UK Prime Minister Theresa May, speaking at a week-long summit meeting of the Commonwealth, a 53-country network of mostly former colonies, said she regrets the anti-LGBT laws enacted years ago and called for their reform.
“I am all too aware that these laws were often put in place by my own country. They were wrong then and they are wrong now,” May said.
“As the United Kingdom’s Prime Minister I deeply regret both the fact that such laws were introduced and the legacy of discrimination, violence and even death that persists today.”
Currently, 37 of the 53 member nations of the Commonwealth outlaw same-sex relations.
Last week, out UK diver Tom Daley addressed the issue at the Commonwealth Games in Australia after winning the 10K meter synchronized diving event with his partner Dan Goodfellow.
Watch May’s comments below.
This is what we wanted to see in #CHOGM2018. Strong words from UK PM Theresa May @Number10gov on regret and calling out those countries who were and still are wrong. There is still SO much to do across the Commonwealth for LGBT+ equality. #QueerCommonwealth 🌈 pic.twitter.com/5JpPEOKvL5
In an apparent crackdown by China’s Communist Party to denounce any and everything to do with LGBT folks, the country’s microblogging platform Sina Weibo began deleting “homosexual” content even as protesters reacted with the hashtag #IAmGay.
Weibo said in a statement Friday it had begun a “clean-up campaign” to remove “illegal” content, including “manga and videos with pornographic implications, promoting violence or (related to) homosexuality”.
It is the latest sign in a crackdown by the ruling Communist Party to purge the Internet of any content deviating from its “core values of socialism” while stifling criticism of social norms and established policies.
The popular Twitter-like platform, which boasts 400 million active monthly users, said it was implementing China’s new cybersecurity law and had already removed some 56,240 items by Friday evening.
The announcement provoked a flood of reaction from stunned or outraged Chinese Internet users, with protesters rallying behind the hashtag “I am gay”.
By midday Saturday, it had been used by some 170,l000 Weibo users, before it was apparently banned by the platform.
“There can be no homosexuality under socialism? It is unbelievable that China progresses economically and militarily but returns to the feudal era in terms of ideas,” one angry commenter said.
China only decriminalised homosexuality in 1997, but conservative attitudes remain widespread.
#Gay#LGBT Yesterday，one of the biggest app in China，like the Twitter, instagram, named Weibo，issued a statment that prohibit every article, picture, comment，topic—every thing about homosexuality. How I am disappointed about our country… pic.twitter.com/MoLKHJoNRZ
The most meaningful hashtag I’ve seen around Chinese social media in a long time following announcement of ban on gay content: #IAMGAY#我是同性恋. Some say: “If this is not the time to speak out, then when will we?” https://t.co/CLMCHP4cWk
Many social media users in China protested with messages saying, “I am gay, not a pervert” following a Sina Weibo ban on gay-themed content https://t.co/LEyelq2KXX
Paul Edward Acton Bowen, a 37-year-old Gadsden native who now lives in Etowah County’s Southside community, was taken into custody by Hoover police about 12:35 p.m.
The founder of Acton Bowen Outreach Ministries is charged with second-degree sodomy, enticing a child to enter a vehicle or house for immoral purposes, and second-degree sex abuse.
The victim was a young male, but police did not release his age except to say he is over 12 and under 16.
Hoover police Capt. Gregg Rector said the department’s Special Victim’s Unit first launched an investigation three weeks ago. The Jefferson County District Attorney’s Office issued the warrants on Monday.
“This is certainly one of the more disturbing cases that we’ve investigated in quite some time,” Rector said. “Mr. Bowen is in a highly-respected position of influence and he is trusted by many. We believe he betrayed that trust in the worst kind of way.”
Bowen was taken into custody in Pelham and transported to the Hoover City Jail. He was moved to the Jefferson County Jail where he was released early Wednesday on $90,300 bond.
• Who’s the ‘real’ Village People these days? It’s pretty complicated, actually.
• Fort Lauderdale proves itself to be one of the most LGBT-friendly cities in America with the election of openly gay Dean Trantalis as mayor. The Democrat easily defeated his Republican opponent Bruce Roberts by winning 64% of the vote.
• When word broke that the Department of Housing and Urban Development ordered a $31,000 dining table for HUD Secretary Ben Carson’s offices, we got quick denials that Carson knew nothing about the purchase. Recently released emails show, however, that Carson not only knew but picked out the new luxe new furniture with his wife.
• Donald Trump’s new pick for Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, has a terrible record on LGBTQ equality. From opposing marriage equality to fighting open military service by LGBTS, he’s been bad news for the community.
• Megan Rapinoe, the Olympic and World Cup champion soccer player who came out publicly several years ago, has signed a sponsorship deal with Bodyarmor sports drink.
• Ryan Worley of the Chippendales gives you an up-close peek at his totally awesome abs minutes after his Chipps calendar shoot. #Dang
It’s always interesting to see how folks on the other side of LGBT discrimination like to frame an issue to make themselves the victims.
In this article from Christian News, note how the writer says the owners of this Pennsylvania bridal shop declined “to assist a lesbian with her wedding.”
“Assisting” is also in the headline of the story.
The Christian owners of a bridal shop in Pennsylvania who have been receiving threats since declining to assist a lesbian with her wedding last July have decided to close their business due to fears of an impending ordinance that would require them to violate their faith, as well as the inability to market themselves in light of false negative reviews.
“The members of our town council have made it known they will pass an ordinance soon. We have chosen to close rather than be forced to go against our faith,” W.W. Bridal Boutique in Bloomsburg, co-owned by Victoria Miller and her three daughters, explained on social media on Sunday.
The boutique has discounted all wedding gowns to half price as the women plan to close their doors permanently on March 30.
As previously reported, the bridal shop first came under criticism in 2014 after Miller and her daughters declined to schedule a gown fitting for a lesbian and her partner.
“We feel we have to answer to God for what we do,” Miller told reporters at the time. “And providing those two girls dresses for a sanctified marriage would break God’s law.”
Now, “assisting” sounds like the owners of this dress shop would be deeply involved in the details of this couple’s wedding, doesn’t it?
I’m picturing designing, sewing, fittings, perhaps even dressing the brides on the day of the wedding…?
The article goes on to say the pending ordinance “would prohibit them from declining to take part in same-sex ceremonies.”
Take part?
In truth, they would have sold the bride a dress and done a fitting. That’s it.
Anti-LGBT bakers at least complain that the “creation” of wedding cakes for LGBT weddings requires their creative gifts in creating a cake.
This dress shop would have sold a dress. A dress they didn’t create.
You’ll note the article didn’t bother to interview anyone from the local LGBT community.
By the way, a crowdfunding campaign has been setup with a goal of $90,000 in hopes of another financial windfall as we’ve seen in similar situations.
To date, the campaign has raised less than $4,000.
You may recall back in February of 2013, Melissa and Aaron Klein as owners of Sweet Cakes bakery in Oregon refused to bake a cake for a lesbian couple.
The customers who were turned away, Rachel Bowman-Cryer and her wife, Laurel, filed a complaint with the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries saying they had been the victims of discrimination based on sexual orientation which is clearly against the state’s public accommodation laws.
The Bureau of Labor and Industries agreed and fined the Sweet Cakes owners $135,000 for emotional damages suffered.
The Kleins took their case to the Oregon Court of Appeals and lost again as the appeals court agreed with the Bureau’s determination.
Now, the Kleins have asked the Oregon State Supreme Court to to overturn the lower court rulings.
The Kleins have paid the fine of $135,000 but it’s been held in a state escrow account until all appeal options have been exhausted.
While the Kleins have cried poor in the aftermath of their anti-LGBT bigotry being exposed, it’s quite noteworthy that a “Christian” crowdfunding campaign by fellow haters raised over $500,000 in support of the Kleins.
You can see the stories chronicling their windfall here and here.
So the couple has actually made money in this little escapade.
It’s time to leave it alone, Kleins. You broke the state’s public accommodation law, you make a butt load of money through the whole debacle.
Just one day after joining the board of the Country Music Association, Mike Huckabee resigned as his multitude of hateful anti-LGBT comments came back to bite him in the butt.
Huckabee’s critics included Jason Owen, who manages Little Big Town, Kacey Musgraves and Faith Hill. Owen, who is gay, married and a father, said “Huckabee speaks of the sort of things that would suggest my family is morally beneath his, and uses language that has a profoundly negative impact upon young people all across this country. Not to mention how harmful and damaging his deep involvement with the NRA is.” He said is companies would “no longer support the CMA Foundation”.
Huckabee has compared homosexuality with bestiality and regularly denounced same-sex marriage.
Steve Schnur, a former CMA board member, said the town’s phones were lit up all night and into this morning after Wednesday’s announcement. “I got calls in shock from multiple CMA members, asking if I knew about it, some threatening to leave,” says Schnur, who is the worldwide executive of music for EA, the blockbuster video game producer that has moved most of its efforts to Nashville, and who sits on the Recording Academy’s Nashville board. “I’ve had numerous conversations since the second I woke up with chairmen of labels and major managers, all collectively agreeing that this move, which fortunately now has been resolved, really would have put Nashville back 20 years.
