International superstar Olivia Newton-John visited with Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull in Canberra in hopes of the Australian government ponying up more funding for brain and breast cancer research at her Olivia Newton-John Cancer and Wellness Center.
Olivia lost her sister four years ago to brain cancer and is currently on her second cancer journey as her breast cancer from 25 years ago returned earlier this year.
She also reaffirmed her support for same-sex marriage as Australia prepared to vote on approving marriage equality.
A longtime LGBTQ ally, Olivia was one of the very first Aussie celebrities to speak out in support of same-sex marriage: “With respect to marriage equality I believe that no one has the right to judge and deny couples who love each other the ability to make a marriage commitment. Love is love.”
• Welcome to a brand new fresh week! Today is just about as fresh and ready for you as, well, this guy (above).
• Former 90210 star Brian Austin Green’s 4-year-old son Noah has been seen out in public occasionally wearing dresses, and Green has no problem with that. “I feel like at 4, at 5, that’s a time when he should be having fun,” the actor continues. “He’s not harming anyone wearing a dress. So if he wants to wear a dress, awesome. Good on him, you know?”
• In just the past week, 3 GOP Congressmen have announced they will not be seeking reelection in 2018. This potentially opens up more possibilities for the Democrats to regain control of the House. Cook Political Report analyst Dave Wasserman moved his rating of one of the races from “likely Republican” to “toss up.”
• InfoWars idiot Alex Jones says Donald Trump behaves erratically because White House insiders are slowly drugging his Diet Cokes. #NoLie • A transgender man in New Jersey, who was wrongly accused on shoplifting, is bringing legal action after being forced to show his vagina and prosthetic penis to a female grocery store employee. A security guard apparently mistook the bulge in the man’s pants for stolen goods.
• One of the new characters being written into the upcoming 8 episode reboot of Roseanne will be the 4-year-old “gender-creative” son of “Darlene” played by Sara Gilbert. The young son’s name will be “Mark” who is described as “Sensitive and bright, Mark occasionally likes to wear girls’ clothing.”
• Folks are a little worried “down under” as recent polling shows 58.4% say they would back a “yes” vote on marriage equality, down 6 points from two weeks earlier; support for a “no” vote rose two points to 31.4%. In a world of Brexit votes and Donald Trumps becoming president, folks don’t want to take anything for granted. Make sure your Aussie friends vote!
Australia’s highest court has ruled that the upcoming “postal survey” of Aussies asking whether same-sex marriage should be legalized will go on as planned.
The Australian government’s highly contentious proposal to put the question of same-sex marriage to a nationwide postal vote is legal and may proceed, the country’s High Court ruled unanimously on Thursday, eliminating the last hurdle before ballots are to be mailed out next week.
The survey — which is voluntary, unlike in-person elections in Australia — was challenged in two separate cases brought by advocates of same-sex marriage and members of Parliament. Run by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the vote will be unique in Australian history: Nothing in the law requires it to take place before Parliament may act, and lawmakers are not bound by its results.
The ruling brings a little relief to the conservative government of Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull. The decision to conduct the survey has been deeply unpopular on both sides of the issue, birthing a national debate that has been, at times, tumultuous. Advocates of same-sex marriage have pushed for Parliament to vote on the issue directly. The postal vote will cost 122 million Australian dollars, or around $97 million.
Polls show overwhelming support for marriage equality ‘down under.’
Supporters of same-sex marriage say Parliament could vote to pass the measure without spending $122 million on the upcoming postal survey – which is non-binding on Parliament.
LGBTQ activists are urging everyone to make sure and vote.
BREAKING: High Court has decided Australia’s marriage postal vote can go ahead. Here’s the timeline for it. #auspolpic.twitter.com/xn5fhUqr93
(image via Americans United for Separation of Church and State)
A lesbian couple in West Virginia were told early last year that they were an “abomination” by a county clerk as they applied for a marriage license.
The clerk added at the time, “God would deal with them.”
In April, high school sweethearts Amanda Ambramovich and Samantha Brookover filed suit against Gilmer County in federal court with the help of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, claiming that Deputy Clerk Debbie Allen violated their constitutional rights by discriminating against them under the guise of religion when they applied for a license.
Now, the county has agreed to settle the lawsuit brought by the couple.
As part of Wednesday’s settlement, Gilmer County has agreed to issue a public statement admitting wrongdoing and apologizing to Abramovich and Brookover. The county also agreed to pay $10,000 in damages to the couple, and has promised to require all county officials and employees of both the clerk’s office and the County Commission to undergo sensitivity training, which will be provided by Fairness West Virginia, within the next four months.
Lastly, the county has agreed to permanently post a sign in the clerk’s office with language stating that the office will serve all residents, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity.
“Consenting adults should never be made to feel embarrassed or ashamed when marrying the person they love,” the couple told MetroWeekly. “It will be a comfort to know that this behavior will no longer be allowed in the Gilmer County Courthouse.”
In Australia, the ironically named “Coalition for Marriage” – the group actually OPPOSES marriage for same-sex couples – has released and aired the first ad in the ‘No’ campaign against legalizing same-sex marriage.
Using often-told lies to inflame opposition, the actors in the :30 clip look intensely concerned as they spout lines like, “School told my son he could wear a dress next year if he felt like it” and “When same-sex marriage passes as law overseas, this type of program becomes widespread and compulsory.”
Of course, no one “compels” a young boy to wear a dress to school when marriage equality becomes the law of the land.
And the upcoming mail-in survey (costing the country over $122 million) is about marriage equality, not about what will be taught in schools.
