Tag: usa gay rights
How Do You Build A Gay Art Museum? Hunter O’Hanian On The History Of Leslie-Lohman
“We have so many histories,” Hunter O’Hanian explained to me in a recent chat. I had asked him to give me the abridged history of the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art, the institution for which he currently serves as director. Indeed, the museum cites more than a few birthdays on its website —… Read more »
Religious Acceptance Of Gays Is On The Rise, Duke Study
Religious congregations are warming up to LGBT issues more and more, according to the results of a recent study out of Duke University. Conducted by Duke sociology professor Mark Chaves, the National Congregations Study investigated the shift in acceptance of gay and lesbian congregants from 2006 to 2012 — which rose from 37.4 percent to… Read more »
Cleveland closes its Gay Games, passes the torch to Paris
Cleveland, Ohio — On a stage decorated with a model of the Eiffel Tower and the American and French flags, Cleveland officially closed the 2014 Gay Games on Saturday and handed its flag over to Paris, France, which will host the event in 2018. A delegation from Paris’ Gay Games committee accepted the flag from Cleveland… Read more »
The gay rodeo comes to town: On the run at the Gay Games
Tallmadge, Ohio – Just as it is a first for Cleveland to host this year’s Gay Games, it’s a first for the Gay Games to host a rodeo, so I decided to check it out. On Sunday and Monday, more than 100 gay rodeo competitors from as far away as Australia and South Africa descended on… Read more »
Obama Helps Open Gay Games 9
President Barack Obama on Saturday made a video appearance to help open the 2014 Gay Games 9. Thousands of athletes and fans converged Saturday on Cleveland for the games’ opening ceremonies held at The Q. Cleveland and nearby Akron will over the next week play host to the sports and cultural festival. Appearing on The… Read more »
Emerging Muslim movement embraces gay and interfaith marriages, female imams and mixed prayers
Los Angeles – Omar Akersim prays regularly and observes the dawn-to-dusk Ramadan fast. He is also openly gay. Akersim, 26, is part of a small but growing number of American Muslims challenging the long-standing interpretations of Islam that defined their parents’ world. They believe that one can be gay and Muslim; that the sexes can… Read more »
Bill Clinton AIDS conference speech disrupted by protesters
Bill Clinton’s speech to the International AIDS Conference in Melbourne yesterday was disrupted by protesters. Representing his Clinton Foundation charity, the former US President paid tribute in his speech to the HIV activists who lost their lives onboard flight MH17, when it was shot down over Ukraine. He had said: “[Dr Joep Lange] and the… Read more »
US: Obama signs Executive Order banning anti-gay workplace discrimination
Barack Obama has today signed an Executive Order banning workplace discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation and gender identity. The US President this morning signed the order in a White House ceremony, banning discrimination against LGBT people by employers, by amending two existing anti-sexism orders to protect gender identity and sexuality. The new order… Read more »
LGBT Youth Homelessness
Names have been changed to address concerns for privacy of individuals in sensitive circumstances. Kid 1 LGBT Youth HomelessnessThe discovery of human sexuality can be fraught with danger, intolerance, criticism, and judgment, particularly for people who stray from the “norm.” No one experiences more of this negativity than someone who identifies as LGBTQ (lesbian, gay,… Read more »
This TV host’s take-down of Uganda’s anti-gay laws is pure freaking brillance.
