Today, NLGJA: The Association of LGBTQ Journalists announced its 2019-2020 board of directors. The newly elected directors were voted into their positions by the current board of directors yesterday and will take office at the conclusion of the association’s National Convention on Sunday.
Rick Stuckey of NBC Chicago was elected national board vice president of broadcast. Freelancer Belinda Hernandez was elected national board secretary. Ken Miguel of KGO-TV was reelected national board treasurer. Erik Hall of USA Today, Karen Hawkins of the Chicago Reader, Bethany Grace Howe of the University of Oregon and Eric Walter of KYW Newsradio were elected at-large directors.
They join National Board President Sharif Durhams of CNN, National Board Vice President of Print & Online Jen Christensen of CNN and at-large directors Sarah Blazucki of the U.S. Department of Justice, Eric Hegedus of the New York Post, Chris Martin of Bloomberg and Kristina Torres of the University System of Georgia on the board.
In just 24 hours, Taylor Swift’s blockbuster new albumLover became this year’s highest selling album in the U.S. Taylor makes history yet again by earning “the biggest first-week total for any album since her own Reputationin 2017,” according to Billboard. Globally, Lover(Republic Records) has
surpassed more than 3 million in consumption. In the U.S. it
has eclipsed 1 million-plus total consumption year-to-date and is
approaching 700k in pure album sales this week.
Lover smashed the all-time pre-sale record at Target and eclipsed debut physical sales of reputation.
In addition, the album has hit #1 in 98 countries on iTunes. On the
Spotify U.S. chart, every song debuted in the top 25 with 9 in the top
10. Lover also broke the global record as the “top album debut in the history of Amazon Music.”
Around the world, Lover triumphs at #1 including Australia, Canada, Ireland, Mexico, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, the U.K. and more to be announced. Lover has
also made history becoming China’s most consumed full-length
international album of 2019, setting a new record by an international
artist for first week full-length album consumption – more than doubling
the previous record.
Today, the Zero for Zeros campaign released letters sent to more than 30 companies urging them to support the new principles outlined last week by the business roundtable, and stop corporate PAC donations to anti-LGBT members of Congress.
Last week, the Business Roundtable released a statement, that “redefined the purpose of a corporation” to include:
“Supporting the communities in which we work. We respect the people in our communities and protect the environment by embracing sustainable practices across our businesses.”
"America's CEO's have declared that the role of corporations will shift priority from profits to people. We agree and it is the essence of our campaign: a company's LGBT employees and customers should take priority over politicians that lead the fight against equality,” said Lane Hudson, Zero for Zeros Campaign Manager. “The companies we have contacted have long had the values that have now become the consensus among all corporations. We are making a simple ask to match those values with their corporate PAC contributions and cease support of the most anti-LGBT politicians."
The campaign continues to engage these companies in good faith and is hosting a conversation with these companies on Sept 5, in San Francisco at the Commonwealth Club of California.
In the letter sent to CEOs by Zero for Zeros the campaign asks them to reevaluate and stop donating to anti-gay politicians. The letter states:
“These homophobic Members of Congress are the roadblock to full equality. Our call on you is to publicly act on what you are already committed to. We are asking you to hold them accountable for their actions and earn your support. Just as you have a choice to take the small step we are asking you to take, these Members of Congress we have identified have their own choices to make. All these members would have to do to earn corporate PAC contributions from LGBT allies such as yours is to find just one LGBT item to support that will be scored by the Human Rights Campaign. By doing so, they will fall outside of the parameters of what we are asking. Your company holds the power to start that sea change.
The letter further asks:
“[T]o use this opportunity to align your corporate values with your corporate PAC giving. It will reassure your employees, customers, and more where the company stands...”
Zero for Zeros found that 49 companies that received a 100% rating on the Human Rights Campaign’s CEI have donated to members of Congress that are the most outspoken against LGBT equality, earning a ZERO rating on the Human Rights Campaign’s Congressional Scorecard. These companies have contributed a total of $5,837,331 from their corporate PACs to the worst of the worst Members of Congress. Zero for Zeros is asking that the companies’ corporate PACs cease giving to these members of Congress. A summary of the contributions can be viewed on the Zero for Zero’s website.
The following companies identified by Zero for Zeros signed on to the Business Roundtable statement: Amazon, American Airlines, AT&T, Bayer AG, Best Buy, Chevron Corp, Cigna Corp, Cisco Systems, Citigroup, Coca-Cola, Dell Inc, Deloitte, Dow Chemical Co, Ernst & Young, General Motors, Johnson & Johnson, JPMorgan Chase, KPMG, Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance, Mastercard, Morgan Stanley, Northrop Grumman, Oracle Corp, Pepsico, Pfizer, Pricewaterhousecoopers, Procter & Gamble, Sap America, United Parcel Services / UPS, Visa Inc, Whirlpool Corporation.
A diverse group of leading activists signed on in support of the campaign and is running digital ads and digital video engaging employees and allies to join the campaign.
Alejandro Sanz is one of the major international Latin artists globally renowned. Writer and composer of all his songs, Sanz has sold more than 22 million records being the only Spanish act which holds 19 Grammy awards (16 Latin and 3 American accolades). Alejandro has released 15 albums throughout his career- 9 studio albums- all of them are certified Platinum in Spain, USA and Latin America
For a limited time during the holiday weekend, select seats are $25 off the regular price. You can access the offer here .
PathTrail, an experiential storytelling service that turns local stories, histories and attractions into multimedia trails, has produced its first public project: Out on View: LGBTQ+ Perspectives on the Collection, the first LGBTQ+ trail in an American museum, at Hartford, Connecticut’s Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art. In conjunction with the exhibition Be Seen: Portrait Photography Since Stonewall, PathTrail produced the companion audio tour connecting visitors with queer subject matter throughout the museum’s collection. Out on View highlights sixteen works of art from antiquity to today.
Vevo announces the release of LIFT artist, Kiana Ledé’s, second piece of content for “Can I” from of her new Myself EP. Vevo’s LIFT initiative
connects today’s up-and-coming artists to audiences around the globe
through video content. Launched in 2011, Vevo's artist development
program shines a spotlight on the world's freshest new talent.
Vevo LIFT alumni include the likes of Sam Smith, Halsey, Khalid, Jorja
Smith, SZA, Julia Michaels, Billie Eilish and CNCO. Ledé's LIFT
performances follow those of Def Jam Recordings’ YK Osiris, who recently
premiered a live version of his hit “Worth It” as well as a short film,
“YK Osiris: Young King.”
R&B
starlet Kiana Ledé has quickly developed from childhood phenom to one
of the world’s most promising and intriguing young stars. A true mix of
cultures, African, Latino and Native American, Kiana crafted her own
unique vocal sound into a natural blend of these global, expressive
influences. Kiana dropped her Selfless EP, featuring “Show Love” and
“Ex” in 2018 after previously starring in MTV’s Scream and having a track on the chart-dominating Official Soundtrack for Fifty Shades Freed. A Vevo DSCVR alum, Kiana’s LIFT content will include live performances of an assortment of tracks from her new Myself EP.
“For
my Vevo LIFT session, I reimagined ‘Can I’ with harp, strings and
piano, because when I was younger and in Orchestra, I developed a real
love and admiration for classical music and the beautiful arrangements,”
said Kiana Ledé. “With ‘Shawty,’
I wanted to highlight and bring out that brightness and playfulness
that I felt when I wrote it. The little Reggae vibe at the end was
totally impromptu on day of shooting with Vevo. We just stumbled into it
and had to finish it that way. You can see how much fun we had doing
that in the final performance and I’m thankful to Vevo for making my
vision come to life.”
A new full-page ad in Billboard features nearly 140 musicians from genres across the industry opposing restrictions to safe, legal abortion and declaring their strong support for reproductive health and rights.
As part of Planned Parenthood’s #BansOffMyBody campaign, the artists signed on to the “Band Together, Bans Off” ad — which appears in the August 24 issue of Billboard — to raise awareness about the harm of sweeping bans on access to safe, legal abortion and affirm that no one is free unless they control their own body. The ad is supported by nearly 140 artists, including LIZZO, Ariana Grande, Lady Gaga, Beck, Billie Eilish, Bon Iver, John Legend, Nicki Minaj, Demi Lovato, G-Eazy, HAIM, Troye Sivan, Macklemore, Hayley Kiyoko, Megan Thee Stallion, Miley Cyrus, Kacey Musgraves, Carole King, Dua Lipa, Meghan Trainor, and more. Those who signed are urging their social media followers to take action against these bans, and learn more about the threat to safe, legal abortion access in communities across the country. Specifically, the artists are asking their supporters to add their name to a national petition calling for an end to the abortion bans, with a goal of collecting half a million signatures by the anniversary of Roe v. Wade in January 2020.
