Here’s an assortment of things I’ve come across on the web this week that I’d thought I’d share with you all, to brighten up your weekend.
Hope you’re all having a great day!
1) Tragically Funny:
2) Old ladies sometimes speak the plainest. 
3) For the gay geeks amongst you, I might just have found you the world’s best cake
4) Some wise words
5) And lastly, possibly my most exciting discovery of the week: Put your finger in your ear and scratch repeatedly – it sounds like Pacman eating!
Defying Conservative MPs who want to drop the proposal to legalise gay marriage, Lynn Featherstone (UK equalities minister) has delcared “There will be no U-turn on equal marriage”.
The recent poor performance in local elections by the Conservative-Liberal Democrats Coalition Government has provided some of the less gay-friendly MPs with the excuse to call on their parties to abandon “fringe issues” such as the move towards equal marriage and focus on the economy instead.
Thankfully, Featherstone understands that altering priorities does not mean abandoning all other commitments, and is being quite vocal in reminding her contemporaries of this.
The post on her constituency website states:
In the aftermath of a tough set of election results for both Conservatives and Liberal Democrats – I couldn’t help but notice a few naysayers popping up in the media and uttering dire warnings about a government that needs to concentrate on core issues rather than same sex civil marriage.
For goodness sake – it’s not either / or.
The economy is clearly the No 1 priority – but the Coalition can multi-task!
There will be no u-turn on equal marriage – we are committed as a government to legislate by 2015
Her comments are not expected to help the already prominnent tensions between the two coalition parties, but this sort of vocal attitude in defiance of certain Conservative MPs is probably exactly what the Liberal Democrats need in order to help rescue their crashing reputation amongst the UK public.
Featherstone launched a consultation on marriage reform earlier this year, and you are invited to leave and comments on her site.
While a significant number of Conservative MPs are objecting to the proposal, it is worth noting that the Prime Minister, David Cameron, has been vocal in supporting the change. Furthermore, The Daily Telegraph – a conservative-leaning newspaper – included an online poll in their report of this story and at the time of writing 78.8% of readers have voted in favour of legalising gay marriage.
See here for my previous article on the Coalition for Equal Marriage’s video campaign, and more information.
Photo Credits: All photos are from Stonewall UK. You can learn more about their campaign for equal marriage on their website.
Usually I only post a link to another article or site if I feel like I have a substatial contribution to justify me writing about it. In this case, however, I just wanted to make sure that this really great infographic is shared.
The Guardian newspaper have put together an interactive pie chart depicting all the different states and which of the various gay rights are [in most cases NOT] permissable, respectively. It breaks it all down from whether gay marriage or adoption is legal, through hospital visitation rights, to laws against hate crime and discrimination in schools.
It also groups the states by geographical location. While it comes as no surprise to most of us that the North-Eastern states fare best, closely followed by the South-Western states, it’s interesting to see the stark contrast between states such as Maryland and Mississippi – states within the same country, but with such different political liberties.
While much of this might not be news to you american readers here, as a Brit I think it’s really great that such resources and information is being made accessible and obvious to people around the world. For many of us, the political landscape of having such varying laws across states within the same country is hard to comprehend.
Hey, well look at that, I guess I did have something to say (no surprise there). So, go check it out! http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/interactive/2012/may/08/gay-rights-united-states?fb=native
‘Freedom of speech’ is a rhetoric we throw around in The West nowadays as if most people understand it and respect it. But as the image above shows, this is far from the case in many parts of the world – and even media in the West is somewhat restricted.
[Click on the photo to view it in a larger format]
Today is World Press Freedom Day – an international attempt to highlight the restrictions, censorhip, or removal of knowledge that is available to the public, or permitted for publishing by the media. Here at Back2Stonewall we pride ourselves on our independent, unrestricted ability to disseminate truths, share information and to throw in a little opinion when we feel like it (OK, sometimes it’s a lot of opinion but we respect you readers enough to make up your own mind, to add your comments and to engage in intellectual debate). In many countries sites like ours is a far-off dream.
