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@LukeVernon my favourite song ever, and its my alarm on phone. Wakes me up in a good mood!1 week ago from Twitter for iPhone
@LukeVernon gimme shelter gives me the urge to watch my favorite film #goodfellas1 week ago from Twitter for Android
Or GLASTONBURY even. Not sure where Galstonbury is, but Im sure it doesn't have the worlds biggest festival. Sounds Texan.1 week ago from txt
In a restaurant in the middle of the US and the song with the best intro ever came on, Gimme Shelter. Which reminded me, in 3 weeks....1 week ago from txt
I shall be seeing one of the greatest live acts of all time, The Rolling Stones, @ THE greatest festival ever, GALSTONBURY! Yes, Im shouting1 week ago from txt
Brazil: Lawmakers approve bill which would remove ban on gay cure therapy
The measure which was approved on Tuesday would lift a 1999 ban on the treatment of homosexuality, which was established by the Federal Psychology Council. Lawmaker Joao Campos, a member of the evangelical block of the lower house in Brazil defended the legsilation. He said: In practice, the result would be that a person over 18 years of age, responsible for his actions, who is homosexual and wants to reorient his sexuality, can be attended by a psychologist.
Feliciano had attempted to get the bill before the commission, but had failed as opponents had blocked a vote on the issue. The initiative passed on Tuesday. Before the vote, the psychologists council had urged members to vote against it, reports the AP.
Council member Huberto Verona said: Today psychology, as wells as other scientific disciplines, recognize that sexual orientation is not a pathology that should be treated, it is not a perversion nor a disorder nor a behavioral disturbance. Since this is the case, we cannot offer a cure, and that is an ethical principle. The initiative must be debated by other committees, before it would go to the full chamber and Senate for a vote.
Brazil s first openly gay lawmaker Jean Wyllys, said he thought the bill would not make it through the legislative process.
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Continue readingCher to perform at New York Pride s Dance on the Pier party
Her performance will be one of the most memorable in the history of this world-class party , said Chris Frederick, Managing Director of NYC Pride. He added: Now in its 27th year, the Dance on the Pier continues a proud tradition of partnering with all-star talent to create a high-quality event that raises funds to support local LGBT non-profits and New York City s annual Pride festivities. Artists such as Whitney Houston, Jennifer Lopez, Janet Jackson, Jennifer Hudson and Cyndi Lauper have taken part in previous years.
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Continue readingJohn Sentamu and the Church of England’s slow retreat on gay marriage | Andrew Brown
Charlie Self and Vincent Hanley
Public doma ...
Continue readingWhat does Pride stand for in 2013?
Now, four decades on, we may be able to get married in the near future. So it s right that we celebrate. Our position as LGBT people has been transformed and for the younger generation, the struggles that won our legal rights and widespread social acceptance are just ancient history.
But if a newly engaged lesbian couple decide to honeymoon afterwards in large parts of the world, they had better be careful: not just of anti-LGB laws (like those recently introduced in Russia), but also of violent social condemnation of same-sex relationships. For trans people it is no better, and we still have to commemorate hundreds of transphobic murders every year. Even in Britain, where recent surveys suggest that three quarters of the population accept homosexuality (incidentally, that leaves us behind Spain, Germany, Canada, the Czech Republic and France), earlier this year we witnessed the appalling press onslaught on a trans primary school teacher.
The reality is that social change does not take place in a vacuum and while you can separate out LGBT rights from what is going on in the rest of the country for a while, it will catch up with us eventually. Our engaged lesbian couple may decide they want to have a big wedding. They still can t do it in church, of course, even if their local vicar would like to officiate.
Maybe they re secular so a registry office is fine. But what if one partner works in the public sector: she hasn t had a pay rise for three years, and has also agreed to work fewer hours in order to keep the job, which means that life is more difficult each year because inflation hasn t stopped in the meantime. And the other is working in the private sector, but she is on a zero hours contract and doesn t know from week to week how much she will bring home that week.
