segunda-feira, 30 de janeiro de 2012

'Bisexuality is a fact': Cynthia Nixon seeks to clarify her comments after causing outrage by saying she is 'gay by choice'


in: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2094099/Cynthia-Nixon-gay-choice-Actress-seeks-clarify-comments-causing-outrage.html



Image change: Shaven-headed Cynthia is currently appearing in the play wit on Broadway

Image change: Shaven-headed Cynthia is currently appearing in the play wit on Broadway





She recently caused controversy among the gay community when she told The New York Times that homosexuality was a personal choice for her.


But now, Cynthia Nixon has sought to clarify her comments further in a statement to The Advocate, telling them that bisexuality is not a choice, but her decision to be in a homosexual relationship is.


The Sex and the City actress has been in a relationship with education activist Christine Marinoni since 2004, and the couple had a baby son together last year.


She said today: 'My recent comments in The New York Times were about me and my personal story of being gay.


'I believe we all have different ways we came to the gay community and we can't and shouldn't be pigeon-holed into one cultural narrative which can be uninclusive and disempowering,' she said.


'However, to the extent that anyone wishes to interpret my words in a strictly legal context I would like to clarify: While I don't often use the word, the technically precise term for my orientation is bisexual.


'I believe bisexuality is not a choice, it is a fact. What I have "chosen" is to be in a gay relationship.'


Cynthia's interview with the newspaper caused controversy last month when she told the newspaper: 'I gave a speech recently, an empowerment speech to a gay audience, and it included the line "I’ve been straight and I’ve been gay, and gay is better."'


'And they tried to get me to change it, because they said it implies that homosexuality can be a choice. And for me, it is a choice.'


Controversial: Cynthia Nixon, pictured with her partner Christine Marinoni, admits she is bisexual

Controversial: Cynthia Nixon, pictured with her partner Christine Marinoni, says she is bisexual



Members of the LGBT community hit back following Cynthia's comments, as most believe sexual orientation is inherited at birth and is not a choice.


However, today she said: 'I understand that for many people it's not, but for me it's a choice, and you don't get to define my gayness for me.


'A certain section of our community is very concerned that it not be seen as a choice, because if it's a choice, then we could opt out.'


Cynthia continued to say in her statement: 'As I said in the Times and will say again here, I do, however, believe that most members of our community - as well as the majority of heterosexuals - cannot and do not choose the gender of the persons with whom they seek to have intimate relationships because, unlike me, they are only attracted to one sex.'




Image change: Shaven-headed Cynthia is currently appearing in the play wit on Broadway

Image change: Shaven-headed Cynthia is currently appearing in the play Wit on Broadway



She added: 'Our community is not a monolith, thank goodness, any more than America itself is. I look forward to and will continue to work toward the day when America recognises all of us as full and equal citizens.'


The 45-year-old actress recently told The Daily Beast: 'In terms of sexual orientation, I don't really feel I've changed...I'm just a woman in love with another woman.'

When The Daily Beast writer suggested she was 'fudging' the issue, Cynthia said: 'It's so not fudging. It's so not.


'I think for gay people who feel 100 percent gay, it doesn't make any sense. And for straight people who feel 100 percent straight, it doesn't make any sense.



Happy family: Cynthia and Christine had their first child Max together last year

Happy family: Cynthia and Christine had their first child Max together last year



'I don't pull out the "bisexual" word because nobody likes the bisexuals. Everybody likes to dump on the bisexuals.We get no respect.'


When asked if she identifies herself as being bisexual, the Sex and the City actress said: 'I just don't like to pull out that word.


'But I do completely feel that when I was in relationships with men, I was in love and in lust with those men.


'And then I met Christine and I fell in love and lust with her. I am completely the same person and I was not walking around in some kind of fog. I just responded to the people in front of me the way I truly felt.'



Promotional blitz: Cynthia unveiled her bald head on Live with Kelly today after shaving off her locks for Broadway show Wit

Sex and the City: Cynthia with her cast mates from the hit TV show, Kim Cattrall, Sarah Jessica Parker and Kristin Davis







Old flame: Cynthia with her previous partner Danny Mozes

Old flame: Cynthia with her previous partner Danny Mozes

Cynthia, who has two children with her former boyfriend of 15 years Danny Mozes also said in her New York Times interview that she finds it 'offensive' that people assume she has 'always been gay.