But folks were warned that this kind of hostile and offensive rhetoric would be teed up by the haters as Australia prepares to vote via mail on whether the country should embrace same-sex marriage.
Recent polls show majority support (57%) for allowing gays and lesbians to marry, but who knows what the haters have lined up next?
When German bodybuilder and graphic designer Patrick Huber planned a romantic marriage proposal to his boyfriend, former 1996 Olympic diver Jimmy Sjödin, he doesn’t play.
Marriage proposals are, by nature, romantic. But how about popping the question on a gondola in the middle of Venice, Italy?
The surprise began when Patrick told Jimmy to pack a bag, but offered no info about where they were going other than it was a place Jimmy had always wanted to visit.
Driving from Munich through the Italian Alps, the couple arrived in beautiful Venice. But there were more surprises in store for Jimmy.
During a gondola ride, woofy Patrick pulled out a ring and proposed right on the spot. He had even arranged for a photographer Flytographer, introduced as a “tour guide” to be on hand to capture the intimate moment.
The couple first connected on Facebook four years ago when Patrick sent Jimmy a message telling him he was handsome. They lost touch but reconnected years later, which eventually led to lots of texting and daily hour-long phone calls before they finally met in person last year.
“I honestly knew from before we even met that this guy could be the one,” Patrick told HuffPost. “Meeting that first time and spending time together laughing, touching, and feeling each other’s energy, I think we both were sold.”
“Jimmy was so, so sweet,” he continued. “He was a typical traditionalist when it came to family and relationship values just like myself. A person I could see myself wanting a family of my own with in the future.”
A late surge in newly enrolled Aussies could prove problematic for the Coalition MPs, not only for the marriage equality mail-in vote, but for future elections. The nearly 90,000 new voters are primarily younger, and we know the younger generations overwhelmingly support same-sex marriage.
A last-minute surge has seen a record number of Australians enrolled to vote ahead of the upcoming postal survey on same-sex marriage. The Australian Electoral Commission on Friday released figures it described as “extraordinary” that show 90,000 new voters – mostly the young – had joined the roll since the survey was announced on August 8.
The development delighted same-sex marriage advocates but alarmed nervous Coalition MPs, who believe the enlarged youth vote will come back to bite them at the next election. A further 675,000 people had updated their electoral details, and 165,000 transactions were yet to be processed as of Thursday night, the AEC said. In total, almost 1 million Australians had either enrolled for the first time or updated their details.
Same-sex marriage advocates were elated at the news on Friday, following a two-week recruitment drive to ensure young, progressive Australians were correctly enrolled to vote. While the massive rise in new voters has buoyed the “yes” campaign, it has disturbed some Liberals who fear the government has shot itself in the foot by fostering a process that has encouraged young, progressive voters to enrol.
Australian government officials have been criticized for holding the vote-by-mail on gay rights. Not only is the survey expensive (over $122 million) but it’s non-binding. The MPs in government could have just voted on the issue and moved on.
Current polls show upwards of 72% of Australians support marriage equality.
You’ll get a good laugh from the satire video below on the plebiscite (vote) below.
• Model Steve Raider’s prescription for a happy life, “A smile a day,” accomplishes his goal; at least on my end 🙂
• Powerball announced that a single ticket sold at a convenience store in Chicopee, Mass., was the winner of Wednesday night’s $758.7 million jackpot, the second-largest lottery prize in U.S. history. Can you imagine? I can 🙂
• India’s Supreme Court has ruled that privacy is a “Personal Liberty guaranteed in Article 21 of the Constitution.” The ruling has implications for several other issues, including sexual rights and freedoms for LGBTs.
• Anderson Cooper calmly and methodically offers this epic takedown of Donald Trump’s lies and attempts to rewrite history at his rally in Phoenix earlier this week.
The campaign for marriage equality is getting ugly fast down under in Australia.
Check out the poster above that’s been spotted in Melbourne which claims children of gay parents are disproportionately abused, suffer depression and are obese.
Additionally, a brochure seen in Sydney declares homosexuality as “a tragedy of a family” and a “curse of death in terminating the family line.”
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, who opposes same-sex marriage, denounced the propaganda urging supporters and opponents to “focus on the substance of the debate.”
“I deplore disrespectful, abusive language whether it is directed at young gay people or people of other religions or other races,” he said, according to The Guardian. “If you have friends who are really distressed by this sort of language, stand up for them, put your arms around them.”
• Germany’s Olympic javelin team (above) offers us a good reason to talk about the country without having to mention “nazis.” Check out this one minute video from the hunky gentlemen from Germany.
• Two lawsuits in Northern Ireland challenging the current ban on marriage equality have been dismissed. The judge in both cases ruled the ban does not violate LGBT couples’ rights.
• On the same day, both the American Cancer Society and the Cleveland Clinic have canceled their planned gala events at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago venue. A local Chamber of Commerce official told the press, “The glitter, the shine has gone from the club and I can’t help but think there will be more fallout from it.”
• Openly gay former American Idol contestant Clay Aiken laments his past defense of Donald Trump:
Remember all those times I defended @realDonaldTrump and believed he was not actually racist? Well… I am a f*****g dumbass. #imsorry
• The Wrap is reporting Glenn Close is in advanced talks to star in a film adaptation of the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical Sunset Boulevard. Close won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical for her performance in 1994 and recently ended an enormously successful revival run on Broadway.
• Australian song bird Dannii Minogue dropped her new dance tune last week, “Holding On,” and the title/lyrics couldn’t be more appropriate for the times. Listen below:
