Via JMG: Liz Taylor Leaves Estate To AIDS Charities

Most of Elizabeth Taylor's massive fortune will go to the two AIDS charities with whom she was most famously associated.

Screen queen Elizabeth Taylor has left behind a fortune worth at least $600 million, much of which is expected to go to the AIDS charities she championed for decades. Her famous jewelry collection, valued at an eye-popping $150 million in 2002, is likely to be auctioned off with the bulk of the proceeds going to the Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation and amfAR, the AIDS charity she helped found in 1985, according to WFLD/Fox TV Chicago. "From what I understand, she seems to have been very wise about her investments," said a financial planner who has worked with other Hollywood A-listers. At the time of her 1994 divorce from her last husband, Larry Fortensky, Taylor's net worth was estimated at $608.4 million. That figure could now be well in excess of $1 billion. During the 1990s, Taylor reportedly earned about $2 per second, or about $63 million per year. Her famed perfume, White Diamonds, earned more than $70 million last year, according to reports.

Our hero, even in death.

Labels: AIDS, amFAR, gay icons, heroes, Hollywood

reposted from Joe

Today's "The Republicans really are a bunch of bigotsm, huh?" Post":Haley Barbour: Amorous Gay Soldiers Are Going To Stop Us From Killing Bad Guys

Yesterday Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour became the third prospective 2012 GOP presidential candidate to promise to reinstate DADT if elected. Because gay soldiers are going to be too busy cruising other men to effectively kill the bad guys.

They did research to see what military people thought about this idea. The closest to the ground, the soldier on the ground, was the most opposed to this. And it's not necessarily over homosexuality. Its over the fact that when you're under fire and people are living and dying of split-second decisions you don't need any kind of amorous mindset that can affect saving people's lives and killing bad guys. You look at the data and it is the foot-soldier that is the person who is out there, boots on the ground, who was most against this. And it's because they live or die with this and that's who we ought to be listening to, that's who we ought to be caring about and that's why I am against it. I think it ought to be rolled back. I just don't see how you can take any other position if the person you are trying to protect is the soldier who is actually in combat.

Labels: 2012 elections, DADT, dumbassery, GOP

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Via JMG: Worst Ad Placement Ever

(Source)

Labels: abortion, advertising, dumbassery

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Via JMG: Canada To Help LGBT Refugees

In a partnership with an LGBT group, Canada has announced a landmark asylum program to assist LGBT refugees fleeing persecution in their home countries.

Through the project, Citizenship and Immigration Canada will work with the Rainbow Refugee Committee to share the cost of sponsoring gay, lesbian, transgender, transsexual and bisexual refugees overseas to Canada. The department will provide $100,000 in assistance to cover three months of income support for the refugees upon their arrival here, while the Rainbow committee will offer orientation services, accommodation, food and other basic needs. “These funds are a welcome first step in response to the crisis facing lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people around the globe, at a time when 77 countries continue to criminalize homosexuality and five prescribe the death penalty,” said Helen Kennedy, executive director of Egale Canada, the country’s largest LGBT human rights organization.

Labels: asylum, Canada, immigration, LGBT rights

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Lawrence O'Donnell - Majority Of U.S. Catholics Back Gay Rights In Survey

Via JMG: Photo Of The Day

A shrine to Elizabeth Taylor has sprung up in the West Hollywood gay bar The Abbey, where Taylor was known to drop in. This weekend the bar will donate proceeds from sales of their Blue Velvet martini to the Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation.

(Via - TMZ)

Labels: AIDS, California, photo of the day, West Hollywood

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Via JMG: Leonard Pitts On Majority Rule

"We are gathered here today to look a gift horse in the mouth. It seems a majority of the American people now favor allowing gay men and lesbians to wed. That majority, according to a Washington Post survey released last week, is slender, just 51 percent. But even at that, it represents a significant increase from just five years ago, when only 36 percent of Americans approved. [snip]

"But lurking at the edge of celebration there is, for me, at least, a nagging, impatient vexation. That vexation is based in what is arguably an esoteric question: In extolling the fact that the majority now approves same-sex marriage, do we not also tacitly accept the notion that the majority has the right to judge? [snip]

"That’s the pebble in the shoe, the popcorn hull between the teeth, that nags at the conscience when one reads polls tracking how many of us approve of other people’s lives and decisions. It’s all well and good that 51 percent of us support the right of gay men and lesbians to tell it to the judge, but really, what hubris makes us think we have a right to say yea or nay in the first place?" - Pulitzer Prize winning columnist Leonard Pitts, writing for the Miami Herald.

