GOOGLE MARKS GAY PRIDE MONTH WITH RAINBOW BANNER

The menu bar in the six colors of the rainbow – a symbol of gay pride – will also show up when a user searches using key words such as same-sex marriage, marriage equality, New York Pride and Los Angeles Pride.

The company has notably taken a high-profile stance in support of gay rights.

On the first day of the Winter Olympics in Sochi in February this year, Google also took a public stand against Russian anti-gay laws with its homepage Doodle which depicted six different winter sport disciplines, each on a background of color to make up the colors of a gay pride flag.

In 2008, the company’s co-founder Sergey Brin announced that the company officially opposes Proposition 8, an anti-gay marriage measure that California voters ultimately approved before it was overturned by the Supreme Court in 2013.

In 2012, the company launched its Legalize Love campaign to support the decriminalization of homosexuality and elimination of homophobia worldwide.

SOURCE: GAY STAR NEWS

THE DAHL HAUS PRESENTS: YOUR PRIDE COLORS ARE SHOWING!

THROW BACK VIDEO: NEVER EVER BY ALL SAINTS

"Never Ever" is a song by British girl group All Saints. Written by All Saints member Shaznay Lewis along with co-writers Robert Jazayeri and Sean Mather, and produced by Cameron McVey and Magnus Fiennes, it was released on 17 November 1997 as the second single from their debut album, All Saints (1997). The song later appeared on their compilations All Hits(2001), Pure Shores: The Very Best of All Saints (2010) and their remix compilation The Remix Album (1998).


The song is structured as a soul and R&B influenced
song. Lyrically, the song talks about the girls feeling their first expressions after a sadden break-up, where the girls query what they did wrong in the relationship. The song received very positive reviews from music critics, where critics praised the groups vocal abilities and felt it was a strong highlight to the album. Some critics also listed on their best lists as well.

To date, "Never Ever" is All Saints' most successful single to date, peaking at the top of the charts in countries including Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom, while it peaked in the top ten in countries including Ireland, Sweden, Canada, the Netherlands, France, Switzerland, Norway, Austria and the United States. As of March 2013, it is the second best selling single by a girl group of all time in the United Kingdom, only behind

"Wannabe" by theSpice Girls.^[1]

HOW TO LOOK AMAZING THIS SUMMER

1. Join a gym - doesnt matter what you do just as long as you start doing SOMETHING and do it every week til summer.

2. Go dancing more- dancing is exercise, even if you just dance by yourself to your own music DO IT and DO IT weekly til summer.

3. Skip rice and pasta and white bread- when it comes to food, "if its white it aint right" ... substitute for other grains or just use veggies instead.

4. Jog in place, or do push-ups during commercials when watching your favorite show or sporting event. All you need is to do it 1-3 times a week til summer and the change will show.

5. Drink more water.

6. Love yourself the way you are - jealousy, fear, and shame are lousy motivators but reminding yourself that you are great and just want to look better is really the TRUTH.

7. Get a buddy to take on fitness with you - could be a gym buddy, a dance club buddy, a bike riding, hiking or jogging buddy.. sometimes we are motivated better when we do things together.

CALIFORNIA SOUTHERN BAPTIST CHURCH VOTES TO ACCEPT LGBTI PEOPLE AFTER PASTOR'S SON COMES OUT

A California Southern Baptist congregation have voted to keep their pastor who accepted his gay son and to welcome LGBTI people without judgement.

Pastor Danny Cortez of the New Heart Community Church went public with his support for his 15-year-old son Drew in a sermon in February entitled ‘Why I changed my mind on homosexuality.’

Cortez spoke about how Drew had come out to him after he learned his father liked the Macklemore and Ryan Lewis song Same Love because of its inclusive message.

A lesbian congregant had come out to Pastor Cortez four years earlier which had prompted him to re-examine his views on the issue but Drew did not know he had changed his mind.

When he learned that his father had evolved on the issue he came out to him in his school’s car park.

‘I couldn’t help but think that my 15 year journey was in preparation for that moment,’ Pastor Cortez said, according to the Canyonwalker Connections blog.

‘If it wasn’t for this 15 year journey and my change in theology, I may have destroyed my son through reparative therapy.’

After Cortez told his congregation that he had rejected the Southern Baptist Church’s official teaching on homosexuality his congregation held a vote on 19 May over whether to dismiss him as pastor of the church he had lead for 16 years.

They chose not to fire him and to become a ‘Third Way’ church which doesn’t judge people based on their sexual orientation.

Whether the Southern Baptist Convention decides to sever ties with the New Heart Community Church over its new position on homosexuality remains to be seen.

Drew Cortez has since made a video about his coming out process.

Watch it and Pastor Cortez’ sermon below

SOURCE: GAY STAR NEWS

THE BLACK GAY MAN’S NARRATIVE STILL ISN’T BEING TOLD

It feels good to be validated, you know? It feels good to feel like we matter, like we’re a part of something important. I felt that way back in undergrad when I first watched Patrik-Ian Polk’s “Noah’s Arc”. There were people who sort of looked like me, and sort of used the same language I did on this television show that I could sort of identify with- so I ran with it. I praised it and had viewing parties with my roommate in our tiny kitchen in our apartment in southern Connecticut. As time went on and I grew wiser, I realized that this wasn’t my story or a story that was realistic; it was a fantasy or an abstract interpretation of who we are. This brings us here: developing a more nuanced black gay narrative in the space and grand scheme of conventional media and amplifying the voices of those who are telling and crafting this narrative.

In a conversation I had with a friend, he spoke to me about how black gay men who are in positions to create and distribute our narrative to a wider audience for acceptance aren’t doing their due diligence to our community. He posited that we who have platforms, and the people who listen, should push to be premier examples of black gay men and not the trite, hyper-sexed, vapid, monsters that seems to be our M.O. in mainstream media. I immediately thought back to the words my Oklahoma-bred grandmother gave me when I was a teenager; “Just cuz we skinfolk ain’t mean we kinfolk.”

At times folks in marginalized communities (such as the black LGBT community) look for those who will represent us on a national stage in hopes to evoke change in the community. Rarely do we think in our haste and thirst just how damaging that could potentially be. A prime example of this was when Don Lemon announced that he was gay. A bunch of black gays fired up their keyboards and wrote at length of how this was monumental for us, and thanked him for doing so. Interestingly enough, a few months later, Don Lemon has become the polar opposite of what those people (who I lovingly call WordPress Warriors) hoped and wanted him to be: socially irresponsible and out-of-touch with not only blacks, but us black gays too. And it’s not just Lemon, it’s a whole list of people who we feel like we’re supposed to look to for that beacon of hope that just don’t seem to want anything to do with us or have no connection (read: any fucking clue) to who we truly are.

Are these the people we want to tell our stories? Could they even tell our stories if they tried?

Narrative is important. Narrative is our story, our historical record, our progression, our hurt, and our resilience. It’s what’s necessary to change attitudes for a better tomorrow. I’m simply not sure that those who are prominent fixtures in black gay media are able to create the proper narrative to facilitate change. And, to their credit, it’s not up to them to do it. It’s a lesson for us to tell the stories we want to be told, and to paraphrase Gandhi, be the change we wish to see.

Writer Alex Hardy, a dear friend of mine, wrote over at EBONY.com about how black gay men are portrayed as hurt individuals that have to rise above adversity through the usual things people assume from us like HIV/AIDS, intolerant parents, etc. He called for black gay creatives to focus on making content out of that lens, because we’ve beaten that dead horse already. As painful as it is to compare us to our mainstream counterparts (read: white people), why can’t we have a black gay sitcom that doesn’t just focus on the hyper-sexuality, HIV/AIDS, or a scene from a vogue battle? Where is our black gay or lesbian Olivia Pope, “Friends” or even “Seinfeld”?

For us to portray the accurate narrative that will change and bring about the respect, tolerance, and acceptance that we’re all longing for is to create us as normal ass people. Simply because that’s who we are: real people, and not caricatures of what people assume we are. From the banalities of our everyday life to the common issues of career, love, and friendship that transcends categorization/otherization of our stories, our narrative needs to be developed and cultivated by all of us who are in tune with what’s really going on. Instead of us waiting for others, we need to be creating for ourselves.

SOURCE: MUSED MAG

JASON COLLINS LEADS MARRIOTT HOTEL’S NEW LGBTI TRAVEL CAMPAIGN

Hotel chain Marriott International is courting gay, lesbian, bisexual and trans travelers with a new ad campaign featuring out NBA star Jason Collins, trans model Geena Rocero and other LGBTI individuals.

Using the hashtag #LoveTravels, Marriott’s campaign features print ads and social media Collins called ‘important not only to the LGBT community but to society in general’.

The hotel company has recruited celebrity photographer Braden Summers to shoot the campaign. Summers made global headlines last year with his photo campaign to shoot romantic gay and lesbian couples around the world.

‘When I travel with a boyfriend, we really want to feel that sense of inclusiveness regardless of our sexual orientation or religion. We want that feeling of being welcome,’ the basketball star added in a statement. In recent years, hotel policies have become a hot bed of controversy with regards LGBTI rights.

As same-sex marriage becomes legal in more states and countries, marriage equality has been used as a barometer for what travel destinations are not only safe, but desirable for LGBTI travelers.

Some travel operators are changing their marketing approach in order to court the LGBTI traveler, while other businesses suffer because of anti-gay connections.

Last month international celebrities boycotted Dorchester Group’s hotels because the owner, Sultan of Brunei, implemented anti-gay laws, signaling LGBTI consumers are more readily holding businesses accountable for their ethics.

While many businesses place LGBTI-friendly policies under the umbrella of diversity and inclusion, being gay-friendly does come with some economic benefit.

According to Out Now Global, an LGBT marketing specialist group, the potential value of the LGBT travel market was set to reach $181 billion last year.

'Our goal is really to educate and engage and shift perception of our portfolio brand,' said Kristine Friend, senior director of segment marketing for Marriott International.

'We've decided to kick off a holistic campaign that really helps celebrate inclusiveness and beautifully illustrates our desire to make people feel at home at our hotels.'

Marriot hotel group in the UK has partnered with Gay Star News and Jean Paul Gaultier for this summer’s Pride Bags: Custom-designed goodie bags given away for free at London, Brighton and Manchester.
  

SOURCE: GAY STAR NEWS