• Jimmy Kimmel has apologized for using gay jokes in his ongoing online feud with Sean Hannity.
• Even conservative pollster Frank Luntz says the GOP is in “deep trouble” and could very well lose both the House and the Senate in the 2018 fall mid-term elections.
• A dad’s request to see his son’s “boy toy” boyfriend went viral for all the right reasons.
• That hilarious time that Fox News accidentally posted a graphic with poll results showing them to be the “least-trusted” news network on the air. “That’s the not the graphic we’re looking for. Hold off. Take that down, please.” #oops
It just goes to show that sometimes it’s two steps forward, one step back.
During Alexandria High School’s talent show this past Tuesday, one female student asked her girlfriend to attend prom with her.
The result? The girl who initiated the prom proposal and a friend who helped her were both given in-school suspension.
The girlfriend who received the invitation was not disciplined.
While school officials labeled the proposal a “disruption,” many students found nothing wrong with the romantic moment.
Senior Ashley Fadely told AL.com, “I was there when it happened. It was right after her performance. No words were spoken by them. They just got happy, hugged and that was it,” she said.
Several students and alumni have taken to social media to denounce the suspensions saying if it had been an opposite-sex couple no one would have blinked.
The school’s principal and superintendent have not responded to requests for comment.
Check out the way cute video from Rainbow Youth, a non-profit supporting LGBT young people in New Zealand, which takes on the tiresome practice of calling anything weak, frustrating or disappointing “gay.”
When one of the farmers in the video accidentally drops his meat pie in the dirt, he proclaims the situation “gay.”
But his buddy steps in to explain that “gay” is not a substitution for something bad.
“Actually, Nigel, that’s not gay at all,” he says. “It’s deeply disappointing, but it’s not gay.”
The video was posted with this message: “We’re SUPER stoked to finally share with you our very first national ad campaign! We chose to address something small that contributes to much larger issues – homophobia, biphobia, and transphobia.”
Watch the clip below.
SUPER stoked to share with ya’ll our first national ad campaign addressing something small that contributes to much larger issues! 🌈💕 1/3 pic.twitter.com/oNxAuUEqY1
A powerful and moving speech by Green MP Marama Davidson at the New Zealand Parliament, which is considering legislation that would pardon gay men convicted of homosexual behavior.
Davidson shares an emotional, personal example of the impact on her family of homophobia, remembering a young gay man who was killed by Davidson’s uncle in the 1980s.
Her voice breaking, Marama spoke of the man during Parliament’s formal apology to the men convicted for consensual acts at a time homosexuality was illegal.
“I want to acknowledge in particular a young man who was murdered for being gay when I was a young girl … I think about what he lost in his life.
“Maybe he might have chosen to be a father with a lover, with a husband. Maybe he might have been an amazing uncle. Maybe he might have been a grandfather. Who knows, because he lost his life.
“I send my love to his family because the person who stole his life was my family.”
Davidson later explained that in the 80s, her uncle had reacted violently when propositioned by a gay man. Her uncle punched the man, who ended up in the water on Wellington’s waterfront and drowned.
The uncle was convicted of manslaughter and was killed in prison himself.
The bill of apology passed unanimously in New Zealand’s Parliament. The legislation would allow about 1,000 men with convictions for homosexuality to apply for pardons. The families of men who have passed away would be able to apply on their behalf.
Watch MP Davidson speak below. She references her personal connection to the legislation at the 1:30 mark.
Today HRC recognizes the 13th annual International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia (IDAHOT) with the launch of a video series highlighting global innovators in the fight for LGBTQ equality.
In addition, the organization is shining a spotlight on the need for continued U.S. engagement on protecting the human rights of LGBTQ individuals around the world, especially in the ongoing crisis occurring in Chechnya.
“While the global LGBTQ community is filled with innovative advocates advancing equality around the world, we are still combatting horrendous violence in the U.S. and beyond — as we have seen most recently with the detention, torture and murder of gay men in Chechnya,” said HRC Global Director Ty Cobb. “It is disturbing that the White House is trying to build a wall around our country as LGBTQ people and others are trying to find refuge from extreme violence and persecution in places like Syria and Chechnya. Equally disturbing is the violence transgender women of color are experiencing in the United States. We call on world leaders to do more — not less — to protect the human rights of all people around the world. If we turn a blind eye when human rights are violated, we all the suffer consequences of living in a world of violence and instability.”
IDAHOT celebrates the anniversary of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) resolution to declassify same-sex attraction as a mental disorder. The move followed a similar decision by the American Psychiatric Association in 1973. The WHO’s monumental change created a shift in how many LGBTQ people were treated. In 2004, LGBTQ activists gathered for the first time to mark this date with rallies in support of equality. The anniversary is now marked by celebrations, governmental proclamations, and renewed efforts to end the discrimination and violence that LGBTQ people throughout the world still face.
This chilling short film, American Male, from director Michael Rohrbaugh explores the inner monologue of one hyper-masculine frat bro that becomes an unrelenting stream of consciousness afraid of any social perceptions that are less than masculine identifiers.
Steroids, working out, practicing beer pong, chugging beer and more become the daily routine in an effort to avoid any possible personality traits that could be perceived as gay or feminine.
The film’s off-screen narration consists entirely of the rules of the masculine road:
“Order beer. Not wine. And beef, not chicken. Never light beer, though. And tofu. Can’t get more gay than tofu.”
“At a young age, I began to closely observe the people around me. The way they talked, the way they walked, what they said, where it got them. Now, I am no longer a person, but a set of social cues.”
The film was a winner in MTV’s Look Different Creator Competition, which invited emerging filmmakers to create groundbreaking videos on the topic of privilege.
Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto, in observation of International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia, signed initiatives that would seek to add same-sex marriage provisions to Mexico’s constitution and the national civil code.
President Enrique Pena Nieto proposed Tuesday to legalize same-sex marriage in Mexico, a move that would enshrine on a national level a Supreme Court ruling last year that it was unconstitutional for states to bar such couples from wedding.
Pena Nieto said he would seek to reform Article 4 of the constitution to clearly reflect the Supreme Court opinion “to recognize as a human right that people can enter into marriage without any kind of discrimination.”
“That is, for marriages to be carried out without discrimination on the basis of ethnicity or nationality, of disabilities, of social or health conditions, of religion, of gender or sexual preference,” he added.
Pena Nieto’s Twitter page and other government Twitter accounts were turned to include the rainbow colors as he made the announcement.
Although same-sex marriage is recognized in all 31 Mexican states, only 8 states have passed legislation which allows couples to marry locally.
The Mexican president’s Twitter feed was full of posts regarding today’s actions.
Acompaño al Presidente @EPN en la Ceremonia del Día Nacional de la Lucha contra la Homofobia. #SinHomofobia
— Claudia Ruiz Massieu (@ruizmassieu) May 17, 2016
El Presidente @EPN firma dos iniciativas de decreto para modificar el artículo 4º y el Código Civil Federal. pic.twitter.com/aTyJsfz7by
— Presidencia México (@PresidenciaMX) May 17, 2016
— Presidencia México (@PresidenciaMX) May 17, 2016
Worldwide, same-sex marriage is currently legal in the Netherlands (2001), Belgium (2003), Canada (2003-2005), Spain (2005), South Africa (2006), Norway (2009), Sweden (2009), Argentina (2010), Iceland (2010), Portugal (2010), Mexico (2010-2016; see section below), Denmark (2012) + Greenland (2016) + Faroe Islands (2016), France (2013), Brazil (2013), Uruguay (2013), New Zealand (2013), England and Wales (2014) + Scotland (2014), Luxembourg (2015), the United States of America (starting with Massachusetts in 2004 and growing to 37 states before the 2015 Supreme Court nationwide ruling), Ireland (2015), Colombia (2016), and Finland (starting in 2017).
Last week, former Minor League Baseball player Tyler Dunnington spoke to Outsports to share his story of the homophobia he experienced while playing both in college and for the Gulf Coast League Cardinals, a team affiliated with the St. Louis Cardinals.
Even though he was closeted at the time, it was the language he heard from other players and coaches – yes, coaches – that wore heavily on his soul.
Dunnington recalled being on the field one day when a coach mentioned in passing, “We kill gay people in Wyoming.” Tyler never named the coach or any individuals. He eventually stepped away from the game that had given him so much joy.
After that report broke and investigation was done, and that coach – Sean McKinney of Colorado Mesa University – stepped up and took responsibility for the comment. McKinney says the comment, in the moment, was meant to be “humorous,” not fully understanding the impact of his language.
