Australia: Anti same-sex marriage group warns of 'Dad-less' kids risk

An Australian anti same-sex marriage group has marked Father's Day by releasing a video warning of the dangers of children growing up without Dads. The Marriage Alliance commercial uses American statistics to back its claims that children without fathers are more likely to drop out of school, run away from home, be involved in crime and end up in prison.

Spokeswoman Sophie York said same-sex couples were deliberately denying children their fundamental right to have a male and female role model. While the video did not mention divorce, death and other circumstances that might result in a child growing up without a father, Marriage Alliance said in its statement it did acknowledge those factors.

"But deliberately putting a child into fatherless parental arrangement as occurs with a same-sex relationship or a legalised same-sex marriage means putting that child at extreme risk," it said. "It legitimises an increase in fatherless kids." Read More via Sydney Morning Herald

Eddie Redmayne on Transgender Rights and Finding ‘The Danish Girl’

To portray the transgender artist in “The Danish Girl,” Eddie Redmayne built the character from the inside out. He started by poring over Lili Elbe’s pseduo-autobiography “Man Into Woman,” chronicling her groundbreaking 1920s gender reassignment surgeries, and studying sketches of her.

He read other books, such as the 1974 memoir “Conundrum” by transgender author Jan Morris, and watched the British TV series “My Transsexual Summer.” He even met separately with six transgender women from different generations to absorb their experiences. “Their openness of spirit was unlike anything I’d ever seen,” Redmayne says on a recent afternoon near his home in London. “That was galvanizing — you felt the trust.” Read more 

Stunning Guinness ad features Gareth Thomas on coming out as gay

A new advert for Guinness features rugby star Gareth Thomas talking about feeling alone when he came out as gay. The new campaign was launched by Guinness this week, and celebrates “stories of strength of character and integrity from the world of rugby.”

Guinness is also releasing longer documentaries featuring Thomas and others, and their stories.
“Rather than focus on physical attributes of what makes a rugby player, this campaign looks to inner qualities like courage, empathy and resilience,” Guinness said in a release.

According to Guinness, the video “tells the story of how the former Wales captain’s greatest fear wasn’t the opposition he faced on the pitch, but the fear of rejection from everything he had known, because of his sexuality. Read more via PinkNews

Andrew Garfield Is Ready for "a Pansexual Spider-Man

Spider-Man can only be white, male and straight, according to Sony and Marvel Studios. One former Spider-Man, however, calls that hogwash.

In an interview for his new film 99 Homes, star Andrew Garfield told Mic he doesn't "give a shit about the sexual preference" of Spider-Man. This stands in stark contrast to leaked documents Gawker brought to light in June, in which the film studios strictly outlined the man behind the mask, Peter Parker, as "Caucasian and heterosexual."

Garfield admitted he didn't know about the contractual obligations when he played Peter in The Amazing Spider-Man and its sequel. In an interview with Mic, however, he said he hopes the role could be less limited in the future.

"I'm excited to get to the point where we don't have to have this conversation," he said, "where we can have a pansexual Spider-Man." Read more via Mic

This Director Just Did In China What “Brokeback Mountain” Couldn’t 10 Years Ago

...get official approval to show his gay romance film in Chinese theaters.

Looking For Rohmer, or “Seek McCartney” as it’s sometimes incorrectly called, is adapted from Wang’s short novel telling “an emotional story about two men,” the director’s statement on the website of 2015 Shanghai International Film Festival says.

It took a year for the film to pass China’s strict censorship. But hearing the film survived with no edits being made, the well-known filmmaker immediately took to Sina Weibo and wrote, “a small step for censors, a big step for filmmakers.” Read more via Buzzfeed

Out in Japan, a spotlight featuring sexual minorities in Japan

Out in Japan is an attempt to highlight the presence of LGBT people in daily life -- a community that is not especially high-profile in Japan. Some Out in Japan #002 participants offered suggestions about how to make the fairly invisible LGBT community more visible, while others spoke about the obstacles to doing so. Read more

Bangladesh gets first lesbian comic strip

Bangladesh's first comic strip featuring a young lesbian discovering her sexuality has been launched in the capital to raise awareness of the plight of gays in the conservative Muslim-majority nation.

Boys of Bangladesh, the country's largest gay rights group, on Saturday night launched "Dhee", the Bengali word for intellect or wisdom.

"By creating Dhee, we want to shape perception of LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) people, because we should be free to choose whom to love," Mehnaz Khan, one of the four content developers of the comic, told the AFP news agency.

