Tila Tequila has footballer arrested
Bisexual MTV star Tila Tequila accused NFL player Shawne Merriman of choking her.
Tags: Bisexual, Mtv, Mtv Star, Nfl Player, Shawne Merriman, Tila TequilaTila Tequila has footballer arrested
Bisexual MTV star Tila Tequila accused NFL player Shawne Merriman of choking her.
Tags: Bisexual, Mtv, Mtv Star, Nfl Player, Shawne Merriman, Tila TequilaHomosexuals dispel myth of “progressive”
Each year in Germany, from the end of June through August, gay and lesbian rights’ activists celebrate the “Stonewall” uprising - named after a gay bar on Christopher Street in New York, where homosexuals fought back against police brutality in 1969.
Participants in the German parades known as “Christopher Street Day” join other activists around the world who take to the streets to demonstrate gay pride and demand greater freedoms.
Some of those freedoms would include expanded civil rights. In Germany, civil unions, for instance, have been permitted among same-sex couples since 2001, but full marriages are not. Homosexual couples therefore do not enjoy the same rights as married heterosexual couples when it comes to taxes, retirement, civil servant benefits, or adoption law.
For more on gay and lesbian rights and the community in Germany, click on the links below, or listen to this week’s “Living in Germany” program to hear a more personal account of a homosexual civil union.
DW-WORLD.DE
Audios and videos on the topic
See Homosexuals dispel myth of “progressive” Germany Deutsche Welle
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Michael Jackson Memorial Confirmed For Staples Center July 7
LOS ANGELES — Organizers and representatives for the Jackson family have confirmed memorial services for Michael Jackson will take place Tuesday (July 7) inside the Staples Center. The announcement ended days of speculation about how the King of Pop would be memorialized.
Fans will be able to attend after registering for free tickets at StaplesCenter.com beginning Friday morning, and registration will run until Saturday evening at 6 p.m. On Sunday fans will be notified and receive information on how to pick up tickets on Monday. The registration process is elaborate and has caused the site to crash once already — but the Jackson family insisted on a process that was democratic and fair, taking into consideration the many fans expected to arrive in Los Angeles for the memorial.
“It was our wish to allow as many of Michael’s fans to be a part of the memorial, and we wish to thank everyone for their support and understanding at this difficult time,” the Jackson family said in a statement.
Only 17,500 tickets will be given away, with 11,000 entrants able to go inside the arena and the remaining 6,500 ushered just across the street to the Nokia Theater where the proceedings will be simulcast. There are no guarantees for fans who register online and only 8,750 people will be selected randomly by a computer-generated program. Each selected fan will receive two tickets and two wristbands.
No further details regarding the service were announced. At a press conference held outside of the Staples Center, Jackson family representative Ken Sunshine said the plans are still being developed. Sunshine said he hopes the ticket process is handed with “dignity” and that tickets not be resold or counterfeited.
See Michael Jackson Memorial Confirmed For Staples Center July 7
MTV.com
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Homosexuals Are “On Their Way to Hell” says Pat Robertson
Pat Robertson has dammned homosexuals to hell, claimed the majority of homosexuals were turned to that lifestyle due to an abusive relationship, and called homosexuality an “abomination of God”…all in one minute and 37 seconds.
Speaking on The 700 Club today, Robertson was responding to a question posed by a mother who was asking for help on “how to handle” her homosexual son: See Homosexuals Are “On Their Way to Hell” says Pat Robertson
TERRY MEEUWSEN (co-host): This is Theresa. This is difficult. She says, “How should we, as parents of a homosexual son, handle the ongoing challenges facing us, such as staying true to our faith and following the commandment to ‘love your neighbor as yourself’? This is very difficult for us.”
ROBERTSON: Well, first of all, he’s not your neighbor. He’s your son; that’s a different thing. You owe him, you know, advice and counsel and guidance. You’re his parent. First of all, you didn’t say how old he is. Secondly, I am not at all persuaded that so-called homosexuals are homosexuals because of biological problems. There may be a very few, but there are so many that have been made homosexuals because of a coach or a guidance counselor or some other male figure who has abused them and they think there’s something wrong with their sexuality. So you need to get deep into why he is what he is, instead of just saying, “Well, he’s a homosexual so how do I handle him, and how do I be Christian?” Well, I think you ought to tell him, “Listen, son, you know, here’s what the Bible says about this, and it’s called an abomination before God, so I’ve got to tell you the truth because I love you.” That’s what I think. All right, what else?
