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US: Christine Quinn formally announces bid to become NYC s first openly gay and first female mayor
Quinn married her long time partner Kim Catullo, in New York City last May. She is expected to have the backing of the city s current mayor, who will be stepping down at the end of his final term, Michael Bloomberg. She has drawn criticism for her closeness to Bloomberg, who was a Republican-turned-Independent.
I m about keeping New York City a place for the middle class to live and grow and a place that is going to help those hard working people get into the middle class, she says in the video. I m not about talking and finger-pointing and complaining; I m about getting things done. If elected to the post, Quinn would not only be the first openly gay mayor of New York City, but also the first female.
Last year Quinn called on fast-food outlet Chick-fil-A to leave New York because of its anti-equality views. She wrote to the president of New York University where Chick-fil-A has an outlet, urging him to break off his relationship with the chain. Also last year Michael Bloomberg, used his much sought after endorsement for Barack Obama for the US presidential election, citing a need for strong leadership, and President Obama s support for equal marriage.
An advocate of equal marriage, and supporter of equal marriage campaigns in four US states, Mayor Bloomberg personally pledged $500,000 ( 312,000) towards equal marriage efforts in Washingon, Maine and Minnesota. He had previously pledged $250,000 ( 155,000) to help towards making equal marriage legal in the state of Maryland. Quinn s campaign launch video is available to watch below.
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Gay rights activists warn of reintroduction of Section 28 style discrimination in Scotland s schools
The Equality Network has voiced concerns that through the current consultation around it, the new law could be taken advantage of those opposed to gay rights, such as politicians and religious groups. The Scottish Government is currently consulting on its upcoming law to legalise equal marriage, and has sought opinions on its Marriage and Civil Partnership (Scotland) Bill, including on areas such as education. Scotland For Marriage, a group opposed to equal marriage, has already raised concerns about what will be taught in schools, arguing that parents should have the right to opt their children out of lessons mentioning equal marriage.
Tom French, policy co-ordinator at the Equality Network, said; We are deeply concerned that opponents of same-sex marriage are attempting to reintroduce Section 28 style discrimination back into Scotland s schools. He added that the group was concerned that opponents were attempting to reintroduce Section 28 by stealth. This would roll back equality and have a damaging effect on young people and the wider education system.
We firmly believe that school should be a welcoming environment for all young people, regardless of their sexual orientation or family situation. Schools have a duty of care to their pupils and it would be wrong to allow discrimination against LGBT people in the education system. Meanwhile, a briefing on the equal marriage consultation Christian organisation CARE for Scotland said: Concerns have been expressed that should so-called same-sex marriage be introduced it is likely that children will be taught in school that marriage can be between two people of the same sex.
To raise a generation of children with such a subjective view of marriage, is a huge social experiment which is likely to result in severely detrimental consequences. Arguably it may even increase the occurrence of homosexual relationships. The consultation on its draft legislation opposed by the Church of Scotland and the nation s Catholic Church will last until March.
The Scottish Government has pushed ahead with its equal marriage bill and said that all religious institutions including the Church of Scotland will be free to decide for themselves if they would like to provide marriages for gay couples.
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Peter Tatchell: The Queen s silence on gay rights excludes and disrespects gay people
She is a patron of hundreds of charities but none of them are gay ones. Never once has she visited or supported a gay charity. In truth, the Commonwealth Charter does not include any specific rejection of discrimination based on sexual orientation.
This was vetoed by the homophobic majority of member states. However, many Commonwealth Secretariat officials interpret the clause opposing discrimination on other grounds as including opposition to anti-gay discrimination. They inserted the catch-all phrase to circumvent the objections of anti-gay nations.
To secure that insertion was a long, tough battle. Since then, Commonwealth progress on LGBT equality has been slow. More than 40 of the 54 Commonwealth countries still criminalise homosexuality, mostly under laws imposed by Britain during the colonial era.
Six of these countries stipulate life imprisonment. Uganda is currently considering legislation that would introduce the death penalty for repeat gay offenders. While I doubt that Elizabeth II is a raging homophobe, she certainly doesn t appear to be gay-friendly.
Not once during her reign has she publicly acknowledged the existence of the LGBT community. While she has spoken approvingly of the UK s many races and faiths, for six decades she has ignored LGBT Britons. If she treated black and Asian Britons in the same way, she d be denounced as a racist.
Why the double standards? Regardless of whether these omissions are a reflection of the Queen s personal views or the result of advice from her courtiers, as monarch she bears ultimate responsibility. Her silence sends a signal of exclusion and disrespect.
