Category: Uncategorized

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Karen Handel resigns from Susan G. Komen over Planned Parenthood dispute

Karen Handel, vice president for public affairs at Susan G. Komen for the Cure, resigned on Tuesday following public outcry over the announcement Komen would pull funding from Planned Parenthood.

After Komen reversed its decision, The Huffington Post reported that Handel drove the decision to defund Planned Parenthood over abortion politics and crafted the strategy to clean up the public relations mess that ensued.

A Komen insider told HuffPost on Sunday that Karen Handel, Komen’s staunchly anti-abortion vice president for public policy, was the main force behind the decision to defund Planned Parenthood and the attempt to make that decision look nonpolitical.

“Karen Handel was the prime instigator of this effort, and she herself personally came up with investigation criteria,” the source, who requested anonymity for professional reasons, told HuffPost. “She said, ‘If we just say it’s about investigations, we can defund Planned Parenthood and no one can blame us for being political.'”

While serving as Georgia’s Republican Secretary of State, Karen Handel ran for governor on a platform of defunding Planned Parenthood.

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Snooki of ‘Jersey Shore’ says she’s bisexual

JWoww and Snooki from MTV’s “The Jersey Shore”

In a surprising interview with the Huffington Post, Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi and Jennifer “JWoww” Farley discussed the issue of homosexuality, including Snooki admitting that she considers herself to be bisexual:

The Huffington Post: Was there an exact moment that you can point to when you realized you have a gay following?
Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi: I always knew. I feel like I get along more with gay guys than I do…
Snooki and Jennifer “JWoww” Farley: Girls.
Really?
JWoww: My gay best friend Joey was like, “Do you know that Perez [Hilton] talks about you guys all the time?” We love everybody but Joey was like, “No! You don’t get it!” [Laughs] Me and Joey have been friends since I was 16 and we moved to New York together and he’s the reason I’m on [“the Jersey Shore”].

Snooki, things got hot and heavy with Deena [another one of the “Jersey Shore” roommates] last season. Do you consider yourself bisexual?

Snooki: I would consider myself bi. I’ve done stuff with girls before. But I would never be with a girl because I like… penis. But I’ve experimented.

Going back to the pregnancy rumor — how would you either of you feel if your child told you he or she was gay?

JWoww: I always thought my son would end up being gay. I’m like, “Uncle Joey will raise him up to be…” I’d be fine with it.

Snooki: I’d be fine. I would never disown my child.

JWoww: I would be excited.

Snooki: It would be more fun!

JWoww: Can you imagine?

A lot of my friends who are just starting to have kids say the same thing. They jokingly ask, “How can we make this happen?” It’s like, “Sorry. It doesn’t work that way.”

JWoww: It’s not a choice, honey.

Read the entire interview at the Huffington Post.

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Marriage equality bill introduced in Illinois

A marriage equality bill has been introduced in Illinois by Rep. Greg Harris (D-Chicago), the Chicago Phoenix reports:

“It marks the next step in our journey toward full marriage equality in our state,” Harris told Chicago Phoenix. “It’s not going to happen quickly, it’s not going to happen without a lot of hard work.”

If passed, the new law would amend the Illinois Religious Freedom Protection and Civil Union Act,  allowing the voluntary conversion of a civil union to a marriage.

Out lesbian lawmakers Rep. Deborah Mell (40th District) and Rep. Kelly M. Cassidy (14th District) are co-sponsors of the bill.

Writes Equality Illinois CEO Bernard Cherkasov in an email:

“We commend these leaders for taking yet another step towards full equality for lesbian and gay families in Illinois, and we are grateful to them for their leadership. This is just the beginning: the road to marriage equality is sure to be long, but it is one that we must travel together.

”

“In following experiences of thousands of couples in civil unions over the past year, we confirmed what we always suspected to be true: that creating a separate institution to provide substantially the same rights did not add up to full equality under the law. A pharmacist who denied prescription pick-up to the patient’s civil union partner didn’t think it’s the same thing as marriage. A coroner who refused to issue a death certificate to civil union partner survivor did not think that civil unions are the same as marriage. Tax preparers, estate planners, employers and employees do not think that civil unions are the same as marriage. Separate is not equal. And we at Equality Illinois will not rest until gay and lesbian couples in every corner of the state – who are equal in love – are also equal in marriage.”

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Roland Martin suspended from CNN for offensive Super Bowl tweets

On the heels of Monday’s call by GLAAD that CNN analyst Roland Martin be fired for tweets he made during Sunday’s Super Bowl, the network has announced that Martin has been suspended.

Martin later issued an apology: “As someone who has spoken out forcefully against bigotry against African Americans and other minorities, as well as sexism against women, I fully understand how a group who has been unfairly treated would be offended by such comments, and, again, I am sorry for any offense my remarks caused.”

Martin initially explained the tweets, which GLAAD said encouraged violence against gay people, as tweaking soccer fans, but the network disagrees.

In a statement released minutes ago, CNN says “Roland Martin’s tweets were regrettable and offensive. Language that demeans is inconsistent with the values and culture of our organization, and is not tolerated. We have been giving careful consideration to this matter, and Roland will not be appearing on our air for the time being.”

From GLAAD: “CNN today took a strong stand against anti-LGBT violence and language that demeans any community,” said Rich Ferraro, GLAAD spokesperson. “Yesterday, Martin also spoke out against anti-LGBT violence. We look forward to hearing from CNN and Roland Martin to discuss how we can work together as allies and achieve our common goal of reducing anti-LGBT violence as well as the language that contributes to it.”

