From the Channel 4 listing:
Logan and Greg could be two kids in any average American family. Except they have two dads and one of them is pregnant. Now, they are starting a new life in new town, in the US Bible Belt. How will their neighbours react to this extraordinary family?
This sensitive, intimate portrait follows an ordinary family, raising children and seeking to bring new life into the world, while believing that prejudice can be overcome if only people would see them for who they are: a loving and protective family unit.
Tom and Scott Moore have been married for three years. Born as Jessica and Laura, they each came from traditional families. Now gay men, they met at the local Lesbian Gay Bi Transgender group and fell in love.
Tom already had two adopted sons, Greg and Logan, who form the backbone of their family, along with two dogs, two cats, a turtle and a puffer fish.
Thirteen-year-old Greg has a form of autism called Aspergers syndrome. Eleven-year-old Logan has just started middle school. Together, the Moores were blissfully happy as a family of four, but like most married couples, Scott and Tom still wanted to try for a baby. Unlike most male gay couples, they had the means to do so, as Scott still has working female reproductive organs.
Biologically, getting pregnant is no different for him and he just needed a sperm donor. In fact, the biggest difficulty faced by a pregnant man is other people’s judgement.
The documentary follows Scott’s pregnancy and the safe delivery of his baby son, Miles. Their lives continue to twist and turn when a freak fire, which burns down their house, forces them to relocate. They quit their jobs, pack up what is left of their possessions and drive their family 1000 miles south to start a new life in New Mexico.
Now Greg and Logan have to adjust to new classmates, and the prospect of explaining their unusual family set-up to strangers, while Scott and Tom have to deal with the conservative views of their neighbours, many of whom think only women should have children.
Despite all the pressures they face, will Scott and Tom decide to continue growing their family, and have another baby?
Okay I’m still worried even though channel 4 aren’t a bad channel, and honestly they cover trans* issues and portrayals more than the BBC. They’ve also recently signed the TransMediaWatch Memorandum, so there’s hope there. It’s just hard to have high hopes for any major channel on something like this.
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This is a great article covering a recent complaint on Bioware’s forums concerning Dragon Age II.
For those who don’t know, BioWare is an incredibly successful video game company with games like Mass Effect, Dragon Age and Warhammer under their belts. They also have a history of including romance paths in their RPGs; recently these paths have become LGBTQ-inclusive, in which some or all of the characters available to romance are bisexual. This allows you to, if you wish, pursue the character of your choice no matter what gender you make your character.
BioWare is very openly supportive LGBTQ, something that’s been increasingly evident with each new game they release. My opinion of them grows more and more every day and I’ve got to say, I’ll be more pleased than ever to go home tonight and delve back into Dragon Age II.
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Swedish furniture giant IKEA has unveiled an ad featuring a gay couple in Italy.
The ad – which is not the first gay-friendly campaign the company has run – shows two men holding hands under the slogan: “We are open to all families.”
Below, text says: “With us you will feel at home. What we want to do is make life easier for everyone, every family, every couple, whoever they are.”
Italian newspaper Il Giornale, which is owned by prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, accused IKEA of “Swedish imperialism” and trying to be “provocative”.
Mr Berslusconi said this month that his government would never allow gay couples to marry or adopt children.
But the Queer Italy blog welcomed the ad, saying: “Nothing can be more indigestible for our bigots and homophobes who cannot bear to read the word family with the words same sex.
“We like this advert and we welcome it – maybe some others will follow on from this campaign and look forward progressively and modernly, instead of backwards to the Middle Ages.”
In the past, IKEA has had to withdraw gay-friendly adverts. Its first gay ad, in 1994, showed a gay male couple shopping for dining tables. It was pulled after the retailer received a bomb threat.
In 2008, Polish Catholics called for a boycott of IKEA because its catalogue featured gay couples. The store was accused of “promoting” homosexuality.
Police in China have arrested 32 women for allegedly writing erotica for a gay website.
The women, include one 17-year-old, were arrested in Zhengzhou, the capital of Henan Province, ShanghaiDaily.com reports.