MEEUWSEN: And then you do that — you love him.
ROBERTSON: You love him. Of course you love him. And you accept him. You love him, but at the same time, you can’t let him just go, you know, he’ll wind up –
MEEUWSEN: Without knowing truth, yeah.
ROBERTSON: Well, I mean, if somebody’s on their way to hell, they’ll — I mean, you’ve got to love them to rescue them.
Instead of calling her son an “abomination of God” as Robertson would suggest, maybe “Theresa” should love and appreciate her son, regardless of his sexual orientation.
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Global video mashup for International Day Against Homophobia & Transphobia 2009 hits the Internet
359 people from 48 countries take part in massive global web video project to mark the IDAHO 2009
A global project to create a public awareness video for the International Day Against Homophobia & Transphobia (IDAHO) on May 17 has attracted the participation of 359 people from 48 countries across six continents around the world. The groundbreaking project is a joint undertaking of the Paris-based IDAHO Committee and the social network Gays.com, attracting 50,000 people to its website within a month.
Said Louis-Georges Tin, founder of the IDAHO committee, “We are overwhelmed and, at the same time, humbled by this torrent of enthusiastic support that has poured in from all four corners of the world since we kickstarted the video project in April. People have made the effort to go to such places as the Statue of Liberty, the Great Wall of China, the Sydney Opera House, the Golden Gate Bridge, the Merlion, the Petronas Twin Towers and the Eiffel Tower to shoot their video, contributing to the spectacular visual feast you see in the mashup.”
In April, members of the global LGBT community were invited to step out in front of the camera and in their own language introduce themselves, state where they are from and how proud they are to be gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender. The result is a video that sends the powerful message that LGBT individuals are present in every country, every society and every corner of the world. Participants submitted videos in all of the world’s key languages, including Afrikaans, Arabic, Cantonese, English, French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Malay, Mandarin, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Tamil and even American Sign Language.
In addition to the groundswell of support from local communities from around the globe, renowned celebrities, activists, politicians and web personalities have also participated in the project. These include (in alphabetical order):
Ali Hili: Gay Iraqi activist now living in exile in London and founder of the Iraqi-LGBT group
ANT: Host of VH1 reality series Celebrity Fit Club and U.S. of ANT on MTV’s LOGO channel
Lizzy the Lezzy: Animated lesbian standup comedy character with a cult following on Youtube
Michael Buckley: Celebrity host of the entertainment show What the Buck, the 5th most subscribed comedy channel of all time on Youtube
Michael Kauch: German member of parliament and coordinator of the gay and lesbian policy for the Free Democratic Party
Stephen Williams: British Liberal Democrat member of parliament for Bristol West
Said Kenneth Tan, spokesperson for Gays.com, “Much has been said about Stonewall 2.0 and netroots activism since the Proposition 8 vote against gay marriage in California. This project was made possible only by the Internet, and we believe there are a limitless number of opportunities for the LGBT community to harness the power of the Internet to educate, raise awareness, promote equality, and to debunk myths. We have been honoured to partner with the IDAHO Committee in the execution of such an amazing project.”
Prior to the launch of the video, Gays.com announced that it experienced a massive distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack which began at approximately 3.50am Hong Kong time on May 15, 2009, causing the entire website to be inaccessible.
A distributed denial of service attack occurs when a multitude of systems attempt to flood the bandwidth or resources of a targeted system with illegitimate website requests. The flood of traffic by these requests cause the Internet bandwidth of the attacked site to be consumed to such an extent that the website is inaccessible to other legitimate users.
