LGBTQ news and entertainment
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The first day ‘down under’ started with breakfast on top of our hotel over looking the Harbor Bridge and the iconic Sydney Opera House! We then walked all around the Botanic Gardens surrounding the entire area.
Love Sydney!
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Channing Tatum and Alex Pettyfer show off their ripped physiques in this new still from Magic Mike.
The Steven Soderbergh-directed film will also star Matthew McConaughey, Joe Manganiello and Alex Pettyfer.
“Hard R” is how Channing Tatum describes the rating of ‘Magic Mike’ in a recent interview. Tatum — who himself spent eight months as a stripper in his late teens — says the flick “won’t be anywhere near” an NC-17 rating.
Nice to see Soderbergh appreciates the iconic “cuffs and collars” look of the most famous ladies night out, Chippendales.
From the NationalPost.com: The government of Canada is reportedly arguing that thousands of same-sex couples who have travelled to this country to get married are not legally wed.
The Globe and Mail reported Thursday that the government is contending in a Toronto court case that non-Canadians gays and lesbians who have been married here since 2004 are only considered married under this country’s laws if gay marriage is also recognized in their home country or state.
The paper is basing its report on court documents filed in a Toronto test case. It was launched by a lesbian couple seeking a divorce. They were wed in Toronto in 2005, and cannot be identified under a court order.
A Department of Justice lawyer reportedly argued the marriage was not legal in Canada because the couple could not have been legally married in Florida or England, where the two live.
Same-sex marriage in Canada was effectively legalized in 2004, and the next year the Liberal government passed the bill to make it a law.
More than 15,000 same-sex marriages have taken place since then, the Globe reported, with more than 5,000 involving couples from outside Canada.
The Ontario Superior Court is reportedly set to rule on the couple’s divorce application next month.
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UPDATE: Lambda Legal, Freedom To Marry, the ACLU, and GLAD have issued a joint statement:
“No one’s marriage has been invalidated or is likely to be invalidated. The position taken by one government lawyer in a divorce is not itself precedential. No court has accepted this view and there is no reason to believe that either Canada’s courts or its Parliament would agree with this position, which no one has asserted before during the eight years that same-sex couples have had the freedom to marry in Canada.”
“The message for same-sex couples married in Canada remains the same as it is for same-sex couples validly married here in the United States: take every precaution you can to protect your relationship with legal documents such as powers of attorney and adoptions, as you may travel to jurisdictions that don’t respect your legal relationship. There is no reason to suggest that Canadian marriages of same-sex couples are in jeopardy, or to advocate that people try to marry again elsewhere, as that could cause these couples unnecessary complications, anxiety, and expense.”
Republican Craig Stowell became a leader in the fight for marriage equality, standing up for his gay brother Calvin.
These are the stories that really resonate for me. When calm, cool-headed, caring people can see the humanity in marriage equality.
Bravo Craig Stowell.
Rudy Giuliani is clearly not a fan of Newt Gingrich or Rick Perry.
Whee!
About to take off in San Francisco for Sydney.
Call me a hick, but I had to laugh when we walked upstairs to our seats AFTER we boarded the plane.
You can take the boy out of Texas…
So while traveling, I plan on posting pics along the way that entertain me or make me laugh…
On a layover in San Francisco right now and I realize I haven’t been in this airport in at least ten years – and it’s fab!
The shopping is a much more “high-end” than what you see in most airports. Or at least there are a LOT of high end stores here. I love you can pick up something from Gucci while you wait for your plane:
And you can ‘visit’ the Golden Gate Bridge while walking to your gate:
Thrilled to hear the news the fabulous Billy Porter looks headed back to Broadway!
Tony nominee Stark Sands and Billy Porter will participate in a workshop of the previously announced new musical Kinky Boots in January. Featuring a score by Cyndi Lauper and book by Harvey Fierstein, the musical adaptation of the cult film is planning a Broadway run during the 2012-13 season.
Jerry Mitchell is set to direct and choreograph.
A 2005 indie hit, Kinky Boots starred Chiwetel Ejiofor (Children of Men, American Gangster) as a drag queen who teams up with the head of a struggling shoe company to try and save the business by designing a line of fetish shoes.
Sands earned a Tony nomination for Journey’s End. He has also appeared on Broadway in American Idiot and off-Broadway in Twelfth Night and The Tempest. Billy Porter has graced Broadway in productions that include Smokey Joe’s Cafe, Grease, Five Guys Named Moe and Miss Saigon. He has appeared off-Broadway in Angels in America, Birdie Blue, Ghetto Superstar, Radiant Baby, Songs for a New World and The Merchant of Venice.
(source)
At this point, more state senators in Washington state legislature say they plan to support the marriage equality bill than not, by a margin of 22-18. It will take 25 votes to pass the bill in the Senate.
The bill is widely expected to pass in the House.
The two Republican senators who are now supporting gay marriage – Steve Litzow of Mercer Island and Cheryl Pflug of Maple Valley – said the issue was a matter of equality.
“I don’t feel diminished when another human being is allowed to exercise the same rights that I enjoy,” Pflug said. “I would feel diminished if I voted to deny others the right to exercise those same rights and freedoms.”
Gov. Chris Gregoire publicly endorsed gay marriage for the first time last week.
(AP) The Las Vegas version of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “The Phantom of the Opera” is planning its last performance in September.
The cast of “Phantom — The Las Vegas Spectacular” will take a final bow on Sept. 2 after a six-year run.
Producer Scott Zeiger says the show at the Venetian casino on the Las Vegas Strip has had a triumphant run.
The production is housed in a custom built replica of the famed Paris Opera House. It features a $5 million chandelier that nearly crashed into the audience during each performance as a special effect.
“The Phantom of the Opera” celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2011. It has played to more than 130 million people in 27 countries and has grossed more than $5.6 billion worldwide.