They were reportedly arrested for spreading obscene material.
Police said the website contained 80,000 erotic stories and had 600,000 registered members.
The site’s owner reportedly said that his workers were young women in their twenties in cities like Shanghai, Guangzhou and Chongqing.
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Raymond Berry, one of the organizers of London’s coming and first-ever East End Pride parade has resigned after being exposed as one of the founders of the English Defence League, a radical anti-Islamic skinhead group renowned for violent street clashes at its protest marches. East End Pride formed last month ostensibly in response to stickers which warned gays to “fear Allah” because the East End was now a “gay-free zone.” Some local activists suspected at the time that the stickers had been planted by a group like the EDL in order to inflame tensions between gays and Muslims, although whether that is indeed the case has not yet been proven.
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UPDATE: East End Pride has now been canceled. And noted activist Peter Tatchell has withdrawn his support for the group.
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The world’s largest St. Patrick’s Day Parade takes place in Manhattan tomorrow and as always, gay groups are barred from participation. This year a coalition of LGBT groups are calling on the city’s cops to boycott the parade.
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Last night, Nashville’s Metro Council decided to delay a final vote on an anti-discrimination measure that would require most contractors and vendors with the city to adhere to a non-discrimination policy that includes protections on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. The delay in the vote isn’t a bad sign: turns out that many Metro Council members were just absent from the meeting because their children are on spring break from school.
But it does mean that there will be at least one more Metro Council meeting — currently scheduled for April 5 — before a final vote will happen.
Yesterday, Metro Council members got a letter from one of America’s corporate leaders, Nike, urging them to extend the city’s anti-discrimination laws to vendors and contractors. The letter came from Orson C. Porter, Nike Inc.’s U.S. director of governance and public affairs, and was sent to Councilman Mike Jameson, who is an original sponsor of the expanded anti-discrimination legislation.
“By supporting this measure, you support the guiding principle that every American deserves a chance to compete and prosper on a level playing field,” Porter says in the letter from Nike. “At Nike, we believe diversity and inclusion is about respecting our differences, leveraging our strengths and maximizing opportunity for everyone.”
Wow, talk about putting a nail in the coffin of the argument that private businesses view anti-discrimination laws as “over-regulation,” which is what opponents of this measure have tried to say. But the truth? Well, as Nike puts it, businesses want to work in communities where diversity thrives, and where employees of all stripes and walks of life will be treated with dignity. That’s why with each passing year, a record number of Fortune 500 companies (of which Nike is one) adopt policies that are inclusive of LGBT people, whether we’re talking about anti-discrimination rules or domestic partnership policies and more.
And let’s give Nike some real credit on LGBT rights here. This is yet another example of them throwing their support behind equal rights legislation that would end discrimination for LGBT people. Another previous example? In 2009, when the Employment Nondiscrimination Act (ENDA) was introduced in Congress, Nike issued a statement saying that the passage of ENDA was good for business, and reflected the values of equality that make all companies better employers.
Booyeah.
Now that we have until April 5 before a final vote in Nashville will happen, why not add your voice to our petition urging Nashville’s Metro Council to expand its non-discrimination ordinance to vendors and contractors with the local government? For the sake of Nike, Just Do It.
Sorry. Sometimes the puns are just too irresistible to pass up. And the real reason to send this messageto Nashville’s Metro Council is because we all want to see Nashville live up to its promise to be a welcoming community that honors the dignity of all residents and workers, regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity.
Washington DC – A straight student at George Washington University was beaten to within inches of his life after another straight student mistook him for being gay. Police have arrested the attacker, senior Ross Richardson, and he’s being charged with a hate crime.
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Homophobic State Senator Carl Kruger, one of only 4 Democrats who last year voted against legalizing gay marriage, has just been outed by the New York Post! Seems he has a wealthy, live-in, gynecologist boyfriend to keep him from getting too lonely!
The story came out as Kruger and boyfriend Michael Turano were being arrested for accepting over $1,000,000 in bribes.
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