As readers of this website, I assume you recognise the need and importance for freedom of speech and freedom of the media. Sadly, Reporters Without Borders reports that there have been 22 journalists killed already in 2012 and a further 161 imprisoned. With tragic irony, one journalist was killed in Somalia just yesterday.
In his huffingtonpost article today, Jeremy Browne wrote:
“Internet freedom exists and is unstoppable – attempts to block sites and to stifle free debate will prove to be futile. The question for governments around the world is not how to repress free speech – online or offline – but rather how to engage and interact with their population.”
Unfortunately some countries are proving that internet freedom is not completely unstoppable, but hopefully they will acknowledge and accept Browne’s logic and effectively mobilise their citizens rather than restrict them.
[Photo credit: Reporters sans Frontiers]
A billboard has become a topic of heated discussion in City of Industry.
The message is portrayed by the large image of a condom, coupled with the words “why not?” is simple, obvious and effective. For some members of the community, however, having “the reality” of HIV/AIDS “shoved down your throat” is objectionable..
See ABC News’s report here:
Yes, there may be a few awkward conversation with your children, but hopefully these are conversations that you were going to have with them sooner or later anyway? It amazes me how some people prefer to live in ignorance than to acknowledge a message that is designed to protect them and their family.
The marketing team of Sauza Tequila have gone all out in using sex-appeal in their latest advert. With the husky voice, dirty uniform, and [somewhat] muscly body I’m fairly sure that I should be meandering in a stupified state towards the nearest supermarket to purchase their alcohol right now. But despite a frozen margarita being my favourite drink (take note boys), and the man in the video being far-from-ugly, for some reason I’m just not sold.
But, of course, you are free to enjoy the hunky fireman and make up your own mind.
The campaigns group, Coalition for Equal Marriage, made this emotional (and kinda hot!) video.
They say a picture is worth a thousand words. I’m not sure how much weight that old saying would give to “moving pictures”, but in this case the correlation seems accurate; this video needs no introduction:
Please remember to sign the petition, and to follow their other campaigns advice: http://www.c4em.org.uk/.
Two gay men from the Czech Republic have rocked the porn world recently, not just because they are twin brothers, but because they are lovers.
Elijah and Milo Peters, 22 year old twins, are a well known feature of the porn site Bel Ami for their “twincest”.
“My brother is my boyfriend, and I am his boyfriend,” one of the twins tells Salon.com in a phone interview from Prague. The writer notes that the two sound so much a like, it’s impossible to tell who’s who. “He is my lifeblood, and he is my only love.”
Clearly there is something fundamentally tempting about the twins; after all many would state ‘what’s the only thing better than having a hot man infront of you? Having two hot men infront of you!’ And Bel Ami have certainly reaped the benefits of the world’s desire to see this twincest in action: traffic to the company’s website has doubled since the twins first started appearing in 2009.
But once you’ve gotten over the intrigue, and the eroticness of two beautiful Eastern-European men together, you may well come down from the dizzying hedonism and ask yourself about the morality of it all. Now, I’m certainly not here to lecture you on your morals and values (not least of all because I’m somewhat undecided myself) so instead I wish to put the question to you - see the poll below.
Therefore, I pose this question to you, and welcome any comments or justifications to your response:
Loading ...Note: the Peters brothers aren’t the first twins to make a go of it together in porn, but they look to be the first managing to make a success of it.
And the twins say they have no intention of quitting any time soon. “We want to keep making videos for Bel Ami for the next 50 years”.
p.s. Does anyone else really love their names? (who am I kidding, none of you are focusing on the aesthetics of their NAMES here)
Because we never tire of looking at his face…
(And the memes are pretty funny)
In an interview on Good Morning America, Little said “I kind of feel honoured to be part of a joke that’s in good spirits because sometimes the internet can be a little vicious or jokes can get bent the wrong way. These are all, for the most part, positive and it’s funny that everybody’s taken … to it. It’s, I guess, the most flattering way to get spread across the internet.”
Not only is he great to look at, but he’s got a good heart too – he’s planning to use his internet stardom to help raise money for aortic disease whilst running the New York marathon.
Although they mention that he has a beautiful girlfriend in the interview, they don’t show her in the aforementioned link, so we can live in ignorance guys and keep dreaming!