Said Kenneth Tan, Gays.com spokesperson, “The timing of this DDoS attack on Gays.com is by no means a coincidence. We have been working for weeks on this high profile video campaign together with the Committee for the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia. The final product of this campaign, a public awareness video, was going to be launched on the campaign site at http://gays.com/idaho on Sunday. This is a well-timed, well-orchestrated assault by a large botnet with tens of thousands of PCs sending requests to our site. Engineers with our Internet Service Provider remarked they have never seen an attack of this intensity before. We deplore these unscrupulous actions by an organised group to harrass, intimidate and silence us for what we are doing.”
Added Tan, “Our technical staff are now working round the clock to restore services to legitimate users. In the meanwhile, we are going through our access logs, gathering information through various mechanisms and connecting the dots to identify the origin of the attacks. We will be working with law enforcement officials to bring the cyberterrorists to justice.”
The video “IDAHO 2009: One Voice, One Message, Heard Around the World” is now accessible at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2Rp8ep_ezE
The Committee for the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia (IDAHO) is a network of activists, present in over 50 countries, who seek to promote the idea of an international day against homophobia and transphobia. This day has been recognized officially by a number of governments around the world and provides an opportunity for the LGBT movement across the world to unite in a powerful demonstration of collective visibility.
Gays.com was designed for members of the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community as the world’s first LGBT social networking website that designed for real people with real names an real world connections. The site aims to build an authentic social environment that helps people maintain their relationships with people they actually know. Launched in May 2008, Gays.com is headquartered in Hong Kong with a development team spread between Shanghai, China and Bielefeld, Germany.
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‘Milk’ Oscar Winner: My Emotional Voyage Home to High School
Editor’s Note: On May 9th, Academy Award-winning “Milk” screenwriter Dustin Lance Black returned to his high school in North Salinas, CA, as part of Live Out Loud’s Homecoming Project. Aiming to inspire a new generation of role models, the program brings lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) leaders back to their high schools to share their personal stories with today’s students. In this exclusive submission to the MTV Movies Blog, Black tells us about his first time returning to the school since that powerful Oscar night speech, when he had spoken of his struggles as a gay teenager.
by Dustin Lance Black
My palms got a little sweaty as I turned off East Alvin Drive in Salinas, and onto Kip Drive.
For the first time in 17 years, I saw the entrance to my old high school, the same one where I was once called “gay” by my peers. And it wasn’t said as a compliment — it was said with hate, anger, and on one occasion I was honestly afraid of getting my butt whipped.
So, I did what so many kids still do — I tried to vanish. I didn’t get great grades, I didn’t excel, I shrunk and hid, and I did my best to disappear at lunch. High school is tough for almost everyone, but for LGBT kids, it can be truly frightening. And as much as I know that I’m all grown up now, and that I can stand up for myself, I still got a little knot in my stomach as we pulled up to the front doors of North Salinas High and the camera crews closed in.
Before my speech, I hung out in a back room waiting to be announced, but I could hear the crowd inside the gym. It sounded big. Then I heard them play my Oscar speech, and if you haven’t heard it yet, it’s pretty clear that I’m a gay guy fighting for the LGBT kids out there. The room got very quiet; I got a little nervous. But when the Principal called my name and I came through those doors, I was greeted by a standing ovation from the over 1000 students who chose to show up. That was my first clue that something had changed at North High. See ‘Milk’ Oscar Winner: My Emotional Voyage Home to High School
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Same-Sex Marriage Approved In Maine: What It Means For One Couple …
With Maine becoming the fifth state in the union to approve same-sex marriage, our former Jaime McLeod, a member of MTV’s Street Team ‘08, wrote a blog for us about what the ruling means to her …
Five years ago, my partner and I stood up in front of our families, our friends and our God, and pledged to walk together and care for one another, no matter what life brings. Though it wasn’t legally binding, we meant it, and we still mean it today.