Astonishingly, since she became Queen in 1952, the words gay and lesbian have never publicly passed her lips. There is no record of her ever speaking them. Even when she announced government plans for gay law reform in her Queen s Speeches, she did not use the words lesbian or gay.
Apparently, mentioning LGBT people is beneath the dignity of the monarch. The official British Monarchy website, which documents all the Queen s public statements and royal visits, includes no mention of the word gay or of any gay good causes. Type the word gay into the search facility and you get nothing.
The Queen visits lots of charities and welfare organisations. But never in 61 years has she visited a gay charity or welfare agency. She has, for example, ignored deserving gay charities like the Albert Kennedy Trust and Stonewall Housing, which support homeless LGBT youth.
Although she is a patron of many good causes, none of them are gay. When there are major tragedies involving the loss of life, the Queen often visits the site and the victims in hospital. This did not happen when neo-Nazi, David Copeland, bombed the Admiral Duncan gay pub in Soho, London, in 1999, killing three people and wounding 70 others.
At the time, it was the worst terrorist outrage in mainland Britain for many years. To most people s surprise, the Queen did not visit the bombed-out pub or the hospitalised victims. I have contacted the Queen s press office.
I asked them: Has the Queen ever uttered in public the words gay or lesbian? Did she use these words in any of her Queen s Speeches when announcing the government s gay equality laws? Has she ever acknowledged the existence of LGBT people in any public statement?
Has the Queen ever visited a gay charity or welfare agency? Is she the patron of any gay charitable organisation? The Queen s press office did not respond to my requests.
I rest my case. The monarchy is homophobic if not by conscious intent, then certainly by default. As head of state, the Queen is supposed to represent and embrace all British people, not just some.
How much longer will the LGBT community have to wait for royal recognition and acceptance? Peter Tatchell is director of the London-based human rights organisation, the Peter Tatchell Foundation, and coordinator of the Equal Love campaign. The views in this article are his own and not those of PinkNews.co.uk Discuss this Get the latest LGBT headlines in your inbox with our free daily newsletter!
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Sunday Puzzler: "Cut Like A Knife"
Click here to view the completed pic.
Fast Distraction Version Challenge Version You can find previous puzzles here. Continue reading
Meme: Queen Elizabeth To Make Veiled Endorsement of Equality, Eddie Izzard Discusses Coming Out As Transgender, and Kirk Has Daddy Issues In…
And it is most unusual for the Queen to request to sign documents in public, never mind call the cameras in." The UFC's Rashad Evans has come out for equality after talking to his friend Brendon Ayanbedejo . I've never been a homophobe, never understood what that is all about. I knew some people who were gay and never cared about their sexuality.
But at the same time, I didn't fully understand the issues around gay people until my friend BA started telling me about his full public support for gay marriage. We talked about the issue and I decided it's not enough to not be against a minority, if you want things to go better for them you have to speak up with them." Oz the Great and Powerful is going to win the box office by a landslide, taking in an estimated $75 million, making it the biggest opening of the year, and one of the biggest March openings of all time. Remember earlier in the week when everyone thought a judge in Michigan might rule for the right to marry in the state, only to have him delay a decision until after the Supreme Court rules?
It turns out that major GLBT organizations like the HRC recommended that action, fearing an appeal to the conservative 6th Court of Appeals might jeopardize the Supreme Court rulings. Was Maggie Gallagher always a raging anti-equality activist, or was she once a sweet, smart little girl? One man grew up as her neighbor, then went on to have Orson Scott Card as a writing instructor, and came out alive.
Isaiah Washington , most famous for calling TR Knight a faggot on Grey's Anatomy , has joined the pilot of The CW's The Hundred . That's one show I'll never watch if it gets picked up. Eddie Izzard talks to The Advocate about coming out as transgender. "When I first came out, I went to a transsexual/transgender support group, where I was talking to a transvestite lawyer.
He said, I m looking at it as a gift. So I thought of this as a positive way of looking at it. It is actually a gift because women talk to me in a different way.
If I had more makeup on and was more girly, I think I d be more sensitive to it, but I m able to walk around in heels and nails and not give a monkey s blok about it. If you are an alternative sexuality, you have to look at it as a gift or otherwise it s going to grind you down. In the end, I m a much more positive person for having come out." It turns out that certain nanoparticles from bee venom can kill HIV, breaking down the membrane that protects the virus.
Initial applications might include a gel to protect against infection, but could eventually be used to treat the disease. About a year ago, Brett Ratner dropped out of producing the Oscars after making a "fag" joke. As penance, he created a PSA addressing anti-gay language for teens.
