Tag: same-sex couples

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Celebrating The First Same-Sex Kiss On The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade

The cast of Broadway’s ‘The Prom’ on the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade

While cooking our Thanksgiving Day celebration meal this morning, I had the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade on the big TV, pausing each time a current Broadway show offered a performance for the folks at 34th Street and across the nation.

This year, television viewers were treated to numbers from My Fair Lady, Mean Girls and the most recent addition to the Great White Way, The Prom.

And so it was that I put the stove on simmer and poured a mimosa to watch “Build A Prom” from The Prom.

The show is about a group of Broadway actors who swoop into an Indiana town to save a young teen lesbian whose high school won’t let her bring a girl to her prom.

The show recently opened at the Longacre Theater on Broadway to rave reviews.

Upbeat, lively and full of energy, the musical number closes with two female leading characters, played by Caitlin Kinnunen and Isabelle McCalla, kissing.

We’re pretty sure this is the first same-sex kiss in the parade’s history.

Whoo-hoo!

“Broadway’s The Prom is grateful to Macy’s and NBC for their acceptance and inclusivity of a community and a story that is about acceptance, tolerance and love,” the show’s producers shared with EW. “These are some of the themes reflected in our musical comedy and we are very proud to be the very first LGBTQ kiss on the Thanksgiving Day Parade.”

Here’s the number:

Of course, the Twitterverse went insane (in good and bad ways) over the historic lip-lock.

Celebrated out director and playwright Tina Landau tweeted:

And there’s more…

And then, of course, we have the haters – but who cares? 🙂

Here’s wishing you all a fabulous Thanksgiving!

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New Ad Tells Same-Sex Couples To “Hold Tight”

Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ) is responsible for this new ad which highlights the anxiety many LGBT couples may experience when engaging in the simple act of holding hands

The message from ANZ?

“Hold tight.”

I can admit that hubby Michael and I rarely hold hands having lived a lifetime of fear of being gay-bashed.

I’m not proud of that fact, but thanks to societal pressures it almost seems like a “forced” display of affection for us now. Maybe that will change…

Thanks to ANZ for sending this message.

Watch below.

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Kissing Same-Sex Couples Cover Vogue Italia

A post shared by Emanuele Farneti (@efarneti) on Aug 27, 2017 at 7:35am PDT

Vogue Italia features same-sex couples engaging in some lip lock for their September issue.

Real-life couple Edoardo Velicskov and Pablo Rousson on one cover, Lily Aldridge and Vittoria Ceretti on another.

Photo credit for the cover shots goes to Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott.

A post shared by Mert Alas (@mertalas) on Aug 27, 2017 at 5:23am PDT

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One Million Moms Loses Their Minds Over Two Animated Same-Sex Characters Kissing

Oh, good grief.

From the homophobic One Million Moms via email:

Alerting all parents! In a first for the Disney Channel, a Disney XD show subtly displayed several gay kisses in an episode that aired a couple of days ago. The “Star vs. the Forces of Evil” episode featured a scene at a boy band concert where several people, including same sex couples, kiss on cue with the music. The gender of various other kissing couples in the crowd is not always visible.

[snip]

This is the last place parents would expect their children to be confronted with content regarding sexual orientation. Issues of this nature are being introduced too early and too soon, and it is becoming extremely common and unnecessary. Disney has decided to be politically correct versus providing family-friendly entertainment. Disney should stick to entertaining instead of pushing an agenda. Conservative families need to urge Disney to avoid mature and controversial topics.

The fleeting moment happens at the 1:27 moment as five or six other animated couples having a smooch.

Can you believe folks care about this???

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New NYC Subway Station To Feature Public Art Depicting Same-Sex Couple

After years and years of construction and delays, NYC’s 2nd Avenue subway will finally open on January 1. As with other subway stations throughout the city, the new stations will feature public art, with the 72nd line showcasing the work of Chuck Close, Vik Muniz, Jean Shin and Sarah Sze.

The 72nd street station will feature a mosaic mural by Vik Muniz called “Perfect Strangers” which depicts “the different people that riders are likely to encounter on their daily commutes” according to the AP, and among them is the above picture of a same-sex couple.

From the AP:

“It was like winning the lottery,” Thor Stockman, 60, said of finding out that he and his husband of 3 ½ years, Patrick Kellogg, were going to be part of artist Vik Muniz’s “Perfect Strangers,” a series of life-size mosaic portraits of everyday New Yorkers gracing the walls of the new subway station at 72nd Street. But “part of me wishes that it wasn’t a rarity, that it wasn’t remarkable.”

Muniz said it made sense to include the two men in a project intended to show the different people that riders are likely to encounter on their daily commutes.

“They are just people you would expect to see,” Muniz, who divides his time between New York and Brazil, said in phone interview from Rio de Janeiro. “You would expect to see men holding hands.”

Jonathan David Katz, an expert in queer art history, said he could find no other example of a permanent, non-political LGBTQ public artwork in New York City. He mentioned George Segal’s “Gay Liberation Monument” near Stonewall Inn, the site of the 1969 riots that launched the gay rights movement. But that work, featuring two men standing and two women sitting, is expressly commemorative of a political moment.

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IKEA Features Mixed-Race Same-Sex Couple In New Ad

With a new ad campaign that asks the question, “Where did the American Dream go?” Ikea looks to focus more on it’s customers – including a mixed-race same-sex couple at home – and less on actual merchandise.

Not only that, but there’s a clear nod to marriage equality with a flag flying in the background which reads, “All homes are created equal.”

More from AdWeek:

“The idea of asking where did the American dream go was not to show that it went away,” explained Leslie Stone, director of strategic services for Ogilvy, the shop behind the creative work, “but that people are living it every day in diverse ways.”

“There are so many different ways that Americans live—multigenerational, gay parents, etc.—that define the real portrait of the America that’s really out there,” Stone said. “If we’d put across 20 different living situations, they’d all be equally powerful.”

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Arkansas: Same-Sex Couples Sue Health Officials Over Birth Certificates

The AP is reporting that three same-sex couples have filed lawsuits in Arkansas as state Health officials refused to list both parents on their children’s birth certificates.

The married women said in the lawsuit filed in Pulaski County Circuit Court that the state Health Department would list only the biological mother on the birth certificate, and said they were told they would need a court order to name both spouses. The couples sought the birth certificates after last month’s U.S. Supreme Court ruling striking down gay marriage bans nationwide.

The lawsuit says not providing the birth certificates “(deprives) these children of the dignity, legitimacy, security, support and protections provided to children of heterosexual couples, regardless of marital status.”

Of course, if these were opposite-sex couples there would be no problem listing the two parents.

A spokesperson for the state Attorney General’s office has declined to comment.

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Tiffany & Co. Feature Gay Couple In New Ad

Tiffany & Co. debuted a new ad featuring a same-sex couple — a very welcome first for the brand. The image is a sneak preview of Tiffany’s forthcoming “Will You” campaign, which “honors the idea that love knows no boundaries,” a representative told us today.

According to fashion/style website Refinery29, the handsome men in the ad are a real-life New York City couple.

The text of the ad reads:

“Will you promise to never stop completing my sentences or singing off-key, which I’m afraid you do often? And will you let today be the first sentence of one long story that never, ever ends?”

“Nowadays, the road to marriage is no longer linear, and true love can happen more than once with love stories coming in a variety of forms,” a Tiffany spokesperson told Elle.com. “The Tiffany engagement ring is the first sentence of the story that a couple will write together as they create a life that is deeply intimate and exceptional, which is the message we hope to convey through this campaign.”

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Texas Attorney General: Same-Sex Marriage Bans Reduce Out-Of-Wedlock Births

Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott has filed a brief with the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals which asserts the state’s ban on same-sex marriage should remain in place because it reduces out-of-wedlock births.

“Texas’s marriage laws are rationally related to the State’s interest in reducing unplanned out-of-wedlock births. By channeling procreative heterosexual intercourse into marriage, Texas’s marriage laws reduce unplanned out-of-wedlock births and the costs that those births impose on society,” the brief read. “Recognizing same-sex marriage does not advance this interest because same-sex unions do not result in pregnancy. At the very least, one could rationally believe that opposite-sex marriages will do more to advance the State’s interest in reducing unplanned out-of-wedlock births than same-sex marriages will.”

The brief went on to state:

“Same-sex marriage may very well produce other societal benefits – such as increasing household wealth or providing a stable environment for children raised by same-sex couples – but that does not establish that Texas’s marriage laws lack a rational relation to the State’s interests in reducing unplanned out-of-wedlock births and encouraging the creation of new offspring.”

The 5th Circuit recently agreed to expedite oral arguments in the case challenging Texas’s ban on same-sex marriage.

You can read the brief below: