Jay-Z Voices His Support For Gay Marriage
May 15, 2012
Following President Obama’s historic recent endorsement of same-sex marriage; Jay-Z has come out in support of the President and marriage equality.
In a recent interview, Jay-Z stated that he believed the ban of same-sex marriage was, “something that was still holding the country back,” while comparing the opposition of gay marriage to racial discrimination:
“What people do in their own homes is their business and you can choose to love whoever you love. That’s their business. It’s no different than discriminating against blacks. It’s discrimination plain and simple.”
When asked if he thought Obama’s pro gay-marriage stance might lose the President votes in the coming election, Jay-Z said: “I think it’s the right thing to do… it’s not about votes. It’s about people. It’s the right thing to do as a human being.”
President Obama Announces Support For Gay Marriage
May 9, 2012
President Barack Obama has finally announced his full support for same-sex marriage. In an interview with Robin Roberts of ABC News earlier this afternoon, Obama said:
“I have to tell you that over the course of several years as I have talked to friends and family and neighbors when I think about members of my own staff who are in incredibly committed monogamous relationships, same-sex relationships, who are raising kids together, when I think about those soldiers or airmen or marines or sailors who are out there fighting on my behalf and yet feel constrained, even now that Don’t Ask Don’t Tell is gone, because they are not able to commit themselves in a marriage, at a certain point I’ve just concluded that for me personally it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think same sex couples should be able to get married.”
“It’s interesting, some of this is also generational,” the President continued. “You know when I go to college campuses, sometimes I talk to college Republicans who think that I have terrible policies on the economy, on foreign policy, but are very clear that when it comes to same sex equality or, you know, sexual orientation that they believe in equality. They are much more comfortable with it. You know, Malia and Sasha, they have friends whose parents are same-sex couples. There have been times where Michelle and I have been sitting around the dinner table and we’re talking about their friends and their parents and Malia and Sasha, it wouldn’t dawn on them that somehow their friends’ parents would be treated differently. It doesn’t make sense to them and frankly, that’s the kind of thing that prompts a change in perspective.”
Obama is the first President to publicly take this position.
Against Me!’s Tom Gabel Comes Out as Transgender
May 9, 2012
In a revealing new interview with Rolling Stone magazine, the lead singer of punk band Against Me! has decided to publicly come out as transgender, and says that she plans to start the transitioning process soon. 31-year old Tom Gabel, who is married with a 2-year-old child, talks candidly in the interview about her struggle with gender dysphoria, and her fears about coming out to her wife.
“For me, the most terrifying thing about this was how she would accept the news,” Gabel said. “But she’s been super-amazing and understanding. I’m going to have embarrassing moments, and that won’t be fun.” The singer added, “But that’s part of what talking to you is about – is hoping people will understand, and hoping they’ll be fairly kind.”
Gabel will soon go by the name Laura Jane Grace, a name that she mentioned in a song called “The Ocean” from their 2007 debut album.
“And if I could have chosen, I would have been born a woman/My mother once told me she would have named me Laura/I’d grow up to be strong and beautiful like her/One day, I’d find an honest man to make my husband.”
Against Me! started recording its latest album, Transgender Dysphoria Blues, earlier this year and are scheduled to go on tour with The Cult at the end of this month.
GLAAD President Herndon Graddick released a statement saying “Tom’s decision to live life authentically is a not only a personal step forward, but one that will advance the national discussion about treating transgender people with fairness. As more and more Americans get to know people who are transgender, they’re coming to embrace and celebrate them.”
We applaud Laura for her bravery and strength, and hope that her courage paves the way for further acceptance and love towards the trans community.
FTM Comedian Ian Harvie Speaks Out About Gender Identity and Language
April 28, 2012
In a recent interview with the Cliks’ Lucas Silveira, FTM comedian (and a Revel and Riot role model) Ian Harvie discussed labels and his trans identity. “I spent so long as a kid being a masculine kid,” Harvie said, “and then identifying as a dyke and then coming out as trans and identifying as a man and you know, stud and daddy and top and there’s lot of things, and I just collect them all and put them all sort of together and I don’t feel like I have to give up any one of them. And I may not appear as a dyke to the world, but I definitely feel that that is a huge part of my history, and I’m not giving up my history.”
Harvie explained that being socialized as a girl taught him how to “act proper” and to keep himself safe in threatening situations. While he relates to the label FTM, he doesn’t identify as male. Harvey added that he believes all of us are “a little bit trans,” and no one is completely settled in their gender identity.
In his comedy show, Harvie jokes that he doesn’t really feel that he was born in the wrong body, but settles on this trans narrative so that people who “aren’t bright” can understand. He modified his body not so he could live in the ‘correct’ shell, but so he could pee his name in the snow.
Harvie maintains his female status on his identity cards, as he considers female to be a biological category and a legal term that has nothing to do with his gender identity. To his critics in the trans community, Harvey insists that he is the only one who can define his gender and that the subject isn’t up for public discussion.
Harvey acknowledged that the word ‘tranny’ can be “hurtful to some people’s ears,” and has historically been used mainly against trans women. But he supports its reclamation because he believes that using it positively takes its power away from those who would use it as an insult.
Harvie recently performed at The Flying Beaver Pubaret in Toronto, at a benefit for the Church Street Community Center’s Trans Youth Toronto program.
Link to the interview with Ian Harvie.
Historical Trans Rights Decision Made in Ontario
April 17, 2012
The Ontario Human Rights Tribunal, whose mandate is to resolve claims of discrimination and harassment brought under the Ontario Human
Rights Code, has struck down a rule which required trans people to undergo “transexual surgery” in order to change the sex category on their birth certificate.
The tribunal found that the requirement of “transsexual surgery” before allowing a person to change the sex designation on their birth certificate – was discriminatory. The provincial government has now been ordered to remove this stipulation, and the province of Ontario has 180 days to revise the current criteria for sex designation change.
The history-making ruling comes after a trans woman complained she was discriminated against because she could not change any of her legal documents unless she had surgery.
Lawyers for the woman are hopeful that the precedent-setting decision could force legislation changes in the rest of Canada.
Miss Universe Pageant To Allow Transgender Contestants
April 11, 2012
Jenna Talackova
Following last month’s controversy about Jenna Talackova, a transwoman who had been barred from competing in the Miss Universe Canada pageant because of a rule that required contestants to be “naturally born” women, the Miss Universe beauty pageant just announced that it will allow transgender women to compete starting next year.
The situation with Talackova was met with backlash from many LGBT rights organizations, including the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation. In a joint statement, GLAAD and the Miss Universe Organization, which is owned by Donald Trump, said that they are “pleased to announce that after more than two weeks of discussions, the Miss Universe Organization is close to finalizing an official policy change that will allow women who are transgender to participate in its beauty competitions.”
“We want to give credit where credit is due, and the decision to include transgender women in our beauty competitions is a result of our ongoing discussions with GLAAD,” said Paula Shugart, president of the Miss Universe Organization. “We have a long history of supporting equality for all women, and this was something we took very seriously.”
Final say still needs to come from Donald Trump, who runs the Miss Universe Organization, and NBC.
Study: Homophobia is Often a Sign of Latent Homosexuality
April 9, 2012
Although it may seem obvious to many, it’s promising to see that research is being done on this timely subject. Conducted by a team from the University of Rochester, the University of Essex, England, and the University of California in Santa Barbara, the findings from this study (Parental Autonomy Support and Discrepancies Between Implicit and Explicit Sexual Identities: Dynamics of Self-acceptance and Defense) will be published the April issue of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.
The intention of the study was to examine the role that both parenting and sexual orientation play in the formation of intense and visceral fear and hatred of gay people, including self-reported homophobic attitudes, discriminatory bias, implicit hostility towards gays, and endorsement of anti-gay policies.
The findings? Homophobia is more prevalent in people who have an unacknowledged attraction to the same sex and who grew up with authoritarian parents who openly criticized LGBT people and culture. “Individuals who identify as straight but in psychological tests show a strong attraction to the same sex may be threatened by gays and lesbians because homosexuals remind them of similar tendencies within themselves,” said Dr. Netta Weinstein, from the University of Essex and the study’s lead author.
“In many cases these are people who are at war with themselves and they are turning this internal conflict outward,” said co-author Dr. Richard Ryan, the professor of psychology at the University of Rochester.
The study’s findings bring new empirical evidence to the table that supports the psychoanalytic theory that the fear, anxiety, and aversion that many seemingly heterosexual people hold toward gays and lesbians actually stems from their own repressed same-sex attractions and desires.
Passion Politics: Adrienne Rich (May 16, 1929 – March 27, 2012)
April 4, 2012
Adrienne Rich
The poet and theorist Adrienne Rich leaves an incomparable legacy of influence and achievement. She has been eloquent and provocative on the politics of gender, sexuality, race, language and power. There is scarcely an anthology of feminist writing that does not include her work or specifically engage her ideas, a critical studies course that does not read her essays, or a poetry collection that does not contain her work. In nineteen volumes of poetry, three collections of essays, the editing of influential journals, and a lifetime of activism and visibility, the work of Adrienne Rich has persistently resonated at the heart of contemporary feminism and its resistance to racism and anti-semitism, militarism and homophobia.
From her first collection of poetry A Change of World selected by the senior poet W. H. Auden for the Yale Series of Younger Poets Award, to her last essay published in 2011, Rich wrote with relentless curiosity and intellect through the significant shifts in both her own life and the socio-political and cultural landscape. While married to Alfred Conrad, and the birth of her two sons, she wrote powerfully about the tropes of domesticity and motherhood. Her career continued to flourish, she won many awards and fellowships, some of which she very famously refused. Rich declined to accept the National Book Award for Poetry in 1974; instead the two other feminist poets nominated, Alice Walker and Audre Lorde, joined her to accept it on behalf of all women.
Adrienne Rich (right), with writer Audre Lorde (left) and Meridel Le Sueur (middle.)
In 1976, Rich began her lifelong partnership with Jamaican-born novelist and editor Michelle Cliff. Twenty-One Love Poems (1977) marked Rich’s first writing on lesbian desire and sexuality, themes which ran throughout her work afterwards. During this period, Rich also wrote a number of key essays, namely Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence (1980). All the while Rich was a tireless advocate and ally. She never shied away from the difficulties of many forms of anti-oppression work. As an anti-war activist, exploring the complexities of her Jewish identity or hosting Black Panther meetings in her apartment; Adrienne Rich’s life exemplified the intersectionality of politics.
She said of writing: “I think my work comes out of both an intense desire for connection and what it means to feel isolated. There’s always going to be a kind of tidal movement back and forth between the two. Art and literature have given so many people the relief of feeling connected — pulled us out of isolation. It has let us know that somebody else breathed and dreamed and had sex and loved and raged and knew loneliness the way we do.” Adrienne Rich taught us that the personal is the political, and her legacy demands that each of us speaks, from our most personal self, in our loudest voice. In her words, our “language must be used against fitting unexceptionally into the status quo.”
by Revel and Riot Contributor Myra Leibu
Remembering Bayard Rustin
March 16, 2012
Bayard Rustin, an openly gay man who was also one of the most important figures in the civil rights movement, was born 100 years ago. Rustin was the organizer of the 1963 March on Washington, which was one of the largest nonviolent protests ever held in the United States.
“When an individual is protesting society’s refusal to acknowledge his dignity as a human being, his very act of protest confers dignity on him.” Bayard Rustin
After the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and 1965 Voting Rights Act, Rustin advocated for the civil rights movement and the Democratic Party to work closely together to reach the base among the working class. He was the founder and became the Director of the A. Philip Randolph Institute, which coordinated the AFL-CIO’s work on civil rights and economic justice.
Throughout the 70s and 80s, Rustin worked as a human rights and election monitor for Freedom House. He also testified on behalf of New York State’s Gay Rights Bill. In 1986, he gave a speech “The New Ni**ers Are Gays,” in which he asserted,
“Today, blacks are no longer the litmus paper or the barometer of social change. Blacks are in every segment of society and there are laws that help to protect them from racial discrimination. The new “ni**ers” are gays. . . . It is in this sense that gay people are the new barometer for social change. . . . The question of social change should be framed with the most vulnerable group in mind: gay people.”
Bayard Rustin died on August 24, 1987.
Fun. Wears Revel & Riot – NYLON, Billboard, MTV
March 15, 2012
The band Fun. has been sporting and supporting Revel & Riot on their current massive North American tour! We are so honored that these amazing guys have not only worn our stuff in NYLON magazine and for MTV, and talked about us in their cover interview with Billboard Magazine, but they have been continuing to speak out about LGBTQ rights and equality in a truly meaningful way – the band sets an example for allies everywhere.
Our facebook contest to win tickets to see Fun. is still happening, so check out our facebook page for more details. All you have to do is let us know why you’re an excellent LGBTQ individual or ally to the LGBTQ community.
From the article in Billboard Magazine:
The Rights Stuff – by T. Cole Rachel
When fun. hits the road this spring in support of Some Nights, the band will have a unique partner onboard: Revel & Riot – an organization that promotes rights, awareness and equality for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) community, through new media, graphics, writing and products on the internet. Revel & Riot, approached by the band for a collaboration, will create special marriage equality t-shirts for fun. to sell on the road (benefiting the Gay-Straight Alliance Network).
“Besides being an incredible band, they are outspoken and dedicated allies to the LGBTQ community,” Revel & Riot posted on its website of the decision to partner with fun. “We couldn’t feel more lucky to have such wonderful allies and friends.”
Such partnerships with political and social activist groups are certainly nothing new, particularly when it comes to tour support. In recent years artists like Lady Gaga and Cyndi Lauper have used national tours as promotional platforms and fund-raising opportunities for LGBTQ organizations and HIV/AIDS charities (Gaga for her Born This Way Foundation and Lauper for the Human Rights Campaign). What makes the partnership between fun and Revel & Riot notable though, is that the band isn’t specificall gay, but rather a group of stright indie-rock guys who have embraced the LGBTQ audience.
In addition to the Revel & Riot partnership and fun.’s special “It’s all fun. and gay ’till someone loses their rights” T-shirts, guitarist Jack Antonoff is contributing “straight ally” columnist the the Huffington Post’s Gay Voices site. All proceeds from the shirt sales go to charity, but raising money isn’t the No. 1 goal – raising awareness is.
“[This is] one of these strange transitional times in history where doing nothing is an endorsement for inequality in itself,” Antonoff says. “As a band, we fully realize this and feel passionate about using whatever platform we have to not only bring more light to this issue, but to also make it clear that fun. shows are a place for all people. We want the LGBTQ community to know that although their government may treat them as second-class citizens, we do not. We will also do everything in our power to help end this monumental injustice in any way we can.”
More Revel News
International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia
May 17, 2012
This May 17th marks another year of recognizing the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia – which is also referred to as IDAHO. Organized by the Paris-based “IDAHO Committee,” founded and presided by French academic Louis-Georges Tin, this is a day in which we see events planned all over the world to increase support for LGBT rights.
May 17 was chosen as the day of the event because it is also the day that homosexuality was removed from the International Classification of Diseases of the World Health Organization in 1990.
The latest report that the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Intersex Association, ILGA, released on the International Day against Homophobia and Transphobia 2009, confirms that no less than 80 countries around the world still consider homosexuality illegal, and that in 7 of them, homosexual acts are punishable by death. In almost all countries, transphobic laws limit the freedom not to act as socially determined by one person’s sex at birth.
Visit http://www.dayagainsthomophobia.org/ to see how you can get involved. Not just on May 17th, but every day of the year.
Boxing Champion Manny Pacquiao Attacks Obama and Marriage Equality
May 16, 2012
Manny Pacquiao showing off his God-offending tattoos and trimmed beard.
According to the National Conservative Examiner, boxing champion Manny Pacquiao has called President Obama’s endorsement of same-sex marriage an attack on the will of God:
“God only expects man and woman to be together and to be legally married, only if they so are in love with each other,” Pacquiao continued, “It should not be of the same sex so as to adulterate the altar of matrimony, like in the days of Sodom and Gomorrah of Old.”
The article went on to quote the Bible’s Leviticus 20:13, “If a man lies with a man as one lies with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable. They must be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads.”
Here are a few other nuggets of now-ignored wisdom from the book of Leviticus.
Leviticus 19:27 reads “You shall not round off the side-growth of your heads nor harm the edges of your beard.”
Leviticus 11:8, which is discussing pigs, reads “You shall not eat of their flesh nor touch their carcasses; they are unclean to you.”
Leviticus 19:28 reads, “You shall not make any cuts in your body for the dead nor make any tattoo marks on yourselves”
Leviticus 19:19 reads, “You shall not wear a garment upon you of two kinds of material mixed together.” (Boxing shorts are made of nylon and satin)
And Timothy 2:9 rings in on bling and other adornments: “I want men and women to adorn themselves modestly and discreetly, not with braided hair and gold or pearls or costly garments.”
Maurice Sendak 1928-2012
May 7, 2012
Author Neil Gaiman said this about Maurice Sendak, the legendary children’s author who passed away this week at the age of 83. “He was unique, grumpy, brilliant, gay, wise, magical and made the world better by creating art in it.”
In a 2008 interview with the New York Times, Sendak was asked whether there was anything he had never been asked about. He paused then answered, “Well, that I’m gay. I just didn’t think it was anybody’s business.”
