Happy Sunday Funday, perfectly sized slices of pie! You deserve a hunk of hunk of burnin’ happy queer notes from the recent past today. So here are the smatterings of this weekend’s happy (gay!) Internet!
Demi Lovato Really Liked LA Pride, In Case You Didn’t Know
Demi Lovato was Grand Marshal at Los Angeles Pride this year, but she Totally Didn’t Care.
This Baptist Church Is About To Get A Whole Lot Gayer
Kentucky’s Highland Baptist Church plans to hold a gay wedding next Spring.
Texas Dems Fight Back for Our Right Not To Be “Fixed”
Texas Democrats are taking action against the state GOP’s endorsement of “reparative therapy” in their platform. Now, the Dems’ platform advocates for an end to the entire practice.
Texas Democrats are taking a stand on behalf of the LGBT community, calling in their 2014 platform for a ban on all gay conversion practices in the state. Support for LGBT Texans goes even further, calling for sanctions against any practitioner who engages in reparative therapy.
Reiterating their support for full marriage equality, Texas Democrats also included support for the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), accurate identity documents for Trans folks, and education on LGBT issues for service professionals. Democrats had previously stated support for these causes in their 2012 platform.
Orange Is The New Rainbow
The Orange is the New Black cast showed the LGBT community lots of love from New York City this week, which is exactly the kind of thing I like to see them all doing. Frequently.
Adorable Animal Annal of the Week
You wish you were this excited about life today.
0:17-0:19 feels like my life.
Also, Samira.
That is all.
I was at NYC Pride, and I completely lost my shit when I saw the OITNB cast. I’m still fangirling a week later. #teampoussey
WAAAAAAIT.
Why the fuck is a straight person Grand Marshal? That’s some bullshit (in the words of Taystee)
Yeah, I’m having a very difficult time believing that Demi is straight…
I have absolutely nothing against Demi Lovato and I really do think her song is catchy, but is it just me or, like, where all the queer ladies and trans* people at? I saw maybe one or two queer girls highlighted in the video, but maybe I wasn’t paying close enough attention? Idk, it kind of just seemed like it was filled with a lot of stereotypical depictions of gay men, which is a-okay; there’s obviously nothing wrong with identifying as an effeminate queer male or drag queen, but diversity, you know? I just wish a video that is trying to support lbgt issues would show the vast array of people who identify as lbgt.
ushhh . . . I don’t know how unpopular this opinion may make me, but I really didn’t like that OINTB float at pride. I have mixed feelings about both Pride and OINTB, but I am generally willing to accept people being happy about those things. Still, that float . . . a lot of the photos don’t show it, but it was actually prison-themed: it was painted to look like brick, it had the laundry trolleys, and “Litchfield Correctional Facility Break Out The Pride” was emblazoned across it. And that, for me, takes it too far: it actively uses prison as something that seems “fun” and “gay”.
I respect OINTB as a show because it genuinely portrays problematic issues in prison (although the scope of this can be debated, definitely).And while Pride can definitely rub me the wrong way (visibility of certain groups + corporate takeover + apolitic), it’s fun, right?
But the OINTB float . . . it takes advantage of a hugely serious and troubling situation (the US prison system) to bring a fun, poppy, new theme – which is hugely insensitive to very real issues that many members of the queer community face.
+ it’s not just insensitive in general to glamorise prison, but it particularly clashes with a lot of(often less-visible or at least less-listened-to) queer people.
similarly worth looking into – http://gayshamesf.org/index2.php