Votes in Mississippi for Anti-LGBT Religious freedom Bill

Mississippi Senate Votes For Sweeping Anti-LGBT Religious Freedom Bill

Hi people,
Again news for the LGBT community in the South of America.

Thanks to buzzfeed.com
The Mississippi Senate voted 31-17 on Wednesday to pass what critics say is the most sweeping anti-LGBT legislation in the U.S.
House Bill 1523 would protect people, religious organizations, and certain businesses that refuse services specifically to LGBT people.
The bill also would protect those opposed to recognizing the gender identity of transgender people.
Immediately after the vote, a Democrat proposed a motion to reconsider the measure — thereby requiring another vote later in the week that is widely considered a procedural formality.
Although the bill already passed the House in February, the version approved by the Senate differed slightly, and the House must concur.

The Republican-dominated Mississippi Senate voted 31-17 on Wednesday night for a religious freedom bill that critics believe is the the most sweeping anti-LGBT legislation in the United States, allowing denial of products and services in a wide range of venues.
LGBT law mississippi

Immediately after the vote, a Democrat proposed a motion to reconsider — thereby requiring another vote later this week, which many consider a procedural formality, but could buy critics time to build opposition.

The bill already passed the House 80-39 in February. However, the Senate’s version was amended slightly, and the House must concur before the legislation can go to the governor.

Republicans, who hold a majority in both chambers, have argued the bill fixes problems created for people of faith by the Supreme Court’s 2015 marriage equality ruling.

“It gives protection to those in the state who cannot in a good conscience provide services for a same-sex marriage,” Sen. Jennifer Branning said in an address to her colleagues.

For full story: Click here

North Carolina’s Anti-LGBT Law Backlash

To be honest I was waiting for this. I just couldn’t believe that the LGBT community would be quiet about this!
Also I am happy that businesses and some others like the NBA are speaking against this stupid law. It is discrimination, pure and simple!

Thanks to buzzfeed.com
Corporations and activists channeled growing fury this week at North Carolina lawmakers who rushed though legislation on Wednesday to repeal LGBT protections and bar transgender people from certain restrooms.
LGBT NC

Protesters were arrested outside the governor’s mansion, while tech companies — including Facebook, Apple, and Google — argued that the new law is designed to allow LGBT discrimination.

The NBA suggested that the “discriminatory law” could compromise plans to host the 2017 All-Star Game in Charlotte.

Republican state leaders enacted the law in order to repeal an ordinance in Charlotte that would protect LGBT people from discrimination in housing and public accommodations. At least nine other jurisdictions in the state had similar laws on the books.

Gov. Pat McCrory and Christian conservatives claimed the public accommodations portion of the Charlotte ordinance posed a safety threat by allowing transgender women — whom they called “men” — to prey on women and girls, especially in bathrooms.

But in the 17 states and 225 cities with laws banning LGBT discrimination, there are no known instances of the rules being used to defend or facilitate predatory behavior in bathrooms or locker rooms.

On Thursday, protests swelled in front of the governor’s mansion, where five people were arrested for blocking traffic, WRAL reported. They were booked on charges of impeding the flow of traffic and resisting, delaying, or obstructing officers.

In response, McCrory defended the new law and blamed others for “spin.”

“Standing with North Carolina parents who are worried about the privacy and safety of their children will always be a top priority for the governor, no matter the spin by the media, pundits or politically correct crowd,” McCrory said in a statement.
Corporations, however, condemned the bill. Among them was Facebook, which posted a statement from its data center in North Carolina.

For the complete coverage click here.

Gay Film Night in LantarenVenster

For the people living in the Netherlands.

Goedemorgen allemaal!

Filmhuis LantarenVenster in Rotterdam organiseert eens per maand , op de eerste dinsdag van de maand, een avond speciaal gevuld met films voor de gay community.
Er is dus een Gay Film Night in LantarenVenster! 🙂
Goede zaak. Ik hoop dat ze ook de nieuwste films zullen vertonen.
Lantaren Venster
LantarenVenster verzorgt sinds 2007 ook films voor de LGBT community.
Ze zijn tegenwoordig gevestigd op de Wilhelminapier.

De locatie op de Wilhelminapier is een mooie plek voor onze brede muziek- en filmprogrammering. Het publiek kan bij LantarenVenster terecht voor een complete avond uit en laat het culturele leven van Rotterdam van haar beste kant zien.

Zoals we allemaal wel weten zijn er toch aardig wat films gemaakt die LGBT content bevatten. Dat is goed want dat kan ertoe bijdragen dat het voor meer mensen wat meer zichtbaar wordt. We doen het in Nederland redelijk goed maar het kan beter wat betreft acceptatie e.d..
LantarenVenster organiseert het maandelijkse gayfilmprogramma Beefcake, tegenwoordig Gay Film Night genoemd.

In samenwerking met filmdistributeurs Cinemien en Arti Film is er het initiatief genomen om een landelijke avond in veertien steden te organiseren met de nieuwste gayfilms.
Iedere eerste dinsdag van de maand om 21:30 uur worden de mooiste gayfilms vertoond. Van drama tot komedie en van thriller tot cult.

gay film night

Er zijn natuurlijk meer filmhuizen die zoiets verzorgen. Kijk eens bij jou in de buurt!
Voor meer info over LantarenVenster klik : LantarenVenster

Teen drugged to make her ‘normal’

BEJING — A group of Chinese high-school students have been accused of drugging a female classmate with a so-called aphrodisiac — triggering online debate about the incident’s alleged homophobic motive.

The incident happened last Thursday in the eastern city of Huangshan, but was only confirmed by the local education authority on Tuesday.
teen druuged to make her normal

One Chinese news website said the girl was targeted because she was a lesbian, but officials would not comment on the alleged motive.

The local police and education board said in separate statements that a group of male classmates secretly put the substance in a glass of water. When she found out, the teen posted about it on Weibo, China’s Twitter equivalent.

By Thursday, the trending topic had gained nearly 30 million views and 200,000 comments.
“”We should not blame the boys. She is a lesbian. They just want to help her become normal””

“It happened during my class break,” the student said in the post, which was seen by NBC News before it was later deleted. “When I drank the water, I never thought my classmates would drug me. They wanted to see me embarrassed but I was lucky the drug didn’t work.”

Officials would not identify the so-called aphrodisiac, saying only it had been bought in an “adult shop.” According to local education officials, the female student accepted an apology and the male students were punished in line with school rules.
china
Wei Tingting, one of five Chinese feminist activists detained for planning a protest last year, told NBC News that the incident was “insulting to women.”

“They are so young but what they did is so terrible,” Wei added. “Schools should strengthen education guiding students to respect women.”

The case does not meet the standard for a criminal case in China, but a poll of 120,000 people on Weibo showed that 90 percent thought the punishment was too soft.
“I can’t believe this happened in a high school. I am so sorry about the girl. What her classmates did is unforgivable,” said one Weibo user.
Chinese news website Sina News said the boys targeted the girl because she was a lesbian, although it did not provide support for this claim. The alleged victim also listed her sexual orientation as lesbian on Weibo.
The Huangshan Education Bureau told journalists they should not “use the word ‘gay’ … without investigation and verification,” saying the label would “hurt her a second time.”

That response only caused further outrage among gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender groups.
“How shameful it is being a lesbian?” said LGBT Rights Advocacy China in a statement Wednesday. “Could it be more shameful than the failure of education? Could it be more shameful than the school violence?”
Others weren’t so sympathetic.
“We should not blame the boys. She is a lesbian. They just want to help her become normal,” read one post on the school’s chatroom on Baidu.

Sarah Paulson and Holland Taylor

Hi people!

A little while back the two ladies finally confirmed that they are in a relationship!
Good for them! If you are happy… More power to you!

Reports that Paulson, 41, was dating Holland Taylor, 73, began to surface in early December after Taylor admitted that she was in a relationship with a woman and that it was the “most wonderful and extraordinary thing” that happened to her life. People began to notice her and Paulson’s witty Twitter banter, but nothing was officially confirmed
The age difference is always part of any article you read about them. Understandable.
paulsonTaylor1
This is what Paulson say about that:

“There’s a poignancy to being with someone older,” she said. “I think there’s a greater appreciation of time and what you have together and what’s important, and it can make the little things seem very small.”
“It puts a kind of sharp light mixed with a sort of diffused light on something. I can’t say it any other way than there’s a poignancy to it, and a heightened sense of time and the value of time.”

Paulson Taylor
The two actresses met at a dinner party about 10 years ago, but Paulson had been dating actress Cherry Jones—who is 18 years older than she— at the time. Despite her relationship status, Paulson admitted to the publication that she thought Taylor was “probably the most exquisitely beautiful woman I’d ever seen.”
Taylor+ Paulson

Paulson also said:

“If my life choices had to be predicated based on what was expected of me from a community on either side, that’s going to make me feel really straitjacketed, and I don’t want to feel that,” “What I can say absolutely is that I am in love, and that person happens to be Holland Taylor.”

Taylor and Paulson

Parody on Carol

Hi people,

Thanks to divamag.co.uk
Carol was nominated in five categories, including Best Female Lead (Blanchett), and won the award for Best Cinematography. In spite of landing six Oscar nominations, Todd Haynes’ lesbian blockbuster failed to pull in a single gong at the Academy Awards yesterday.
Carol 6 nominations

Plot summery

Set in 1950s New York, two women from very different backgrounds find themselves in the throes of love. A young woman in her 20s, Therese Belivet (Rooney Mara), is a clerk working in a Manhattan department store and dreaming of a more fulfilling life when she meets Carol (Cate Blanchett), an alluring woman trapped in a loveless, convenient marriage. As an immediate connection sparks between them, the innocence of their first encounter dims and their connection deepens. While Carol breaks free from the confines of marriage, her husband (Kyle Chandler) threatens her competence as a mother when Carol’s involvement with Therese and close relationship with her best friend Abby (Sarah Paulson) comes to light. As Carol leaves the comfort of home to travel with Therese, an internal journey of self-discovery coincides with her new sense of space.
What a shame! I for one really thought Carol would get more Oscars!!
If you want more info on Carol klik here This is contains the official Clip.
Or here.

To cheer you up a little here a parody on Carol. It is hilarious! 🙂
Carol star Cate Blanchett is reported to have cried with laughter when she saw this hilarious spoof, which was screened at Film Independent’s Spirit Awards shindig in Los Angeles on Saturday.

Starring Saturday Night Live’s Kate McKinnon, along with Wanda Sykes, Jane Lynch and Kumail Nanjiani, the video is cut with the restaurant scene in which wealthy housewife Carol takes gauche shop girl Therese (Rooney Mara) to lunch as a reward for returning her lost glove.