"It's about carrying the message to all." Read more via Aljazeera

Russia: Moscow premiere film festival gets canceled after government pulls funding

The culture department shifted funding to a new “positive, youth-oriented” festival, the Youth Festival of Life Affirming Film, headed by Yevgeny Gerasimov, member of United Russia.

Vyacheslav Shmyrov, head of the canceled festival, said that Moscow Premiere had a “very different program,” including Russia-88 and Winter’s Path, movies about Russian neo-Nazis and a “gay-themed debut feature that struggled to get distribution in Russia."   Read More via Think Progress 

India: Supreme Court effectively shelves Gujarati film, says homosexuality akin to social evil for some

Observing that a section of society may perceive homosexuality as akin to “social evils”, the Supreme Court has effectively pushed into cold storage the release of a Gujarati film that depicts the “sufferings of a homosexual” prince from the state.

Meghdhanyshya — The colour of life is based on the true story of the “gay prince of Rajpipla”, Manvendra Singh Gohil, and has been cleared by the Censor Board, but will now not be seen for at least 3 years.

“I think the movie is killed,” filmmaker Devmani said. “It cannot wait for another three or four years when there is no certainty that the court will eventually rule in my favour. It is ironical that movies showing extra-marital relationships and containing scenes of rape and violence are given the exemption but a movie depicting sufferings of a homosexual person does not pass the state’s muster,” he added. Read More via Indian Express

Gay in Cameroon: National team bans fastest-ever hurdler

On Aug. 8, Thierry Essamba suffered a setback — another setback. Just as in 2014, he was again forbidden from competing because of his sexual orientation. The fact that he is the fastest hurdler in Cameroon — the nation’s record-holder in the 110-meter hurdles — didn’t secure him the right to compete again for the gold.

He recalls his emotions as the Central Africa Track and Field Championships got under way: “I felt so bad. I wondered if I were no longer a Cameroonian...I felt someone had just thrown me out of Cameroon. I cried. I felt excluded from the country that I love so much. “

Much has happened since Essamba was expelled from the squad by Michel Nkolo, the technical director of Cameroon’s national track team. Soon afterward, Essamba’s family evicted him from his home. He was left with no means of support. He fell into depression and tried to commit suicide. But he did not do that — and he did not give up on racing. He kept training. He ran faster.   Read More via 76 Crimes

Philippines: Typhoon Grindr, liberation, and post-disaster sex

“Before Haiyan, all we had on Grindr was mehhhh – four or five people. After Haiyan, boom – white men!” Jericho*, 28, finds it hard to recall much of a social scene in Tacloban before Typhoon Haiyan. A senior manager at one of the Filipino city’s most expensive hotels, he recounts a routine that consisted of going to the gym in the morning and walking home along empty streets after dark in a city where “everyone knows everyone.” 

2013's Typhoon Haiyan was clearly a disaster, but it was also a powerful gust of change, not least in Jericho’s social life. While some residents have left Tacloban to cope with trauma or find work, the city has welcomed an influx of professional aid workers, able-bodied gap year volunteers, and fellow Filipinos seeking opportunities and hoping to help in the recovery. 

“Overnight,” Jericho says, “my Grindr became the United Nations.”

In the immediate aftermath of Haiyan, patchy mobile phone signal notwithstanding, survivors longing for intimacy turned to Grindr to arrange discreet meet-ups with aid workers, who themselves sought distraction. Grindr is also used to forge platonic friendships, especially as foreign visitors, local volontourists and disaster researchers (author included) longed for social spaces to unwind from physically and emotionally demanding relief work. Read More via IRIN

US: Duke students reject award-winning book over gay themes

"Fun Home" may have won several awards for author MacArthur "Genius" Award winner Alison Bechdel, but some Duke University freshmen were not impressed. The 2006 graphic novel, an autobiographical work about Bechdel coming to terms with her homosexuality as her funeral-director father remains closeted, was selected as a summer reading book for the Duke Class of 2019. But some students declined to read it because of its sexual themes and use of nudity.

"I feel as if I would have to compromise my personal Christian moral beliefs to read it," incoming freshman Brian Grasso wrote on Facebook. "The nature of 'Fun Home' means that content that I might have consented to read in print now violates my conscience due to its pornographic nature," freshman Jeffrey Wubbenhorst added in an email to the publication.

"Like many universities and community, Duke has had a summer reading for many years to give incoming students a shared intellectual experience with other members of the class," said Michael Schoenfeld, vice president for public affairs and government relations: "'Fun Home' was ultimately chosen because it is a unique and moving book that transcends genres and explores issues that students are likely to confront." Read More via CNN