Tag: lgbt
Teacher of the year suspended for showing students a picture of her fiancée wins $100,000 settlement
A Texas art teacher who was placed on administrative leave after talking about “her future wife” in class hopes her settlement with a school district will change the lives of other LGBTQ people.
Stacy Bailey, who was on paid leave, reached a $100,000 settlement with the Mansfield Independent School District last week, her attorney said. The district near Fort Worth agreed to remove the eight-month leave from her record, as well as offer mandatory training on LGBTQ issues to human resources and counseling staff in its schools.
The two-time teacher of the year was giving a welcome back to school presentation in August 2017 to her class when she showed a photo of her and her then-fiancee dressed as characters from the movie “Finding Nemo,” according to court documents obtained by CNN. A parent complained to the school, saying that Bailey was “promoting the homosexual agenda,” according to court documents.”
That’s one of the biggest reasons that I did stand up, because I thought if I would have stayed silent or I would have resigned that this would have just happened to someone else after me,” Bailey said Tuesday at a press conference, according to CNN affiliate KTVT.Being able to finally talk about what happened is a relief for Bailey, but it’s also been bittersweet, her attorney Jason C. N. Smith told CNN on Thursday.
“She is glad to finally be able to speak about this,” Smith said. “She’s talked about how she’s a gay teacher, a dedicated gay teacher, and they put her through a lot of pain, but she is hopeful that some of the provisions of the settlement will make Mansfield ISD a more tolerant place for LGBTQ people.”Bailey taught for 10 years at Charlotte Anderson Elementary School in Arlington, Smith said. The teacher was transferred to Lake Ridge High School, which is in the same school district, at the end of the 2018 school year. She is still at Lake Ridge. The district’s school board agreed to the settlement terms on Monday.
“The Mansfield ISD School Board has voted on an agreement to settle the case in question in an amicable and beneficial manner,” Donald Williams, associate superintendent of communications and marketing, said in a statement. “All parties deny any wrongdoing or liability, but wish to resolve their disputes to avoid the time, expense, stress and other impacts of continuing litigation, which would interfere with the mission of educating the students of MISD.”Bailey argued she was discriminated against and her constitutional rights were violated. The school district said the teacher refused to follow administration directions “regarding age-appropriate conversations with students” about sexual orientation.Beyond the mandatory LGBTQ training, optional training will be offered to administrators, staff, teachers or parents who would like to attend, according to settlement documents.
The settlement also requires the school district to provide Bailey with a “neutral” letter of recommendation.
As the Supreme Court is considering cases based on sexual orientation that may affect the district board’s policies, the board of trustees will consider adopting a policy barring discrimination of teachers and students based on sexual orientation within 60 days of the end of the court’s term, the settlement says.”I think this settlement was a win-win for Stacy, the educators and the students of Mansfield ISD,” Smith said. “The judge in this case ruled that gay teachers are protected by the Constitution. That’s a precedent that will protect every gay teacher in this country.”
Smith said that Bailey hopes other teachers will also be more open and be their genuine selves.
“Stacy has encouraged other teachers to live their truth and openly be who they are in the classroom so they can be better people and better teachers,” Smith said.Bailey and her wife, Julie Vazquez, were married in March 2018, Smith said. The couple said they will donate $10,000 of the settlement money to a nonprofit that focuses on LGBTQ issues. Smith said he will donate $10,000 of his reduced legal fees to the Human Rights Campaign, which is the largest LGBTQ advocacy group and political lobbying organization in the US.
Article via CNN
Frank Ocean Defends His Exclusive Inclusive Queer Party
We’ve all had to send a few texts the morning after a party. But the day after his first PrEP+ party in New York City, Frank Ocean felt compelled to issue a whole statement. The event, billed as a recurring queer club night that pays “homage to what could have been of the 1980s’ NYC club scene if the drug [PrEP+] … had been invented in that era,” received criticism for erasing queer history, not being queer-inclusive, and just being hard to get into. But it’s all okay, Frank says! “Club culture around late 70s and 80s nightlife in NYC was a special, much talked about and written about thing,” he writes on Tumblr (where he may be the only one still with an account). “I recognize NY wasn’t all lasers and disco lighting and that simultaneously, there was a lot of crime and poverty and that a huge part of club culture, the gay community, at that time were being wiped out by HIV + AIDS.” As for his decision to name the night after an HIV-prevention drug, Ocean writes, “The pricing strategy behind it is malicious in my opinion and so it’s public perception is marred and rightfully so. But the fact remains that despite price being a very real barrier to this potentially life saving drug for some, the other very real barrier is awareness.”