Maurice Sendak lived with his partner Eugene Glynn, a psychoanalyst, for 50 years before Dr. Glynn’s death in May 2007. He never told his parents, something he later regretted: “All I wanted was to be straight so my parents could be happy. They never, never, never knew.”
Sendak wrote and illustrated more than a dozen picture books, most famously “Where the Wild Things Are,” which was published by Harper & Row in 1963.
CeCe McDonald Pleads Guilty to Manslaughter
May 3, 2012
In the summer of 2011, CeCe McDonald encountered Dean Schmitz while she was walking with a group of friends past a bar. According to witnesses, Schmitz directed a number of transgender and racial slurs at CeCe and provoked a fight, which resulted in McDonald stabbing Schmitz.
CeCe’s supporters had fought for the charges against McDonald to be dropped. Last month, supporters delivered to Hennepin County Attorney Michael Freeman a petition for dropping the charges with over 15,000 signatures and many letters of support for McDonald from organizations and people from all over the world.
“Freeman’s aggressive prosecution of CeCe was a continuation of the racist, transphobic assault that led to her being charged and resulted in the tragic death of one of the assailants,” said Kris Gebhard of the CeCe McDonald Support Committee. “We’ve been proud to stand with CeCe as she fought this unjust prosecution and will continue to stand with her as she fights for justice as a trans woman of color within the prison system.”
This week, McDonald agreed to a deal that convicted her of manslaughter, rather than murder, in the fatal stabbing of Schmitz. Her supporters plan to be at the courtroom for her sentencing on June 4th and say that they will continue to rally support for McDonald and to demand justice for all trans people and people of color.
Colorlines has written a series of articles about the CeCe McDonald case, all of which present invaluable viewpoints on this case and the ramifications of the plea bargain.
For more information, visit http://supportcece.wordpress.com/
40 years after Title IX, Lesbian Coaches Still Struggle Against “The Glass Wall”
April 26, 2012
Forty years have passed since Title IX officially ended sex discrimination in federally funded American sports programs. But in a recent ESPN article, female coaches reflected on their declining representation in college sports and the appalling working conditions they face.
Women hold only 20 percent of the top coaching jobs in college sports, and while men often fill women’s team positions, women cannot apply to coach men’s teams. The fact that men can coach women but women are excluded from men’s sports is a phenomenon researchers call “The Glass Wall.”
While sexism is a persistent and growing problem in college sports, homophobia is an even more serious issue. Since the passing of Title IX, most female coaches have stayed closeted out of fear of losing their recruits, or even their jobs. Negative recruiting, in which coaches tell parents and prospective athletes that competing teams are coached by lesbians, discourages both coaches and athletes from being open about their sexuality.
As a result, there is only one out lesbian coach in Division I basketball: Sherri Murrell, of Portland State. In a 2011 interview, Murrell characterized the widespread fear that a gay coach will turn her players gay as “absurd,” and added that she faces “fear of losing the job, and fear of being ostracized by fans or boosters.” She said the experience of coming out was frightening, as she is still the only out lesbian in her field, but that she can now “live in comfort cause I’m being myself.”
The homophobic culture of women’s college sports also discourages many athletes from playing at the college level. Two former college stars, Sue Wicks and Abby Conklin, told ESPN in 2011 that homophobia continues to overshadow the world of college athletics. Former WNBA player Kate Starbird added that she feels she could never become a coach because she refuses to be closeted. “I didn’t want to live my life that way,” she explained.
Sherri Murrell interview
ESPN article
Day of Silence 2012
April 20, 2012
Today is the 17th annual Day of Silence. Started by the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network a.k.a the GLSEN – it is the annual day of action to protest the bullying and harassment of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender students and their allies. Students take a day-long vow of silence to symbolically represent the silencing of LGBT students and their supporters.
If you encounter any resistance to your participation in Day of Silence, go to http://dayofsilence.org/legalhelp/ to report it.
If you’re unsure about whether or not you’ll participate in Day of Silence, the GLSEN wants you to participate in whatever way feels right for you: not talking at all, remaining silent for a portion of a day, or using your voice to raise awareness of the bullying & harassment LGBT students face.
Protesting LGBT Inequality on National Tax Day
April 17, 2012
Gay rights groups all over the Unites States are using today, official tax filing day in the US, to draw attention to the inequality that gay and lesbian couples face when it comes to tax laws. The Defense of Marriage Act denies legally married gay couples the benefits of marriage, which essentially tells LGBT people that their relationships are not valid and that they must file taxes as a “single” person.