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Facebook mural artist could make $500 million

In the news lately, in light of Facebook’s coming initial public offering of stock, has been discussion of the diverse list of folks who stand to make a lot of money from the IPO. The most interesting to me is David Choe, a graffiti artist who chose Facebook stock instead of cash when he spray-painted the first Facebook offices in 2005.

Mr. Choe said Facebook originally offered him $60,000 to paint murals in the company’s Palo Alto offices in 2005. Today, he said, the stock he took instead could be worth more than $500 million.

Apparently, when Facebook outgrew it’s original work space, they took down the mural walls and moved them to the new offices.

Check out more of the story here.

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US Supreme Court may not hear Prop 8 appeal

“Given the reasoning of the Ninth Circuit’s decision and its focus on the specific circumstances that led to the enactment of Prop 8 in California, it may be a tall order for the supporters of Prop 8 to persuade the Supreme Court to take the case.”

“The Supreme Court normally only accepts cases when different federal appellate courts have reached opposite conclusions on the same legal issues, or where a decision has broad national implications. The Ninth Circuit’s California-focused decision presents neither of those circumstances. Unless the Supreme Court breaks with its own tradition and intervenes in the case, it’s possible that wedding bells will be ringing in California again before the end of the year.” – Shannon Minter, legal counsel for the National Center for Lesbian Rights.
(via JMG)

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Jake Pavelka to be celebrity guest host for Chippendales in Las Vegas

Chippendales, the ultimate Las Vegas “Girls Night Out,” is about to get even hotter when reality show star, Jake Pavelka (ABC’s “The Bachelor” and “Dancing with the Stars,”) takes the stage as the celebrity guest host for a Spring residency (February 23rd – March 18th, Thursdays through Sundays).

During his limited engagement at Chippendales, Pavelka will use his charm, sex appeal and hosting skills to keep the women entertained while leaving the dancing to the men of Chippendales.

Pavelka will be joining an exclusive roster of guest hosts at Chippendales including Ronnie Magro of “Jersey Shore” and Jeff Timmons of the platinum-selling group 98 Degrees.

The addition of Pavelka, who is still touted as one of America’s most eligible bachelors, will add to the four-week long frenzy as Chippendales celebrates its 10th Anniversary at the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino as the venue’s resident “Diamonds in the Buff” (on Friday, February 24th) with nearly 4,000 performances.

Even though Jake won’t be dancing at Chippendales, we all remember he does has a great body and some sexy moves. Check out his “Risky Business” routine from “Dancing With The Stars.”  (Coincidentally, Chippendales currently has their own “Risky Business” number.  Maybe Jake might join in one night if they crowd gets wild enough?)

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Ellen Degeneres on the so-called “Million Moms” boycott

On a show taped today for broadcast Wednesday, Ellen DeGeneres praised the 9th Circuit’s ruling on Proposition 8, and then addressed the AFA organization ‘One Million Moms’ for calling for her firing.

As you may know, the hate group ‘One Million Moms’ called for JC Penney to fire ellen as spokesperson because she is, in their words, an “open homosexual”.

Wrote the group:

“Funny that JC Penney thinks hiring an open homosexual spokesperson will help their business when most of their customers are traditional families. More sales will be lost than gained unless they replace their spokesperson quickly. Unless JC Penney decides to be neutral in the culture war then their brand transformation will be unsuccessful.”

Says Ellen: “Normally, I try not to pay attention to my haters — but this time I’d like to talk about it, because my haters are my motivators. This organization doesn’t think I should be the spokesperson because I’m gay,” DeGeneres continued. “They wanted to get me fired, and I’m proud and happy to say that JCPenney stuck by their decision to make me their spokesperson. Which is great news for me because I also need some new crew socks. I’m really going to clean up with this discount.”

Ellen then read some of the comments from her supporters on the ‘Million Moms’ Facebook page – which really only has 40,353 followers, so I think the “Million Moms” thing is kind of false advertising.

Said Ellen: “I usually don’t talk about stuff like this on my show, but I really want to thank everyone who is supporting me. Here are the values I stand for. I stand for honesty, equality, kindness, compassion, treating people the way you’d want to be treated and helping those in need.To me, those are traditional values. That’s what I stand for…I also believe in dance.”

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A very special celebration at Gaia Retreat & Spa in Australia

I spent January 21, 2012, at a wonderful, fantastic and perfectly appropriate birthday celebration for my dear, fabulous Gregg Cave. Spectacular doesn’t begin to describe the evening. I’m so happy so many close friends came together from all over the world to celebrate Gregg Cave’s birthday in the most perfect setting in the world, the award-winning Gaia Retreat & Spa.

Gregg is one of the owner’s of Gaia Resort and Spa, and he’s the man who makes it all move and flow so seemingly effortlessly on a day to day basis.

Beyond that, he has the most wonderful spirit and makes everyone around him feel at ease in whatever setting he is in.

This is how to have a birthday,  If you have special event coming up, you can’t do better than Gaia Retreat & Spa.

Happy happy birthday Gregg!

Me with Michael, Olivia, Louise from ONJCWC and Rowina Thomas of the Lyall Hotel
at Gregg Cave’s birthday celebration