At the end of the day, Ocean is “happy that folks are talking about the subject in the first place.” And if you’re a hater, you’re now invited: “I saw someone say that this was a PR stunt etc etc, pshhh bitch pls come get a drink next time and I’ll put several barstools out so you can have as many seats as you need.” See you next week, then?
Article via Vulture
Disney Star Joshua Rush Comes Out as Bisexual
In a series of tweets, the 17-year-old “Andi Mack” actor, who played the network’s first LGBTQ character, opens up to his fans about his sexuality. Full Story: https://www.eonline.com/news/1062724/…
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‘LGBT’ sandwich causes controversy: ‘Using an entire community for publicity and profit’
Article via FOXNews
A U.K. retail chain is getting toasted roasted on social media over a controversial sandwich.
In celebration of Pride festivities in the U.K., Marks and Spencer recently began offering its “LGBT” sandwich — a guacamole-inclusive twist on a BLT — complete with packaging decorated with the colors of the rainbow flag.
But despite praise from some within the LGBTQI+ communities, the item raised more than a few eyebrows on Twitter, with some accusing the retailer of marginalizing the community and culture.
“Shame on the good folks over at @marksandspencer for turning our culture and identity into a sandwich,” one woman wrote. ”Making an absolute mockery of lgbtq people,” she added.
“I identify as #lesbian @marksandspencer[,] not a f—ing lettuce,” wrote another critic. “Why don’t you make an ethnic minority or disability sandwich while you’re at it!!”
Others, meanwhile, likened Marks and Spencer’s marketing move as “propaganda” or an attempt to profit off the LGBTQ community.
“Good Morning Britain” host Piers Morgan also called the idea “truly pathetic on Twitter,” writing, “Is there no cynical virtue-signalling depth struggling companies won’t now plunge to make a profit?”
A representative for Marks and Spencer did not comment on the response to its sandwiches, but the retailer has released a statement detailing the charitable contributions Marks and Spencer is making in honor of Pride.
“M&S has an amazing LGBTQ+ colleague network and with them we’ll be celebrating Pride 2019. For the second year running, we have created a sandwich as part of the celebrations and have received great feedback from both colleagues and customers,” a spokesperson confirmed in a statement obtained by Fox News.
“Alongside this, we’re also donating £10,000 to [The Albert Kennedy Trust,] the national LGBTQ+ Youth Homelessness charity.”
A statement obtained by The Sun also confirmed the chain would be donating 1,000 Euro to BeLonG To Youth Services, a charity supporting LGBTQ youth in Ireland.
Despite the controversy, the sandwich has its supporters within the LGBTQ community.
“It’s a shame I can’t eat the M&S #LGBTSandwich but I’m really glad such a famous corporate company is on our side,” one wrote.
“Yes it’s just a sandwich, but it goes a long way to [normalizing] being LGBT doesn’t it? Seeing something that supports you on every shelf in a massive shop. no?” added another.
“They do loads for LGBT communities internally within their business and through external support including the funds this raises… easy to [criticize] brands for ‘rainbow washing’ but by god I’d have f—ing killed for my mum to have to see an LGBT sandwich when I was growing up,” another user added.
Mom throws gender reveal party for 20-year-old son
When Adrian Brown told his mother that he was transgender and wanted to transition from female to male, Heather Lundberg Green didn’t know how to support her son.
“When he told me he was transitioning, I was determined to support him through his journey, but I had no idea how,” Green, who’s based in Louisville, Kentucky, wrote in a blog for Love What Matters. “I have always had many friends in the LGBTQ community and still I wasn’t sure what steps I should take as his mother, or even what an appropriate response was outside of ‘I still love you.’”
But she had a clever idea: Throw a gender reveal party to celebrate her son’s 20th birthday. Green coordinated an elaborate photo shoot for her son, where she swaddled him with a white blanket inscribed with “It’s a boy!”
She shared the photos on her Facebook page, which quickly became a social media sensation and attracted more than 10,000 likes.
“My kids are used to me coming up with these harebrained schemes all the time,” Green told WAVE. “He was like, ‘You’re crazy, but yes,’ of course, which was a fair reaction.”
Brown first came out to his 17-year-old brother Lucas in September, and his younger sibling was extremely supportive.
“[Brown] asked what he would think if he changed his name to Adrian and Lucas’s response was that he’d have to change his name tag at work,” Green told The Washington Post.
Green’s online community has been equally supportive of Brown’s transition.
“So glad you are you and teaching the world to see you for who you are,” wrote one user.
“I’m so proud and have all the feels, even though I’ve never met Adrian,” wrote another user.
And Brown’s story is even saving lives. Brown told USA Today that Lucas shared with him a heart-wrenching story about one of his classmates.
“He proceeded to tell me that a trans boy at his school had come out to his parents after seeing our post,” Brown said. “He had been considering suicide before coming out to them and because of our message he had the courage to tell them and found out that his parents were going to support them. He would not have had the courage had we not taken these photos.”
via: https://nypost.com/2019/02/08/mom-throws-gender-reveal-party-for-20-year-old-son/
Brazil’s sole openly gay congressman leaves country after death threats
Jean Wyllys said he was currently outside of the country and had no plans to return after a growing number of threats in past year
Brazil’s first and only openly gay congressman has announced that he is leaving his job – and the country – after receiving death threats.
In a newspaper interview on Thursday, Jean Wyllys said he was currently outside of Brazil and had no plans to return after a growing number of threats over the past year.
Wyllys, who was re-elected in October and had been set to begin a third term in February, was a close friend of Marielle Franco, the gay Rio councilwoman who was shot and killed along with her driver in March.
His departure is likely to add to fears among Brazil’s LGBT community that homophobia is set to rise even further under the government of president Jair Bolsonaro, who has won notoriety for his overt homophobia.
In the interview, Wyllys said his decision to leave wasn’t because of Bolsonaro’s rise, but rather the climate of heated rhetoric and intensifying violence toward members of the LGBT community in the wake of last year’s heated election campaign.
Bolsonaro made no explicit comment on Wyllys’s announcement, but soon after posted a thumbs-up emoji on his twitter feed. Bolsonaro’s son Carlos – also a Rio city councilman – greeted the news with a tweet saying: “Go with God and be happy.”
Wyllys told the Folha de São Paulo newspaper that the decision had been a painful one, but he asked: “Why would I want to live four years of my life in an armoured car with bodyguards? Four years of my life when I can’t just go where I want to go?”
Wyllys first found national fame when he won Brazil’s version of Big Brother, and went on to become one of the country’s most high-profile advocates for gay rights – a role which led to frequent attacks from the religious right.
“It is a difficult battle to fight. Sometimes I feel like Don Quixote, you know?” he told the Guardian in 2012. “But this is my vocation. My calling. I feel that I need to be here.”
Wyllys said that the former Uruguayan president Pepe Mújica had advised him to take the death threats seriously. “He told me: ‘Take care, man. Martyrs are not heroes.’ And he’s right: I don’t want to sacrifice myself,” Wyllys said.
In Congress, Wyllys was frequently at odds with Bolsonaro, a congressman for 28 years with a long history of homophobic, racist and sexist comments.
In their most notorious public clash, Wyllys spit towards Bolsonaro on the floor of the lower House of Deputies after Bolsonaro dedicated his vote to impeach then-president Dilma Rousseff to a dictatorship-era torturer.
In a tweet on Thursday, Wyllys said: “Preserving a threatened life is also a strategy to fight for better days. We did a lot for the common good. And we will do much more when new times come.”
Despite Brazil’s image as an inclusive nation that is home to the world’s largest gay parade, homophobia is rampant, and often violent. In 2017, at least 445 LGBT Brazilians died as victims of homophobia – a 30% increase from 2016.
Judge rules against elderly lesbians rejected from retirement home
Bev Nance, 68, and Mary Walsh, 72, were denied an apartment in Missouri’s Friendship Village because their marriage is not “understood in the Bible.”
A federal court on Wednesday ruled against a lesbian couple who brought a lawsuit against a Missouri retirement home that rejected the women’s apartment application because their marriage is not “understood in the Bible.”
