Sunday Funday Is Gonna Be A Big Star

Happy Sunday Funday! This week I worked on the further perfection of my Pandora playlists and I am proud of how they are shaping up. Hopefully, you stayed cool and maybe wore your swimsuit once or twice or five times. Also, I hope you all had the opportunity to use sparklers, unless they aren’t legal or available near you in which case I hope you found another source of unending joy.

This week, I bring you positive feelings about the justice system – which is rare – and other feelings that are all somehow happy, optimistic, and brief at the same time. Did you know Jennifer Lopez is writing about lesbians and Google wants you to be loved all over the globe? Now you do.

Google’s Global Gay Marriage Campaign

Yesterday, Google launched the “Legalize Love” campaign in Poland and Singapore. The effort will expand eventually to include every country in which Google holds offices, and is focused around ending homophobia:

Google’s Mark Palmer-Edgecumbe said: ‘We want our employees who are gay or lesbian or transgender to have the same experience outside the office as they do in the office. It is obviously a very ambitious piece of work.’

Google will work with other organizations to lobby the governments.

Palmer-Edgecumbe said: ‘Singapore wants to be a global financial center and world leader and we can push them on the fact that being a global center and a world leader means you have to treat all people the same, irrespective of their sexual orientation.’

The campaign sprung out of concern on both a social and business level, based on the overriding idea that “this is the right thing to do” and also by a history of problems for LGBT employees for Google stationed around the world. When homophobia persists and makes it impossible for a work environment to be successful, it slows down operations and complicates arrangements, and makes it harder to hire LGBT employees at all. And for that reason Google is encouraging countries to take leadership in ending anti-gay sentiment and improving the average day of their gay citizens.

The campaign will focus on regions where it is illegal to be gay, or similarly homophobic areas.

The Rest: Gay Marriage Round-Up

+ Efforts to reverse gay marriage in New York were dismissed by the state’s Appellate court this week:

Gov. Andrew Cuomo applauded the ruling.

“The court’s decision affirms that in our state, there is marriage equality for all, and with this decision, New York continues to stand as a progressive leader for the nation,” he said in a statement.

+ Taiwan is about to experience the first same-sex Buddhist wedding in its nation’s history, and at the helm are two women hoping to make an impact on the region’s attitudes toward same-sex couples.

+ Australian politician Malcolm Turnbull can’t make sense of the anti-gay-marriage movement anymore, and is now approaching the issue from a gradualist perspective by advocating for same-sex civil unions to be made legal in the nation:

“We should not miss the opportunity to legislate for civil unions for same sex couples in this parliament,” Mr Turnbull said.

“I recognise that will be seen by many as not good enough. But it is better than nothing and, as I said in the House last week on another issue, it is a great mistake to allow your conception of the perfect to be the enemy of the good.”

Latinos Love Gay People, Also Are Gay People Sometimes

Today, 21 Hispanic groups across the nation launched a public education campaign that advocates for the acceptance of LGBT family members. The “Familia es Familia” effort will begin with its official launch at the National Council of La Raza annual conference in Las Vegas.

Gay Blood Donations May Be Coming Soon

In light of a national shortage, The FDA has begun to reevaluate the long-standing ban on gay men being able to give blood.

The Advocate Endorses Obama

The Advocate has officially endorsed Barack Obama for President – marking the magazine’s first endorsement in decades:

[Obama] has approached many of [the LGBT community’s] challenges with intellect and foresight, though the long game was not often apparent to many, including this publication when we argued for a quicker pace for change. Obama deftly ended the military’s 17-year-long “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, allowing enough military leaders to reject the policy before pushing for repeal so that there was little room for Republican opposition. He has directed the Justice Department to not defend aspects of the extraordinarily discriminatory Defense of Marriage Act, calling it unconstitutional and urging its repeal. Now five federal judges have declared parts of DOMA unconstitutional.

And in every speech, at every opportunity, Obama describes LGBTs as his brothers and sisters, full members of our society. In college commencement addresses, in his address to the NAACP, in an “It Gets Better” video message to teenagers, at the National Prayer Breakfast, he has called for respect, dignity, and equality for LGBT people. At an address to the General Assembly of the United Nations in 2011 the president said, “No country should deny people their rights because of who they love, which is why we must stand up for the rights of gays and lesbians everywhere.”

In an open letter, Editor Matthew Breen noted that The Advocate typically critiques leadership rather than reward small gains. He doesn’t expect the critique to end – and knows Obama will, in the end, do us right. “We will push,” he wrote. “But for now, we celebrate.”

Positive Feelings About Justice

+ In Denver, the Sheriff’s Department has worked on addressing the issue of trans* inmates with a progressive policy on their placement and treatment within the jail system, including the creation of a Transgender Review Board that will decide accommodations for each on a case-by-case basis. The city sees one to three transgender inmates each month.

People behind this policy say it’s about basic human rights …“It’s very much about equality,” said Courtney Gray with the LGBT Community Center of Colorado. “It’s about respecting people, although someone may have broken the law.” “This is definitely the most progressive policy in the state,” Gray said. “Nationally, it’s definitely one of the most progressive and comprehensive in the country.”

+ The Washington, DC Police Gay and Lesbian Liaison Unit now has a full-time Sergeant for the first time since 2009.

Serena Williams Takes Wimbeldon

Serena Williams took home a Wimbledon title this year. Again. This is her first title since 2010, after which she overcame serious health problems.

