being voted on in the broader chamber.
In voicing opposition to the bill, unlikely to be taken up again this year, some Republican lawmakers referenced biblical passages while others contended the measure threatened to cement the division between gays and heterosexuals.
“If we pass the bill today as it is worded, it would create a barrier between you folks in favor of adding the words and the so-called straight community and it will be a giant step backwards, not forwards,” said Republican Representative Ken Andrus.
Gay rights advocates have sought for nine years to persuade the Republican-controlled legislature to take up the proposal, a so-called Add the Words campaign that culminated last year in the arrest of protesters blocking access to legislative chambers in the Capitol in Boise.
The Idaho Human Rights Act already bans discrimination in employment, housing and in places open to the public like retail stores on such attributes as race, sex, color and religion.
Representative John McCrostie, a Democrat, urged lawmakers on Thursday to vote in favor of the provision, saying that as a gay man he would likely be mistreated at certain restaurants in Idaho “if I walked in with my husband.”
More than 20 hours of emotional testimony delivered by gay and transgender people during hearings that began Monday included an account by a transgender teen who said she was called “it” by teachers and teased by classmates to the point she had contemplated suicide.
Republican lawmakers said they worried the measure would lead to lawsuits against those who refused services to gay and transgender people based on religious beliefs.
Ten Idaho cities have adopted nondiscrimination clauses similar to the one halted Thursday and a federal appeals court in October struck down a ban on gay matrimony in Idaho.
(Reporting by Laura Zuckerman in Salmon, Idaho; Editing by Eric M. Johnson and Eric Beech)

www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/01/29/idaho-gay-rights_n_6575150.html?utm_hp_ref=gay-voices&ir=Gay+Voices

Kentucky Bill Targets Transgender Students

A new bill introduced in the Kentucky General Assembly would restrict bathroom use for transgender students.
HRC.org

www.hrc.org/blog/entry/kentucky-bill-targets-transgender-students?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss-feed