(Source: pinknews.co.uk)

Tom Goss - Lover

”“Lover” tells a story very rarely told: of the loss endured by partners of gay servicemembers who are killed in battle.

The video features Goss as the bereaved partner of an army soldier (DC actor Ben Horen) killed while on duty in Afghanistan. Among those playing medics who come to the aid of the wounded soldier are several former servicemembers who were discharged under the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy: Mike Almy, David Hall, and Danny Hernandez, all of whom are active members of SLDN. Keith Bryant stars as a fellow soldier.”

Israel’s version of Dancing with the Stars is to feature a same-sex couple for the very first time in the programme’s history, this weekend.

 TV presenter and sports journalist Gili Shem Tov will be partnered with professional dancer Dorit Milman when the show’s sixth season premieres on Channel 2 in Israel on 1 November.
 
Shem Tov said: “I have realized that dance is about co-ordination and energy between two people, whether female or male. The challenge to dance with a woman in a public contest interested me because it’s unique and has never been done before.

“Because I share my life with a woman and have a family with her, to me this is the most natural thing to do.”
 
The couple will share the traditional male role of leading the dances.
 
Twelve celebrities will battle it out on the dance floor until the end of January 2011 when the winner will be selected by public vote.
 
Other celebrities taking part include Israel’s boxing champ Merhav Mohar, footballer Itzik Zohar, actor Aki Avni and singer and actress Sharon Haziz.
 
Producer of Dancing with the Stars in Israel, Asaaf Gil, said: “I’m extremely proud to have a same sex couple in our new season of dancing with the stars. Although this was initiated by the celebrity itself; I hope many other territories will follow.”

The hit BBC entertainment format has been licensed to more than 35 territories since its creation in 2003. The most recent countries to sign up to the glamorous entertainment format are Vietnam and Indonesia.
 
Dancing with the Stars was named as the world’s most successful reality TV format by the Guinness Book of World Records 2010.

[via]

The American Bar Association on Tuesday unequivocally backed civil marriage rights for gay and lesbian couples.

In a resolution adopted less than one week after a federal judge in San Francisco struck down California’s Proposition 8 as unconstitutional, the group acknowledges that same-sex couples “are only seeking to participate in an equal basis in a foundational institution of our civil life,” former ABA president Tommy Wells told the organization’s house of delegates. “They simply want to share in the legal blessings that we give to married couples. It can only strengthen marriage.”

Text of the ABA resolution is as follows:

“RESOLVED, That the American Bar Association urges state, territorial, and tribal governments to eliminate all of their legal barriers to civil marriage between two persons of the same sex who are otherwise eligible to marry.”

No, it’s not as dire an insult as fag etc.

But it is incredibly hurtful and flippant, especially when used against straight ALLIES. You may think it’s funny/silly, but it’s not. It has increasing negative connotations, and stigmatizes people who support the queer community. In fact, they don’t just support it, they are part of it. Our straight allies are part of our queer family.

The derogatory term “breeder” perpetuated the idea that only straight people can have, and want children. This is not true. This has NEVER been true. Same-sex couples have been raising children for all of time, as have same-sex animal pairs. This is damaging, especially when we have fought, and are still fighting so hard for parenting and adoption rights, and the fighting of the dangerous rhetoric that queer persons can’t be parents because they a) don’t want to, b) will damage children emotionally, c) abuse children.

Don’t alienate those straight allies who have children by calling them “breeders”. They are human beings, who give you respect, and deserve to be shown it.

Filmmakers Roy Kirkland and Doug Sebastian investigate the deeply disturbing hate crimes that drove them from their Willacoochee, Georgia home in July of 1993, unearthing evidence of deep-rooted corruption in the local government as they attempt to make sense of the terrifying attacks. When Kirkland and Sebastian awoke one warm July morning to discover a towering, smoldering cross in their front yard, both the city council and the local police chief dismissed the crime as simple mischief. The Chief of Police said it was probably a “bunch of niggers down the road that did it”. But mischief turned to menace in the following weeks; shortly after their mailbox was destroyed, the frightened couple began receiving death threats on their answering machines. When their home was set ablaze Kirkland and Sebastian assumed their problems couldn’t get any worse - then they had to deal with the insurance company. In this film, the two men who never harmed anyone attempt to uncover the answers that their local government tried to sweep under the rug, and ensure that no gay couple in Willacoochee will ever have to endure the ignorance and intolerance that nearly cost them their lives.