Chad Griffin Goes Home

Chad Griffin spent his first day as the new President of the Human Rights Campaign at home in Arkansas, where he was often victimized by gay bullying, in an effort to improve the lives of gay youth:

…last month [Griffin] returned to the Arkansas community where he spent his Sundays in a Baptist church and heard kids call him gay slurs in school, to show that he stands with young gay people in small towns across the country.

“One’s state’s borders should not determine one’s rights,” said Griffin, the new president of the Human Rights Campaign.

As the first Southerner to head the Washington-based group, Griffin has a knack for translating the fight for gay rights into language familiar to people in the Bible Belt. He sometimes borrows phrases from the pulpit — brothers and sisters, God’s children — to advocate equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.

Jennifer Lopez Scripting A Lesbian Show for ABC Family

Jennifer Lopez is in the process of creating an ABC Family drama centered around a lesbian family. If the show is picked up, she may also be a guest star. To anyone who ever watched and rewatched a JLo video alone – this one’s for you:

According to a new report from Deadline, actress/singer/perfumist/dancer/MILF ‘American Idol’ judge Jennifer Lopez is looking to develop a new hour-long series with ABC Family.  The as-yet-untitled series will follow a lesbian couple who have their already child-heavy household turned upside down when a wayward teenage girl moves in with them.

One of the adoptive mothers of the series is a police officer, while the other teaches private school.  Together, they have one biological son and adopted teen twins, one a boy, the other a girl.

Pandas On A Slide

These pandas are on a slide. That is all.

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Carmen

Carmen spent six years at Autostraddle, ultimately serving as Straddleverse Director, Feminism Editor and Social Media Co-Director. She is now the Consulting Digital Editor at Ms. and writes regularly for DAME, the Women’s Media Center, the National Women’s History Museum and other prominent feminist platforms; her work has also been published in print and online by outlets like BuzzFeed, Bitch, Bust, CityLab, ElixHER, Feministing, Feminist Formations, GirlBoss, GrokNation, MEL, Mic and SIGNS, and she is a co-founder of Argot Magazine. You can find Carmen on Twitter, Instagram and Tumblr or in the drive-thru line at the nearest In-N-Out.

Carmen has written 919 articles for us.

24 Comments

  1. Hey Carmen its Malcolm Turnbull, not Mike.

    Even though he is very wrong about civil unions, I have to give the guy credit for being the only senior member of the conservative party willing to talk about it and not toe the party line. Also, his ‘step 1: civil union, step 2: marriage’ concept was shot down by the leader of his own party making him, Abbott, look like even more of a homophobe. Thats a win in my book. I think it was, politically speaking, quite a clever move. It could stir up enough conservative support to demand a conscience vote on marriage equality (where MPs vote as they choose not in a bloc), or prompt some conservative MPs to cross the floor (vote against their own party) when the legislation comes before parliament.

    Or maybe I’m just hopelessly optimistic.

    Aren’t Pandas just the loveliest.

    • I’m really keen for the aftermath of the vote. I’m pretty sure it’s doomed whether Abbott allows a conscience vote or not, but I think that is only going to make the movement stronger. I think a lot of people who feel like it should just be a non-issue are going to realize it really is something we have to fight for when it doesn’t pass.

    • When I was about 10, my knowledge of politics basically stretched to: Malcolm Turnbull is the only remotely decent Liberal, John Howard is a dickface, the Labor party and the Liberal party are basically the same thing only we hate the Libs way more, and we laugh at Pauline Hanson because she’s racist and irrelevant. :D

      Speaking of Turnbull, it’s pretty sad that even if he’s only going for the civil union deal for now, he’s still way ahead of most of the supposedly more progressive Labor party. I seem to remember Gillard, an atheist, using the Bible as a reason for personally opposing marriage equality, because that just makes so much sense.

      (in other news, pandas are the best things ever)

  2. Have you SEEN the signs Google is using?! My friends, this campaign is a slippery slope all the way to legalizing robot love.

  3. I must say, I love our Google overlords.
    Also, how do I apply for the job of Panda Cub Slide coordinator?

  4. -spoiler alert about the wimbledon men’s final-

    FEDERER!!!!! WOOO! his 7th wimbledon title, 17th grand slam title, and getting his #1 ranking back! this is gay news, as in happy!

      • nice one! extra points for creativity! this is why i luv autostraddle. its the place to find cool queers and cool queers who luv tennis!

  5. JENNIFER LOPEZ. OH MY GOD. The 11 year old-me inside is screaming with joy.

    Seriously, my obsession with Dianna Agron pales in comparison to what I once had with JLo, so this is a big fucking deal to me.

  6. Hey y’all. It’s the FDA not the Red Cross who is reevaluating their policy. Pretty sure the Red Cross wants the gay blood to do good in the world.

    • Regarding your 2nd sentence – nope. AFAIK Italy and Spain are the only two countries in which the Red Cross doesn’t ban gay male donors from donating blood ; in some countries there’s a temporary ban since the last guy-on-guy sexual encounter (usually 1 year), but in most others one-time gay sex rules you out for life. The Red Cross is constantly whining about their low blood supplies, but they apparently don’t care enough to give up homophobia.

      • Its do to increased risk of HIV, though they screen the blood for any infections/ STIs when they take it, one of the reasons the military blood donation program dropped it from their screening when DADT went away.

  7. I hope we get the JLo show in Ireland :D If we don’t I’m going to A) Cry B) Smash my TV C) Write and angry letter D) All Of The Above.

  8. I hope Jlo’s show has LGBT writers on board, after all no one knows gay like gay. I would hate for there to be bad stereotypes put in there accidentally.

Comments are closed.