Virginia governer says no need for LGBT protections
Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell said Thursday he doesn’t see a need for protections against discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.
During a regular appearance on WRVA [1], McDonnell said, “I don’t know that we need it based on the numbers that I’ve seen,” when asked if he would sign a bill with LGBT protections.
[2]
“There really isn’t any rampant discrimination on any basis in Virginia,” he said. “If you’re going to have a law, it needs to actually address a real problem.”
McDonnell issued an executive directive banning workplace discrimination, but the directive is not law. Nevertheless, McDonnell said it must be obeyed because discrimination is prohibited in the U.S. and Virginia Constitutions.
[1] http://www.wrva.com/cc-common/mediaplayer/player.html?redir=yes&mps=WRVANewsPodcast.php&mid=http://a1135.g.akamai.net/f/1135/18227/1h/cchannel.download.akamai.com/18227/podcast/RICHMOND-VA/WRVA-AM/ASK%20THE%20GOV%203-25_1.mp3?CPROG=PCAST?CCOMRRMID&CPROG=RICHMEDIA&MARKET=RICHMOND-VA&NG_FORMAT=newstalk&NG_ID=wrva1140am&OR_NEWSFORMAT=&OWNER=&SERVER_NAME=www.wrva.com&SITE_ID=1249&STATION_ID=WRVA-AM&TRACK=#
[2] http://www.365gay.com/wp-content/uploads/news-bob-mcdonnell-top.jpg
ABC’s `Good Morning America’ cancels Lambert
(New York) ABC’s “Good Morning America” is saying “no thanks” to Adam Lambert.
The morning show canceled the glam rocker’s scheduled performance on Wednesday’s show because of Lambert’s racy appearance on the “American Music Awards” on Sunday night.
“Given his controversial American Music Awards performance, we were concerned about airing a similar …
Militias target some Iraqis for being gay
“I’m not a terrorist,” he tells the Iraqi police who surround him. “I want you to know I am different. But I am not a terrorist.”
To some fundamentalist Iraqi Muslims, Ahmed Sadoun Saleh was worse than a terrorist.
He was gay. He wore his hair long and took female hormones to grow breasts. Amused by his appearance, Iraqi police officers stopped him in December at a checkpoint in a southern Baghdad neighborhood dominated by radical Shiite militias. They groped Saleh and ridiculed him.
The assault was captured on video and circulated on cellphones throughout Baghdad, says Ali Hili, founder of London-based Iraqi LGBT, a group dedicated to protecting Iraq’s gays and lesbians. Shortly after the video was made public, Hili says Saleh contacted him, fearing for his life, and asked for his help to flee Iraq.
“Unfortunately, it was too late,” Hili says. Saleh turned up dead two months later, he says.
At least 82 gay men have been killed in Iraq since December, according to Iraqi LGBT. The violence has raised questions about the Iraqi government’s ability to protect a diverse range of vulnerable minority groups that also includes Christians and Kurds, especially following the withdrawal of U.S. combat troops from Iraqi cities last month.
Mithal al-Alusi, a secular, liberal Sunni legislator, is among those who blame the killings on armed militant groups such as al-Qaeda and the Mahdi Army militia.
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USA Today
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Rumor Willis To Play Lesbian On ’90210′
Rumer Willis is going to 90210 to play a lesbian character. Willis, Demi Moore and Bruce Willis’ oldest daughter, landed the role of Gia, according to Access Hollywood.
Willis’ character in the CW’s remake of the teen drama 90210 is a gay student at West Beverly Hills High, a fictional school at which the show takes place.
While currently only scheduled for a one episode appearance, it is expected that her character may be back for more episodes in the future.
A CW spokesman described Gia as a “punky cute lesbian.” As Gia, Willis will be working as a member of the school’s student run newspaper. Also working on the paper are Navid (Michael Steger), Adrianna (Jessica Lowndes), and Silver (Jessica Stroup). The character will also not be afraid to speak her mind, to make her a little “scrappy.”
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SheWired -
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Brüno’ Actor Shucks Clothes for Gay Mag Cover
Homophobic Film Ever Made?” That’s the blurb on the cover of Attitude, a British gay magazine, where comedian Sacha Baron Cohen, posing nude to promote his new film, appears.
The film in question–and the name of the character, whom Cohen continues to portray in live promotional appearances–is Brüno, in which Cohen plays a gay fashionista seeking redemption during a global road trip.
The production reportedly drew trouble for Cohen, who was arrested several times during the shoot.
But the film’s reception has also been mixed, with dubious and even hostile reactions coming from the GLBT community.
Though the film reportedly seeks to skewer homophobia, some GLBT equality advocates worry that “Brüno” will actually threaten social progress made by gays in the last several years by presenting audiences with a flamboyant gay character.
A July 1 article at the UK newspaper The Daily Mail reported that Cohen’s appearance on the cover of Attitude was meant to “appease” gay audiences.
The article pointed out that Cohen also appeared nude on the cover of GQ magazine.
