Being gay is not a choice. It’s not a lifestyle decision. It’s not something you can will yourself to change. And that’s why it’s no surprise that gay “conversion” centres, which try to persuade gay people that they’re actually straight, just don’t work.
Living Waters, for example, is a Christian program out of Toronto that claims it can “heal” gay individuals. It also costs $550. The leader, Dave Lawson, believes that God made us to only be sexually attracted to the opposite sex so homosexuals cannot exist. Living Waters is registered by the government and gets most of its funds from tax-receipted donations. This money has allowed them to start programs in churches all over Canada and allows the leader s of the organization to make from $40,000 to $79,999 a year. The leaders of Living Waters and organizations like it are essentially profiting off of people’s suffering.
LGBT Russians are suffering from terrible violence because of their sexual identities. Canada has to take a stand against these human rights violations today.
It’s time that the Russian politicians responsible for some of the most oppressive legislation felt the consequences of their choices. Verbal condemnation of such laws is not enough in the international arena, especially when Russia is set to host the Winter Olympics next year.
It’s working – the Olympic Committee couldn’t miss emails from over 70,211 of us! They’ve emailed the All Out office to say they’re working on how to reply to our question: Olympic Principle 6 says no discrimination is allowed – does that include lesbian, gay, bi and trans people?
It looks like they’re rattled and trying to buy time. If more of us join in to keep the flood of emails coming, we can show the Olympic Committee that the pressure is rising fast for them to give a clear and public answer.
Help us get to 75,000 emails today. Will you ask just one friend to send an email to the Olympic Committee to ask if lesbian, gay, bi and trans people count?
Forward the email below:
The Olympics just said Russia’s anti-gay crackdown is okay by them.Click here to ask the Olympics President Thomas Bach: Are lesbian, gay, bi and trans people included in the Olympic Principles?
Dear friend,
Outrageous. The Olympic Committee just said they don’t think Russia is violating the Olympic Charter – even though Russians are facing anti-gay arrests, violent attacks, and exclusion.
Olympic host nations are supposed to obey seven principles and Principle 6 says discrimination of any kind is not allowed. But, the Olympic Committee is now acting like lesbian, gay, bi and trans people just don’t count.
Equality doesn’t work like that, so their position needs to be clear. Can you take two minutes to send a quick email to the new Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach and ask him if lesbian, gay, bi and trans people are protected by Principle 6?
Principle 6 says: “Any form of discrimination with regard to a country or a person on grounds of race, religion, politics, gender or otherwise is incompatible with belonging to the Olympic Movement.”
If the Olympic Committee gives Russia a pass on discrimination against millions of its own people, it will shield President Putin from the mounting global pressure to repeal the damaging law. It also makes it easy for him to ignore the brutal wave of anti-gay violence in Russia. That’s why we need them on the record right now.
The Olympic Committee is accountable to us – the spectators, athletes, and customers of their billion-dollar sponsors. If thousands of us email new Olympic president Thomas Bach now, we can put him on notice. If he won’t answer our question, millions of us could even take the fight to the corporate sponsors, forcing them to step in.
Together, we gathered in 33 cities across the world to put Russia’s anti-gay crackdown in major global newspapers – and led to the British Prime Minister raising the issue personally with Russian President Putin at one of the most important meetings of world leaders this year.
Right now, President Putin is being protected by the Olympic Committee because they seem to think lesbian, gay, bi and trans people don’t count – can you join in and demand answers from them now? https://www.allout.org/email-olympics-pres
Thanks for going All Out.
Andre, Hayley, Jeremy, Marie, Sabelo, Sara, Simón, Wesley and the rest of the All Out team.
P.S. Cameroon update: Over 65,000 All Out members have signed a petition asking the President of Cameroon to accept new United Nations recommendations to protect all people in his country, no matter who they are or who they love. We’re sending him every signature telling him stop the murder, arrest and severe discrimination faced by lesbian, gay, bi and trans people – but it’s not too late to join in today. Sign now: https://www.allout.org/cameroon-attacks
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We don’t take money from governments or corporations, so the only people we have to listen to are our members. Our tiny team stretches every contribution to make them count.
Carlos Vigil, 17, from New Mexico, posted the note on Saturday (13 July) describing himself as a ‘loser, a freak and a fag’.
When his father heard about the message posted on Twitter, he rushed home but was too late.