Cynthia said she hasn't always been gay and finds it 'offensive' that people say she has.


She continued: 'Why can't it be a choice? Why is that any less legitimate? It seems we're just ceding this point to bigots who are demanding it, and I don't think that they should define the terms of the debate.'


'I also feel like people think I was walking around in a cloud and didn't realise I was gay, which I find really offensive. I find it offensive to me, but I also find it offensive to all the men I've been out with.'


Cynthia went public with her romance with redhead Christine, 44, just a year after her relationship college sweetheart Danny ended in 2003.


Christine gave birth to the couple’s first child together last February, a baby boy they gave the colourful moniker Max Ellington Nixon-Marinoni.


Influential gay blogger and activist John Aravosis was one of those displeased by her choice of words.


Getting on swimmingly: Christine seems to get on well with Cynthia's other children

Getting on swimmingly: Christine seems to get on well with Cynthia's other children




He said: 'It's not a "choice", unless you consider my opting to date a guy with brown hair versus a guy with blonde hair a "choice".


'It's only a choice among flavours I already like.'


And he claimed she was just giving people peddling anti-gay views extra ammunition.

He said: 'Every religious right hate monger is now going to quote this woman every single time they want to deny us our civil rights.'


Gay blogger, Perez Hilton weighed in too, saying: 'We totally hear her out and true, we cannot define her "gayness", but it wasn’t a choice for us.


'We were BORN gay. And millions of gay people around the world feel the same way.'


The actress is currently sporting a shaved head for her role in new Broadway play Wit in which she plays a professor stricken with ovarian cancer.



domingo, 29 de janeiro de 2012

Ban Ki-moon pede respeito pelos direitos dos homossexuais




O secretário-geral das Nações Unidas, Ban Ki-moon, apelou, este domingo, aos líderes africanos reunidos na abertura da cimeira da União Africana, em Addis Abeba, para que respeitem os direitos dos homossexuais.

foto ARQUIVO JN
Ban Ki-moon pede respeito pelos direitos dos homossexuais
Secretário-geral das Nações Unidas, Ban Ki-moon

"Uma forma de discriminação ignorada ou mesmo sancionada por muitos Estados há demasiado tempo tem sido a discriminação baseada na orientação sexual ou na identidade de género", disse Ban Ki-moon na capital da Etiópia.

O secretário-geral da ONU lamentou que os governos tratem as pessoas como cidadãos de segunda classe e como criminosos.

"Enfrentar as discriminações é um desafio, mas não devemos abandonar as ideias da declaração universal" dos direitos humanos, acrescentou Ban Ki-moon, para quem "o futuro de África depende também do investimento nos direitos cívicos, políticos, económicos sociais e culturais".

A homossexualidade é ilegal em quase todos os países africanos, com excepções como a África do Sul, e a discriminação contra os homossexuais é comum.

No Uganda, o parlamento quer há meses endurecer a legislação contra a homossexualidade - já punível com longas penas de prisão - admitindo mesmo a pena de morte em casos de reincidência.

No início de Dezembro, o presidente dos EUA, Barack Obama, apelou a todos os organismos no estrangeiro que assegurem que a diplomacia americana e a ajuda financeira ao desenvolvimento promovem a luta contra a homofobia.

Já no final de Outubro, o primeiro-ministro britânico, David Cameron, ameaçara excluir dos programas de ajuda do Reino Unido os países que não reconheçam os direitos dos homossexuais.

A 18.ª cimeira da União Africana começou, este domingo, em Addis Abeba e deverá ser dominada por uma batalha pelo poder interno.

O tema da reunião é o comércio intra-africano, que não representa mais do que 10% das trocas do continente.

Mas o assunto dominante deverá ser a eleição do novo presidente do seu órgão executivo, tendo os Estados-membros de escolher entre o actual líder, o gabonês Jean Ping, e a sul-africana Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, ex-ministra dos negócios estrangeiros e ex-mulher do Presidente Jacob Zuma.

sexta-feira, 27 de janeiro de 2012

Ugandan LGBT activists honour David Kato on anniversary of his death


in: http://news.pinkpaper.com/NewsStory/6810/27/01/2012/ugandan-lgbt-activists-honour-david-kato-on-anniversary-of-his-death.aspx


Equality activists gathered in Uganda yesterday to mark the first anniversary of David Kato's death.