Now GLAAD is giving him an award for the PSA, which frankly, offends me. He didn't make the PSA out of the goodness of his heart, he did it under public condemnation to rehab his image, and GLAAD, which pressured him into making it should not be rewarding him. Today in crazy celebrity baby names, Holly Madison has named her daughter Rainbow Aurora Rotella .
I'd exercise caution reading this at work, but a man livetweeted his trip to the hospital to have a vibrating dildo removed from his backside after losing his grip on the toy, and it's hilarious. Brendon Ayanbedejo says that gay rights are the toughest battle of his life. And he understands that his outspokenness could have an adverse effect on his NFL career. "With me comes a lot of advocacy.
Say the Ravens release me for whatever reasons this year and I want to play and go to another team. Now they're getting Brendon Ayanbadejo the football player, but they're also getting all the things I stand up for as well. Whatever is going to happen is going to happen.
The organization backed me up and said it's ok that you believe in marriage equality but for me to speak as loud as I did and to advocate for it as much as I did, when we started doing media requests the Ravens couldn't take that stuff on because it's not sports related. They would hand all that stuff to my personal PR staff. Football is primarily about football.
They want to touch education and kids and fundraising with Christmas type events. They don't want to be political but at the same time they want to help as many people as they can in a certain demographic. There are certain things they don't want to go outside of." Torchwood: Miracle Day writer Chris Chibnall thinks a revival of the series is unlikely.
I think somewhere along the way it lost a little bit of its 'Torchwood'-ness, Our former editor Michael Jensen tips us to Steven Saylor , an author of historical fiction, who also writes gay erotica under the name of Aaron Travis .
He recently made all of his work available on the Kindle including a best-of audio book narrated by Susie Bright called No Shades of Grey , which is worth checking out. Continue reading
The Queen to publicly address anti-gay discrimination for the first time
The charter reads: We are implacably opposed to all forms of discrimination, whether rooted in gender, race, colour, creed, political belief or other grounds. The other grounds clause in the charter is intended to refer to sexuality, however specific references to gay and lesbian people were omitted due to some Commonwealth countries with anti-gay laws, reports the Daily Mail. The Queen is expected to refer to rights which must include everyone , and insiders are noting the appearance as a nod to inclusivity.
A diplomatic source said: The impact of this statement on gay and women s rights should not be underestimated. Nothing this progressive has ever been approved by the United Nations. And it is most unusual for the Queen to request to sign documents in public, never mind call the cameras in.
A spokesperson for Buckingham Palace, said: In this charter, the Queen is endorsing a decision taken by the Commonwealth. But he added: The Queen does not take a personal view on these issues. The Queen s position is apolitical, as it is on all matters of this sort.
Prior to tomorrow s appearance, the Queen has been in talks with Commonwealth Secretary-General Kamalesh Sharma, who has led the initiative. Last month, he said: We oppose discrimination or stigmatisation on any grounds. Royal aides have also been in discussion with Foreign Secretary William Hague, who has backed the drive for better gay rights, and gender equality.
Gay rights advocates have voiced strong opinions in the past, on the fact that the Queen is a patron of over 600 charities, however none of them are for gay rights. Queen Elizabeth II has never publicly voiced her support of equal rights for gay people. Ben Summerskill of Stonewall, said the Queen had taken an historic step forward on gay rights, and said The Palace has finally caught up with public opinion.
He also said it was significant that the Queen was publicly acknowledging the importance of the six per cent of her subjects who are gay. Some of the worst persecution of gay people in the world takes place in Commonwealth countries as a result of the British Empire. Welsh Conservative MP David Davies said: I fail to see why the Queen needs to make a special statement on this country s opposition to discrimination against gays and women.
It is a statement of the blindingly obvious. My worry is the politically correct brigade will use it to silence legitimate debate about issues like gay marriage. One can t help wondering what Prince Philip s view would be.
Davies, who recently suggested most parents would prefer their children not to be gay , dismissed accusations that he is a homophobe by reminding people of his participation in an amateur boxing match against a gay fighter. Homosexual acts are illegal in 41 of the 54 Commonwealth nations, and penalties include the death sentence in parts of Nigeria and Pakistan, 25 years in jail in Trinidad and Tobego, 20 years plus flogging in Malaysia and life imprisonment in Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Uganda, Bangladesh and Guyana. Only five Commonwealth countries recognise same-sex relationships: the UK, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and South Africa.
The charter, to be signed at London s Marlborough House, Pall Mall, is not directly linked to the issue of accession, the Queen s acceptance of it could signal a change in Royal accession rights for males and females. Before making her address, the Queen will celebrate the charter in a service at Westminster Abbey, where she will be joined by singer Beverly Knight, rock band the Noisettes and Sir Richard Branson. Beverly Knight has in the past spoken out against the blatant homophobia in a great deal of music from black artists including Beenie Man.
In May 2012, the founder of the Virgin Group, Sir Richard Branson, became the most high profile figure at that point to film a video for the Out4Marriage campaign, which calls for global equal marriage for gay couples.
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US: City Council hopeful may lose place after allegations of using homophobic slurs
During the council meeting, Friedman said: I wouldn t bring this up if this was not a very long series of posts around the Internet on blog sites, on YouTube, that are extremely disturbing, that are racist, homophobic, misogynist, threatening and really beyond something that we as a city can afford to have associated with one of our commissioners. A user named Zareh Sinanyan, had been posting comments on Youtube, as well as other websites, including homophobic, Islamophobic and racist views, up until around five years ago, according to an email sent to at least three City Council members. The allegations arose after a Glendale Blog, sent screenshots of the comments to the council.
Some of the comments were posted in response to other users, however a Facebook comment from September 2012, allegedly left by the City Council hopeful, on the Armenian National Committee of America included a racial slur against mongolians. Another reads: Fuck you, fucking faggot. Name the place bitch.
Tell me where you are and I will be happy to meet you and shove a big tennis racquet up your vratsi ass. Most of the original comments had been removed from Facebook and YouTube. Both Friedman and Councilman Ara Najarian had moved to have the City Council consider taking the accused off the city Community Development Block Grant Advisory Committee at Tuesday s meeting.
In an election on 2 April, both Najarian and Friedman are seeking re-election, and are among 12 candidates, including Sinanyan, running for three seats. Sinanyan was appointed to the committee in November 2009 by Najarian and he served as chairman between 2009 and 2011. Friedman and Najarian declined to comment on the case ahead of Tuesday s meeting.
A spokesman for the council said that some people believed the comments were placed there as a cruel hoax . Scott Lowe, a blogger who reported the images, said that it appeared the posts were made anonymously, but that when Sinanyan linked his YouTube and Google+ accounts, the site retroactively connected his name to all comments made prior. He said the comments were removed this week, as emails began circulating.
The agenda for Tuesday s meeting read: City staff has not verified and does not and cannot represent that these posts or any other posts were made by Mr. Sinanyan. The accused s campaign director, Elen Asatryan, said: Since the City Council has chosen to place this on its agenda, he will address those concerns on Tuesday.
Several local leaders have pulled out from supporting Sinanyan, until it is proven that he did not write the comments. They include Representative Adam Schiff, Los Angeles mayoral candidate Eric Garcetti, and City Councilman Paul Krekorian. Krekorian wrote to Sinanyan on Friday to say that he was withdrawing his support.
He said: While I very much hope that the facts will demonstrate that you have no connection to these vile comments, until such time I cannot even impliedly lend my support to intolerant viewpoints and language that are contrary to everything I believe. On the campaign Facebook page for Sinanyan, his supporters have referred to these allegations as a smear campaign . Unfortunately it has become a common practice in this town that if you cannot beat an individual and/or when you feel that you have no possible chance against a candidate of Zareh s caliber, start spreading lies and rumors in order to distract people from the real issues, posted Sam Manoukian, a current member of Glendale s Civil Service Commission.
I promise you that we will diligently work to find out who is behind this smear campaign and hold them responsible for their actions.
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US Supreme Court Justice tells 11-year-old opposed to Defense of Marriage Act to keep dreaming big
11-year-old Cameron Myers Milne, of Wilson, received a letter from Justice Sonia Sotomayor, which did not comment on the upcoming court case on DOMA, but did encourage Myers Milne to keep aiming high. I know dreams can come true when you work hard to achieve them, Sotomayor wrote. I wish you the joy of dreaming big, working hard and succeeding in all that you do.
The Supreme Court is due on 27 March to hear evidence around the case of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which defines marriage as between a man and a woman, passed under President Bill Clinton in 1996. Milne wrote to all nine Supreme Court justices after she watched President Obama s inauguration in January, for his second term, with her lesbian parents who got married in New York, reports the Associated Press. Speaking at his inauguration, President Barack Obama made a speech which said our journey is not complete until equal rights for gay people is reached, and referred to the importance of the Stonewall riots in terms of moves towards equality.
On 26 March, the court will also take up the case of whether to overturn Proposition 8, which in 2008 added a clause to the Californian constitution stating that marriage could only be recognised by the state if it were between a man and a woman, causing widespread controversy. Former President Bill Clinton, wrote an impassioned letter to the Supreme Court earlier this week which said that, despite signing DOMA into law himself, he thought it was time for it to be overturned. The Obama administration, filed a brief in February, urging the Supreme Court to strike down blocks to equal marriage as did two top NFL players, both equal rights advocates, Chris Kluwe and Brendon Ayanbadejo, who filed an amicus brief with the court.
Clint Eastwood joined over 100 top Republicans who signed up to argue that the Supreme Court should overturn Proposition 8, and in her own way, TV host Ellen, gave her impassioned reasons for wanting to have equal marriage across the US.
President Obama s nomination of Sonia Sotomayor for the vacant seat in the US Supreme Court seat in 2009 pleased LGBT advocacy groups.
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Update: Vote on removal of pro-same-sex marriage Illinois Republican chairman cancelled
It strengthens and reinforces a key Republican value that the law should treat all citizens equally. He was justifying his backing of a bill to legalise same-sex marriage in Illinois. The Chicago Tribune reports that the committee has cancelled today s meeting to discuss Mr Brady s support, and has said in a statement: We are sorry for the late notice but we wanted to give the chairman every opportunity to respond to our request that he be present in person or by telephone at this meeting.
However, Mr Brady had given notice to the party that he would be away this weekend on vacation several weeks ago. Sources within the Republican party said the committee had found it difficult to secure the 60% of the weighted vote they would need to oust Mr Brady, suggesting they had cancelled the meeting to prevent embarrassment. There were also said to be those questioning whether the special meeting could take place under Illinois Republican party rules.
Mr Brady said of the special meeting that it enforced public perception that the Republican party is a group of old white guys , but said he would respect the decision of the committee. Committeeman Jim Oberweiss backed calls for Mr Brady to be removed, saying: When you start publicly lobbying against a plank in our state and national party platforms, without even discussing with or advising the board of directors, I think he s gone too far. Other Republicans were concerned that the meeting would deepen divides within the party and harm its public image.
Former Republican Governor Jim Edgar, who is anti-marriage equality, said he felt Mr Brady had done a thankless job , and cautioned against ousting him from his role, saying the party would be damaged if it fired a major figure over a social issue. If you re concerned about the future of the party, if this is how it s perceived, We got rid of him because he s for same-sex marriage, long term that could have a detrimental effect on the party, he said. The same-sex marriage bill Mr Brady backed was cleared by a House Executive Committee late in February.
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Recommendation to ban porn discovered in upcoming EU report
Bloggers drew attention to the report after they noticed it includes an article calling for a ban on all forms of pornography in the media , including the digital field . The report, if passed, would only act as a recommendation to EU states, and would not result in pornography being legally banned. However, EU reports are often used to gauge support for potential future laws.
Jacqui Hunt, director of Equality Now in London, told the Huffington Post that the report s recommendations would help to build a truly equal and democratic society, where women and girls do not have to experience prejudice or fear physical and psychological abuse. However, critics say the report is worded too broadly, as it does not distinguish between types of pornography. There are also concerns that this could mark a new trend in draconian policing of the internet and, in the words of one blogger, unacceptable political invasion of people s bedrooms .
MEP Christian Engstrom of Sweden s Pirate Party wrote on his blog: This is quite clearly yet another attempt to get the internet service providers to start policing what citizens do on the internet, not by legislation, but by self-regulation . This is something we have seen before in a number of different proposals, and which is one of the big threats against information freedom in our society. Although I completely agree that eliminating outdated gender stereotypes in the EU is a worthwhile goal, I will be voting against this resolution next week.
Mr Engstrom added that he had received 350 emails within a day of blogging on the subject, all calling on MEPs to vote against the report. Fears that internet censorship is growing in Europe were heightened in February when it emerged that legislators in Iceland are drafting a ban on internet pornography which, if passed, would be the first of its kind in a Western democracy. Freedom of speech campaigners and academics wrote to Iceland s interior minister last week urging him to end the legislation.
Iceland is a liberal democratic state which should not serve as a role model for Internet censorship, said the letter. It added that the ban on pornography may create demand for an underground porn industry, unregulated and most certainly affiliated with other illegal activities. MEPs are said to be intending to amend the wording of the report on Tuesday, clarifying that the ban is specific to pornography in advertising.
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