Family members said Carlos had been suffering from bullying since the third grade and they had transferred him from one local high school to another due to constantly being targeted.
Carlos’ mother, Jacqueline Vigil, said her son was involved in Youth and Government and tried to push for stronger anti-bullying laws.
‘My son, he didn’t deserve this…’ she told KRQE-TV. ‘He is not here because of bullying. It drove him over the edge.
Yesterday (15 July), dozens of classmates showed up at the hospital where Carlos was on life support.
Alyssa Cisneros, a former classmate at Valley High School, said: ‘Even though now Carlos is gone, we need to focus on what he left trying to say, that bullying is a problem.’
Earlier this year, Vigil had travelled to North Carolina to lobby for an anti-bullying bill.
Vigil’s organs will be donated, his wish in life saying he wanted to continue to help other people.
The full suicide note is posted below:
‘I’m sorry to those who I offended over the years. I’m blind to see that I, as a human being, suck. I’m an individual who is doing an injustice to the world and it’s time for me to leave.
‘Please don’t ever feel sorry for me, or cry – because I had an opportunity at life and that opportunity is over. I’m sorry that I wasn’t able to love someone or have someone love me.
‘I guess it’s best though, because now I leave no pain onto anyone.
‘The kids in school are right, I am a loser, a freak, and a fag and in no way is that acceptable for people to deal with. I’m sorry for not being a person that would make someone proud.
LOS ANGELES — He’s a musician without a record label, a card holder without any remaining credit. And the gig that supplies what he calls “food money” may now be in jeopardy.
But after events of the last week, Steve Grand said “I would die a happy man today,” and not for the reasons he’s suddenly getting attention.
Grand’s first music video, for his country-tinged rock ballad “All-American Boy,” was posted on YouTube last Tuesday. By last night, it had exploded, attracting more than 400,000 total views — nothing for top-charting videos from big-name recording artists, but an impressive figure for one from a complete unknown whose only promotion has been internet buzz.
The video cost just $7,000, a fraction of the major-names’ going rate, but it was a fortune to Grand, who came up with the entire budget himself by maxing out his only plastic to tell the video’s story.
“All-American Boy” portrays a young gay man who misreads signals from an apparently straight “all-American” male friend. On a day hanging out with the gang, the two guys and a girl take off in a car. She drives, as the guys sit together in the back, with the straight man, at one point, falling asleep on the gay man’s shoulder. Feeling like a third wheel, the girl eventually, angrily drives off, leaving the two men to pal around in the woods, where they end up stripping down and going skinny-dipping — even sharing a quick kiss. Ultimately for the straight guy, it was just all in good fun. But for the gay man, it was something much more significant, and he is left dazed, confused and longing.
The story was inspired by one of Grand’s own.
“I was a 13-year-old boy (at camp),” noted the 23-year-old singer-songwriter, speaking by phone from his hometown Chicago. “One of my counselors was warm and strong and he took an interest in me — not sexually, but as a friend, and it really moved me. I remember leaving with a horrible ache in my heart.”
While “All-American Boy” is told from the gay man’s perspective, Grand said he knew its tale of unrequited love would resonate across lines of sexuality. He’s received hundreds of postings on YouTube, Twitter and Facebook from viewers, both straight and gay, saying they understand such rejection and heartache.
“I’m not a crier,” noted Grand. “But since this all began, since people have been reaching out, I’ve been beyond moved, because so many people have felt what I felt, been through what I’ve been through.”
Grand said that upon discovering he was gay in eighth grade, he told friends, which quickly got back to his parents. They insisted he go to so-called “straight therapy,” which he endured for five years. But it didn’t work.
He logged his full freshman year at Belmont University in Nashville, but, due to the costs, returned to Chicago. His recent employment has run the gamut from modeling to supplying music for Catholic church events, the latter being what he called the “food-money” gig.
Grand said he has no idea where the YouTube success may take him, though he does admit he’s “not much of a singer” and more of a songwriter. “Of course, I want to continue to grow as a man and grow as an artist,” he commented.
For now, Grand appears happy just being the moment, immersed in all those postings. “Just the hundreds of people who have said, `Your story is my story. Thank you for this,’ is enough for me.”
“Like I said, I would die a happy man today,” Grand continued. “And it’s the first time in my entire life I can say that.”
In Sunderland, UK, two women were in a chip shop when they were attacked by a group of youths shouting homophobic slurs
Two gay women were badly beaten by a gang of around 20 teens in Sunderland last week.
On Friday (21 June), the group approached one of the women in a chip shop in the north-east English city, and a number of the youths kicked and punched her while shouting homophobic abuse.
As the woman’s girlfriend came to her aid, she was also attacked by the gang of young thugs.
The couple were left badly bruised and shaken by the attack.
Police are now appealing for information about the attack, which happened between 9pm and 9.14pm on Burdon Lane.
Speaking to The Sunderland Echo, Superintendent Jim Napier said: ‘This must have been a frightening incident for these two victims and I would urge anyone who witnessed it or who has any information about it to contact police.
‘Hate crime of any nature is not acceptable. Those who target or commit crimes against people because of their faith, race or sexual orientation, sexual identity or disability will not be tolerated in our communities.
‘We take any allegations of hate crimes very seriously and are working to bring the offenders to justice.’
Anyone with information on this attack is asked to contact Crimestoppers on +44 (0)800 555 111.
Prominent gay blogger Mike Rogers, who became widely known for revealing the homosexuality of closeted gay politicians in the early 2000s, was reported over the weekend by U.S. News and World Report to be readying a story that will out a U.S. congressman, one of three allegedly closeted anti-gay politicians Rogers supposedly has information about. But Rogers says the report is not fully accurate: The outing is not imminent but rather in the information-gathering stages, with “a process in place” to get information on the congressman’s alleged sexual activity.
“All I told the gentleman from U.S. News and World Report is that I have somebody who is planning on sleeping with a U.S. congressman and videotaping it secretly and giving the videotape to me because the congressman is anti-gay, and the next thing I know, the media is all over it,” he explained in an interview on my SiriusXM radio program at Netroots Nation, the annual convention of progressive bloggers, which took place in San Jose over the weekend. “I never said the outing was imminent.” (Scroll down to the interview below)
“Basically, there is a process in place that is moving forward,” Rogers continued, “that will more likely than not provide us with information on a closeted congressman who has a zero percent voting record [on gay issues].”
Rogers said that he didn’t go to the media but rather was asked about it by a reporter at U.S. News who was wondering why he’d not outed any politicians in several years.
“They did get it wrong,” he said. “I may be outing a congressman at any time, any day, any place, any year. They’re all scrambling around the hill now, ‘Who is it?” I’m sure that the congressman is wondering, ‘Is it me?’ It’s interesting to see that it’s about three years since I put out a post about closeting people. and I mention something in passing and it becomes a media storm.”
George Zimmerman smiles as his defense counsel questions potential jurors for his trial Thursday. (Gary W. Green/Orlando Sentinel/MCT via Getty Images)
More than a year after the shooting of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin sparked controversy across the country, prosecution and defense lawyers will finally get to outline their cases to a Florida jury.
Opening statements are set for Monday morning in George Zimmerman’s second-degree murder trial. The proceedings start following a marathon nine days of jury selection to find objective candidates who had not already formed an opinion about Zimmerman’s guilt or innocence.
Zimmerman, 29, shot and killed Martin as the unarmed teen was walking back to the home of his father’s fiancee from a Sanford, Fla., convenience store with a bag of candy on the night of Feb. 26, 2012.
Zimmerman has pleaded not guilty in Martin’s slaying.
Jury selection in Zimmerman’s trial concluded Thursday, with a panel of six female jurors chosen to decide his fate. The jurors and four alternates were sequestered at an unknown location over the weekend in order to eliminate the possibility of their exposure to outside influences.
Monday’s opening statements in Seminole County Circuit Court will preview the essence of the trial.
Defense attorneys Mark O’Mara and Don West are representing Zimmerman, and the lead prosecutor for the state of Florida is Bernie de la Rionda.
Zimmerman’s attorneys claim he acted in self-defense when he was attacked by Martin while on a neighborhood watch patrol. The prosecution will likely suggest Zimmerman, who is Hispanic-American, profiled and murdered Martin.
The defense has not yet decided if Zimmerman will take the stand. That decision will likely be made after the prosecution presents its case.
The long-awaited proceedings have piqued the interest of the nation and fed a national debate about racism, self-defense laws and gun control.
The trial, before Circuit Judge Debra Nelson in Seminole County, is expected to last more than a month. During that time, both sides will try to convince the jury of their version of the events of Feb. 26, 2012.
If convicted, Zimmerman could face a possible sentence of life in prison.
Opening statements are scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. EST.
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