Makes planning for the costs of the wedding a bit tricky. Of course, they are better off than being one of the two and a half million people without a job at all, or the quarter of young people who ve never had one. LGBT people just like everyone else are living through a prolonged period of government-created austerity that is failing to achieve economic recovery in fact, as many experts now accept, is making it worse.
Meanwhile, the public services that we all need particularly the NHS are suffering. When we marched for our liberation in the 1970s, it was to change society for the better. Making a better society the trade unions are campaigning for a future that works for all of us is a challenge to which the LGBT communities should respond when we celebrate Pride in 2013.
Peter Purton , LGBT policy officer at Britain s Trades Union Congress (TUC).
As with all comment pieces, the views expressed may not necessarily reflect those of PinkNews Discuss this Get the latest LGBT headlines in your inbox with our free daily newsletter!
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Continue readingCindy McCain: By next presidential election, both US parties will support equal marriage
By the next presidential election I think this will be an issue that will be very much agreed on by both parties. She was recently honoured with the Trevor Hero Award at an annual fundraiser for the Trevor Project in New York City. Attending the event, she represented the wing of the GOP which believes that support for equal marriage is growing, and that opposing it will soon become untenable to continue to oppose it.
Her husband, John McCain, does not share her stance on equal marriage. Senator McCain said in March that he didn t think he would be following the lead of fellow Republican Senator Rob Portman, who stunned so many last week when he announced his support for equal marriage. Mr Portman said he had changed his views after realising that his 21-year-old son, Will, was gay.
I respect anyone else s decision and we all learn in life and grow and mature, he said recently in an interview with TheHill. I have changed my position on other issues in my life, but on this one, I had not contemplated changing my position. Mrs McCain, however, said she thinks that her husband will eventually change his mind on the issue.
He hears from his own daughters and his own children and from me a little bit about this, she said. But it s also okay to disagree, but do it in a manner that s respectful. We have different views, She continued.
We have raucous dinner table conversations and we encourage that.
In fact you have to be tough to survive at our table.
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Continue readingAustralian Senator Cory Bernardi: I was right to warn that equal marriage could lead to polygamy
Is having three people that love each other should they be able to enter into a permanent union endorsed by society, or four people? he said at the time. There are even some creepy people out there, who say that it s ok to have consensual sexual relations between humans and animals.
Will that be a future step? Speaking to The Age on Monday, Mr Bernardi said: If we go back to what I suggested in the Parliament when the same-sex marriage debate came up, there is actually now a petition being put together for the Parliament by green activists to recognise multi-member unions, he said. Now I said that would happen.
It s happening. We haven t even taken the first step. I think there should be alarm.
If you re going to redefine a word to satisfy demands of a minority then you are going to face continuing demands in that space. The petition he refers to, from the Polyaction Amory Lobby, reportedly has about 25 signatures. Mr Bernardi admitted linking same-sex marriage to bestiality was extreme but said the Greens agenda endorsed the abhorrent and disgusting act.
Whether people agree with it or want to interpret it incorrectly, what I said was correct. It may have offended some people and it wasn t intended to offend people but people drew inferences from it that they should never have done, he said. Australia s Green Party has described Mr Bernardi s remarks as disgusting .
Mr Bernardi also attacked Australia s former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd for changing his position on equal marriage, saying he was a conviction politician of convenience who used to deliver doorstep interviews outside a church. The current Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, remains opposed to equal marriage. In April, Australia s Liberal Party leader, Tony Abbott, said he opposed proposals to hold a public vote on equal marriage during September s federal election.
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Continue readingLabour MSP Elaine Smith: I m against equal marriage but don t call me homophobic
However, I have no doubt that I will be made to suffer for my views on this issue and by voting against I will undoubtedly be labelled homophobic. Scotland s Herald newspaper reports Ms Smith has now been denounced by many over her position on Twitter. I predicted that in speaking or voting against these proposals, I would undoubtedly be verbally attacked and labelled homophobic.
That prediction seems to be coming depressingly true. She added: It is astonishing that a politician cannot represent the views of their constituents without being vilified and subjected to personal attacks. Speaking against the redefinition of marriage in modern Scotland, sadly, leads to verbal attacks which seem to be an attempt to try to shut down debate and intimidate opponents.
Ms Smith, MSP for Coatbridge and Chryston, argued that existing civil partnerships ensured equality for same-sex couples. So far only a handful of MSPs have declared their intention to vote against the bill, which is not expected to face a final vote until late next year. The Equality Network, which has co-ordinated the campaign for marriage equality in Scotland, said the debate should remain respectful.
Director Tim Hopkins said: Elaine Smith is entitled to her view, but she is wrong on the facts. A large majority of Scots, and an overwhelming majority of LGBT people, supports same-sex marriage. Those who want a same-sex marriage will be able to marry; those who don t won t have to, and no church will be required to do them.
It s about freedom of choice for all. He added: This debate should be conducted in a respectful way something we as an organisation have always done. We have not heard of any report of hate crime against people because they oppose equal marriage, but we would urge anyone who experiences any hate crime to report it to the police.
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Continue readingUS: Russian gay people urge boycott of 2014 Russian Winter Olympics
If they feel strongly about human rights they should boycott the Olympics in Sochi. We really want the LGBT community to know it s unsafe to travel there, she continued. Long did say that a statement from the International Olympics Committee (IOC), which expressed its commitment to nondiscrimination against Olympic Athletes, did not ease her concerns.
It said that athletes of all orientations will be welcome at the Games. Long commented on the statement, saying: They have to put up the statement like that, otherwise it s an international scandal, but it s a lie it s just to make it hush-hush and nice on some international level. RUSA LGBT, which has several hundred members, plan a march, and to hand out flyers with information on the boycott.
The march will take place on June 30 at the annual New York Gay Pride parade, which is to feature a Russian float for the first time. Speaking to Ria Novosti, Ivan Savvine, an art curator from St Petersburg, sought asylum in the US because he is gay. It became really dangerous for me to live there.
There was quite a bit of violence that I was faced with, and unfortunately there are no longer isolated instances of persecution. It s definitely escalated, he said. In London last August, a protest took place at an exhibition in London promoting Russia s Winter Olympics, after Pride House events celebrating gay inclusion in sport were banned.
A homosexual propaganda bill, recently, which was given final approval in the Russian State Duma two weeks ago, could make the public display of homosexuality a criminal offence, punishable through imprisonment. The Gay Football Supporters Network has also expressed anxieties that the bill s passing could be used as a way to discriminate fans at the Russia 2018 FIFA World Cup. The organisation states that those attending could be persecuted or arrested simply for carrying a rainbow flag.
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Continue readingUS: Baltimore Pride features mass same-sex wedding
I now pronounce you married, she continued said. The ceremony was met with loud applause. Many of the couples said they had been together for decades, but felt that it was only right that they could marry in the state where they met.
The wedding s organiser, Carrietta Hiers, said of the Mayor: The support is critical. It s always, What can I do to help? What do you need?
This is the person that you should contact. She believes in equality for everyone. Nine US states, and Washington DC currently allow equal marriage, and it will become law in Rhode Island, Delaware and Minnesota in the summer.
The US state of Maryland in November 2012 became the first state to legalise equal marriage by means of a popular vote. The law came into effect on 1 January 2013. Washington and Maine also legalised equal marriage in referendums in those states on the same day.
On 6 November, voters in Minnesota voted no on Amendment 1, a constitutional amendment that would have defined marriage as being a union solely between a man and a woman. The US Supreme Court is expected to rule on two cases surround equal marriage, in the next two weeks, potentially making a groundbreaking ruling for equal marriage in the state of California, and the whole of the US. Discuss this Get the latest LGBT headlines in your inbox with our free daily newsletter!
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