Tag: LGBT families

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News Round-Up: June 22, 2020

Chippendales’ Jeffrey Garrovillo and co-star (via Instagram)

Some news items you might have missed:

• InstaHunks: Book a ‘Chippendales at Home’ party (above) and you never know – you might get two woofy Chipps for the price of one.

• Instinct: Why are some gay Republicans unhappy about the recent Supreme Court victory for LGBTQ protections in the workplace?

• Politico: A coalition of advocacy groups sued the Trump administration on Monday over its rollback of LGBTQ patient protections, arguing that last week’s Supreme Court decision extending workplace legal protections to gay and transgender employees invalidates the new rules.

• LGBTQ Families: Family Source Consultants, Fertility Centers of Illinois and International Fertility League Group are hosting an expert-led discussion on family building for the LGBTQ+ community on June 25th at 5pm CDT via ZOOM. The informational event is focused on couples and individuals who are interested in building their family through third party reproduction.

• Newsweek: Kentucky has slashed the number of polling locations for Tuesday’s primary elections to just 170 in-person polling stations across the Commonwealth — a major drop from the standard 3,700 sites usually made available for voters. The decrease comes as state officials heavily encourage residents to vote by mail amid the coronavirus health crisis. Many of the state’s most populous areas, like Jefferson County, home to half of the state’s Black residents, will have ONE polling location.

• NY Post: A defiant shopper fought his way into an Orlando Walmart after he was denied entry for refusing to wear a face mask, a viral video shows. The incident occurred on the same day masks became mandatory in the county. In the viral video, an employee tries to block the man from entering. “You gotta wear a mask, bro!” the man behind the camera says. The older man then shoves the Walmart worker, even falling to the ground at one point.

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Famous Footwear Features Gay Dads At Dinner Time In New Commercial

A new ad from Famous Footwear features two gay dads and their children sharing dinner time without electronics at the table.

One dad passes around a basket collecting everyone’s phones, although the daughter does try to hand on to her tablet.

The message being that for the family to reconnect, we need to disconnect every now and then.

I agree.

Nice that the dads are easy on the eyes, too.  Just saying…

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Costa Rican Father’s Day Commercial Features Gay Couple

Aw, this is super-sweet. And just in time for Father’s Day.

From Tico Times:

The commercial, “Families in all their forms,” focuses on a father and his son opening a bag of Pozuelo-brand “Familia” cookies.

As the dad explains that there are different kinds of families, the commercial follows an older couple without children – a gay couple – and a stay-at-home dad. The commercial concludes with the words, “When there’s love, there’s family.”

Ana Isabel Sanz, regional marketing director for Pozuelo, told the daily La Nación that the company was not looking to challenge the traditional idea of the family. Instead, Sanz said that the company wanted their publicity to reflect the new kinds of families in Costa Rica, 60 percent of which don’t fit the old father-mother-kid mold.

Watch below:

(h/t JMG)

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Dolce & Gabbana Backtrack On LGBT Family Criticism

Fashion designers backtracked today on their recent comments in the Italian magazine Panorama, where they were critical of same-sex couples raising children.

The two designers were together romantically for 23 years and broke up in 2005. Their comments included their opinion that children born through IVF are “children of chemistry, synthetic children. Uteruses for rent, semen chosen from a catalog.”

“I am gay, I cannot have a child. I guess you cannot have everything in life,” Dolce added. “Life has a natural course, some things cannot be changed. One is the family.”

The comment drew sharp criticism from major celebs around the world including Ricky Martin, Elton John and Martina Navratilova.

On Sunday, Gabbana issued a statement saying “it was never our intention to judge other people’s choices. We do believe in freedom and love.”

Dolce said his comments about family were based on his personal childhood growing up in a traditional Sicilian family “made up of a mother, a father and children. I am very well aware of the fact that there are other types of families and they are as legitimate as the one I’ve known.”

Dolce added that his personal views were not a judgement of “other people’s choices.”

(source)

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Chevrolet includes LGBT families in new commercials/campaign “#TheNew”

Chevrolet is set to launch a new campaign of eight commercials defined by the them “#TheNew.”  Two of the spots feature LGBT families as part of the diversity in today’s American life.

This Chevrolet commercial, set to air during the opening ceremonies of the Sochi Olympics, features a same-sex wedding in Cape Cod:

“The New Us” commercial from Chevrolet features several shots of same-sex families:

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Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel orders “rogue” states to follow federal guidelines and treat gay & lesbian military equally

While speaking at the Anti-Defamation League on Thursday night, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel addressed the rogue states which are refusing to issue spousal benefits at their National Guard facilities, saying their actions are wrong, hurt the military, and further prejudice.

South Carolina, Texas, Indiana, Georgia, Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and West Virginia are the states that are not in compliance with the Pentagon orders.

Here are Hagel’s remarks, via the White House:

When the Supreme Court issued its decision on the Defense of Marriage Act this summer, the Department of Defense immediately began working on providing the same benefits to all eligible spouses, regardless of sexual orientation. We did it because everyone who serves our country in uniform, everyone in this country, should receive all the benefits they deserve, and they’ve earned, and in accordance with the law. Everyone’s rights must be protected.

This means that all spouses of service members are entitled to DoD ID cards, and the benefits that come with them. But several states today are refusing to issue these IDs to same-sex spouses at National Guard facilities. Not only does this violate the states’ obligations under federal law, but their actions have created hardship and inequality by forcing couples to travel long distances to federal military bases to obtain the ID cards they’re entitled to.

This is wrong. It causes division among our ranks, and it furthers prejudice, which DoD has fought to extinguish, as has the ADL.

Today, I directed the Chief of the National Guard Bureau, General Frank Grass, to take immediate action to remedy this situation. At my direction, he will meet with the Adjutants General from the states where these ID cards are being declined and denied. The Adjutants General will be expected to comply with both lawful direction and DoD policy, in line with the practices of 45 other states and jurisdictions.

Whether they are responding to natural disasters here at home, in their states, or fighting in Afghanistan, our National Guardsmen all wear the uniform of the United States of America. They are serving this country. They – and their families – are entitled to all the benefits and respect accorded to all of our military men and women.

(via Towleroad)

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Mississippi tops states with most same-sex couples raising children

Graphic by Memeographs

Surprising new data culled from the US Census by The Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law today about same-sex couples who have children.

Mississippi is the US state with the highest percentage of same-sex couples raising children at 26 percent.  Salt Lake City is the top metro area over 1 million at 26%.

Below is a list of the top ten metro areas above and below 1 million:

More at the Williams Institute website.