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Moscow rejects petition for gay pride march

Tue, 14 May 2013 17:29:00 +0000

Days after a 23-year-old gay man was brutally murdered in what Russian authorities believe to be a hate crime, Moscow city officials have denied a permit request to hold a gay pride memorial march in the victim's honor.

After filing the request on Monday, gay rights activist Nikolai Alexeyev announced a plan to hold the march for Vladislav Tornovoi, “whether authorities grant permission or not."

City officials denied the request, saying there is "no need for such events in the city," as the Moscow Times reports:

Boy Scouts set to lift ban on gay youth members

Fri, 19 Apr 2013 17:00:00 +0000

In news that will go largely unnoticed due to the ongoing manhunt for the Boston bombing suspects, a spokesman for the Boy Scouts of America announced that the organization is set to vote in May on lifting a ban on gays in the organization.

Reuters reports:

If the vote is approved, "no youth may be denied membership in the Boy Scouts of America on the basis of sexual orientation or preference alone," Deron Smith, the organization's spokesman, told Reuters.

Smith noted that the decision drew from three months of research, surveys and discussions and was "among the most complex and challenging issues facing the BSA and society today."

As the Washington Post points out, though, the statement stipulates that the organization will continue to ban adults “who are open or avowed homosexuals or who engage in behavior that would become a distraction to the mission of the BSA.”

Study finds rise in gay characters on network TV

Fri, 05 Oct 2012 11:29:00 +0000

NEW YORK (AP) -- The number of gay and bisexual characters on scripted broadcast network TV is at its highest-ever level in the season ahead, according to the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation. The total on cable television is also going up.

The 17th-annual "Where We Are on TV" report released Friday by GLAAD found that 4.4 percent of actors appearing regularly on prime-time network drama and comedy series during the 2012-13 season will portray lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender characters. This is up from 2.9 percent in 2011, which saw a dip in what had been a growing annual trend.

The study reviewed 97 scripted TV programs scheduled to air in the upcoming season on the broadcast networks, counting a total of 701 series regular characters. The study found that 31 of them are LGBT characters.

ABC has the highest amount with 10 out of 194, or 5.2 percent, of their regular characters identified as LGBT.

After leading last year, Fox ranks second with six LGBT characters out of 118 total series regulars, or 5.1 percent.

Must-see morning clip

Tue, 11 Sep 2012 13:53:00 +0000

Anderson Cooper and Kristen Chenoweth opened the season's first episode of "Anderson Live" by talking about Cooper's decision to come out earlier this summer. Chenoweth goaded Cooper about his "big summer," saying, "I just wonder if you'd like to say, like, I don't know -- you went out a lot. You came out, and talked."

Cooper officially came out via a letter to the Daily Beast's Andrew Sullivan in July, where he explained his decision to come out:

I’ve begun to consider whether the unintended outcomes of maintaining my privacy outweigh personal and professional principle. It’s become clear to me that by remaining silent on certain aspects of my personal life for so long, I have given some the mistaken impression that I am trying to hide something - something that makes me uncomfortable, ashamed or even afraid. This is distressing because it is simply not true.

Cooper echoed the same sentiments on camera yesterday, reiterating his message on the importance of transparency, "the tide of history only moves forward when everyone is fully visible."

Watch the full clip here: