Tag: LGBT ally

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Florida: Pastor Baits Bakery With Anti-Gay Cake Order

Anti-gay Pastor Joshua Feuerstein decided to see if he could get an LGBT-friendly bakery (who advertised that they were LGBT-friendly) to make a cake with an anti-gay message: “We Do Not Support Gay Marriage.”

Feuerstein, recording on video, called Cut The Cake Bakery in Florida and proceeded to order his “hate cake.” The bakery owner who answered the phone denied the request, and hung up.

This is where it gets ugly.

Via Mediaite:

Feuerstein encouraged viewers to call the bakery and and help “expose the hypocrisy” they’re supposedly engaging in. Well, in a parallel of what happened to Memories Pizza in Indiana, Cut the Cake ended up receiving quite a lot of angry messages, including death threats.

Sharon Haller, who Feuerstein spoke to on the phone, said, “We started getting some hundreds of phone calls and making very nasty and negative gestures towards our business, towards us.”

Feuerstein took down the video at their request, but Cut the Cake posted it online so people could see it, along with a GoFundMe page that has raised, as of this posting, over $2000.

First of all, Florida has clear laws about recording phone calls. All parties have to be informed the call is being “intercepted” or recorded. Feuerstein did not inform the woman on the other end of the line. So, Feuerstein gets in some serious trouble here. The recording would be inadmissible in court since it was illegally done.

Second, there is a difference between making a cake for a loving celebration and making a cake with negative hate speech. And we all know it.

Third, the woman on the phone didn’t deny his order based on “religious beliefs.” She said she wouldn’t make it, and hung up. If she denies all “hate speech” cake orders, then she isn’t discriminating.

And now the baker is getting DEATH THREATS for not baking a hate speech cake? Seriously?

This is just a stunt. Plain and simple. Colorado just ruled a bakery there was not guilty of anything by denying a similarly negative messaged cake.

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NIKE Denounces Indiana’s “License To Discriminate”

NIKE’s CEO issued this statement today denouncing Indiana’s “license to discriminate” law and reiterates support for the LGBT community.

From NIKE President/CEO Mark Parker:

“NIKE proudly stands for inclusion for all. We believe laws should treat people equally and prevent discrimination. NIKE has led efforts alongside other businesses to defeat discriminatory laws in Oregon and opposes the new law in Indiana which is bad for our employees, bad for our consumers, bad for business and bad for society as a whole. We hope Indiana will quickly resolve this.”

As one of the world’s largest athletic apparel companies, NIKE is a longtime supporter of the LGBT community.

NIKE supported marriage equality in Oregon from the beginning, established LGBT protections for employees early on, and received a perfect 100 percent score on HRC’s 2015 Corporate Equality Index.

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Starbucks Opposes LGBT Discrimination

Starbucks would just like to remind you all:

“Everyone is welcome at Starbucks. Creating a culture of warmth and belonging is a core value of our company and we have been committed to diversity and inclusion since our earliest days.

“Starbucks joins with others opposing any state or federal legislation that permits discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity and encourages policymakers everywhere to embrace equality.”

(via press release)

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Openly Lesbian Pop Icon Lesley Gore Passes Away At 68

Singer-songwriter Lesley Gore – of “It’s My Party” fame – has passed away from cancer at the age of 68.

Discovered by a young Quincy Jones, teenaged Gore was signed to Mercury Records, where she released her iconic hit, “It’s My Party” in 1963. She followed that hit with “Judy’s Turn to Cry” and what would be deemed early feminist fare, “You Don’t Own Me.”

Decades later she was still writing hits. She co-wrote with her brother, Michael, the Academy Award-nominated “Out Here On My Own” from the film Fame.

Gore was also openly lesbian having come out in 2005.

At the time, she told AfterEllen, “Well, you know, it’s funny. I just never found it was necessary because I really never kept my life private. Those who knew me, those who worked with me were well aware.”

Gore also made a guest appearance on the 1960s camp TV show Batman as one of Catwoman’s sidekicks and an aspiring singer, “Pussycat.”  Here she sings the title track to her then new (and last commercially successful) album, California Nights.

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Dallas: Police Officer Urges Pension Board To Recognize Same-Sex Marriage

Thursday’s meeting of the Dallas Police and Fire Pension Board grew heated at times, as the board considered recognizing same-sex marriages. The best moment came when one police officer told the pension board to “grow the nuts that God gave a gnat and do it.”

From WFAA-TV:

The hours of squabbling and litany of failed attempts to spur the board to action stirred the police and fire personnel in the audience to speak out. Ernest Sherman (right) with Dallas police rose and shouted at the trustees.

“I have no dog in this hunt,” Sherman yelled. “But, by God, you’re a [expletive] police officer. So is she. So is she. They have the same right as you! Period!”

“You will vote today as a board, up or down,” Sherman continued, pointing at board members. “Grow the [expletive] that God gave a knat and do it!”

In the end, the board decided to punt the issue down the road until SCOTUS ruled on same-sex marriage.

