Category: Uncategorized

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Sioux City Journal devotes entire front page to anti-bullying editorial

In a rare and forceful act of advocacy, an Iowa newspaper devoted the entire front page of its Sunday edition to an anti-bullying editorial after a gay teen committed suicide.
The Sioux City Journal’s front-page opinion piece calls on the community to be pro-active in stopping bullying and urges members to learn more about the problem by seeing the acclaimed new film, “Bully,” which documents the harassment of a Sioux City middle school student. It notes that while many students are targeted for being gay, “we have learned a bully needs no reason to strike.”
Relatives have said 14-year-old Kenneth Weishuhn Jr. suffered intense harassment, including threatening cellphone calls and nasty comments posted online, after coming out to family and friends about a month ago. He died April 15 from what the local sheriff’s office described only as a “self-inflicted injury.”
“In Kenneth’s case, the warnings were everywhere,” the editorial said. “We saw it happen in other communities, now it has hit home. Undoubtedly, it wasn’t the first life lost to bullying here, but we can strive to make it the last.”
Bravo to the Sioux City Journal!  Click here to read the entire editorial. 
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Sanford Police chief to resign after criticism over Trayvon Martin investigation

Chief Bill Lee of the Sanford Police Department in Sanford, Florida, plans to resign, a city official familiar with the matter said Monday.

Lee’s department was criticized for its handling of the investigation into the February 26 shooting death of Trayvon Martin, an unarmed teenager.

Lee said one month ago that he was stepping down temporarily, a day after the Sanford City Commission expressed no confidence in his leadership.

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Happy Earth Day 2012!

Earth Day inspires and brings out different actions in each of us.

I wanted to share with you some favorite suggestions for Earth Day “to dos.” You may want to adopt some of these ideas and put them on your list of favorite family activities – for Earth Day or any day:

• Get your “glee on” out in Nature – Get outside, sing a song, do a dance, have a picnic, BBQ, go camping, walk on the beach or take a hike. Whatever gets you there, gather your family and spend some time outdoors. Talk to you kids, introduce them to nature better yet, let them introduce nature to you! Remind yourself and the kids in your life of the treasures nature has given us, and why we need to fight so very hard to protect them.

• Memory Lane Walk Down the Red Carpet “Favorite Earth Day Movies”– Watch, enjoy, lose yourself in the moment and learn something too. Movies for everyone: The Lorax, Chimpanzee, Avatar, Planet Earth, Wall-E and March of the Penguins. Documentary movies for older kids and adults: Queen of the Sun-What are the Bees Telling Us? Tapped, Gasland, Bag It, An Inconvenient Truth, Revenge of the Electric Car, Moby Duck – Learn something important., and have fun at the same time.

• Spring Cleaning and Letting the Sun Shine In – Open the windows wide and get the kids to help you clean them. You’d be surprised to see what a difference a little water and vinegar, or even just a crumbled piece of newspaper can do to “shine up” and “clean up” your windows! Pack up winter clothes, in particular those that don’t fit anymore and give them to a local charity. Got other items you don’t need but someone else might use, consider selling them on Green eBay or giving them away at Craigslist, or Free Cycle! Get your kids to help you change the air filters in your air conditioner (maximum energy efficiency). Also, make sure there are no leaky faucets in or outside your house. Change your light bulbs to energy efficient CFLs or LEDs, and consider putting your outside lights on timers. Saving energy not only reduces power plant pollution but it can also save you money too.

• Get “Down and Dirty” – plant a tree, or better yet plan a garden with the kids in your life. Vegetable, herb, or flower – the garden can be as big or small as you have room for…Herbs grow great on window sills, and corn, pumpkins and beans are fun and easy to cultivate and very cool to watch grow! Have you heard of a rain garden? This is a “trending topic” all on it’s own and a great way to plan for and mitigate storm water run off that some of us are having to get used to as heavy rain events are becoming a more frequent occurrence of our changing climate. Consider getting a rain barrel too!
(source)

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Roslyn Kind on The Candi & Randy Show tonight

 
While she may have started out as “Barbra Steisand’s little sister” – Roslyn Kind has made a big name for herself thanks to acclaimed recordings, appearances in concert, on Broadway and television.