Over the next few months, Planned Parenthood will also join music festivals like Made in America in Philadelphia and Music Midtown in Atlanta to educate fans about these harmful abortion bans and drive action to support access to sexual and reproductive healthcare. Planned Parenthood will also be working with a number of artists in new and innovative ways as they tour across the country this year, encouraging their fans to speak out against attacks on reproductive health and rights, including safe, legal abortion.
Sweeney Todd has become a bloody, worldwide success since being awarded eight Tony's, (including Best Musical), for its Broadway premiere. Stephen Sondheim's and Hugh Wheeler's (A Little Night Music, Pacific Overtures) tasty, thrilling, theatrical treat has simultaneously shocked, awed and delighted audiences across the world.
An infamous tale, Sweeney Todd, an unjustly exiled barber, returns to nineteenth century London, seeking vengeance against the lecherous judge who framed him and ravaged his young wife. The road to revenge leads Todd to Mrs. Lovett, a resourceful proprietress of a failing pie shop, above which, he opens a new barber practice. Mrs. Lovett's luck sharply shifts when Todd's thirst for blood inspires the integration of an ingredient into her meat pies that has the people of London lining up... and the carnage has only just begun!
Equinox Theatre Company is thrilled to present the final show of their 11th season Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. Performances will be September 27 through October 26 with shows Friday and Saturday nights at 7:30 PM. Tickets are $25 in advance/$30 at the door/$22 for groups of 6 or more in advance only. All performances will be at The Bug Theatre at 3654 Navajo Street in Denver. Tickets and more information available online at www.EquinoxTheatreDenver.com.
The Broadway veteran and Tony Award winner was at a low before being cast in FX’s Pose, in which he plays Pray Tell, the outspoken and outrageous emcee of the New York City house balls the ’80s-set show centers on. The series features the largest cast of transgender actors and LGBTQ actors in television history.
“I really had a hard time as an out, black, gay actor making any headway. I wasn’t having a great time living up to the heteronormative masculinity standard to get the straight male work,” he tells PEOPLE. “So I wasn’t really working in film and television. And it was just frustrating, you know? It was just frustrating to sort of feel ignored and feel dismissed, and dismissed for even the flamboyant things.”
He adds, “So to have this come around and to have it come around in this way is really profound and really special, and I do not take it lightly.” After netting a Golden Globe nomination for his work in Pose, Porter, who married his husband Adam Smith in 2017, now finds himself in the running for this year’s outstanding lead actor in a drama series Emmy Award.
A groundbreaking report released by OutRight Action International today exposes the global reach of so-called conversion therapy. Drawing on data from survey results with almost 500 respondents from 80 countries, and in-depth interviews with experts and survivors from more than a dozen countries, the report overwhelmingly shows that so-called conversion therapy efforts occur across the world and are predominantly promoted and perpetrated by people acting in the name of religion or pseudo-healthcare, often instigated by family pressure.
“Conversion therapy” is the most widely used term to describe practices attempting to change, suppress, or divert one’s sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression. It is also called reorientation therapy, reparative therapy, reintegrative therapy, or, more recently, support for unwanted same-sex attraction or transgender identities. The practices vary due to religious, cultural, or traditional contexts and range from overtly physically violent, such as electroshock or “corrective rape”, to psychologically abusive, such as isolation or psychiatric hospitalization, or more subtle forms of talk therapy or group therapy. Practices can also be religiously based, including extensive prayer, fasting and spiritual rituals. But regardless of the form they take or the name attributed, so-called conversion therapy practices are not a recognized form of therapy and certainly do not result in conversion. In fact, such practices cause deep, lasting trauma that affects every realm of life.
OutRight’s study found that:
•The main perpetrators and advocates of "conversion therapy" are people acting in the name of religion or pseudo-healthcare, with LGBTIQ individuals often coerced or pressured by family.
•A third of the people who responded to this study who experienced so-called conversion therapy sought it out themselves.
•While they may vary due to religious, cultural, or traditional norms and contexts, “conversion therapy” practices never work; instead, they cause deep, lasting trauma.
•Persistence of “conversion therapy” is directly related to societal beliefs about LGBTIQ people and the degree to which our lives are deemed unacceptable within families, faiths, and societies at large.
•Respondents from 80 countries showed that “conversion therapy” occurs in all regions of the world.