(Tipped by JMG reader Will)

Labels: LGBT rights, marriage equality, polls

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Via JMG: Press Release Of The Day

Here's an excerpt from the U.S. State Department's press release on yesterday's historic United Nations resolution. A total of 85 nations have signed on the Obama administration's call to battle for LGBT rights around the world.

20 countries joined this statement that were neither signatory to the 2006 or 2008 statements. The statement garnered support from every region of the world, including 21 signatories from the Western Hemisphere, 43 from Europe, 5 from Africa, and 16 from the Asia/Pacific region. Delivered by Colombia on behalf of: Albania, Andorra, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bolivia, Bosnia, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, the Central African Republic, Chile, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cuba, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Estonia, Fiji, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Guatemala, Honduras, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Lichtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the former-Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Malta, the Marshall Islands, Mexico, Micronesia, Monaco, Mongolia, Montenegro, Nauru, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Norway, Palau, Panama, Paraguay, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Rwanda, Samoa, San Marino, Serbia, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, Timor-Leste, Tuvalu, the United States of America, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, Ukraine, Uruguay, Vanuatu, and Venezuela

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton: "Gay rights are human rights and human rights are gay rights. We will continue to promote human rights around the world for all people who are marginalized and discriminated against because of sexual orientation or gender identity. And we will not rest until every man, woman and child is able to live up to his or her potential free from persecution or discrimination of any kind."

Labels: Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, LGBT rights, Obama administration, State Department, United Nations

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Via JMG: POLL: Majority Of Lay Catholics Support LGBT Rights And Same-Sex Marriage

In what may come as a shocker to the Vatican and Archbishop Timothy Dolan, a just-released poll shows that a slim majority of America's lay Catholics now support same-sex marriage and LGBT rights.

Overall, the survey found 53 percent of Catholics supported the idea of same-sex marriage, while the general public is evenly divided on the issue. Fifty-six percent of Catholics did not believe sexual relations between two adults of the same gender constituted a sin, compared to 46 percent of the general population. Sixty percent of Catholics favored adoption rights for same-sex couples, 49 percent think gays should be allowed to be ordained as clergy, and 73 percent believe they should have legal protections in the workplace – all higher percentages than found in the general population, PRRI said. There was a powerful generation gap found in the survey, with Catholics under 35 much more liberal than those 65 and older. The influx of Hispanic Catholics into the U.S. church in recent years did not skew the results, as the young newcomers were divided between liberal and conservative views of homosexuality.

A sample comment from Free Republic: "The majority of Catholics aren’t Christians either - by the standards of the Holy Bible. Among many things they do that are against God’s Word (the Pope just recently used a Hindu prayer), Catholics engage in witchcraft (praying to dead saints and statues). They also worship Mary instead of CHRIST as the mediator between man and God."

Labels: Catholics, LGBT rights, polls, religion

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Via JMG: CALIFORNIA: Ninth Circuit Court Denies Request To Resume Same-Sex Marriages

Today the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals denied the request to vacate their stay on the overturn of Proposition 8 and allow the resumption of same-sex marriages in California.

Federal Judge Vaughn Walker ruled last year that Proposition 8 was unconstitutional and ordered that same-sex weddings be allowed to resume. That decision was appealed to the Ninth Circuit, where the case is tied up on a legal question the panel asked the California Supreme Court to rule upon: Do Prop. 8 sponsors have legal standing to defend the law in court when the state will not. The order [to deny] was filed by judges Stephen R. Reinhardt, Michael Daly Hawkins and N. Randy Smith.

Labels: California, marriage equality, Ninth Circuit Court., Proposition 8

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Tribute to Dame Elizabeth Taylor

Obama/Brazilian president statement mentions gays

Obama/Brazilian president statement mentions gays

Joint Statement by President Rousseff and President Obama


At the invitation of President Dilma Rousseff, the President of the United States of America, Barack Obama, paid a State Visit to Brazil on March 19, 20 and 21, 2011.

Democracy, Human Rights, Racial Equality and Social Inclusion


They agreed to cooperate in advancing democracy, human rights and freedom for all people bilaterally and through the United Nations and other multilateral fora, including ensuring respect for human rights in the context of the democratic movements and transitions; strengthening the UN Human Rights Council as recently demonstrated in the case of the creation of the Commission of Inquiry on Libya; promoting respect for the human rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals through the establishment of a Special Rapporteur at the OAS; and improving the conduct of free and fair elections regionally and globally, including through the promotion of human rights in the context of elections and increasing their accessibility to disabled persons.

https://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=2&view=bsp&ver=ohhl4rw8mbn4

Daniel Radcliffe to Be Honored by Trevor Project

Via JMG: Walmart Blocks "Gay" From Book Reviews

JMG reader Mark S. King reports that Walmart's website refused his review of the It Gets Better book until he removed the word "gay." King, who contributed to the book with his openly gay brother, writes us: "My submission was nixed because I used the word 'gay,' which the site explained was 'profanity.' I felt properly chastised and removed the offensive word from my review, which remains 'under review.' The most socially accepted term for my sexuality is profane! I guess uttering 'homosexual' or 'queer' would have produced a total meltdown." King say he's hasn't yet received a response from his complaint to Walmart's corporate office. Visit his personal website for his review as well as an amusing video with his brother.

Labels: books, censorship, Dan Savage, Wal-Mart

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Via JMG: Ricky Martin At GLAAD Awards

Last night GLAAD honored Ricky Martin with their Vito Russo Award in recognition of how his coming out generated unprecedented positive coverage in Latin media. In his speech, Martin thanked "my boyfriend Carlos," which some in the room thought was the first time Martin had publicly named the handsome man often seen with him. The video below is by Boy Culture's Matthew Rettenmund - check his site later today for more from the evening.

Labels: GLAAD, NYC, Ricky Martin

posted by Joe

Kate Clinton: OBSTINANCE ONLY

Via JMG: KILLER CONFESSES: I Stoned That Homo To Death Just Like The Bible Says I Should

A Pennsylvania man is under arrest after confessing to beating an elderly man to death with a stone, just like the Bible instructs should be done with homosexuals.

A 28-year-old Upper Darby man has been charged with murder after telling police that he stoned a 70-year-old man to death when the man made homosexual advances toward him, authorities say. John Joe Thomas, 28, of Sunshine Road in Upper Darby, spent almost every day with 70-year-old Murray Seidman at Seidman’s Lansdowne home, police say. Days before Seidman’s body was found on Jan. 12, Thomas allegedly beat Seidman to death with a sock full of rocks. Thomas told authorities that he read in the Old Testament that homosexuals should be stoned to death. When Seidman allegedly made homosexual advances toward him over a period of time, Thomas said he received a message in his prayers that he must end Seidman’s life, according to court documents. Police say that Thomas struck Seidman in the head about 10 times with the sock of rocks. Thomas left Seidman dead in his apartment, and then threw his bloody clothing and the bloody sock in a dumpster, according to authorities.

The killer was the sole executor of the victim's will and returned to the scene of the murder several days later claiming to have discovered the body.

Labels: Christian Love, hate crimes, murder, pennsylvania

reposted from Joe

Homens Da Luta - Luta é alegria (Portugal)

Via JMG: Quote Of The Day - Barney Frank

"What do I say to the idea that this [DOMA] is a wedge issue? I say 'Hallelujah.' The fact that we've now evolved to the point where the Republicans are complaining about the fact that we introduced this bill because it causes them political problems is a great sign of progress. It used to be the other way around." - Rep. Barney Frank, in a Talking Points Memo piece speculating that gay rights is now a positive wedge issue for the Democrats.

Labels: Barney Frank, Democrats, DOMA, Quote Of The Day

re posted from Joe