Gareth Thomas, David Cameron, Ben Cohen and Billie Jean King Fight Homophobia in Sports

From left: Gareth Thomas, David Cameron, Ben Cohen and Billie Jean King at a Downing Street reception to launch the charter

“We are committed to helping people from all communities have access to sporting opportunities without fear of discrimination or prejudice. This charter will help sports design policies, structures and processes to improve equality within their sport.”

Richard Lewis, Sport England Chair

As part of the drive to tackle homophobia in sport, Sport England, Sport Northern Ireland, Sport Scotland, Sport Wales and UK Sport last week jointly signed up to the Government Equalities Office (GEO) Charter on Homophobia and Transphobia in Sport.

The aim of the charter is to make sport a welcoming environment for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people.

Sport England joins the likes of the Lawn Tennis Association, the Football Association, the Rugby Football League and the Rugby Football Union as well as sports stars including Martina Navratilova, Billie Jean King and Gareth Thomas in signing up to the Charter.

The organisations have come together with a shared desire to address the issues that affect participation in sport by lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered (LGBT ) people. The Home Countries will continue to work in partnership to ensure that opportunities to participate in sport are open to and supportive of everyone.

The charter outlines the importance of creating an environment where everyone is able to participate and enjoy sport, whoever they are and whatever their background.

It also pushes the agenda of fairness, equality, respect and dignity. Sport teaches individuals how to strive and succeed, how to cope with success and disappointment, bringing people together with a common goal.

Commenting on the charter, the Prime Minister David Cameron said: 'I think it's great that here in No 10 we have got representatives of the governing bodies of almost every single sport you can think of, signing the charter and saying it's time to put an end to homophobia.

Sport England Chair, Richard Lewis, said:

“We are committed to helping people from all communities have access to sporting opportunities without fear of discrimination or prejudice. This charter will help sports design policies, structures and processes to improve equality within their sport.”

If you would like to sign the charter or you require any additional information then please contact Holly Riley at the Government Equalities Office.

posted on http://www.sportengland.org

These Are The 'Cojones' we Need In The Dems.Diane Savino SI;NY is got them

Staten Island Advance photos"My Facebook, my opinion," state Sen. Diane Savino said. "So much for civil discourse," Tea Party organizer Frank Santarpia, a Huguenot resident, counters. But Ms. Savino said she can say what she wants on her private Facebook, on which Santarpia is one of her friends.

 This post appeared at the Staten Island
Advance(http://www.silive.com/) today. Im sorry I missed her quote at Fb, but when I read it on the net, I felt that rush of 'we gotta fight!' You might say why she said it on FB and not someplace else other than in FB? But anybody who posts at Fb knows there'r no secrets there. I have reported on the Senator unbiased as: Well done and medium rare, meaning I don't follow a democrat because I might be one. I follow because the democrat is not timid and is got the fortitude to stand on the right issues and compromise on the wrong but only after it's been water down as not to hurt your followers. Real funny of the Tea Party Spokesperson
{Mr. Santarpia} would talk about discourse? When have the tea party been on the side of.. {discourse}..well yeah..their discourse and no body else's. My congratulations to Senator Savino.

  Quote from http://www.silive.com/ :

A new "Mafia war" has broken out, and it's got nothing to do with wiseguys' wives or video games.

The Staten Island Tea Party is up in arms after state Sen. Diane Savino (D-North Shore/Brooklyn) called the group the "new Mafia" on her personal Facebook page.

"So much for civil discourse," said Tea Party organizer Frank Santarpia, a Huguenot resident.

But Ms. Savino said she can say what she wants on her private Facebook, on which Santarpia is one of her friends.

"My Facebook, my opinion," she said. "If you don't like the raw, uncut Diane Savino, tune to my official Senate site."

In a post this morning, Ms. Savino invited her 4,000-plus personal Facebook followers to "Meet the New Mafia," and linked to a New York Times editorial critical of the role that Tea Party lawmakers have had in the debt-ceiling negotiations.

"To compare a grass-roots movement of ordinary Americans, one that is concerned with putting our country's fiscal house in order, to an organized crime syndicate whose tactics include murder and extortion is beyond the pale," said Santarpia.

Santarpia pointed out that Ms. Savino, who has served as the head of the New York Conference of Italian-American Legislators, last year slammed GOP gubernatorial candidate Carl Paladino for using an anti-Italian slur against Democrat Andrew Cuomo.

She has also spoken out against what she sees as anti-Italian stereotyping seen in shows like "Jersey Shore" and "Mob Wives."

"I would like to know if Ms. Savino has ever stepped out of her comfort zone to meet or speak with a Tea Party member," said Tea Party co-organizer Lorraine Scanni. "It seems she is more at home spouting sound-bites of contempt from the comfortable confines of her Facebook page."

But Ms. Savino was unapologetic, calling the Tea Partiers' comments "a manufactured controversy."

"I'm entitled to say what I want," she said. "If you don't like it, un-friend me."

Ms. Savino said that her Facebook "is like my living room."

"If you're there, you listen to my opinions," she said. "And I'll listen to yours."

Is This Woman-Michelle B-Over Caffeinated, Mean or Just Crazy for Power?

Chris Buck for Newsweek also  adamfoxie* after dotted line

Newsweek picked a striking photo that distilled Bachmann to her newsworthy essence. It's also simply true that Bachmann does something very interesting with her eyes when there's a camera in her sights. Sometimes she's looking at something off camera, as she did when she delivered the Tea Party rebuttal to the State of the Union, which makes her seem distracted and/or demented. Often she just keeps them open impossibly wide and unblinking, which led Chris Matthews to ask her memorably if she was hypnotized on election nite. 

............................................................................................................................................................

 Some people say the media is being unfair to publish photos like that. The media was publishing embarrassing pictures of Al Gore, Clinton(both), John Kerry and their wives. The point is this is a woman that has said what no man  or woman in modern times has said  while running for the office of President of the United States about race, sex, religion, changing 0nes' sexuality, religion, the current president of the USA and the opposing party.

She makes up as she goes and changes history and current events. No Matter that someone most have told her she goofed in circle. but she believes the holy spirit will erase people's mind and transplant another truth. Just like ner husband Gray fox Marcus is trying to do with gays that dont want to be gays anymore. Yes there are gays that don't like being gay, like a little girl in my family that dont like being born with darker complexion  that her sister and would rather would have been born whiter and blond. Michael Jackson's Doctor better keep away from her...

So yes we are born with what've got. Does not mean we chose. So her Gray Fox is out there charging medicaid and medicare( which they want to abolish) and getting rich out of these individuals trying to change their sexual orientation.

That's where her photos come in with their actions. People don't know what is keeping this vicious fire alive. Yes I know the fire of the holy spirit..but Im talking about people that think with their brains and not their toes.

What do you think is keeping these show going? Let me know.....if you leave a message for this story it will pop up after 30-120 minutes..Im  short handed. But it will pop ip unless is spam or abusive(will give a lot of lead way on this one, as not to infringe on your first amendment rights)

adamfoxie*

Hate crimes against LGBT community are on the rise, Despite Acceptance

BY RUTH FINE, SAN DIEGO BY LGBT WEEKLY 
by LGBT Weekly

Crimes spanning robbery, beatings, and even murder have increased significantly this year alone, with statistical data that shows a contributing to a rise in hate incidents by 13 percent from 2009 to 2010. This year, the LGBT community has also mourned 27 deaths arising out of murders, the second-highest total amongst groups in the United States.

After a series of violent acts against the LGBT community hit headlines this year, it comes as no surprise that crimes against gay people are on the rise, according to Suzanna Walters, professor of gender studies at the Indiana University, and author of All the Rage: The Story of Gay Visibility in America.

Offenders of the crimes were mostly strangers: white, non-transgender men.

Walters says the rise of homophobia is “hidden,” ironically due in part to the rise of social support of the LGBT community. Social acceptances like marriage and the repeal of the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy have all contributed to a larger support of gays within the community, but while the majority of America enjoys social change, there are many who act out against it through hate crimes.

“These positive changes are very real, there is no doubt about it, but the more visible you are as a community the more vulnerable you are, too,” she says in an interview with MSNBC.

Major cities like New York, Chicago, Kansas City, and surprisingly San Francisco have all reported a rise in hate crimes against the LGBT community. But, while crimes against the LGBT community are on the rise, violent crimes throughout the United States are on the decline.

“There is a protection in the closet, as awful as that is. Real homophobia with violent outcomes is not a thing of the past and there is much more work to be done.”

Lenny Travis Cover of UPTOWN Magazine & its time for a luv Revoltn'

http://theybf.com/

Lenny Kravtiz covers UPTOWN Magazine's 2011 Style issue and we have some sizzling behind-the-scenes photos and highlights from the cover story with the rock sex symbol inside....

For the August/September issue style issue of UPTOWN Magazine, Lenny Kravitz sat for a candid interview with the magazine and donned some kick-butt fashions as well.

He opened up to the mag about his childhood saying, that he was often teased in school and called "zebra" because of his Jewish father and Black mother.

“I was the kid they knew was different. They knew who my parents were
and would call them Mr. Day and Mrs. Night, or they’d call me zebra.”

He added that when the family moved to L.A. for his mother (Roxie Roker) to do "The Jeffersons", he was enrolled in high school but rarely attended.  His friend and musician Jill Jones said, 

“Lenny would move easily through all the groups. There were black kids who hung together in the cafeteria, the geeks, the Asians, surfers, the rocker kids. He
hung with all of them." 

He also revealed he had a close relationship to Teena Marie.

 “She would cook a lot. It was her and
Penny Johnson, Rick James’ little sister. They looked after me, fed me. She took
me to concerts. She took care of a lot of folks. The big reason why I am here 
[is] because of this sister. She was for real. She was self contained,
a multi-instrumentalist, a writer, producer."