“Calling Uganda’s laws ‘harsh’ doesn’t really do them justice. That’s like calling Stalin a bit of a grump… Or the Titanic a disappointing vacation.” John Oliver, host of US talk show Last Week Tonight, has added to his history of epic rants against injustice with a brilliant, 20-minute long take-down of Uganda and its new… Read more »
Federal Judge Strikes Down Kentucky’s Gay Marriage Ban
A federal judge on Tuesday struck down down Kentucky’s ban on gay marriage, saying it was unconstitutional. In his 19-page ruling, U.S. District Judge John G. Heyburn II wrote: “[T]his Court holds that the Commonwealth’s exclusion of same-sex couples from civil marriage violates the Equal Protection Clause [of the U.S. Constitution].” “In America, even sincerely… Read more »
U.S. takes gay rights global, despite unsure welcome
Embassies offer aid to local activists Waesaw, Poland — President Barack Obama has taken the U.S. gay rights revolution global, using American embassies across the world to promote a cause that still divides his own country. Sometimes U.S. advice and encouragement is condemned as unacceptable meddling. And sometimes it can seem to backfire, increasing the… Read more »
Obama Administration Stalls Response To Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Act
“Delay is putting lives at risk,” said Human Rights Campaign President Chad Griffin. The Obama administration has delayed action in adjusting aid to Uganda in response to passage of the Anti-Homosexuality Act, even though an interagency review process put forward recommendations some weeks ago. Sources familiar with the review process, which the administration announced just… Read more »
African Homophobes Are Politicians, Not Lunatics, Writer Says
“To think that the Africans are doing something that has never been heard of — it’s not fair,” says the writer of new book about the impact of American anti-LGBT activists in Africa. Rev. Dr. Kapya Kaoma, a Zambian priest, was instrumental in drawing attention to the connection between American anti-LGBT religious activists and the… Read more »
Arkansas issues same-sex marriage licenses
Eureka Springs, Ark. – Gay marriage arrived in the Bible Belt on Saturday, beginning with two women who had traveled overnight to ensure they’d be first in line. “Thank God,” Jennifer Rambo said after Carroll County Deputy Clerk Jane Osborn issued a marriage license to her and Kristin Seaton, a former volleyball player at the… Read more »
Poll: 53% of LGBT people are not out at work
A poll by a leading US human rights group has found that over half of LGBT people are still in the closet at work. The poll by the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) found that 53% of LGBT employees are not out at work. A quarter also said they continue to hear offensive comments such as… Read more »
Gay Arab-Americans find room of their own in NYC
New York (AP) – With a loud hiccup and a hand over her mouth in coy embarrassment, Madame Tayoush mimics Lebanese diva Sabah in her performance of the sultry classic “Atshana” – or “I’m Thirsty” – as Arab-Americans hoot and cheer. The burst of a trumpet vibrato sends her into a dramatic swoon, basking under… Read more »
Queer New World: Radically Creating And Existing Together
This is the twenty-fifth and final installment in an ongoing series that explores drag culture and the nightlife scene in Brooklyn, N.Y. Over the past several years, following the large-scale exodus of artists across the East River and into northern Brooklyn, those engaged in drag culture in this outer borough have created a new, queer… Read more »
Cab Drivers Refuse to Drive Cabs With Gay Games Ads Because Allah
Nearly 20 cab drivers at Cleveland’s Hopkins International Airport are refusing to drive cars displaying ads for the upcoming Gay Games, citing religious objections. But this time it’s not fundamentalist Christians doing the complaining: most of the protesting drivers are Muslims. The Plain Dealer reports: Hopkins released a statement saying that two of the three… Read more »
Gay Bishop Gene Robinson Leads White House Easter Prayer
Gene Robinson received quite a surprise this Monday, April 14, when President Barack Obama unexpectedly tapped the former first openly gay Episcopal bishop to lead the closing prayer at the White House Easter celebration. UPI reports that 150 Christian leaders were in attendance at the Fifth Annual Easter Prayer Breakfast, which marks the beginning of… Read more »
When People with HIV Became Suicide Bombers
Maybe we should blame the criminal prosecutions of people with HIV on the mythical legend of Gaetan Dugas, also known by his slanderous nickname, Patient Zero. Dugas was a gay flight attendant from Canada who, according to Randy Shilts’ 1987 book And the Band Played On, was among the first people with HIV in the… Read more »
Putting Prisons on the LGBT Agenda
“[T]here’s a big chunk of [today’s] prison population that is involved in nonviolent crimes. And it is having a disabling effect on communities. You have entire populations that are rendered incapable of getting a legitimate job because of a prison record. And it gobbles up a huge amount of resources.” –Barack Obama “When one in… Read more »
US cuts funding to tourism, religious council
Kampala – The US government has continued to cut aid to Uganda with the tourism sector and the Inter-Religious Council of Uganda becoming the latest to experience cuts because of the anti-gays law. At least $6.4 million (about Shs16 billion) intended for Inter-Religious Council of Uganda (IRCU) to fight HIV has been diverted to other… Read more »
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