According to the AP, out gay footballer Robbie Rogers will be returning to professional soccer, joining the LA Galaxy and becoming the first openly gay athlete to play in the MLS:
“I don’t know what I was so afraid of,” Rogers said Friday. “It’s been such a positive experience for me. The one thing I’ve learned from all of this is being gay is not that big of a deal to people.”
“People are just really growing and accepting and loving,” he added. “Those other things are just not that important to them. I think as the younger get older and the generations come and go, I think times are just becoming more accepting.”
Rumors of Rogers return began when Robbie recently trained with the Galaxy. Outstanding news. Congrats to Robbie!
Kaitlyn Hunt, 18, today rejected a plea offer from Florida prosecutors and will go to trial on charges that her consensual relationship with a younger female schoolmate constituted sexual assault.
She had been arrested and charged with sexual battery for the consensual relationship. Kate’s girlfriend, a freshman, was 15 at the time the couple began dating. Kate was 17.
“The other teen’s parents moved to press charges against the 18-year-old Hunt, and she was arrested in February and eventually expelled from Sebastian River High School.
“A conviction could land Hunt in prison for 15 years. A plea deal would have kept her on probation for two years but still could have potentially derailed her future goals to be a nurse.
“Julia Graves, the attorney for the Hunt family, read a statement shortly before noon Friday following Hunt’s decision: “Our client is a courageous teenager who is choosing not to accept the current plea offer by the state of Florida,” Graves said. “It’s a situation of two teenagers who happen to be of the same sex involved in a relationship. If this case involved a boy and a girl, we don’t believe there’d be the media attention to this case.”
A couple of things to point out here:
One, Kaitlyn was 17 when she became ‘romantically’ involved with the younger girl at the beginning of the school year. The younger girl’s parents waited until Kaitlyn was 18 in February to press charges. Hunt has also been expelled from her Florida high school at the younger girl’s parents urging.
Two, the younger girl’s parents have refused to even deal with Kaitlyn’s parents to try to handle the situation. Apparently, the mother of the younger girl is so against the idea of her daughter being lesbian that she is bent on destroying Kaitlyn’s life for “making her gay.”
According to Kaitlyn’s father Steven Hunt, “Kate has offered to permanently cease contact and leave the state if charges are dropped, but that offer has been rejected by the prosecutor and the girlfriend’s parents.”
Steven places the blame for this being blown out of proportion on the parent’s of the younger girl. Says Steven, “These people never came to us, never tried to speak to us, didn’t try to get the school involved to speak to us and tell us they had a problem with the girls dating, not one single word. Instead, they set out their vengeance and had Kate arrested on felony charges.”
If Kaitlyn had taken the plea bargain she could have been labeled a “sex offender” for the rest of her life.
These are two young girls experimenting in their teenage years. Who knows if they will be lesbian or not? This is what teenagers do.
The prosecutor’s offer had included two years of house arrest and a guilty plea to “child abuse” for what has been described, so far, as a consensual relationship.
Florida’s age of consent is 18, but “close age” relationships are exempt if the older party is under 24 and the younger is 16 or older.
Hunt’s case has garnered international attention and over 100,000 signatures on a supportive petition.
Via press release from the National Lesbian & Gay Task Force
The Puerto Rican House of Representatives today approved a sweeping nondiscrimination bill that protects lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people in employment, housing, governmental services, public accommodations and private entities.
Last week, the Senate approved the bill in a 15-11 vote and Gov. Alejandro García Padilla has vowed to sign the bill into law.
The House today also approved a bill to add protections for sexual orientation, marital status and gender identity to the domestic violence law. It now moves to the Senate.
“Today is a sad day for the Boy Scouts of America. They have succumbed to political pressure and abandoned their historic roots in what will prove to be a failed attempt to appease gay activists and corporate donors.
“Unfortunately, what they have done is said to the world that their oath no longer means much. Their decision to admit openly gay scouts will end up sexualizing the organization. I am certain that having changed their policy on homosexuality, it’s only a matter of time before courts order them to admit homosexual scout leaders.
“Meanwhile, countless thousands of churches will very likely pull their sponsorship rather than endorse homosexuality, and the entire organization will begin to collapse.
“All of this is happening not because of a true grassroots demand of gay youth to be part of the organization but by an orchestrated political effort by gay activists who want to punish any group or organization that does not embrace homosexuality. It’s the beginning of the end for what once was one of America’s noblest organizations.” – Brian Brown, president of the hate group National Organization for Marriage, in a statement posted today on NOM’s blog.
It should be pointed out that Brian’s main job is to work AGAINST marriage equality. But in doing so, he often says he has no problem with gays. That he “has gay friends.”
But now, he can’t handle the Boy Scouts of America becoming more inclusive and allowing openly gay boys to join in the scouting experience? I think his true colors are showing…
“If you’ve ever known anyone who is a drug addict, you’d see it’s obvious that Barack Obama was high on cocaine the night of Benghazi; it is the only logical explanation for his disappearance and the White House’s refusal to comment on what he was doing at the time. Since this was a night of great crisis for our country, the only logical reason that the White House won’t explain where the president was is if this man was high as a kite on illegal narcotics at the time. He reappeared again the next day, briefly, before jetting off to fabulous Las Vegas for a fun-and-games fundraiser event he had scheduled there (where, it also should be noted, not only Chippendales but also Thunder From Down Under male revues are regularly held.)” – gay conservative blogger Kevin DuJan
Now, first of all, I gotta say: “the ONLY logical explanation for his disappearance?” Umm, it was the middle of the night. What did you want, Kevin? For the President to go on national TV and talk about something he didn’t have all the facts for? SRSLY?
And second: what’s wrong with the Chippendales? Now, the Chippendales are a bad thing?
And you think folks won’t date you because you’re a conservative? I got a news flash for you – folks don’t wanna date ‘crazy.’ Case closed.
The Boys Scouts of America has been built upon the values of faith and family for more than 100 years and today’s decision contradicts generations of tradition in the name of political correctness. While I will always cherish my time as a scout and the life lessons I learned, I am greatly disappointed with this decision.
Because teenage gay boys who want to take part in scouting have no “values of faith and family?”
The only thing the vote by over 60% of the Boy Scout reps does is improve on the traditions of the BSA.
Billy Porter, currently starring on Broadway in the new hit musical KINKY BOOTS, welcomed Playbill into his dressing room to document the transformation from “Billy” to “Lola.”
Billy arrives at the theater two hours before a performance to begin the process which includes, makeup, hair, costumes and a whole lot of talent.
Billy has won this season’s Outer Critics Circle Award and Drama Desk Award for Best Actor in a Musical.
The Boy Scouts of America voted today 61% to 38% to approve a resolution lifting a ban on gay scouts. Over 1,400 volunteer leaders took part in the vote.
The current ban on openly gay scout leaders remains in effect.