Bev Nance, 68, and Mary Walsh, 72, married a decade ago in Massachusetts and have been in a committed relationship for roughly 40 years.
When they applied to move into the Friendship Village senior living facility, they did so “because it is in their community, they have friends there, and it offers services that would allow them to stay together there for the rest of their lives,” said Julie Wilensky, an attorney representing the couple.
But once Friendship Village staff found that Nance and Walsh are married, they told the couple that they were not allowed to move in, because the home did not condone homosexuality. The letter they received said that the only married couples they accepted were those in unions between “one man and one woman.”
The couple sued, alleging “discrimination on the basis of sex,” and their case was finally decided this week by a federal court in Missouri, which found “sexual orientation rather than sex lies at the heart of Plaintiffs’ claims.”
LGBTQ groups decried the outcome, and the couple’s lawyers said “we disagree with the court’s decision, and our clients are considering next steps.”
Michael Adams, CEO of SAGE, which advocates for LGBTQ seniors, said, “This is sex discrimination, and it is against the law.”
“Mary Walsh and Bev Nance were discriminatorily denied admission to the Friendship Village retirement community for one reason only — because they are two women in a committed relationship rather than a woman and a man,” Adams told NBC News.
The couple’s lawyers made that argument in court: that because Walsh and Nance are women who are in a relationship with a woman instead of a man as is traditional, they would not have been prevented from moving in if their sex were male.
Judge Jean C. Hamilton, however, provided a different view of the case’s merits.
“At no time do Plaintiffs assert that had they been men involved in a same-sex relationship or marriage, they would have been admitted as residents in Friendship Village,” Hamilton wrote in the court’s decision. “Under these circumstances, the Court finds the claims boil down to those of discrimination based on sexual orientation rather than sex alone.”
Hamilton then dismissed the women’s claim, noting that the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which covers Missouri and other Midwestern states, ruled in 1989 that existing federal civil rights law “does not prohibit discrimination against homosexuals.”
The case Hamilton referred to, Williamson v. A.G. Edwards & Sons, is currently being challenged in court by the LGBTQ legal advocacy group Lambda Legal. The group is representing a man whose job offer was rescinded after the company found out he is gay. This case, Horton v. Midwest Geriatric Management, could be decided this year, and if the 1989 precedent is overturned, discrimination against LGBTQ people would become illegal at the federal level in all the states in the 8th Circuit: North and South Dakota, Nebraska, Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri and Arkansas.
The Supreme Court is also considering whether to take up one or several appeals court cases that address whether “sex” discrimination bans in federal civil rights law include discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. There is currently a patchwork of mismatching laws across the U.S. regarding this issue.
Article via NBCNews
Azealia Banks asks guys to send her ‘photos of their buttholes’
Azealia Banks asks guys to send her ‘photos of their buttholes’ in a bizarre Instagram post, as she launches new ‘lightening and tightening’ soaps for men and women
- The 27-year-old rapper asked fans on Instagram to send in pictures of their ‘buttholes’ after using her new line of soap
- The soaps ($17), which are labeled ‘Bussy Pop’ for men and ‘P***y Pop’ for women, contains witch hazel, coconut oil, lactic acid, vitamin C, tea tree oil
- According the the product image, it should lighten the genital area
- It remains unclear if Azealia received pictures of ‘buttholes’ from men or chose five people to model for the product
Azealia Banks has asked men to send pictures ‘of their buttholes’ to her Instagram account as she launches a new line of soap for male and female genitalia.
The 27-year-old rapper shocked her followers last week when she candidly asked for men to take pictures of their ‘buttholes’ while using her soap, entitled ‘Bussy Pop’ for males and ‘Pussy Pop’ for females, to show how it works.
‘I need some boys who are willing to show their buttholes to get a three-month supply of bussyboy,’ she wrote in the Instagram post. ‘I would like to document five boys’ buttholes in photos with flash to show how well bussyboy works!’
nvasive: In the Instagram post, she said the men who participated would receive a three-month supply of Bussy Boy, her male soap for the butt area
Invasive: In the Instagram post, she said the men who participated would receive a three-month supply of Bussy Boy, her male soap for the butt area
Revealed: The soap bars contain witch hazel, coconut oil, lactic acid, vitamin C and tea tree oil
Read more via: Azealia Banks asks guys to send her ‘photos of their buttholes’
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