LGBTQ news and entertainment
Some news items you might have missed:
• OUT: As of 2025, twelve actors who played characters on GLEE have Tony Awards. Hit the link to see the list including this year’s winner for “Best Leading Actor in a Musical.”
• LGBTQ Nation: Air Force veteran Gina Ortiz Jones has become the first out LGBTQ+ person elected as mayor of San Antonio, Texas, and only the third woman to hold the office. Continue reading “12 GLEE Stars Who Have Tony Awards + San Antonio Elects 1st Out Mayor + More News”
(screen capture via Twitter)
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The San Antonio City Council has voted against allowing a Chick-Fil-A franchise to open at the local airport.
According to USA Today, the fast-food restaurant was originally included in a seven-year concessions agreement for Terminal A at the San Antonio International Airport. But, a new report from Think Progress citing continued contributions by the Chick-Fil-A Foundation to anti-LGBTQ organizations gave the council pause.
That report showed donations of more than $1.8 million in 2017 to companies that have public records of anti-LGBTQ animus, including the Fellowship of Christian Athletes.
The amendment to remove Chick-Fil-A from the airport plans was approved by the city council by a vote of 6-4.
In a statement after the vote, Councilman Robert Treviño said that the council “reaffirmed the work our city has done to become a champion of equality and inclusion.”
“San Antonio is a city full of compassion, and we do not have room in our public facilities for a business with a legacy of anti-LGBTQ behavior,” added the councilman. “Everyone has a place here, and everyone should feel welcome when they walk through our airport.”
For its part, Chick-Fil-A told USA Today that the company found the news “disappointing.”
“We wish we had the opportunity to clarify misperceptions about our company prior to the vote,” read the statement. “We agree with the council member that everyone should feel welcome at Chick-fil-A,” the company said in the statement.
“In fact, we have welcomed everyone in San Antonio into our 32 local stores for more than 40 years,” the statement continued.
The fast-food chain has had a long history of donations to anti-LGBTQ organizations.
When asked about donations to Exodus International, a company that promoted so-called ‘conversion therapy,’ Chick-Fil-A president Dan Cathy proudly told the Baptist Press in 2012 his company was “guilty as charged.”
The restaurant’s foundation has also made donations to Focus on the Family and the Family Research Council, groups identified as anti-LGBTQ “hate groups” by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
The San Antonio councilwoman who was secretly recorded spewing anti-gay rhetoric has chosen to resign her seat on the city council:
In a letter to Mayor Julián Castro and council members, Chan said she was proud of San Antonio and “what we have accomplished.” She reflected on her five years on council, saying: “I have done my best to represent the conservative values of these fine people. The people of this district take an active role in deciding policy, giving their input, volunteering their time and listening to the views of their neighbors,” she wrote.
The date was chosen out of an abundance of caution, said Murphy, adding that Chan wanted to make sure there was ample time to pick her successor. She’ll resign before council votes on a proposed rate increase for CPS Energy, scheduled for Nov. 7.
Chan, 47, said she is resigning, per law, to challenge incumbent tea party Republican Donna Campbell to represent Senate District 25.
(source)
San Antonio, Texas has passed an LGBT non-discrimination ordinance in a vote of 8-3.
The ordinance covers city employment, and citywide contracting, housing and public accommodations.
The measure’s passage follows months of public debate, public prayer against it, and headlines over City Councilwoman Elisa Chan’s remarks on the bill, in which she called LGBT people “disgusting.”
San Antonio council member Elisa Chan has made a much-awaited full-length statement regarding her homophobic comments, exposed by a secret recording last week.
In a staff strategy session, Chan was caught saying homosexuality is “against nature” and that gay people shouldn’t be granted adoption rights, among other controversial comments. Chan attributed her absence in the days after the fallout to an out-of-town family trip. During the City Hall press conference Tuesday morning, Chan continued to defend her remarks as protected under free speech and privacy rights.
“I know that many people find the comments made in the meeting offensive, but again it was a confidential meeting set in the privacy of my office where none of us are supposed to worry about what we say,” said Chan. “These meetings have been and will always be a free-speech zone.”
“There are additional comments you are aware of that reflect my belief system. My belief system is mine and it does not mean I want to impose those beliefs onto anyone else,” she said. “Even though the LGBT community and I do not share the same views, I respect and support their personal freedoms and right to their lifestyle.”
“I will however, not change my own values or beliefs for political gain or survival; I would not expect that of anyone else. I stand firm in my right to have my private views in a private conversation,” said Chan, to loud applause from the audience, many of whom wore blue clothing– symbolizing their opposition to the LGBT equality ordinance.
“Political correctness will not win this day; standing firm as an individual in service to the whole community does,” she added.