In 89 days, we will finally be able to make the vows we made to one another official. It won’t change the way we see our relationship. It won’t change the way those who love us see our relationship. And, for that matter, it won’t change the way those who hate us see our relationship. As some of my gay friends keep pointing out, gay marriage won’t cure homophobia. It won’t cure AIDS. It won’t keep queer kids from getting bullied in school. But it’s a step. It ensures that the relationship my partner and I have worked so hard on for the last eight years doesn’t receive fewer protections under the law than the drunken Vegas wedding of a pop starlet to some guy she hardly knows. It means our friends won’t have to go through a ridiculously difficult legal process so that their kids can have two legal parents. And it means that a majority of legislators in my state were willing to stand up and acknowledge that same-sex relationships are just as valid as heterosexual ones.
Thank you, Maine State Legislature, and Gov. Baldacci, for doing the right thing and affirming the rights of all Mainers. You’re all invited to my second wedding! See Same-Sex Marriage Approved In Maine: What It Means For One Couple …
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Do Obama and Miss California Have the Same Position on Gay Marriage? Sort of.
By Robert Schlesinger, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
I was at a, err, opposite-sex wedding
over the weekend when one of the guests asked me, presumably as the member of the MSM on hand, why Carrie Prejean, Miss California, gets lambasted for being anti-gay marriage, while Barack Obama
The answer lies in tone and nuance.
It is true that Obama’s position is that marriage is “between a man and a woman” and that he is “not in favor of gay marriage.” That said, he articulately advocates for the rights of gay couples on things like hospital visitation. See here, for example, starting at about 1:06: “When I sit down and read scripture and I think how would Jesus feel about somebody not being able to visit someone they love when they’re sick, I conclude that that is something that’s important.”
And it is possible that some portion of people suspect that Obama would favor gay marriage were it a politically viable position: He’s secretly with us, not like that nasty Miss California. And even if that’s not the case, he’s good on enough other stuff that he can get a pass on this.
Then there’s Miss California, whose now-famous answer to the question seems like instant, inadvertent beauty pageant satire. See Do Obama and Miss California Have the Same Position on Gay …
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Short Videos on Marriage Equality Could Win Up to $2,500 in L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center’s Project Pushback
It’s time to grab your camera and help change the conversation about marriage for same-sex couples. The L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center has launched Project Pushback to tap into the grassroots energy of marriage equality supporters and to inspire development of video messages that will effectively promote support for the freedom to marry.
Since the National Organization for Marriage has just launched a $1.5 million ad campaign repeating many of the lies relied so heavily upon by the Yes on 8 campaign, the need for effective messages to promote the support for marriage equality, and the truth, has never been greater.
Submissions will be accepted at lagaycenter.org/projectpushback, and the public will vote for its favorites. A $1,000 “people’s choice award” will be given to the creator of the video that receives the most votes. From among the 10 videos that receive the most votes, a $2,500 “grand prize” will be awarded to the creator of the video voted the best by a panel of judges, who include: Academy Award-winning Producer Bruce Cohen, Emmy Award-winning television producer and director Paris Barclay, MTV producer Sherri Brown Francois, political and communications strategist Chad Griffin, Google vice president Megan Smith and Current TV producer Tracey Chang.
Anyone who submits a video, or votes for one, is eligible to win a new Sony HD video camera, valued at $1,000.
Project Pushback isn’t about a specific election but about building support for the freedom to marry long before campaign season. The best messages will educate and persuade voters as well as motivate people who are already supportive to be more active in promoting marriage equality.
Entries don’t need to be complicated–some of the most effective ads by opponents of marriage equality were fairly simple, such as the Yes on 8 campaign’s “I can marry a princess” ad. Judges will, however, be looking for innovative and original entries.
“During the fight against Prop 8, opponents of marriage equality used scare tactics and lies in their television ads to frighten voters,” says Center CEO Lorri L. Jean. “We need to find effective ways to blunt the impact of those ads by educating people about the truth of our lives. Entries to Project Pushback should help open the minds of those who don’t already support our freedom to marry.”
The Center’s Vote for Equality project, which has harnessed the power of hundreds of volunteers to educate voters about marriage equality since 2004, is continuing to organize neighborhood canvasses in areas where the vote on Prop 8 was evenly split. The issues/reasons most commonly cited by those who voted “yes” on Prop 8 are:
- Religious opposition
- Marriage is defined as the union of a man and woman
- The impact on children
“We’re learning a lot about voters from our one-on-one conversations, and just as important, we’re starting to change minds,” says VFE Project Manager Regina Clemente. “We also realize that face-to-face conversations are not the only way to start to open the minds of voters. We look forward to seeing the best videos from Project Pushback and then testing those messages in person with actual voters.”