Green Day - Minority

“I want to be the minority,
I don’t need your authority.
Down with the moral majority,
‘Cause I want to be the minority!”

KURT COBAIN (1967 - 1994)

I think he would have fought for us.

“I’m not gay, but I wish I was just to piss off the homophobes.”

“If you’re a sexist, racist, homophobe, or basically an arsehole, don’t buy this CD. I don’t care if you like me, I hate you.”

“I started to be really proud of the fact I was gay even though I wasn’t.”

“I would like to get rid of the homophobes, sexists, and racists in our audience. I know they’re out there and it really bothers me.”

“My generation’s apathy. I’m disgusted with it. I’m disgusted with my own apathy too, for being spineless and not always standing up against racism, sexism and all those other - ism the counterculture has been whining about for years.”

If marriage is simply about legal rights, and therefore separate/equal domestic partnerships are sufficient, try this;

Stop telling people you’re married to your opposite-sex spouse. Don’t ever use the word married. Tell them you’re partnered. Don’t talk about your wedding day, talk about your commitment ceremony. Don’t invite people to your 40th wedding anniversary, invite them to your 40th civil union anniversary. Don’t call her your wife, call her your civil partner. Don’t call him your husband, call him your legal life partner. You’ll have to scrap your plans for ‘Loving Daughter, Wife, Mother’ on your headstone, you’ll have to go for ‘Loving Daughter, Partner, Mother’. Get ready for people to verbally assault you if you refer to your partnership as a marriage, when it legally isn’t. Be prepared to know that your relationship is looked down on every moment of every day. Be prepared to have that sitting in your mind when you’re lying in your spouse’s arms on a Sunday morning. Know that it will hurt. Be ready for people to dismiss how much it hurts.

I mean you’ve got all the legal rights, yeah? That’s all that matters, isn’t it?

From the comments: “LB have lots of targets, including Dafydd, “the ‘Only Gay in the Village”. But I think it’s significant that Dafydd is seen as ridiculous because he doesn’t realize that everyone is fine with his being gay, whereas the two in the ad are seen as ridiculous for not realizing that everyone sees their identity as fake. That’s quite a telling contrast.”

Phillip Spooner, Veteran and Republican talks about why gays should be allowed to marry. Maine, your time will come.

Reblog with how long it took you to cry.

This was sent to group members of ‘Support for the gay couple sentenced to 14yrs in prison!’ on Facebook. Of course it is unverified, but I wanted to share it anyway:

Hi I have been contacted by a wonderful lady who has been visiting Steven & Tiwonge in prison in Malawi along with some friends. She went to Malawi in January as a volunteer, just after Steven & Tiwonge had been arrested.

She has managed to take them some supplies of basic food, medicine, vitamins and clothes and says that she has built up a good rapport with the prison staff and even managed to take a newspaper in with a positive article featuring Steven and Tiwonge!

She says that she was unable to speak to them or have contact during her last visit due to a measles outbreak in the prison. However she and others were able to give them new shirts and ties for court!

Steven is quite a shy and proud man and it was only recently that he was able to make eye contact and smile with this lady and her friends.

Tiwonge is apparently a real character and even in such dire circumstances made her laugh with his outlandish requests for Dove soap, dettol, irish potatoes and perfume!

She says she will keep us updated with their progress and is happy to share this information with all of you although she has to keep a low profile (although being a white woman visiting a prison it is proving difficult).

It sounds like this has been quite an upsetting experience for this lady.

I have been asked not to give her name as the situation is delicate at the moment!

Philip Spooner, veteran, speaks. www.EqualityMaine.org - Testimony given for and against Maine’s marriage equality bill on April 22, 2009. Nearly 4,000 people attended the hearing, with marriage equality supporters out-numbering the opposition 4 to 1. The son he mentions is deceased.

The freedom to love was still quashed, but I cannot help thinking if this video had been used as the official campaign advert, it would have simultaneously broken hearts and changed minds. Your time will come, Maine.