No doubt the former governor of Arkansas will use this incident to gin up some paid speeches somewhere…
BREAKING: Mike Huckabee apparently is too far to the right even for the Country Music Association. He’s been kicked out. Like daughter, like father!
Mike Huckabee being forced to quickly resign from the Country Music Association Foundation shows that the country is getting more progressive as the Republican Party gets more extreme.
I recently reported on the ruling by a judge in Kern County, California, that allowed a Bakersfield baker to continue to deny selling a wedding cake to same-sex couples based on the baker’s “deeply held religious beliefs.”
Jimmy Kimmel obviously heard about the ruling and recently staged this little skit to explain why the thinking behind the ruling is flawed.
Here’s the clip description:
A controversial decision came from a court in Kern County, California that ruled in favor of a bakery that refused to make a cake for a same-sex wedding because the owner said it would violate her Christian faith.
This isn’t the first instance of a bakery refusing to make a cake for a same-sex wedding, there’s a case right now in the Supreme Court, but the judge’s ruling in this particular case is interesting. He says the bakery would have violated the law if it refused to sell the gay couple a cake that was already baked, but that they can’t be forced to bake one.
So Jimmy uses a common restaurant dining experience to explain why this isn’t right.
Basing his decision on the distinction between selling a product or creating an artistic expression, Kern County Superior Court Judge David Lampe has ruled that baker Cathy Miller of Bakersfield can continue to refuse to make wedding cakes for same-sex couples.
The case began last August when Miller, a conservative Christian, refused to make a wedding cake for Mireya and Eileen Rodriguez-Del Rio.
Miller claimed it violated her deeply held Christian beliefs.
The Rodriguez-Del Rioses filed a complaint to the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing alleging Miller had violated the Unruh Civil Rights Act, which prohibits public businesses from denying service to anyone on race, gender, religion or sexual orientation.
Note: This ruling is a motion regarding a preliminary injunction. The case has not been tried yet.
“A retail tire shop may not refuse to sell a tire because the owner does not want to sell tires to same sex couples. There is nothing sacred or expressive about a tire. No artist, having placed their work for public sale, may refuse to sell for an unlawful discriminatory purpose. No baker may place their wares in a public display case, open their shop, and then refuse to sell because of race, religion, gender, or gender identification,” Lampe wrote.
His distinction, he said, is between the act of selling a product to a same-sex couple and creating a product for the same couple.
“The difference here is that the cake in question is not yet baked,” Lampe wrote. “The State is not petitioning the court to order defendants to sell a cake. The State asks this court to compel Miller to use her talents to design and create a cake she has not yet conceived with the knowledge that her work will be displayed in celebration of a marital union her religion forbids. For this court to force such compliance would do violence to the essentials of Free Speech guaranteed under the First Amendment.”
The ruling doesn’t end the case. It just allows Miller to continue denying same-sex couples wedding cakes until the trial is resolved sometime this summer.
Bloomberg is reporting that the U.S. Supreme Court has refused to review a Mississippi “religious freedom” law, HB1523, that allows broad discrimination against LGBT people.
In denying the request for review, SCOTUS is allowing the law to remain intact.
The justices turned away two appeals by state residents and organizations that contended the measure violates the Constitution. A federal appeals court said the opponents hadn’t suffered any injury that would let them press their claims in court.
The Mississippi fight in some ways represented the flip side of a Colorado case the high court is currently considering; the question in that instance is whether the state can require a baker who sells wedding cakes to make one for a same-sex couple’s wedding.
The cases are testing states’ ability to regulate what happens when LGBT rights come into conflict with religious freedoms. Colorado is aiming to bolster gay rights by enforcing an anti-discrimination law, even though the Denver-area baker says he has a religious objection to same-sex marriage.
The Mississippi law, by contrast, gives priority to religious rights. The state enacted its law less than a year after the 2015 Supreme Court ruling that legalized same-sex marriage nationwide.
The measure says religious people can’t be sued or penalized by the government for declining to provide services for same-sex marriage ceremonies. The law also protects people who believe gender is an immutable characteristic or who object to sex out of wedlock.
The 2016 law was passed after the U.S. Supreme Court issued the landmark Obergefell ruling which legalized same-sex marriage nationwide.
BREAKING: Disappointed to learn that #SCOTUS has declined to hear our case against #HB1523, Mississippi’s discriminatory anti-#LGBTQ “religious freedom” law. #HB1523Hurts