An apology was not issued.
(source)
A San Antonio city council woman who was secretly recorded during a staff meeting in which she said homosexuality is “so disgusting” and “against nature,” defended her comments Monday in her first public statement on the controversy that erupted last week.
Expressing no remorse, Elisa Chan said Monday the remarks “were and are my personal opinions.”
“The comments from the staff meeting on May 21st were and are my personal opinions and thoughts as guaranteed to me by the 1st amendment to the U.S. Constitution,” said Chan, in a statement. “It is unfortunate that a former member of my D9 Council team betrayed the trust of my staff members and me. I will fight, I will always fight for our freedom of speech, especially in a private setting.”
Chan’s remarks were secretly recorded by a former staffer during a May 21 staff meeting regarding a proposal to amend San Antonio’s nondiscrimination ordinance to include protections for sexual orientation and gender identity.
In addition to referring to homosexuality as “so disgusting,” Chan said, “I don’t think homosexual people should do adoption. They should be banned by adoption. You’re going to confuse those kids. They should be banned.”
“If you wanted to choose that lifestyle, we don’t want to discriminate you, but you shouldn’t affect the young people,” she continued. “How terrible … They’re going to be confused. You see two men go into a bedroom. You see two women kissing. Is that not confusing? It’s confusing.”
San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro condemned Chan’s remarks, calling them “hurtful and misinformed” and that “they don’t reflect the views of the overwhelming majority of San Antonians.”
The recording also captured disparaging remarks from Jeff Bazan, then Chan’s chief of staff, and now a staff member for newly sworn in city councilman Ron Nirenberg.
In the recording, Bazan warns: “The road we’re going … incest and being able to marry animals, that’s all going to happen.”
On Friday, Nirenberg issued a statement indicating that Bazen was been placed on “indefinite administrative leave.”
(via LGBTQ Nation)
From the My San Antonio news site:
“So disgusting!” That exclamation escaped the lips of District 9 Councilwoman Elisa Chan on May 21 in her City Hall office, where she was meeting with members of her staff to discuss the city’s proposal to update its nondiscrimination ordinance, adding protections for sexual orientation and gender identity.
In the course of the conversation, Chan expressed her unvarnished views on homosexuality, which range from befuddled to intolerant. She revealed that she believes being gay is a choice and that gay people should not be allowed to adopt children, and she voiced revulsion toward the LGBT community.
Unbeknown to the councilwoman, an aide, James Stevens, was secretly recording the meeting on his iPhone. (He’s now a former aide; Stevens, 28, quit this week.)
Chan’s former chief of policy, Jeff Bazan, who now works as the chief of staff for a different city council member, is heard suggesting that the growing acceptance of gay marriage will lead to “incest and being able to marry animals, that’s all going to happen.”
Yesterday Bazan pulled back and gave some CYA explanation regarding his comments, telling the San Antonio Express-News, “I was basically explaining the viewpoint that some people have on the gay marriage issue. What I said was wrong and I deeply regret it.”
Councilwoman Chan has not apologized as of today.
I think the discussion itself proves why the ordinance needs to be addressed and updated.
(source)
At a San Antonio City Council meeting this week, anti-LGBT protestors booed U.S. Marine Corps veteran and openly gay man Eric Alva while he testified in support of extending the city’s nondiscrimination law to include sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, and veteran status.
The Dallas Voice reports:
At a prayer vigil outside City Hall before the meeting, about 300 people protested the proposed addition to San Antonio’s nondiscrimination law that would add protections for sexual orientation, gender identity and veteran status.
“Let them vote ‘no’ to this ordinance, and ‘yes’ to the reign of the kingdom of God,” Pastor Charles Flowers said at the rally.
About 200 people signed up to speak at the City Council meeting for and against the ordinance.
Alva, a Marine staff sergeant who became the first U.S. soldier injured in Iraq when he stepped on a landmine, was booed by the crowd when he spoke in favor of the ordinance. Alva lives in San Antonio.
“To all you people that preach the word of God, shame on you because God loves me, like the day I laid bleeding on the sands of Iraq and that’s why he saved me,” Alva said before he left the podium.
More at the Dallas Voice
The San Antonio City Council voted 7-4 today to begin offering domestic partner benefits to both gay and straight employees as part of the city’s 2012 budget, according to reports from Equality Texas on Twitter.
The DP benefits, which are expected to cost $300,000 per year, has drawn vocal opposition from anti-gay religious leaders in the Alamo City.
San Antonio, the seventh-largest city in the U.S., will be the fifth city in Texas to offer DP benefits, joining Austin, Dallas, El Paso and Fort Worth.
(via dallasvoice)