This week’s going to be a billion times nicer than last week. I pinky promise. Here’s some loving animals to prove it.
Happy Sunday Funday! It’s all rappers against homophobia and pictures of puppies from here on out.
LGBT Athletes: Come Out, Come Out, Wherever You Are
Never too late to recruit the first gay pro athlete, amirite? The YOU Belong Sorts & Leadership Initiative is a camp for queer and allied youth athletes run by two former professionals looking to pay attention to the future of gay athleticism:
While the debut of an out NFL player (or several) is something to look forward to as it would force the league to confront its homophobia in a more tactile way, youth advocate and out former NFL player Wade Davis says many of us are missing the point.
“I actually think the quest for the first gay athlete is the wrong starting place. We should be working to make sure that we can create safe enough spaces within sports and elsewhere that would make disclosure a safe possibility,” Wade told BuzzFeed via email. […]
Speaking about the inspiration for the camp, Moore noted, “We wanted to come up with a proactive solution to the problems that we both assessed — namely, the dearth of attention paid to young people within the larger LGBTQ movement and the lack of conversation and programming centered on the needs of LGBTQ youth within sports environments.”
Here, Here Are Some Carbs
Just in case you’re like, stressed or something.
High-protein diets might still be all the rage, but it’s time for their reign of tyranny to come to an end. You know why? Because nothing will ever beat a carb. Potatoes, rice, and bread will get you every time — and why not? The ultimate point of living isn’t to be as healthy as possible — it’s to have a great fucking time. And what’s a better time than French fries? Possibly sex. Maybe.
Plus, this week has pretty much blown, and so it’s probably best for us to carbo-load our troubles away. It’s science!
After thirty years of research (eating pounds of every known carb), I’ve come up with the 31 best ones. They are in descending order, and this is not open to debate. (Of course it is.)
Chinese Lesbian Street Wedding
A Chinese lesbian couple welcomed the Prime Minister of Iceland (and her rarely mentioned wife) to the city of Guangzhou by holding their wedding nearby. How sweet of them to invite her!
The couple identified as Xiaoyang and Xiaoxiao went to Guangzhou’s High Street Wednesday morning (17 April) in white wedding gowns holding hands and kissing, Yang Cheng Evening News reports.
As Sigurdardottir and her partner of 13 years Jonina Leosdottir visited Beijing from 15 to 18 April, Xiaoyang said she was holding a wedding to greet the couple and also made people more respectful of untraditional marriages and loves. […]
Many passers-by were at a loss when Xiaoyang and Xiaoxiao approached them with a sign reading: ‘Marriage is not about hims or hers, please give lesbians your blessings.’
Cat & BB Goat
Alt Scouts Are Too Cool
The gay-inclusive Navigators USA program has seen a doubling of their membership in the last year, probably because the Boy Scouts of America blow so hard.
T-Pain: Fuck Homophobia
T-Pain just ain’t got time for that.
Attention all homophobic idiots: if you’re not attractive to straight women, you’re probably not attractive to gay men. You can unclench now
— T-Pain (@TPAIN) April 16, 2013
Happiest Puppies of All Time
What the world needs now are happy dogs.
Navigators USA sounds awesome! While reading the article, this jumped out at me: “After having experiences in separate boy and girl scouting organizations, they felt that there was a need for an alternative, non-discriminatory, secular organization.”
As an employee of Girl Scouts, I’ve been asked numerous times if I felt okay working for a scouting organization. Because they must all be like BSA, right? Wrong. First of all, Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts are not connected. At all. Period.
Secondly, “Girl Scouts of the USA and its local councils and troops value diversity and inclusiveness and do not discriminate or recruit on the basis of race, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, national origin, or physical or developmental disability.”
Also, after my two years away from GS, my boss literally hunted me down and wouldn’t stop emailing me until I agreed to apply for my current job. And I used to date her roommate, who also works for GS. You could say that’s one amazing straight ally, or you could believe me when I say she’s representative of GS as a whole.
Anyway, in the specific case of Navigators USA, I hope that the girl scouting organization that caused problems for these volunteers was not a branch Girl Scouts of the USA. If it was, they were misrepresenting the organization as a whole.
(Don’t believe me? http://www.advocate.com/youth/2012/12/19/3-big-differences-boy-scouts-versus-girl-scouts )
Sorry about being on a soapbox, but if even ten people read this comment, I’ll feel better knowing that’s ten more people that know that Girl Scouts is an amazing gay-friendly organization!
I was a Girl Scout for a long time when I was younger, and my mom was my leader. I am from a very rural area and coming out was something that took a long time for me to come to terms with. Girl Scouts was one of the most positive influences in my life, I think how they empower and educate young women is great. They were also the only organization I was in contact with when younger that actually promoted gay rights and tolerance.
So basically, thanks for everything you’re doing. I think the Girl Scouts are great!
Really good point! I was a GS too for a long time when I was growing up and I still have so much love for Girl Scouts. I think it IS very imp. to point out to people who still think there’s any connection between Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts that the two aren’t at alllll the same thing.
That being said, I think what’s really great about these alt groups is that they’re looking past the gender binary that dominates mainstream scouts. I think it’s awesome that they’re providing an alternative space that focuses more on inclusiveness for any and all genders, sexual orientations, etc. etc. (The names of the organizations alone can be seen as marginalizing). I love love love that there are other options out there that are getting some recognition! Respect to any and all inclusive scouting groups out there, period.
I was in Camp Fire growing up (a gender-inclusive organisation since the 1970s!) and it was a really good experience for me. I agree that while there’s a place for organisations like the Girl Scouts, I was really glad that there was a co-ed organisation for me.
Another scouting alternative is Spiral Scouts. It also rejects the homophobia (and religious bigotry and racism) of the Boy Scouts. And it’s co-ed! If I should ever wake up in The Mirror Universe where I actually have children, I’d sign them up in a heartbeat!
As much as it pains me to say it, T-Pain just won some of my respect.
Every time I see his name I think of the “Cute With Chris” rendition of “Buy You a Drank.” Then I wander around for the day mumbling “crunk juice, walk it out”.