Gay News
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- 18 May 2012 04:20:00: Gay Catholic Talks About Being Barred from Giving Graduation Speech - Advocate.com - Gay News | The Advocate | The World's Leading Source for LGBT News and Entertainment
Actor Dominic Sheahan-Stahl may have been let down by administrators who decided he couldn't give a graduation speech at his high school alma mater because he is gay, but the students have stepped up.
- 18 May 2012 04:00:00: Lesbian Bands Hear Them Roar - Advocate.com - Gay News | The Advocate | The World's Leading Source for LGBT News and Entertainment
Hear them roar. Many of today’s queer female bands are grappling with their riot grrrl legacy.
- 18 May 2012 04:00:00: Ones to Watch - Advocate.com - Gay News | The Advocate | The World's Leading Source for LGBT News and Entertainment
Six LGBT acts you need to know about now.
- 17 May 2012 20:27:35: The Powerful Ricketts Family Is Obivously Split Politically - Advocate.com - Gay News | The Advocate | The World's Leading Source for LGBT News and Entertainment
Joe Ricketts and his lesbian daughter Laura Ricketts are on very different sides politically, as shown by an ad campaign that was reportedly in the works to take down President Obama.
- 17 May 2012 19:44:39: Add Tokyo Disneyland to Your List of Potential Wedding Venues - Advocate.com - Gay News | The Advocate | The World's Leading Source for LGBT News and Entertainment
Now same-sex couples in Asia can finally get married in Cinderella's castle, and both can wear gowns if they want.
Tokyo Disneyland acquiesced this week to a request by two women to get married on the grounds, reports the Guardian. Koyuki Higashi had written to Disney asking for permission to marry her partner Hiroko and was initially told yes — so long as only one wore a gown and the other a tux.
- 17 May 2012 19:06:33: Rapper TI Says He Does Not Care If Gay People Get Married - Advocate.com - Gay News | The Advocate | The World's Leading Source for LGBT News and Entertainment
Rapper T.I. says everyone should just mind their own business when it comes to same-sex marriage.
"I don't care enough one way or another," he said during an interview on Hot97, according to Gawker. "If something doesn't affect you, you should not take a strong position against it."
T.I. seems to have a laissez-faire approach to marriage equality that Gawker points out might be "a good rule of thumb" for the right wing.
- 17 May 2012 18:22:31: Lady of the Night Donna Summer and Her Roots in the LGBT Community - Advocate.com - Gay News | The Advocate | The World's Leading Source for LGBT News and Entertainment
Writer Clay Cane remembers interviewing the original Lady of the Night about an unrelenting rumor that she was homophobic.
- 17 May 2012 17:49:56: Protestors Face Off in Russia for First Time Over Gay Propaganda Law - Advocate.com - Gay News | The Advocate | The World's Leading Source for LGBT News and Entertainment
Approximately150 protestors faced off against 150 counter-protestors today in St. Petersburg’s first official pride rally held in the Russian city since a new law banning gay “propaganda” took effect last month.The Petrovsky Park rally was organized by the Russian gay rights organization Coming Out to commemorate today’s International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia. Only 17 protestors were expected, but nearly 10 times that many showed up.
In opposition, an equal number of counter-protestors shouted antigay chants and slurs. Meanwhile, police used a blockade to stop either side from charging the other.
Police and officials have looked largely confused about enforcement of the vague new law. They arrested others in the past but also provided government bus transportation and officer protection to the protestors at today’s rally.
Despite the police presence, two activists were reportedly assaulted by counter-protestors. They were shot with a gas gun, a source reports. Then as antigay protestors became frustrated with the police blockade, they turned on a passing bus of immigrants. It is unclear if they believed the bus to be filled with more arriving for the rally.
Coming Out blamed the violence on the law being protested. “This incident demonstrates fully how the ‘propaganda’ laws lead to escalation of violence and hatred in society, which could touch the lives of anyone,” the group said in a statement. “All the more important it is for civil society to unite, become stronger and more visible, and say ‘NO’ to violence and homophobic or any other form of xenophobic discrimination.”
As peaceful protestors sang songs and held banners, they released into the St. Petersburg sky 500 rainbow-colored balloons inscribed with messages of unity and diversity.Petrovsky Park is bordered by water on two sides and a tall building and a street on the other two, making the location of today’s rally fairly secluded.
And the protest itself seems to fall into a grey area created by the new antigay law, which forbids any positive mention of homosexuality, bisexuality, or transgenderism that might be viewed by minors. While the city’s central governing body denied the permit for the protest, sighting the new law, the regional government authorities that control the district where the park is located officially sanctioned the rally.
Pictured is a protestor who was hit by the gas gun. View more photos from the rally on the following pages.
- 17 May 2012 17:04:19: Dolly Liza Janet Ellen Other Celebs React To Death of Donna Summer - Advocate.com - Gay News | The Advocate | The World's Leading Source for LGBT News and Entertainment
Janet Jackson says the late Donna Summer "changed the world of music with her beautiful voice and incredible talent," while Dolly Parton says Summer had "one of the greatest voices ever."
"We will miss Donna Summer! She changed the world of music with her beautiful voice and incredible talent," Jackson says in a statement released to the media.