George Barasa, a survivor of conversion therapy from Kenya, reflects, “Conversion therapy is not a single event – it is a process of continued degradation and assault on the core of who you are. There are often repeated violations in the form of psychological and sometimes physical abuse… It is not one instance – it is a continued sense of rejection. The pressure is enormous.”
Maria Sjödin, Deputy Director of Outright Action International, comments, “Our report paints a chilling picture of the global prevalence of these barbaric practices which constitute cis-gender, heteronormative indoctrination. So-called conversion therapy efforts hinge on the belief that cis-gender heterosexuality is the norm, and gender identities beyond the binary and/or same-sex attraction not only fall outside the norm, but have to be changed, if need be by brutal, inhuman force, through practices which have been recognized to be tantamount to torture by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.”
Strides have been taken to raise awareness and even outlaw such practices in parts of the US, Latin America, Europe, and Australia. However, to date, only four countries have an outright ban on so-called conversion therapy.
Maria Sjödin, Deputy Director of Outright Action International, continues, “We welcome the efforts of a handful of governments around the world to ban so-called conversion therapy, and urge governments in other countries highlighted in this report to take similar steps to safeguard their LGBTIQ citizens from these harmful practices. At the same time, it is clear that the demand for “conversion therapy” will only diminish when social, family, and religious condemnation of LGBTIQ lives ceases, and LGBTIQ people are free to live their lives with access to their full human rights. As such, we look forward to working across civil society, states and multilateral organizations to not only ban "conversion therapy", but continually seek ways to ensure the sustainable, and genuine inclusion, acceptance and safeguarding of the human rights of LGBTIQ people.”
The Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law filed a comment opposing the Trump Administration’s proposed rule to limit civil rights protections in health care under Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act. The proposed rule, which was issued by the Department of Health and Human Services, seeks to undo policies that extended civil rights protections to the disabled, elderly, women, members of the LGBTQ community, and those who have had abortions. If implemented, the proposed rule would make it harder for aggrieved citizens, including racial and ethnic minorities, to bring civil lawsuits against health care entities that advance discriminatory practices and policies. It would also eliminate agency investigation of activities that have a discriminatory effect on the basis of sex.
“We cannot lose the progress gained under the prior Administration in our efforts to rid the healthcare system of discriminatory practices that impact vulnerable communities. We’ll use every tool in our arsenal to fight for the preservation of existing protections in the Affordable Care Act so that marginalized communities, including low-income communities of color, have equal access to affordable healthcare,” said Dariely Rodriguez, Director of the Economic Justice Project at The Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.
In its comment, the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law highlighted the inherent inequities that would result from the proposed rule. Specifically, the Lawyers’ Committee noted that the proposed rule would allow only some members of protected classes to bring disparate impact claims, while prohibiting people of color and those discriminated against on the basis of sex from doing so. The comment also highlighted that the proposed rule interpreted certain provisions of Section 1557 in a way that renders it meaningless, in violation of clearly established rules of statutory interpretation.
If finalized, the proposed rule will eliminate critical tools for people of color, including those with intersectional identities (i.e., women of color and people of color with disabilities) who are especially vulnerable to discrimination in the healthcare system in direct contravention of the ACA’s clear intent of eliminating discrimination in health care. The Department is expected to issue its Final Rule in the coming months.
On DVD & VOD September 24, Drive Me Home follows Antonio and Agostino, who grew up together in a small town in Sicily, where they dreamt of living a different life, somewhere, anywhere, else.
Now 30-year-olds, they both live abroad but lost touch with each other years ago. When Antonio discovers that the house he grew up in, which has been empty for a long time, is about to be sold at auction, he decides to leave and reconnect with his childhood friend. But their lives have changed a lot. Old conflicts and new revelations bring them through Europe on a truck journey that will change their lives forever...
Are
you a new or experienced writer or blogger? Do you want to be? Or maybe
you're just some gay guy with something to say? Well, what better forum
for you than MileHighGayGuy? MileHighGayGuy
is looking for regular and guest bloggers to write about local news and
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are unpaid positions but offer the opportunity to be published in
Colorado's Best Gay Blog (2010, 2011, 2012 OUTstanding Awards, Denver
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There's also swag available in the form of free movie and concert
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The stars of Rusalka come to life this Saturday, August 17th at the Strings Music Pavilion. Click this link to hear what Andres Cladera, Artistic Director of Opera Steamboat, has to say about them!