Last month, Cohen appeared at the film’s London premiere in character, and in a revealing costume that riffed on the traditional uniforms of the Queen’s Guards, drawing headlines in the process. See Brüno’ Actor Shucks Clothes for Gay Mag Cover
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Kathy Griffin’s Confession of Wild Lesbian Sex with Padma Lakshmi
From getting in bed with avowed Lesbian Lily Tomlin to confessing to a Lesbian affair with Padma Lakshmi, Kathy Griffin is surely having a gay week!
On Thursday night, comedian Kathy Griffin appeared on the Jimmy Kimmel Show to promote the new Season of her Emmy winning Bravo reality series My Life on D List and publicly announced she had sex with Top Chef‘s Padma Lakshmi. The confession came while Griffin was promoting the upcoming My Life on the D List guest appearance of novelist Salman Rushdie, Lakshmi’s former husband, and revealed that the two actually shared a lot more in common than authoring a book.
“I’ve had a night of wild sex with Padma,” Griffin told Kimmel, “It’s a connection …it’s a true story.”
“I’m not saying that at all to get publicity for My Life on the D List,” declared the comedian. See
Kathy Griffin’s Confession of Wild Lesbian Sex with Padma Lakshmi
SheWired
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Gay marriage now key issue for Corzine
Gov. Corzine has made “marriage equality” for gays and lesbians a prominent piece of his reelection campaign, taking another step in his conversion on the issue and encouraging gay-rights advocates who hope to see same-sex marriage approved in New Jersey this year.
In public speeches and private appearances, Corzine, who as recently as 2006 said he believed marriage should be between a man and a woman, has touted his support of same-sex marriage.
In raising the issue, he has tried to draw a bright-line divide with his Republican opponent, Christopher J. Christie, who has said he would veto a bill allowing gay and lesbian couples to wed.
“We believe that government should allow people the freedom to marry whomever they love,” Corzine said in his general-election kickoff speech June 2.
At a gay-pride parade days later in Asbury Park, N.J., Corzine referred to his campaign and told cheering revelers: “Marriage equality is on the ballot. Are you going to help us make it come to pass in New Jersey?”
His campaign posted a video clip online showing the event.
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Philadelphia Inquirer -
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Gay pride invitation goes sour Albany Times Union
ALBANY — A local woman whose vandalized Volkswagen launched her on a career as a gay activist welcomed nationwide as a speaker, often in conjunction with a documentary film she made about her experiences, will not be in the Capital Region for this weekend’s gay pride festival because of a dispute with event organizers.
The activist, Erin Davies, blames the Capital Pride Committee, a group of community volunteers and staffers of the Capital District Gay & Lesbian Community Council, for scuttling an Albany showing of her award-winning documentary, “Fagbug.”
Accepted at dozens of film festivals in the U.S. and abroad, the movie will be shown tonight, the date originally planned. But the screening has been moved from a 250-seat theater at the State Museum to the Photography Center of the Capital District in Troy, where it will be shown in a room that seats approximately 20.
“They tried to bribe and threaten me, but I wouldn’t let them and just found another place,” said Davies, 31. She alleges that anonymous members of the committee thought her $10 suggested ticket price for the museum screening was too high and vowed to remove the showing from Capital Pride listings unless she lowered it. Davies makes her living with paid speaking engagements and film screenings; the admission price was meant to offset some of the difference between what she normally receives for appearances and the $500 fee she had agreed to for the museum event, she said.
Organizers and other people involved in discussions with Davies dispute her account of what happened and characterize Davies as having a martyr complex that led her to exaggerate routine, if frustrating, negotiations into antagonism and personal attacks.
“We absolutely support (the screening). It’s always been one of our events,” said Nora Yates, executive director of the community council. The screening was included in printed calendars and is mentioned, with its new Troy location, on the community council’s Web site. Founded in 1970, the CDGLCC, believed to be the oldest such continuously operating group in the country, is the prime force behind the 11-day, 34-event Capital Pride 2009 observance that culminates with Sunday’s pride parade and festival in Washington Park.
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Albany Times Union
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Women Inmates Segregated For “Looking Gay”
Virginia’s largest women’s prison rounded up inmates who had loose-fitting clothes, short hair or otherwise masculine looks and placed them in a separate cell block. That’s according to prisoners and corrections officers who talked to The Associated Press about the practice. They say dozens were moved in an attempt to split up relationships and curb illegal sexual activity at the 1,200-inmate Fluvanna Correctional Center for Women in Troy. Some straight women were sent to the wing strictly because of their appearance. Civil rights advocates called the moves unconstitutional punishment for “looking gay.” Fluvanna Warden Barbara Wheeler denied that any housing decisions were made based on looks or sexual orientation, and said doing so would be discriminatory. Inmates said life in the so-called “butch wing” or “locker room wing” wasn’t much different than other units. But both inmates and employees said the unit was locked down more often than others, and the women said they were verbally harassed by staff.
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Superemes say judges must avoid appearance of bias – why is this a pslit decision?
The Supreme Court ruled Monday that elected judges must step aside from cases when large campaign contributions from interested parties create the appearance of bias.
By a 5-4 vote in a case from West Virginia, the court said that a judge who remained involved in a lawsuit filed against the company of the most generous supporter of his election deprived the other side of the constitutional right to a fair trial.
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