- 17 May 2012 16:23:17: Poll Shows More Black Voters Now Agree With Obama on Marriage - Advocate.com - Gay News | The Advocate | The World's Leading Source for LGBT News and Entertainment
President Obama might be changing minds with his support for marriage equality, at least among African-American voters, a new poll shows.
- 17 May 2012 16:21:51: EXCLUSIVE Donna Summer Denies Making Antigay Remarks That Hurt Her Career - Advocate.com - Gay News | The Advocate | The World's Leading Source for LGBT News and Entertainment
Donna Summer, whose post-'70s career was compromised by antigay remarks she allegedly made at a 1983 concert, disputed ever making the comments, blaming them on an angry journalist, and lamented the impact of AIDS on her close friends, during a 1989 interview with The Advocate.
- 17 May 2012 14:42:59: Barbra Streisand Says Shes Shocked At Death of Donna Summer - Advocate.com - Gay News | The Advocate | The World's Leading Source for LGBT News and Entertainment
Barbra Streisand says she is shocked at the death of Donna Summer, with whom she recorded the disco empowerment anthem "No More Tears (Enough Is Enough)," saying Summer looked so vital when she last saw her a few months ago.
The 1979 collaboration between the two vocal powerhouses was recorded for Streisand's Wet album and as a new track for Summer's compilation double album entitled On the Radio: Greatest Hits Volumes 1 & 2. It quickly climbed to the top of the Billboard charts where it remained for two weeks.
- 17 May 2012 14:36:17: Gay Nominee to Oklahoma Election Board Not Given a Vote - Advocate.com - Gay News | The Advocate | The World's Leading Source for LGBT News and Entertainment
State law required Oklahoma's Republican governor to pick a Democrat for its Election Board, but the gay man she selected as most qualified isn't even getting a vote.
Jim Roth was Gov. Mary Fallin's choice for the state's election board, having to name someone from a list provided by Democrats. Local newspapers point out Roth's long list of qualifications, including a term on the statewide Corporation Commission, and two terms as county commissioner.
- 17 May 2012 13:46:48: New Rules Target Sexual Assault Epidemic Among LGBT Inmates - Advocate.com - Gay News | The Advocate | The World's Leading Source for LGBT News and Entertainment
Advocates praise the new Justice Department standards, though questions remain about separate rules for immigration detention, to be finalized by the Department of Homeland Security.
- 17 May 2012 13:19:29: Antigay Leader Paul Cameron Says He Once Had Homosexual Feelings - Advocate.com - Gay News | The Advocate | The World's Leading Source for LGBT News and Entertainment
One of the most notorious antigay figures admitted during a radio interview this week that he once felt same-sex attraction but claims the culture overcame it.
Paul Cameron had most recently claimed that President Obama is secretly gay and reiterated that "the plausibility is growing" during an interview on David Pakman's radio show.
Cameron, now the chairman of the Family Research Institute, still calls himself a psychologist though he was kicked out of the American Psychological Association for his debunked views.
- 17 May 2012 12:33:52: Donna Summer Dies At 63 - Advocate.com - Gay News | The Advocate | The World's Leading Source for LGBT News and Entertainment
The singer told The Advocate during the '80s AIDS crisis that, “I’m hurtin as much as anyone else at the amount of people who are gone.”
- 17 May 2012 12:06:36: Poll Finds Most People Unphased By Romney History as Antigay Bully - Advocate.com - Gay News | The Advocate | The World's Leading Source for LGBT News and Entertainment
A new poll finds that most people by now have heard about Mitt Romney's past as an antigay bully and more than two-thirds aren't bothered one bit by it.
Ipsos asked poll respondents via the Internet about a Washington Post report that while Romney was in prep school, he led a "posse" of students who held down and forcibly cut the hair of a fellow high-schooler while the student cried, screamed and called for help.
- 17 May 2012 12:00:51: Chief Foe of Gay Judicial Nominee: “Sodomy is Not a Civil Right” - Advocate.com - Gay News | The Advocate | The World's Leading Source for LGBT News and Entertainment
Virginia delegate Bob Marshall, who helped orchestrate the defeat of gay judicial nominee Tracy Thorne-Begland this week, explained his opposition by saying, “Sodomy is not a civil right.”
- 17 May 2012 11:45:24: Rachel Maddow and Jane Lynch Talk About How Obama Affected Them - Advocate.com - Gay News | The Advocate | The World's Leading Source for LGBT News and Entertainment
MNSBC's Rachel Maddow and comedian Jane Lynch talked Wednesday about how President Obama's support for marriage affected them personally.
"I felt like half of me had to have a talk with the other half," Maddow said of the internal conflict of being a political journalist who is a lesbian. She said journalists were missing the point, and that the real importance of the president's statement is its potential to change minds.
Lynch said the president's statement had awakened something in her.
- 17 May 2012 10:55:02: NJ Voters Want Marriage Referendum, Poll Shows - Advocate.com - Gay News | The Advocate | The World's Leading Source for LGBT News and Entertainment
A new Quinnipiac poll reveals that a majority of New Jersey voters continue to support same-sex marriage and want a referendum on the issue.