L.A. Times: “Forget that Roslyn Kind is Barbra Streisand’s kid sister. She’s to good and too special to have to worry about comparisons…”

The London Times: “To say she is superb would be an understatement.” 

The New York Post: “She’s so good on so many levels; it’s difficult to categorize her.  This elegant, beautiful, petite, dynamo delight rules the stage with a royal command that demands adoration from every seat in the house.”

In addition to her work on stage and in the studio, Roslyn also takes pride in her work for various animal welfare, Alzheimer’s and AIDS related charitable organizations including HSUS, APLA and Broadway Cares Equity Fights AIDS.

Catch Roslyn on The Candi & Randy Show tonight: 11pmEST/8pmPST – click here to listen. 

More info at RoslynKind.com

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Ketel One Walk of Change at the 23rd Annual GLAAD Media Awards

Hudson Taylor

While attending the 23rd Annual GLAAD Media Awards, celebrities and supporters stopped by the Ketel One Vodka “Walk of Change” to make their mark and for every handprint left, Ketel One donated $1000 to GLAAD.

Participants included Hudson Taylor, Trevor Donovan, Wendie Malick, Chaz Bono, GLEE’s Max Adler and many more.

Just a few notes from the evening:

• Dancing with the Stars alumnus,Chaz Bono, attended the GLAAD Media Awards to graciously accept the Stephen F. Kolzak award. Surprise guest, Cher arrived right before the award and was beaming with pride as she presented her son with the notable honor.

• Always popular, Betty White was greeted with a roaring applause from the event’s audience. The Hot in Cleveland star, who arrived fashionably late, dined with her cast members, Wendy Malik and Jane Leeves, and toasted to their GLAAD Media Award.

• Hunger Games star, Josh Hutcherson, accepted the Van Guard Award at the Los Angeles GLAAD Media Awards. The young actor, who was greeted with a bear hug from Benecio Del Toro, came to support the LGBT community and noted that the cause was close to his heart.

• Glee stars Max Adler and Grant Gustin showed there support for the LGBT community and gave back to GLAAD leaving their handprints in the Ketel One Walk of Change.

• Not surprisingly dressed in their best, The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, Kyle Richards and Lisa Vanderpump, arrived in full-length gowns to strut their stuff on the red carpet. To many attendees’ disappointment, Jiggy was not in attendance.

Check out the pics below, plus more here.

Trevor Donovan
Wendie Malick
Chaz Bono
Max Adler
Col. Victor Fehrenbach

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Tyler Ward compilation video – Europe Tour 2012

Tyler Ward is my favorite recent music discovery, and this video makes it even easier to understand why.

I love the guys energy and music, and this video really takes a cool approach to sharing his recent European tour.

CatStone took clips from over two dozen fan videos posted on YouTube and mixed them together to look like a multi-camera 20 minute concert video. And they mix in live and studio music seamlessly. Very cool. Great job to CatStone.

And while you’re at it, check out Tyler Ward on iTunes. This guy is huge. Almost 250,000,000 video views on YouTube.

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Robin Gibb wakes from coma, shows improvement

Robin Gibb‘s spokesman says the Bee Gees star has woken from a coma and is showing signs of recovery.

The 62-year-old member of The Bee Gees fell into a coma last week after contracting pneumonia.
Doug Wright on Saturday said that Gibb had been able to nod and communicate with his family members, who have surrounded his bedside for almost his entire stay in a central London hospital.

More here.

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Chaz Bono joined onstage by Cher at GLAAD Awards LA

Chaz Bono with mother Cher

Chaz Bono, whose transition from female to male was chronicled in Becoming Chaz, was joined on stage at the Westin Bonaventure in Los Angeles by directors Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato to pick up the prize for outstanding documentary for the OWN release.

In addition, Bono was also honored with GLAAD’s Stephen F. Kolzak Award, which is presented annually to an openly lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender media professional who has made a significant difference in promoting equality. Cher presented her son with the award and was joined on stage by Rep. Mary Bono Mack.

In other categories, ABC’s Modern Family took home the GLAAD Award for outstanding comedy series, with star Jesse Tyler Ferguson accepting the honors. The Steve Levitan/Christopher Lloyd comedy shared the honor in the category last year with Fox’s Glee.

Focus Features’ romantic dramedy Beginners, starring Christopher Plummer, Ewan McGregor and Melanie Laurent, was honored as outstanding film, wide release. Plummer took home a supporting actor Academy Award for the role.

The Hunger Games star Josh Hutcherson received GLAAD’s Vanguard Award, which is presented to media professionals who have increased the visibility and understanding of the LGBT community.

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Wait, don’t tell me – I’ve heard this one before. I think…

Had to laugh tonight. And I thought about my friend Kevin Hoyt – fireman/super-hero and founder of It Ain’t Chemo – when this happened.  Just saw him yesterday and I know he’s been here.

Michael is still out of town on a business trip, so I settled down with the dogs for a night of catching up on the few TV shows I actually follow.

I hit “On Demand” and saw a couple of things I hadn’t seen yet.

Hit play.

Five minutes into the first TV show I realize I’ve seen this but I have no idea what happens.  Ah, “chemo brain” – the gift that keeps giving 🙂

For those who don’t know, I’m a happy Cancer “thriver” three years out from my cancer journey.  The only real left-over from my trip down “cancer lane” is occasional short term memory loss, which is common for some folks who did the chemo thing.

I finished the TV episode and vaguely remembered something about it, but it made me laugh.  That’s about all you can do at this point. Plus be happy that I made it to this side of the journey.

Everyone going through it right now – please know I’m right with you.  First thing I’d tell you is “yeah, it sucks.” Because it does.  And you get to say that.  I want you to know that.

The second thing I’d say is “maybe someday the worst thing to come out of this is you won’t remember an episode of some TV show.”

And there you have it.  We have a lot of “It Gets Better” videos today about bullying.  Let me just tell the cancer journey folks – it gets better too.  Some day you might get to “the other side” and the benefit is you might not remember some middle of the road TV shows.

Gotta run.  Have another show queued up I may (or may not) have seen.  I’ll let you know.

More wine…

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GLAAD Awards: Josh Hutcherson on the red carpet

Josh Hutcherson, star of “The Hunger Games” on the Red Carpet for the GLAAD Awards in Los Angeles where he will be honored as the youngest ever recipient of the Vanguard Award.

Hutcherson will receive the Vanguard Award, which is presented to media professionals who, through their work, have increased the visibility and understanding of the LGBT community. Hutcherson leads the next generation in the movement for LGBT equality.

In 2010, Hutcherson starred as the son of a lesbian couple in the critically acclaimed film “The Kids Are All Right,” which received a GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Film Wide Release, two Golden Globe Awards and an Academy Award nomination for Best Picture. Hutcherson currently stars as Peeta Mellark in the blockbuster film “The Hunger Games.”

Hutcherson is one of the founders of the LGBT ally organization Straight But Not Narrow (SBNN), and has remained outspoken about why equality for LGBT people is important.

In an interview with SamaritanMag.com, Hutcherson said, “We just launched [SBNN], and it’s a very exciting time for us and it hits close to home for me. I have a lot of gay friends in Los Angeles. My roommate’s gay and I lost two uncles when I was young to AIDS, so it’s an important cause in my family.”

Earlier this year, Hutcherson and fellow SBNN co-founder, actor Avan Jogia, met with Gay-Straight Alliance leaders at the GSA Network to film a video discussing the importance of GSA clubs in schools. In March, Hutcherson made a surprise appearance at a high school in Los Angeles where he spoke to GSA members about about the importance of being an ally for LGBT young people.