As reported by PinkPaper.com, Kato was murdered in January 2011 shortly after winning a lawsuit against Uganda's Rolling Stone newspaper which published his name and photograph, calling for him to be executed for being gay.

"We are here to celebrate and thank God for our beloved friend and human rights activist David Kato," Yahoo! news report Christopher Senyonjo telling a crowd of around 100 activists and family members.

Last November, a 22 year-old man was sentenced to thirty years in jail for the brutal killing of the Ugandan LGBT activist.

Sidney Nsubuga Enoch was handed the sentence by the Uganda High Court in Mukono town.

Nalongo Kisule, Kato's mother, was also reported to be there.

Yahoo! News report her as saying: "It is not easy when a loved one dies but thanks to all the friends inside and outside Uganda who worked with David ... when I get down they lift me up and help me."


quarta-feira, 25 de janeiro de 2012

In Tennessee another gay teen takes his own life, family claims it was directly related to bullying


in:http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/23/phillip-parker-gay-tennessee-teen-suicide_n_1223688.html?ncid=edlinkusaolp00000003



A Tennessee teen's parents claim that constant anti-gay bullying led their son to take his own life.

As WSMV is reporting, parents and grandparents found 14-year-old Phillip Parker's body last Friday, along with a handwritten note in his trash can reading, "Please help me mom." Family members say they had previously reported concerns about their son's treatment to Gordonsville High School but to no avail.

"I should have knew something was wrong, but he seemed happy," Philip's mother Gena Parker told News Channel 5. "After he did what he did, we found out a lot that we didn't know and there is a lot of bullying that goes on at the school."

Added grandfather Paul Harris: "Because he was gay, he got mistreated physically, mentally by several people out there at the school, and I am very resentful as a result of it. After he did what he did, we found out a lot that we didn't know and there is a lot of bullying that goes on at the school."

Although numerous sources, including Towleroad, Queerty and Metro Weekly, are also reporting the story, an official cause of death does not appear to have been revealed.

The Tennessee Equality Project's Upper Cumberland Committee will hold a candlelight vigil in Cookeville on Thursday, honoring Parker as well as other bullying victims, including Jacob Rogers,another teen who committed suicide last month.

Sadly, Parker's case follows a spate of LGBT-related controversy in the state of Tennessee. In addition to Rogers, the so-called "Don't Say Gay" bill, which would effectively prevent public elementary and middle schools from teaching or distributing material on human sexuality that deals with homosexuality in any way, gained traction once again, while the state's senate Republicanshave also proposed a change to the state's anti-bullying law to exempt condemnations of homosexuality based on religion.

Need help? Visit The Trevor Project's website or call them at 1-866-488-7386. In the U.S. you can also call 1-800-273-8255 for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline or visit stopbullying.gov.

You can also visit Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network's (GLSEN) website for more resources

terça-feira, 24 de janeiro de 2012

Público LGBT ganha pavilhão hype no Jogos Olímpicos de Londres


in:
http://www.afroreggae.org/esporte/54991




2012 é o ano dos Jogos Olímpicos de Londres, que acontecem entre os dias 27 de julho e 12 de agosto, seguidos pelos Jogos Paraolímpicos entre 29 de agosto e 9 de setembro. A novidade é que estas Olimpíadas ganharão um Pavilhão inteiro voltado ao público LGBT. É o “Pride House London” (Casa do Orgulho de Londres). O espaço oferecerá diversas atividades artísticas e esportivas para gays, lésbicas, bissexuais e transgêneros. Além disso, telões transmitirão todas as competições dos Jogos em tempo real. Curta o vídeo promocional “Além do Arco-Íris”.

Fonte: Uol – Canal gay: Londres terá pavilhão LGBT durante os Jogos Olímpicos



Veja também:

Portal Oficial do Jogos Olímpicos Londres 2012



Seguidores

Arquivo do blogue