Vote for Equality’s next voter canvasses are Saturday, April 11, and Saturday, May 9 - hundreds of volunteers can be accommodated and training is provided. More information about volunteering can be found at www.lagaycenter.org/VoteForEquality.
The panel of judges includes:
- Paris Barclay is an award-winning television director and producer, with two Emmy Awards and two NAACP Image Awards, among others. Barclay’s current projects include HBO’s In Treatment and MTV’s Pedro.
- Sherri Brown Francois is the producer and director of True Life, MTV News and various documentaries.
- Tracey Chang is a producer for the Vanguard Journalism department at Current TV, a cable television network founded by former Vice President Al Gore. Since 2005, she has covered a range of stories in countries including Pakistan, China, Colombia and Egypt.
- Janet Choi is a producer at MTV in New York. A former international correspondent for Channel One News, Janet was also a reporter for KTLA’s “Your LA with Janet Choi.” She has produced four documentaries based on travels to North Korea, Cuba, Colombia and China.
- Bruce Cohen is the Academy Award-winning producer of American Beauty, and his most recent film, Milk, was nominated for a best picture Oscar. Cohen also produced Big Fish and To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar.
- Rev. Art Cribbs Jr. is pastor of the San Marino Congregational Church and formerly was employed by KPIX-TV in San Francisco. Rev. Cribbs serves as a board member for several organizations, including the United Black Christians in Crisis Committee.
- Donna Deitch is an award-winning film director best known for her 1986 film Desert Hearts. Deitch also directed The Women of Brewster Place, HBO’s Prison Stories: Women on the Inside and Showtime’s Devil’s Arithmetic, for which she won an Emmy.
- Chad Griffin is a seasoned political and communications strategist. Griffin raised money for the No on 8 campaign from celebrities such as Brad Pitt, Steve Bing and Ron Burkle. He also helped create the anti-Prop 8 ads featuring Sen. Dianne Feinstein.
- Hon. John A. Perez is a California Assembly member who has worked in the labor movement and has served as a board member for organizations such as AIDS Project Los Angeles, the Latino Coalition Against AIDS and the California Center for Regional Leadership.
- Cathy Renna is nationally recognized as a media relations expert. She was a major force behind the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD). She is a founder and managing partner at Renna Communications, which specializes in LGBT issues.
- Hilary Rosen is the managing partner of the DC office of the Brunswick Group, a London-based PR and communications strategy firm. She is also an on-air contributor for CNN and Washington editor-at-large for The Huffington Post.
- Megan Smith is the Google vice president of new business development and general manager of Google.org and previous CEO of Planet Out.
- Pam Spaulding is the editor and publisher of Pam’s House Blend, honored as “Best LGBT Blog” in the 2005 and 2006 Weblog Awards.
- Judy Starkman is the co-owner of convergencefilms.com, an L.A.-based production company specializing in commercials and web-based films. In the past she has worked as a commercial director, a television news producer and a photojournalist.
- Andy Towle is the former editor-in-chief of Genre and the blogger behind Towleroad, which has become an important source for gay news, technology, pop culture, travel and more.
- Karin Wang, vice president of programs at the Asian Pacific American Legal Center, is a founding steering committee member of API Equality-LA, a coalition of LGBT and allied Asian/Pacific Islander groups working to advance marriage equality and promote positive images of LGBT Asians and Pacific Islanders.
About the L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center:
Since 1971 the L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center has been building the health, advocating for the rights and enriching the lives of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. Our wide array of services and programs includes: free HIV/AIDS care and medications for those most in need; housing, food, clothing and support for homeless LGBT youth; low-cost counseling and addiction-recovery services; essential services for LGBT-parented families and seniors; legal services; health education and HIV prevention programs; transgender services; cultural arts and much more. Visit us on the Web at: www.lagaycenter.org.
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