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France's Inhumane Obsession With Surrogacy

France's Inhumane Obsession With Surrogacy
In France, surrogacy is prohibited. Although over half of the French favor legalization and almost two thirds have a positive image of gestational surrogates (women who carry other women’s embryos), France’s political leadership attempts to distract its public from economic malaise by demonizing surrogacy. The latest missive comes from Prime Minister Manuel Valls, who argued a few days ago that “France is opposed to surrogacy because she is opposed, in the name of her values, in the name of progress and humanism, to all forms of commercialization of human beings and experimentation in this area.” Surrogates are “slaves” with wombs for rent, they argue, exploited by the infertile. France’s leadership hides the many happy U.S. surrogacy stories, featuring instead some of Asia’s forced baby factories that ensnare poor women.

Children of surrogacy who are born in the U.S. attain U.S. citizenship but not that of their intended French parents. France insists that children conceived in this way should not be recognized as French because of how they came into life. However, in June 2014, a brave decision by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ordered France to reverse course and recognize children born of surrogacy despite the French ban.

“Liberté, égalité, faternité” seem to be values in short supply for Prime Minister Manuel Valls, who proposes to class children by their parents’ conception decisions. A patent violation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child and many other international commitments, France’s official policy turns it into a national orphanage, putting these children in an almost stateless limbo without the citizenship of their parents who raise them, and without any legal status in their French home. In light of this deliberate cruelty, one might ask whether France’s human-rights commitments are in fact empty promises.

In the wake of the ECHR ruling, France must balance banning surrogacy while recognizing the children born of it. Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius arrogantly proposes to demand that other countries ban surrogacy for intentional parents who happen to be French. For the U.S. this is particularly inconceivable given that the federal government has no power over such state-based rules. As if Fabius could persuade President Obama to accommodate France’s bizarre stance on this “slavery” and force 45 U.S. states to bend to France’s will. France’s leaders must stop playing political games with children’s lives and reverse their vindictive policy.

Alexandre Urwicz is President of ADFH, the leading French LGBT parents’ group. Reach him by email at [email protected].

Darren Rosenblum is a visiting professor at the Washington College of Law at American University. Reach him by email at [email protected].

www.huffingtonpost.com/alexandre-urwicz/frances-inhumane-obsession-with-surrogacy_b_5963470.html?utm_hp_ref=gay-voices&ir=Gay+Voices

Second Judge Rules for N.C. Marriage Equality — But Will Legislators Challenge?

Second Judge Rules for N.C. Marriage Equality — But Will Legislators Challenge?

Today’s ruling follows one that brought marriage equality to the state Friday, but it allows Republican legislative leaders to intervene and potentially appeal.

read more

Trudy Ring

www.advocate.com/politics/marriage-equality/2014/10/14/second-judge-rules-nc-marriage-equality-%E2%80%94-will-legislators

PHOTOS: Sin Was In At New York City’s Hustlaball

PHOTOS: Sin Was In At New York City’s Hustlaball

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On Sunday night New York City’s Slake nightclub hosted one of the naughtiest events of the year. Hustlaball New York is one of 27 parties thrown around the world celebrating the best in hustlers, go-go boys, rent boys and porn stars. This year marked its 16th anniversary and no punches were pulled. Porn stars like Austin Wolf, Duncan Black, Tommy Defendi, Boomer Banks, Brent Corrigan and others performed live for their crowd of horned up fanatics and fans.

This year’s “Sin is In” theme brought the hoofed Satyr out of mythology and onto the dancefloor. Once again, the members of club art collective Dreamhouse brought their aesthetic to Slake for Hustlaball’s annual fête.  “Sin is In” conjured the ghosts of New York’s past and revelers got to relive a more raunchy Gotham city.

Photos: Jeff Eason/Wilson Models

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jjkeyes

feedproxy.google.com/~r/queerty2/~3/cZXvGLGuPiI/photos-sin-was-in-at-new-york-citys-hustlaball-20141014

Channing Tatum And Steve Carell Go For Gold In New Trailer For 'Foxcatcher' – VIDEO

Channing Tatum And Steve Carell Go For Gold In New Trailer For 'Foxcatcher' – VIDEO

Fox

Channing Tatum and Steve Carell star in the highly anticipated upcoming film Foxcatcher about a wrestler (Tatum) who wants to be the best wrestler in the world and a mysterious older benefactor (Carell) who offers him his patronage. What begins as a mutually symbiotic relationship quickly devolves into something darker and more twisted.

The film, which also stars Mark Ruffalo, was physically taxing on Tatum. From Yahoo Movies:

Tatum admitted to keeping secret the various ailments he suffered throughout the seven months of training and the grueling shoot that followed. “Look, when you’re in that kind of a movie, it doesn’t matter if you’re hurt or not,” the actor told Yahoo. “You keep moving forward. I don’t think my knees will ever be the same after that, and I still have cauliflower ear. But if I came out of the movie without it, I’d feel like I didn’t do something right.”

Watch the trailer, AFTER THE JUMP…


Sean Mandell

www.towleroad.com/2014/10/channing-tatum-and-steve-carell-go-for-gold-in-new-trailer-for-foxcatcher-video.html

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