LGBTQ news and entertainment
Thinking best thoughts for my friends in Southern California.
Wildfires and “devil winds” keep barreling across Southern California, destroying homes and spawning “firenadoes.”
In the latest installment of his ‘Better Know a District’ segments, Stephen Colbert goes to California’s 29th district in L.A.’s San Fernando Valley to interview Rep. Tony Cardeñas.
So much to do in the 29th! The aerospace industry is big, Juicy Couture makes their home there, AND there are 46 porn studios!
Oh, the food! Can’t miss that! Colbert leaves no burrito unturned. In fact, he finds a way to bring the food and porn industries all into one special moment.
Congressman Cardeñas is a very good sport throughout.
(via newnownext)
Frontiers LA, the 32-year-old biweekly publication based in Southern California has a new owner and is looking at a reboot as first a digital, and eventually a print publication that promises to “reach a diverse, sophisticated audience.”
Via press release:
Frontiers will still be the nationally respected source for news and opinion about LGBT issues from the most resonant voices in the community. It will also remain the definitive source for nightlife, restaurants, shopping and culture in Hollywood and an expanding circle of other like-minded communities.
Gay life has grown beyond the strict neighborhood boundaries and mindset of Boystown. Expect to see many changes online and in print in the coming months. You’ll also be getting announcements about new talent, major events and innovative programs leading up to a full relaunch in June.
Frontiers LA currently has a readership of approximately 90,000 and over 250,000 unique online visitors a month.
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| Kama Kaina and Mathew Rivera |
Here we go again.
On the grounds that doing so would violate her religious beliefs, a California caterer has refused to service a gay couple’s wedding reception.
The Advocate reports:
On November 26, Kama Kaina contacted Janet Zimmerman Catering with a request to cater his wedding to his longtime partner, Mathew Rivera. Zimmerman, who had been recommended by the couple’s planned venue in Big Bear, Calif., initially agreed. But several hours later, she sent an email expressing a change of heart because of her “Christian beliefs.”
“Thank you for contacting me in regards to your upcoming wedding,” Zimmerman wrote to Kaina, according to an email forwarded to The Advocate. “I really appreciate that you were honest with me and gave me a heads up that this would be a same sex marriage. I hope that you will also appreciate when I am honest with you when I say that catering your wedding would comprise [sic] my Christian beliefs and I will be unable to accept this job. I am sure that you will be able to find someone who will better suit your needs.”
I realize that this is discriminatory, but after so many of these stories I’m of a mind that we should just let the community know about these folks who don’t want to provide services to LGBT weddings, and then make sure we spread the word about companies that ARE happy to work with LGBT events. Make sure that the good guys get credit for their open nature.
And once we know who the haters are, leave them alone. Who wants to deal with people like that anyway?
I would like to know if Zimmerman is so devout about EVERY biblical teaching, or if it’s just the gay issues that “compromise” her Christian beliefs…
And the Republican party doesn’t understand why they have a problem with women voters?
The pic above of anti-Hillary Clinton buttons was tweeted by San Francisco Chronicle reporter Carla Marinucci on display at the California GOP Convention.
The buttons read: “KFC Hillary Special: 2 Fat Thighs, 2 Small Breasts … Left Wing’.
Marinucci later wrote: “Less than hour after we 1st tweeted, appears offensive #Hillary buttons gone from #cagop. Many here also appalled…”
(via HuffPost)
California has become the first state in the nation to commit to raising the minimum wage to $10 per hour, although the increase will take place gradually over three years under a bill signed into law by Democratic Governor Jerry Brown on Wednesday.
The law raises minimum pay in the most populous state from its current rate of $8 per hour to $9 by July 2014 and $10 by January 2016.
The state with the highest minimum wage currently is Washington, where employers must pay at least $9.19 per hour.
Chris Geidner at Buzzfeed has the news:
A federal appeals court Thursday upheld California’s ban on therapy aimed at changing minors’ sexual orientation.
In a unanimous decision of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, the law — the first of its kind in the country — was upheld as being within the legislature’s authority to pass. Parents wishing to employ such therapy with their children and professionals who employ “sexual orientation change effort” therapy.
New Jersey last week became the second state in the country to pass such a law.
The three-judge panel that heard the appeal of California’s law considered both free speech claims brought by the practitioners, associational claims brought by the parties, and claims about parents’ rights to raise their children. The judges found the law violated none of these provisions.
The LA Times reports on the final, unsuccessful attempt by the haters to keep gays and lesbians from marrying in California:
The California Supreme Court refused Wednesday to revive Proposition 8, ending the last remaining legal challenge to same-sex marriage in the state.
Meeting in closed session, the state high court rejected arguments by ProtectMarriage, Proposition 8’s sponsors, that only an appellate court could overturn a statewide law.
A federal judge in San Francisco declared Proposition 8 unconstitutional in 2010, and state officials refused to appeal. ProtectMarriage did appeal, but the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in June that initiative sponsors have no right to defend their measures in federal court. The decision left in place the ruling by retired Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn R. Walker.
In its challenge before the state’s highest court, ProtectMarriage argued that a single judge lacked the authority to overturn a state constitutional amendment. The group also contended that Walker’s injunction applied to two counties at most and that state officials had overstepped their authority by ordering county clerks throughout California to issue same-sex marriage licenses.
State officials countered that the challenge was a veiled attempt to persuade a state court to interfere with a federal judge’s order in violation of the U.S. Constitution.
California Gov. Jerry Brown has signed into law landmark legislation that allows transgender students to participate in school programs, including sports, based on their gender identity. The measure, which passed the state legislature almost entirely on the basis of support from Democrats, removes barriers that transgender students previously experienced to any sex-segregated school program or facility.
“While many California schoolchildren are already protected by policies in some of our biggest school districts, other districts don’t seem to understand that transgender students should have equal access to all programs and facilities,” Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, the bill’s author, said.
Under the new law, transgender students can participate in sports and other activities on the basis of the gender by which they identify. In addition, transgender students will be able to use locker rooms and restrooms on the same basis.
Read more at Queerty
San Diego County Clerk Ernest Dronenburg on Friday withdrew his petition asking the California Supreme Court to halt same-sex marriages and consider whether the Supreme Court’s Prop 8 ruling applies only to the plaintiffs involved in the case.
In a news release sent out Friday afternoon, Dronenburg said he canceled the petition because it covered the same ground as another petition filed earlier to the court.
The first petition was filed July 12 by Dennis Hollingsworth and others. Hollingsworth, a former state senator, has worked with ProtectMarriage.com in support of Proposition 8, which amended the state Constitution to define marriage as a union between a man and a woman.
Dronenburg said he was withdrawing his petition, which he filed July 19, to speed up the legal process that he hopes will clarify the current legal standing of Prop. 8.
Dronenburg has said he wanted county clerks to stop issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples because it would be “cruel” if such people tied the knot and then later learned that their marriages were invalid. However, it would seem strange that a man so concerned for the “well-being” of gays and lesbians would hire attorney Charles LiMandri, a vocal supporter of Prop. 8 and head of the Freedom of Conscience Defense Fund in Rancho Santa Fe.
Coincidence? I think not.