The university president and others at CMU are now collaborating with the school’s Gay/Straight Alliance and One Colorado, the state’s leading advocacy organization for lesbian gay bisexual and transgender people to improve the atmosphere for LGBT athletes at the school.
“As the story spread and more stuff was revealed, it got really tough this week,” McKinney told Outsports in an exclusive interview. “I’m forever in debt to the people in this university and my friends and family. They know my true character. Some of that is in question, obviously, because of what’s gone on with Tyler’s story. But I would never harm anyone on our team. This week I’m sure this has been questions about how I feel about Tyler. I hope he’s OK. I called him this morning to apologize. I want him to have a good life.”
“I’ve made some off-the-cuff comments, and one in particular was not right. Tyler heard it, and I apologized for it. Through this process I’m learning everyone’s stories and what the impact of our language is.”
“This has been a tremendous learning experience. In meetings with our president and people across campus, I think this is going to go in a very positive direction. I’ll focus on my team and my guys to raise awareness. This is an experience we can use to move forward. I’ve talked to all of our players. We’ve had conversations, and they’ve gone great. And that will have a ripple affect across our campus.”
McKinney says this past week has been “life-changing” for him and he looks forward to the opportunity to turn this to a positive conversation.
You can watch the press conference at Colorado Mesa University here.
Out baseball player Tyler Dunnington during his Minor League Baseball days
An Atlanta Falcons coach asked former Ohio State cornerback Eli Apple whether he is gay during a meeting last week at the NFL combine. Apple described the meeting Friday during an interview with Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia, although he did not identify the coach.
“The Falcons coach, one of the coaches, was like, ‘So do you like men?’” Apple told Comcast SportsNet. “It was like the first thing he asked me. It was weird. I was just like, ‘No.’ He was like, ‘If you’re going to come to Atlanta, sometimes that’s how it is around here. You’re going to have to get used to it.’
“I guess he was joking, but they just ask most of these questions to see how you’re going to react.” Falcons coach Dan Quinn released a statement Friday, acknowledging the incident.
“I am really disappointed in the question that was asked by one of our coaches,” Quinn said. “I have spoken to the coach that interviewed Eli Apple and explained to him how inappropriate and unprofessional this was. I have reiterated this to the entire coaching staff and I want to apologize to Eli for this even coming up. This is not what the Atlanta Falcons are about and it is not how we are going to conduct ourselves.”
The NFL has previously stated that asking about sexual orientation in the hiring process is against league policy.
The NFL’s collective bargaining agreement includes protections that prohibit discrimination against any player based on sexual orientation. Violation of those protections is subject to league discipline.
The Washington Post has found and interviewed the newly revealed gay friend of Pope Francis, Yayo Grassi, who did have an private audience with the Pope during his visit to the U.S.
Grassi met the future Pope during the 1960s as a high school student where Jorge Bergoglio (now Pope Francis) taught Argentine literature and psychology at Inmaculada Concepción.
Once this week’s brouhaha erupted about the Pope’s “meeting” with Kentucky County Clerk Kim Davis, Grassi says he had to speak out.
“Although I didn’t know any details, I knew immediately that he had nothing to do with this, that this was arranged by other people without telling him the real character” of Davis, Grassi said. “I received from friends of mine a lot of quite disturbing mail, telling me that ‘This is your pope, look what he did, and he’s a coward,’ and my defense is ‘We don’t know anything. Just wait until things come out.’ And I’m extremely pleased that I was right. And I never had any doubt that I was right.”
In 2010, when Francis was a cardinal in Argentina, Grassi read media reports that his former teacher had condemned the legalization of same-sex marriage. So he sent a long e-mail to the cardinal expressing his disappointment, and the cardinal responded that his words had been cherry-picked and twisted, and that the reported sentiment was not true, according to Grassi.
He wrote that e-mail “with all the respect of the world,” Grassi said. “I stood firm on my position and I ended the e-mail saying ‘Don’t think it was easy for me to write this e-mail but I had to do it, and I think it was the right thing to do because 40 years ago you taught me I had to do it.’ He wrote back to me telling me, first of all, how sorry he was that he had hurt my feelings, that he had hurt me.
One of the things he said on that e-mail was that ‘I want you to know that in my work there is absolutely no place for homophobia.’ And I think that’s what I want people to know.”
