JOIN THE MOVEMENT

NOH8 Campaign is a photographic silent protest created by celebrity photographer Adam Bouska and partner Jeff Parshley in direct response to the passage of Proposition 8.

MUSIC IS LIFE

Support your fellow lgbt artist in their music endevours.

MIND OVER MATTER

Despite your daily opposition, get involved, get educated, get empowered.

LET'S CELEBRATE

The state of NY recently passed the marriage bill, giving the lgbt community the right to marry in yet another state

HIV/AIDS CAMPAIGN

The goal behind these ads goes beyond promoting safe sex and getting tested, it touches on our compassionate side to not discriminate and realize this is not an individual's fight, but a social battle.

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Gay Presbyterian Pastor: "It's a New Day"




Scott Anderson (CNN Screengrab) x390 | Advocate.com
Rev. Scott Anderson, who recently became the first openly gay Presbyterian pastor after the denomination formally changed its policy in July, told CNN that “it’s a new day” for gay and lesbian clergy. 

Anderson, who had lift the ministry after he was outed by congregants in 1990, was ordained last weekend in Madison, Wisc. 

"I had been a Presbyterian pastor for eight years, and when I left, I never thought this day would come in my lifetime. God has brought a variety of surprises to my life, and this certainly is the biggest one," Rev. Scott Anderson said.

Watch the video below.

VIDEO:Taz Be Without You Music



VIDEO: COED "Can You Ride Me"



VIDEO: Lesbian Rapper Drops Freestyle Called "Da Bad Bitch Hand"



Cher Cries As Chaz Earns Highest Score Yet!!

CherDWTS (ABC)X390



Chaz Bono performed a rousing paso doble with dance partner Lacey Schwimmer to the theme from Rocky, earning his highest score yet of 21 as his mother Cher stood applauding wildly with tears in her eyes.


It was movie theme night on ABC's competition seriesDancing With The Starsand Bono, who is battling a knee injury, calls the 1976 Oscar-winning best picture one of the first films he saw about an underdog and says he wanted to be just like the title character. Bono and Schwimmer starred in a boxing montage that featured a cameo by fitness guru Richard Simmons
.“In the true spirit of Rocky, no matter how many knocks you take, you keep coming back, you keep fighting, you keep getting stronger,” judge Bruno Tonioli said, while Len Goodman said Bono turned in his best performance of the competition. Carrie Ann Inaba also had tears in her eyes, saying she found Bono's desire to succeedBono said it was "amazing" and "special" to have his mother and other family members in the audience and he feels really good about his score.To learn how to vote for Bono and Schwimmer, click here.

Showtime Developing Drama Series About Little-Known LGBT Subculture With Merritt Johnson & Lee Daniels

EXCLUSIVE:Temple Grandinwriter W. Merritt Johnson has teamed withPrecious director Lee Daniels for a drama project in development at Showtime that sheds light on a little-known LGBT subculture. The contemporary drama, which Johnson is writing and Daniels is attached to direct, is set in New York City and centers on the disenfranchised multicultural transgender youth of the Ball subculture, previously portrayed in Jennie Livingston’s 1990 documentary Paris Is Burning. Some say the roots of the New York ball house culture can be traced to the 1930s,when the first underground drag balls were held in and around New York City by white men in gay bars, while others argue that it evolved out of the Harlem ballroom scene in the 1960s. Today’s underground ball house society consists of New York City’s disadvantaged black, Latino, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transexual communities who come together to compete for trophies and prizes. They all belong to different fraternity-like “houses,” or “drag families,” that serve as surrogate families for their members banded together under one leader. Their “voguing” dance style, in which competitors freeze to pose in glamorous positions, was re-created in Madonna’s Vogue video. Johnson and Daniels are executive producing.Johnson, repped by CAA and Leverage Management, was nominated for an Emmy for Temple Grandin and won a Peabody and Humanitas Prize. He also worked on the HBO series In Treatment. CAA-repped Daniels, who received an Oscar nomination for Precious, recently signed on to write and direct an adaptation ofValley Of The Dolls for NBC, 20th TV and Chernin Entertainment. On the feature side, his follow-up to Precious, The Paper Boy — starring Nicole Kidman and Matthew McConaughey — will be released next year.

Bank of America Equalizes Health Costs for Gay Employees




Bank of America's corporate headquarters in Charlotte, N.C.Chuck Burton/Associated PressBank of America’s corporate headquarters in Charlotte, N.C.
THE COST OF BEING GAY
A look at the financial realities of same-sex partnerships.
Bank of America’s new monthly debit card feehas been roundly criticized in recent weeks. But a new change in corporate policy change is likely to receive a much warmer reception.
Starting next year, the nation’s largest bank will begin reimbursing its employees with same-sex partners for the extra taxes they pay for health insurance — something that their married heterosexual co-workers don’t have to worry about because the federal government recognizes them as an economic unit.
growing number of companies have begun to adopt the policy. Google was one of the earlier adopters, and several other technology companies, law firms, consultancies and others followed suit. But there are still only a handful of big financial services firms that have begun reimbursing their employees with same-sex partners. Last we checked, that group includedBarclays, Goldman Sachs, Credit Suisse and BNP Paribas.
Why is there even a need for such a policy?
Under federal law, employer-provided health benefits for domestic partners are counted as taxable income, if the partner is not considered a dependent. On top of that, the employees cannot use pretax dollars to pay for their premiums — unlike their opposite-sex married counterparts.
So while many big companies offer health insurance coverage for domestic partners, it costs employees more money to use it. To level the playing field among gay and heterosexual employees, many companies are covering the extra costs.
Like several other firms, Bank of America is only covering the costs for same-sex partners and their dependents. Many companies choose only to cover same-sex couples since heterosexual domestic partners have the option to marry and avoid the extra taxes.
The banking giant will provide the reimbursement once a year, and it will be calculated for each employee on an individual basis. “We regularly review our benefits plans to ensure they meet the diverse needs of our employees,” said Ferris Morrison, a spokeswoman for the bank.
Do you think Bank of America’s move will pressure other big financial firms to follow suit? If you know of any other companies that recently adopted the policy, please drop their names in the comment section below, so we can track them down and add them to our chart tracking companies’ progress.

VIDEO: Bones, Girl Mob!



Traffic court lawyer who used slurs agrees to suspension


If approved, deal would require anger management counseling


A Chicago attorney who repeatedly used homophobic and offensive language to describe other lawyers while competing for traffic court clients has agreed to at least a monthlong suspension of his license.

Thomas Guadagno, 66, engaged in the name-calling for at least six years, using terms such as "gay scum" and "child molester" to refer to other attorneys, according to a complaint filed by the state's attorney disciplinary body.

He also allegedly told one client not to hire an attorney because the man had a "sexual torture chamber in his basement."

In 2009, a Cook County judge found him guilty of disorderly conduct after an incident that started when Guadagno greeted a former client and the new attorney told Guadagno not to talk to his client, according to documents filed with the disciplinary body.

Guadagno said the client shouldn't have hired the "gay" attorney and later yelled "scumbag" and "homosexual" at the attorney, continuing even after a sheriff's deputy told him to stop, records state. 

He was sentenced to six months of court supervision and ordered to take an anger management class.As part of the agreement approved last week by an Illinois Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission, Guadagno's license would be suspended for a month and he would have to complete two years of probation.While on probation, Guadagno must continue seeing a therapist for anger management counseling and complete a seminar on attorney professionalism, according to the agreement. If he violates probation, the panel would suspend his license for an additional four months. 

The agreement must still be approved by the Illinois Supreme Court.Guadagno, who has focused on traffic cases since about 1990, could not be reached for comment.The disciplinary body noted in a filing that he has "acknowledged that his conduct was inappropriate and has expressed regret for it."

SMH: Children Banned From Attending Ricky Martin Concert In Honduras

RICKY MARTIN 201109 X390 (GETTY) | ADVOCATE.COM

A concert in Honduras by musician Ricky Martin will proceed but the government has banned children under the age of 15 from attending due to "erotic content," according to Fox News Latino.

The sexy entertainer, known for songs such as "Livin' La Via Loca" and "Shake Your Bon Bon," is currently on his "Musica + Alma + Sexo" world tour and his planned concert in Tegucigalpa, Honduras on October 16 has been in doubt after speculation that show would be canceled following opposition from religious groups.Last Friday Honduran President Porfirio Lobo ordered that plans for the concert proceed, and that banning the event would be "a highly reprehensible act of intolerance."Alberto Espinal, a senior interior ministry official, says the special restriction on the Martin concert is "to protect the mental health of Honduran youth," even, as Fox reports, "in a country where there are regular performances by music groups that promote sex and violence and glorify drug kingpins without any restrictions imposed on them by the authorities."Martin has announced that proceeds from the concert will go to a children's foundation.

Marines Recruit at SoCal Pride Event




SAN DIEGO MARINES IN TRAINING X390 (GOV) | ADVOCATE.COM
Marine recruiters looking to add to the ranks of the few and the proud attended the San Gabriel Valley Pride festival in Pasadena over the weekend, the Los Angeles Times reports.

Via LAT:

With the official repeal last month of the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy, the Marine Corps, the service that was most opposed to ending the policy, appears to be leading the charge into new recruitment territory.

The end of the hush-hush era opens up another qualified pool of applicants, said Sgt. Monique Wallace, marketing and public affairs representative for the Marine Corps' Recruiting Station Los Angeles.

Carlos Ramirez, a board member of San Gabriel Valley Pride, said he believed that his group's Community Unity Day was the first Southern California pride event to host military recruitment.
Read the LA Times report here.

Contact Us

JRMusicCorp@gmail.com

Share

Twitter Delicious Facebook Digg Stumbleupon Favorites