GLSEN a Target of the right For Pamphlet GLSEN Didn’t Publish

By Zack Ford  http://thinkprogress.org/lgbt/

  

The Family Research Council and MassResistance — both anti-gay hate groups — target GLSEN (Gay, Lesbian Straight Education Network) in a new scare-video. GLSEN is an organization that advocates for LGBT youth in schools, defending the formation of gay-straight alliances (GSAs) and advocating for anti-bullying policies. But FRC and MR are attacking GLSEN for a publication called the “Little Black Book,” describing it as “the most vile assault on teenagers ever concocted by homosexual activists”:

There are a number of problems with this attack. First, GLSEN had nothing to do with the publication or distribution of the book. MassResistance makes the entire booklet available online and nowhere on it does “GLSEN” appear. Second, the book is geared toward men who are 18 or older. Third, this isn’t something new; blogger Alvin McEwen debunked this story nearly two years ago.

Beyond all that, the publication is designed to be a frank resource for how to be safe and healthy when engaging in same-sex behaviors. When MassResistance president Brian Camenker says it helps men find places to meet other men? He’s distorting the fact that it merely lists community resources, health clinics, and gay bars. (Surely a booklet listing bars is not designed for “5th through 9th graders.”) And when he says it tells “kids” how to safely perform sex acts, he’s misrepresenting that it actually tells its target audience how to be safe when performing various sex acts (as opposed to how to perform the acts).

This clip is part of a larger propaganda film FRC has produced called “The Problem with Same-sex Marriage” that also largely highlights the work of NARTH (National Association for the Research and Therapy of Homosexuality), a group which promotes and practices harmful ex-gay therapy in open opposition to recommended psychological research and consensus.

The “Little Black Book” is not a pamphlet for everyone, and it’s not a pamphlet for kids. It’s still a resource designed to improve health and teach safe sex to gay men. That these two hate groups would use this to attack an organization that had nothing to do with it shows how insidious their efforts are to demonize and disparage the LGBT community.

Bachmann’s ‘Must-Read’ List Included A Book/Claims Blacks Were ‘Better Off As Slaves

By Travis Waldron posted from ThinkProgress Politics 

Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann (R) has already made one slavery-related gaffe during her presidential campaign, signing a pledge produced by the Iowa FAMiLY LEADER that included language suggesting black children were better off under slavery than they are now. Bachmann offered half-hearted apology at the time, saying she had only signed the “candidate vow,” not the part that included slavery, and compared it to “economic enslavement” brought on by taxes.

But in his profile of Bachmann released yesterday, The New Yorker’s Ryan Lizza revealed that Bachmann’s “worldview” on slavery goes much deeper. In 2002, then-state Sen. Bachmann’s campaign posted a “must-read” list of books on her web site. Included in the list were the Declaration of Independence, The Federalist Papers, and a book titled, “Call of Duty: The Sterling Nobility of Robert E. Lee,” authored by J. Steven Wilkins. The Lee biography includes this apologetic passage:

Northerners were often shocked and offended by the familiarity that existed as a matter of course between the whites and blacks of the old South. This was one of the surprising and unintended consequences of slavery. Slavery, as it operated in the pervasively Christian society which was the old South, was not an adversarial relationship founded on racial animosity. In fact, it bred on the whole, not contempt, but, over time, mutual respect. This produced a mutual esteem of the sort that always results when men give themselves to a common cause.

The credit for this startling reality must go to the Christian faith.

Wilkins goes on to claim that slavery existed on a “relationship of trust and esteem,” that positive race relations may have progressed further if the pro-slavery South had won the war, and that Lee, despite being a slave-owner himself, “never held any animosity for blacks.”

After explaining the “cruelty and barbarism” of “pagan” Africa, he goes on:

The fact was (and is) easily demonstrable that, taken as a whole, there is no question that blacks in this country, slavery notwithstanding, were “immeasurably better off” in nearly every way [than they were in Africa].

In Lee’s view, however, emancipation could only be accomplished successfully if it was gradual. Time was needed for the sanctifying effects of Christianity to work on the black race and fit its people for freedom. [...]

Abolitionism was not the best answer.

The idea that the relationships between white slave owners and black slaves were not founded on racial animosity has no basis in history. Whites viewed themselves as inherently superior to blacks, who were bought and sold as property and, for population counts, were worth only three-fifths of a white person. The idea that sanctifying blacks through Christianity made them “immeasurably better off” than they would have been in Africa, meanwhile, ignores the utter loss of humanity caused by enslavement. It ignores the untold number of blacks who died on slave ships, the sale of blacks at auctions as if they were livestock, the families split up at an owner’s whim, and the loss of all basic human rights, not least of which was their own free will.

Bachmann has a history of using slavery analogies, and she has made multiple mistakesregarding American history already in her campaign. None, however, is nearly as disturbing as her love for a book that attempts to explain away the horrors of slavery by rewriting history to make it seem like it was a minor price to pay for the sanctifying favors whites did blacks by bringing them to America as slaves.