2/5/14
When Midwestern kids like this one come out so proudly and authentically, you know that love is winning...
Ryan is a role model for closeted gay teenagers around the world. Unfortunately, his bravery comes at a cost: he has received two religious-referencing death threats. How crazy is that?
2/4/14
John Carlos, Olympian who protested the treatment of African-Americans in 1968, offers advice to gay athletes and their allies
From Towleroad:
"They’re going to risk condemnation. They’re going to ridicule him in the early stages, until society wakes up and realizes that the individual is right and had a right to speak out for the issues that concern his life as well as so many others."
Carlos also has high praise for Billie Jean King and is glad that people of all races and sexual orientations see his act as an inspiration:
"Well, it makes me feel good. You know, we can’t put labels or tags on one another. All we can say is that we’re just human beings. And we should try to remember, regardless of what your ethnic background is, or what your sexual preference is, or what type of food you like, it doesn’t matter. It just matters that we all have the right to be who we are in this society. And we need to keep fighting to make sure that there’s an even playing field for all people that are being oppressed."
From drag queens to jocks, the LGBT are proudly standing up for themselves and love, with grace. Two great examples...
From Outsports:
Chandler Whitney wanted to come out to his Walla Walla Community College baseball team, he just didn't know how or when. Over winter break he had spent time with his boyfriend, Willamette University kicker Conner Mertens, and his friends and felt acceptance by Mertens' hometown friends. It was a relief to be open and honest about his relationship with them.
When he returned to school last month, Whitney was more at ease with his sexuality. He didn't want to hide from his teammates anymore.
"I'd been planning to do it at some point anyway," Whitney told Outsports, "and seeing the reaction to Conner's story calmed me down."
Last week when the baseball team gathered for the first practices of the new year, talk turned to stories from winter break. Because he'd spent much of the break with Mertens, Whitney felt the time was now. He stood up in front of the team, said he had contemplated whether to tell them a secret or not, and shared a "confession" he'd been holding back from them since they first met:
"I'm gay."
The team broke into spontaneous applause. It took Whitney off-guard.
"Being where I am in eastern Washington, it's not the response I expected. I'm in Walla Walla, there's not a lot of open-mindedness on the surface."
In 2012, over 60% of the Walla Walla County voters rejected a ballot measure that ultimately legalized same-sex marriage in the state of Washington; Barack Obama garnered less than 40% of the vote there.
"I didn't necessarily expect hostility, but I expected a guy or two to feel uncomfortable or awkward. Everyone on the team shook my hand, gave me a hug and said we're a family and they had my back. The guys I thought would feel the most uncomfortable said don't worry about a thing, it's not a big deal."
Whitney grew up in a Catholic household in Beaverton, Ore., just a couple miles from Nike world headquarters. He was a standout baseball player, going between first base and outfield.
"I'm a pretty good hitter," Whitney said. "And my defense is fair."
He batted .350 in high school with a .461 on-base percentage. He was first-team all-state in Oregon his senior year, leading the team to the state semifinals. He attended Southridge High School, coincidentally the same name (but not the same school) as Mertens' high school. You can check out Whitney's college recruiting video below.
2/2/14
2/1/14
This Federal court case might change everything for the LGBT: sexual orientation may be subject to "heightened scrutiny," as are race and gender now
From the Huffington Post:
In the next few weeks, AbbVie, a pharmaceutical company that produces an important AIDS drug, will make a decision that could have a far-reaching effect on gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgender people, and not just those with HIV.
If the company appeals a recent court ruling and wins, it will come as a blow to those who hope to see states around the country topple the remaining barriers both to same-sex marriage and to laws that protect gay people from discrimination.
The case did not initially concern gay rights at all, but was instead a fight between two pharmaceutical giants. In 2007, a drug company called SmithKline Beecham Corp. sued a rival drug producer, Abbott Laboratories. Abbott, which later spun off its drug research activities into a new company, AbbVie, had quintupled the price of its popular AIDS drug, a move that ended up hurting SmithKline's bottom line.
Predictably, Abbott's decision to raise the price of its drug sparked anger and protest from AIDS activists. Still, the case may have never come to the attention of the broader gay rights community if not for an attempt by Abbott to tilt the jury's makeup in its favor: In 2011, a lawyer for Abbott dismissed a potential juror who had revealed he was gay and had friends with HIV. SmithKline argued that the removal was discriminatory, and last week the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals agreed.
In the unanimous ruling, a three-judge panel called the exclusion of gay jurors unconstitutional. The reach of this ruling goes beyond gay jurors, however, because it touches on one of the most significant legal questions concerning gay rights today: Should laws related to sexual orientation be subject to "heightened scrutiny"?
Over the last several decades, the Supreme Court has developed a three-tiered system for classifying alleged violations of the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment, which says that states can't deny people equal protection of the laws. When the Court classifies a case as deserving of "heightened scrutiny," it falls to the state to prove that its laws serve an important state interest. Until recently, the court has reserved this level of scrutiny for cases involving race and gender. But that’s changing.
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