Monday, August 31, 2015
The War On Porn
A similar ordinance, passed in Los Angeles in November 2012, made condom use a requirement for a permit in LA County, and banned the filming of bareback sex in the city, which was traditionally a haven for porn studios.
Applications for porn permits in LA fell by 90% in the first year of the law.
The California bill, pushed by Michael Weinstein, president of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), would apply to the whole state.
It intends to allow “whistle-blowers and private citizens to enforce the Act when the state fails to do so.”
The proposed bill has been criticized by porn actors however, who say it could be exploited by those opposed to the porn industry generally.
Chanel Preston, president of the Adult Performer Advocacy Committee, said: “This bill puts performers at the mercy of any citizen, including those who misjudge and scorn the adult film industry.
“Any person or group with an anti-porn agenda, anyone with a personal issue with a specific performer, or an overly zealous fan could use this power as a means to attack performers in the industry.”
The law would also affect anyone using webcams or other means to record having sex without condoms.
The Catholic Church Just Can't Stop Hating Homosexuals
From Ontopmagazine:
The Catholic Bishop Conference of the
Philippines (CBCP) on Sunday called on the public and lawmakers to
oppose efforts to allow gay and lesbian couples to marry in the
Philippines.
Leaders said that Catholic lawmakers
have “a moral duty” to publicly oppose marriage equality and to
vote against its legalization.
“A homosexual union is not and can
never be a marriage as properly understood and so-called,” the CBCP
said in a statement posted on its website.
“There are absolutely no grounds for
considering homosexual unions to be similar or even remotely
analogous to God's plan for marriage and the family.”
“Catholics cannot participate in any
way or even attend religious or legal ceremonies that celebrate and
legitimize homosexual unions.”
The CBCP said it was opposed to
marriage equality because same-sex relationships “are not able to
contribute in a proper way to the procreation and survival of the
human race.”
More than 80 percent of Filipinos are
Catholic.
According to the AFP, divorce and
abortion remain illegal in the conservative nation mainly due to the
Catholic Church's influence.
Just like in all other instances, the church isn't just against gays marrying, the church is against any form of public or private recognition of homosexual unions, not only by the those within the church, but command it's followers vote against any homosexual unions.
This in my opinion, takes them into the realm of politics and I think, just cause to remove their tax exempt status.
Sunday, August 30, 2015
Sam Stanley professional rugby union player comes out gay
England Rugby Sevens star Sam Stanley has come out as gay – the first English professional rugby union player to do so.
Stanley, who has represented England five times internationally, has spoken of his anguish at hiding his sexuality.Speaking to the Sunday Times, Stanley said: ‘I was 10 or 11 when I realised I was different to my friends.
‘I didn’t want to accept it, I felt that being different wasn’t right. I had a girlfriend and I was thinking that, like some people say, maybe it is just a phase.’
Stanley has also revealed he attempted suicide after fearing his sexuality would end his rugby career.
He told the Sunday Times: ‘I was standing on a bridge about four or five years ago, overlooking a motorway in Essex… However, looking back, the idea that I would jump was ridiculous but it was as if I was thinking that I could get rid of the pain in one go.
‘You are so worried about what people will think and I thought I couldn’t be a macho rugby player the way I was, and there was nothing else I wanted to do with my life.’
Saracens, where Stanley was a player between 2010 and 2014, have shown support to their old teammate, tweeting: ‘So #proud of @Stanley_13. Always a member of the #SarriesFamily.’
Sam’s brother Michael Stanley, who plays for Samoa, has also spoken of his pride for his brother, tweeting: ‘So proud of my little brother, not easy in this days society! Love you uce, be proud of who you are #FtheHaters @Stanley_13’
Stanley has come out less than a month after rugby league player Keegan Hirst, who had also struggled with being gay but has since received a lot of support.
The first rugby union player to come out as gay was former Wales captain Gareth Thomas, who came out in 2009.
Friday, August 28, 2015
Get Down Off That Cross, Somebody Else Needs The Wood
On the highway to LGBTI civil rights, there are many collisions. Willful ignorance runs headlong into justice.
Few are as fascinating as the wreck in Rowan County Kentucky. We, the
American public, cannot stop ourselves from rubber necking as a cold
hearted group, led by a county clerk, rudely deny a polite gay couple
their marriage license.The ‘good guys’ are two Davids – Moore and Ermold, who want to get married.
It is their legal right.
The ‘villain’ is Kim Davis who refuses to issue them a marriage license. She had also denied a second couple, James Yates and William Smith Jr.
The state governor has told her to comply, as has a federal judge.
Her representation, the right wing Liberty Counsel, has told her to refuse. She calls her homophobia ‘religious freedom’, the Liberty Counsel may call it a number of things, but what it really is to them is profit.
Davis’s behavior bothers me. I look at the messages not just to me, but to my kids and their counterparts in LGBTI families across the nation.
First is her attempt to disparage families such as mine and declare us invalid. Kids in LGBTI families, and kids who are LGBTI should not hear a government official would rather they didn’t exist.
Second is her behavior. I am teaching my kids principles of responsibility and citizenship. Davis violates that principle at every turn.
I have written her a letter.
Dear Ms Davis,
I understand you are angry the fight for marriage equality did not go the way you had hoped. I will not be able to persuade you into liking the Supreme Court’s decision, but as a public servant, I do expect you to respect it.
Respect is the key. You are demanding respect for your beliefs far beyond what is reasonable, and the couples are demanding respect for their ability to determine the course of their own lives. Their demands are not just reasonable; they are the way things should be.
As a Christian I do not understand the religious system you claim to have. Nowhere in the Bible does it demand you impede the family of a same-sex couple. It does not imply you should. Christ’s great commandment to ‘love your neighbor as yourself’ is counter to your current behavior.
Much has been made of the fact you have been married multiple times. There are, theoretically, county clerks who would find your requests for re-marriage counter to Jesus’s directive on divorce.
But I would defend you. I feel Christ has given us the awareness to understand his directive on divorce was to a specific time and place. His purpose was not to saddle people like you into hopeless permanent unions, but to protect women from destitution.
I ask you reconsider your choices. You set a horrendous example for young people, like my sons, who should be learning how to effectively co-exist with others in society.
When my son Jesse is putting his foot down on something he needs to do, but doesn’t want to, he calls in his allies for credibility or support. ‘My friends don’t think that is fair!’ Invariably those he calls upon to do the wrong thing have a vested interest.
Such is your relationship with Liberty Counsel, an organization that gained $3.5 million (€3 million) in donations in 2013.
As the Lexington Herald-Leader observes: ‘Liberty’s attorneys know they can’t win the case in Rowan County. Same-sex marriage is legal since the Supreme Court’s decision and it’s Davis’ job to issue marriage licenses.
‘So, why is Liberty Counsel marching alongside Davis in this losing cause?
‘It takes a lot to keep that marketing machine humming and those executives paid, and the only way to keep those donations coming is to stay in the news. For that purpose a losing cause is just as good as, perhaps better than, a winning one.’
Your ‘friends’, who themselves will reap millions, are telling you to hang out until the end where you will be potentially unemployed, and perceived globally as a selfish intolerant hypocrite who was cruel to her neighbors.
As a ‘Good Samaritan’, I am telling you to do the opposite: do your job, respect people making their own life choices, and trust in God that love will prevail in the end.
If you do, the couples will walk away with the licenses they want and the protections they deserve.
You will walk away with dignity. You will be a woman who changed her mind, evolved and chose the path of compassion.
The Liberty Counsel won’t be able to use you for fund raising. You won’t be their pawn. You will be the real winner.
A few years later, you will be walking down the street of your town. You will see a gloriously happy little girl holding her dad’s hand. She will smile at you. As that warms your heart, you will look to her father and realize you know him. He is one of the men you tried to deny a marriage license. Your eyes will dart back to the little girl who will still be beaming at you.
In that moment, you will know without a doubt that you ultimately did the right thing.
Jeb Bush's Gay Friend Won't Endorse His Presidential Bid
The Bush campaign this week released
excerpts from Bush's upcoming e-book, Reply
All: A Governor's Story 1999-2007, about email exchanges the
former governor of Florida had with his constituents.
Cortada is described in the book as a
friend who wrote to Bush in 2004 about his support for a proposed
constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage.
In his reply, Bush advised his friend
that he could make his relationship more permanent through other
legal means than marriage.
“Thank you for writing and I
apologize for not responding earlier,” Bush wrote. “The tyranny
of the present has gotten me!”
“I am sensitive to your point of view
but respectfully disagree. If there is discrimination, there are
remedies. The cases of violence against gay and lesbians are
unconscionable and the laws in Florida exist to bring justice. Your
relationship with Juan Carlos can be made more permanent through
contractual obligations that set forth asset disposition and other
issues. However, I don't believe that your relationship should be
afforded the same status in the law as a man and a woman agreeing to
marriage. The institution of marriage is under attack in our society
and it needs to be strengthened. This does not have to be at the
expense of other kinds of relationships but in support of the most
important institution in our society.”
Cortada, an artist, and Juan Carlos
Espinosa have since married.
In remarks to the Daily
News, he said he would not vote for Bush.
“I like him. I respect him. But I
disagree with him. I don't wish to see him at 1600 Pennsylvania
Avenue,” said Cortada, who has known Bush for more than 20 years.
Wednesday, August 26, 2015
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