The New York Times came out with an article today that featured interviews from 27 women and minority industry players in entertainment. The statistics are unequivocal: Women and minorities are vastly underrepresented in front of and behind the camera. Here are a few of their testimonials:
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Sir Elton has said he wants to talk to Mr Putin about his “ridiculous” attitude to gay rights.
Russia has been under a lot of scrutiny over the last few years for its laws against homosexuality. Russian President Vladimir Putin has reached out to Sir Elton John and agreed to meet with him to discuss “any issues of interest.”
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Instead of resisting or being complacent, some Dallas business owners are making it very clear by taking part in the “Welcome Everyone” campaign by displaying signs on their windows and counters welcoming LGBT customers. According to a Pew Research poll, 57 percent opposed gay marriage, while only 35 percent approved in 2001. However, the scale has been tipped the other way in 2015 with 54 percent supporting same-sex marriage compared with 39 percent who oppose it, and some business owners outside of LGBT communities are proudly showing their support. Click here to read more.
There are all types of dating apps nowadays, with Tinder being the biggest. As of March, it was estimated that 50 million people have signed up for the dating app according to CNBC. However, Tinder is aimed to serve mainly a heterosexual audience which left many in the LGBT community left out and feeling like nothing catered to them. Enter-Her.
The U.S. Postal Service released the design of a new stamp commemorating the gay rights activist and American politician Harvey Milk on Monday. It will be the first to feature an openly gay politician.
Milk made history when he won a spot on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1977, becoming the first elected official to openly identify as gay. He was assassinated the following year by Dan White, another city supervisor who had recently stepped down but wanted his job back. He was also the subject of the 2008 biographical film Milk, starring Sean Penn.
The stamp, which was first revealed in Linn’s Stamp News, will feature a black-and-white photo of the politician along with his name and the rainbow colors which represent the LGBT pride flag.
It will first be issued on May 22, which is also Harvey Milk Day.
Today the Supreme Court announced two long-awaited decisions with important ramifications for the gay rights movement. In a move expected by many observers, the court declined to make a ruling regarding the constitutionality of California’s Proposition 8, which banned gay marriage in 2008. That decision leaves a previous ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit striking down the ban as unconstitutional intact, effectively legalizing gay marriage in the nation’s most populous state.
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Here at MMXLII we suspect that by 2042 you will be just as aware of the asexual community as you are of the LGBT community today. However, we also suspect that at the moment you may or may not be aware that such a community even exists. So we start this post by attempting to answer the question we had when we first started researching this piece. What does it mean to self-identify as asexual?
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The last hate crime in New York happened against a 32-year-old gay black man -Mark Carson- who was shot and killed in Greenwich Village over the weekend. The randomness and absence of motive of the crime prompted a large protest in New York on Monday which saw 1,500 people show up in one of the largest LGBT rally in years according to organizers, to make a stand against the hate that led to his death. This crime is part of a rise in anti-gay hate crimes that the FBI has reported on: “hate crimes against gay men nationwide have also gone up slightly in recent years (…) While it’s possible that more gays are reporting hate crimes, the reports do show that anti-gay violence is still prevalent in America.”
This might not be in contradiction with Gallop’s latest findings that say that in the US, a record high of people say that gay and lesbian relations are morally okay.
Americans’ views toward a number of moral issues have shifted significantly since 2001. Their acceptance of gay and lesbian relations has increased the most, up 19 percentage points in the past 12 years — to a record high of 59% today. Americans’ tolerance toward having a baby outside of marriage is also now much greater, up 15 points since 2001, to the current 60%.
Gay mariage has been legalized in several US states -this week, Minnesota became the third state to pass same-sex marriage this year, and the twelfth state overall- (for an evolution of gay marriage in the US read this Guardian article ).
As there is a gradual shift towards a more diverse society, a minority is becoming more vocal and bold in protest of those changes: highlighting the need to remain vigilant at all times.
For more of Gallop’s latest finding, hit the jump. Photo by Andre Burton/ Getty Images
Over the last few months there have been conversations about professional athletes being gay and if it would be accepted in the sports world for one to come forward and admit being gay. Many organizations and players have come forward to support gay rights and LGBT support organizations, causing speculation that an athlete would finally come out. Many predicted it would happen sooner than later, and it looks like experts in sports journalism were correct. Southern California raised Jason Collins of the NBA has come forward which should allow those discussions of acceptance by athletes to take center stage. Jason Collins comes forward in the new issue of Sports Illustrated, you can read some of his story after the jump. Read More
Since last year we’ve seen DC and Marvel Comics take some progressive steps in the world of comic books. From re-imagining some iconic superheroes as minorities as well as other superheroes being gay. DC Comics has a taken another step in representing a bit of everyone by introducing the first transgender character in the pages of the Batgirl series. Batwoman is already being portrayed as an open lesbian in that series. Read More