Over the last week, the HRC has been revealing the consequences of this, with facts like: “the average retired same-sex couple will be denied more than $8,000 a year in Social Security survivor benefits upon the death of the higher-earning spouse after retirement, same-sex partners and spouses of Armed Forces members are denied military benefits that straight couples receive, LGBT families pay $1,100 more on average in taxes a year for health care coverage, and COBRA health benefits are not available to LGBT Americans if a spouse is laid off, forcing them to pay for coverage elsewhere.”
Marriage Equality USA’s Thom Watson had this to say about same-sex couples being forced to lie on their federal tax returns, “It’s that crazy time of year again when the IRS requires you to affirm under penalty of law that you have been completely truthful on your taxforms, while simultaneously the Defense of Marriage Act actually mandates that some US couples lie on their tax forms. The federal government requires us to check off the ‘Single’ box on our 1040s, and to file as single, even when we’re not. Our government forces us to lie, and charges us more for the privilege.”
For more information, here is the Issue Brief on Federal Taxation released by the HRC.
Non-Citizens File Lawsuit Against DOMA
April 3, 2012
Lucy Truman and Kelli Ryan and four other binational couples filed suit against DOMA.
DOMA is under the microscope again, as lawyers from Immigration Equality – an advocacy group that supports the rights of LGBT and HIV-positive immigrants – filed a suit against the federal government on April 2 in New York district court. The group is representing five same-sex couples who are suing over the DOMA, the Defense of Marriage Act, which they say denies same-sex married couples the right to sponsor their non-citizen spouses for permanent residency in the United States. Here is a copy of the complaint.
The suit names as defendants Attorney General Eric Holder, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Director Alejandro Mayorkas and two other immigration officials. It alleges that the federal government is violating the equal protection clause of the U.S. Constitution by denying rights to one set of legally married couples while preserving the rights of another, based on gender and sexual orientation.
“The five plaintiff couples are like other married couples,” the suit states. “They met, fell in love, and chose to build a life together. They too committed themselves to one another in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health. They have honored and kept that commitment to one another. They have chosen to be together and to make the United States their family’s home. However, because they are married to someone of the same sex, they are denied the federal immigration benefits to which different-sex married couples are entitled. They are at constant risk of being forced apart or forced to leave the United States to stay together.”
Each of the couples are in marriages legally recognized by the states in which they reside. Lat year, the Obama administration formally announced that they found DOMA to be unconstitutionally discriminatory, and said officials would no longer defend it in the courts.
Mitt Romney Donated To Anti-Gay Marriage Organization
March 30, 2012
According to documents revealed recently, Mitt Romney gave $10,000 to the National Organization for Marriage – a group that has been exposed in recent days for plans to “drive a wedge” between African-Americans and the LGBTQ community.
The money was given at the time that the National Organization for Marriage was working to pass Proposition 8 banning same-sex marriage in California.
The Human Rights Campaign say that Romney gave the money through his lesser known Alabama PAC in an attempt to avoid drawing national attention to the donation and said it could violate California disclosure requirements. The group said it first learned of the gift from confidential NOM tax records provided by an insider, and those documents listed the money as coming from a PAC address in Massachusetts.
“Mitt Romney’s funding of a hate-filled campaign designed to drive a wedge between Americans is beyond despicable,” said Joe Solmonese, president of Human Rights Campaign. “Not only has Romney signed NOM’s radical marriage pledge, now we know he’s one of the donors that NOM has been so desperate to keep secret all these years.”
Madonna Vows To Defend Russian LGBT Community at St. Petersburg Concert
March 22, 2012
2012 is a challenging time to be an LGBT person in Russia. St. Petersburg officials have passed a bill which prohibits the promotion of same-sex relationships, and they’ve done it without any discussion or feedback from the private or public sectors.
The law is almost Draconian in its prohibitiveness; people can be fined up to $16,000 and organisations up to $16,000 for the “promotion” of homosexuality among minors, completely restricting any discussion about lesbian, bisexual and transgender issues. As well, the law also effectively bans any and all gay pride events.
Pop star Madonna, who has been an advocate and icon for the gay community for three decades, has a concert in St. Petersburg on her upcoming tour, and has decided to use the platform to speak out against the law.
“I will come to St. Petersburg to speak up for the gay community, to support the gay community and to give strength and inspiration to anyone who is or feels oppressed,” she wrote on her Facebook page. “I don’t run away from adversity. I will speak during my show about this ridiculous atrocity.”
Madonna will be in St. Petersburg on August 9, 2012.
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