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Nebraska State Senator Adam Morfeld Schools Anti-Gay Witness During Committee Meeting

Check out how Nebraska state Senator Adam Morfeld schools an anti-gay witness this past week during a committee hearing on a bill that would allow gays to serve as foster parents.

Currently, only two states ban gay foster parents – Nebraska and Utah.

Democrat Sen. Jeremy Nordquist has introduced a bill to overturn the ban.

Anti-gay attorney Greg Neuhaus told a committee debating the bill that he felt the legislation is “promoting an agenda.”

Sen. Adam Morfeld (D), who has also introduced pro-LGBT legislation, responded that Nordquist’s measure would merely ban discrimination.

During testimony, Neuhaus said that in addition to sexual orientation, the bill would also ban discrimination based on marital status, saying he’s “just as opposed to placing a child with an unmarried heterosexual couple.”

Check out how the conversation went:

Morfeld: “And why’s that, sir?”

Neuhaus: “Because I don’t think it’s in the best interest of the child.”

Morfeld: “So, my mother was a single mother for 15 years. I grew up, I didn’t get into trouble.

“I went to school. I went to school after working full-time for two years. I went to night school while working full-time for two years. I had a part-time job on top of that. And then I went to the University of Nebraska and worked my way through the University of Nebraska, and then after that I went to the University of Nebraska College of Law.

“During that time, I started a nonprofit that now employs 30 full- and part-time staff. My mother was a single mother. Did she do something wrong?”

Neuhaus: “I didn’t say she did. No. I’m not going to just be lectured to. If you want to ask me a question, I’ll answer it.”

Morfeld: “Under your rationale, my mother who’s a single mother likely isn’t the most fit parent, and the point that I’m trying to make is that fit parents come in all shapes and sizes, all kinds of sexual orientations, and that’s all I have to say. Thank you for your testimony.”

BOOM!

Watch below. The exchange happens at the beginning of the video.

(via Towleroad)

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Colin Farrell: I Support Marriage Equality In Ireland “With Every Fiber Of My Being”

Appearing on national broadcast television in Ireland last night, actor Colin Farrell passionately announced his support for the upcoming May referendum to legalize same-sex marriage.

During his statement, he referenced his gay brother who had to travel to Canada to marry his partner.

Via Gay Star News:

‘To see them every day live their lives as a happily married couple is an amazing thing, and to think that they had to leave their own country to do that is sad and disappointing and just grossly unfair, I feel,’ he said.

Farrell also responded to concerns about gay couples becoming parents.

‘It’s too easy for heterosexuals to be parents, if you want the truth. It’s too easy. There are too many of us who find it too easy to have a kid,’ he said.

‘Too many parents around the world don’t parent their kids, because it was a five-minute thing… and there it is.’

The anti-gay bully campaigner then gave his full support to the national referendum on gay marriage confirmed for May.

‘I carry Ireland with me everywhere I go, and I love my country deeply,’ he said.

‘This is my “coming out of the closet,” as it were, publicly and saying that I support this vote with every fiber of my being’

Watch his remarks below:

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Bette Midler Has Highest Ever Billboard Chart Debut With “It’s The Girls”

Bette Midler’s new CD – It’s The Girls – marks her fifth consecutive decade of top 10 albums on the Billboard 200 chart with the new release coming in at #3 this week. That marks her highest debut on the chart ever.

Midler becomes only the second woman, after Barbra Streisand, to have top 10 albums in each of the last five decades (1970s through 2010s).

From Billboard:

Midler has only climbed higher on the chart once before, when the 1989 Beaches soundtrack hit No. 2. (It consists entirely of Midler tunes heard in the film, including the No. 1 Billboard Hot 100 hit “Wind Beneath My Wings.”)

The three-time Grammy Award winner’s first top 10 came with her debut, The Divine Miss M, which arrived almost 42-years ago on the chart dated Dec. 9, 1972. It peaked at No. 9 the following March. She later visited the top 10 with a self-titled album (No. 6 in 1974), the Beaches soundtrack (No. 2 in 1989), Some People’s Lives (No. 6 in 1991) and Bette Midler Sings the Peggy Lee Songbook (No. 10 in 2005).

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Dolly Parton On Why The Gays Love Her So Much – “They Know That I Completely Love and Accept Them”

Photo: Joe Pugliese

Seven-time Grammy Award winner and music icon Dolly Parton recently took time for a photo shoot and Q&A with Billboard.

Among the subjects discussed was her why she has maintained such a strong fanbase in the LGBT community:

“They know that I completely love and accept them, as I do all people. I’ve struggled enough in my life to be appreciated and understood. I’ve had to go against all kinds of people through the years just to be myself. I think everybody should be allowed to be who they are, and to love who they love. I don’t think we should be judgmental. Lord, I’ve got enough problems of my own to pass judgment on somebody else.”

And why her theme park, Dollywood, attracts both Christians and gays alike:

“It’s a place for entertainment, a place for all families, period. It’s for all that. But as far as the Christians, if people want to pass judgment, they’re already sinning. The sin of judging is just as bad as any other sin they might say somebody else is committing. I try to love everybody.”

The interview appears in the November 1 issue of Billboard.

Check out the video below from the photo shoot: