![#FlashbackFriday - THE GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT. [Vintage Video Clips]](https://i0.wp.com/www.back2stonewall.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Forgotten-gay-folm.png?resize=475%2C234)
Ryan James Yezak has released another spectacularly edited montage of vintage news clips that weaves the narrative of the federal ban on blood donation by gay men into a larger picture of the LGBT civil rights struggle.
It will shock you. It will make you cry and it will make you angry. And hopefully, it will make you FIGHT because in reality it’s not that much different today.
![Actor Charlize Theron Vows To 'F**k Anybody Up' Who Tries To Take Away LGBT+ Rights. [VIDEO]](https://i0.wp.com/www.back2stonewall.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Charlize.png?resize=400%2C232)
During the Drag Isn’t Dangerous telethon, which was organized to combat the wave of anti-LGBT+ laws being proposed across the United States.
During the broadcast, Academy Award-winning actor Charlize Theron publicly threw her support behind the LGBT+ community and drag queens, vowing she would “fuck anybody up” who tries to take away LGBT+ rights.
“We love you queens. We’re in your corner and we’ve got you, and I will fuck anybody up who’s trying to fuck with anything with you guys.”
There are so many things hurting and really killing our kids and we all know what I’m talking about right now, and it ain’t no drag queen—because if you’ve ever seen a drag queen lip sync for her life, it only makes you happier, it only make you love more, it makes you a better person.”
Charlize Theron
The telethon featured appearances by a number of Drag Race legends, including Jinkx Monsoon, as well as popular film and television stars Leslie Jones, Amy Schumer and Melissa McCarthy.
As of this writing they raised more than $565,000.
Thank you to Ms. Theron and her friends for their love and public support.
new! ✨ charlize theron during her participation today (07), in the program "drag isn't dangerous". pic.twitter.com/VsxGme5VQv
— charlize theron daily (@dailytheron) May 7, 2023
UPDATE: Megyn Kelly has invited Charlize to “come fuck her up.”
We sincerely wish Ms. Theron would take her up on her offer.
"Why doesn’t Charlize Theron come and f-ck me up? Because I'm 100% against her on this."@MegynKelly on Theron's drag queen comments. Watch the FULL clip – https://t.co/CjYdB8eOIn pic.twitter.com/bvHSoDHPpR
— The Megyn Kelly Show (@MegynKellyShow) May 12, 2023
“My husband, Martin Luther King Jr., once said, “We are all tied together in a single garment of destiny… an inescapable network of mutuality,… I can never be what I ought to be until you are allowed to be what you ought to be.” Therefore, I appeal to everyone who believes in Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream to make room at the table of brotherhood and sisterhood for lesbian and gay people.
Gays and lesbians stood up for civil rights in Montgomery, Selma, in Albany, Ga. and St. Augustine, Fla., and many other campaigns of the Civil Rights Movement. Many of these courageous men and women were fighting for my freedom at a time when they could find few voices for their own, and I salute their contributions.” – Coretta Scott King, -November 9, 2000.
Human Rights Day is observed every year on the 10th of December. It commemorates the day on which, in 1948, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In 1950, the Assembly passed resolution 423 (V), inviting all States and interested organizations to observe 10 December of each year as Human Rights Day.
As the world marks 74 years of the adoption of the UDHR, the UN’s year long campaign #StandUp4HumanRights draws to a close. By this campaign, the UN aimed to “call on people to take action for greater freedoms, stronger respect and more compassion for the rights of others”.
We must reaffirm our common humanity. Wherever we are, we can make a real difference. In the street, in school, at work, in public transport; in the voting booth, on social media.
The time for this is now. “We the peoples” can take a stand for rights. And together, we can take a stand for more humanity.
It starts with each of us. Step forward and defend the rights of a refugee or migrant, a person with disabilities, an LGBT person, a woman, a child, indigenous peoples, a minority group, or anyone else at risk of discrimination or violence.
“Where, after all, do universal human rights begin? In small places, close to home — so close and so small that they cannot be seen on any maps of the world. […] Unless these rights have meaning there, they have little meaning anywhere. Without concerted citizen action to uphold them close to home, we shall look in vain for progress in the larger world.” — Eleanor Roosevelt
As we have reported here before some regions the country of Poland have set up LGBT Free Zones to the horror of the European Union who has annouced it will withold funds from Poland.. The clash grew this week with s a top Polish court ruling that rejected key parts of EU law.
Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki has accused the EU of blackmail in a heated debate with European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen over the rule of law. The clash in the European Parliament follows a top Polish court ruling that rejected key parts of EU law. Mrs von der Leyen said she would act to prevent Poland undermining EU values. In response,
Mr Morawiecki rejected “the language of threats” and accused the EU of overstepping its powers. Poles overwhelmingly support being part of the EU, opinion polls suggest, but Poland’s right-wing nationalist government has increasingly been at odds with the union on issues ranging from LGBT rights to judicial independence. The latest row has come to a head over an unprecedented and controversial ruling by Poland’s Constitutional Tribunal that in effect rejects the core principle that EU law has primacy over national legislation.
BBC News
European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen told the European Parliament that the European Commission – the EU’s executive – was “carefully assessing this judgement”.
She said the situation had to be resolved: “This ruling calls into question the foundations of the European Union. It is a direct challenge to the unity of the European legal order.”
Mrs von der Leyen laid out three ways the European Commission could respond to the Polish court judgement.
The options, she said, were legally challenging the court ruling, withholding EU funds and suspending some of Poland’s rights as a member state.
The European Commission is yet to approve €57bn (£48bn; $66bn) of Covid-19 recovery funds earmarked for Poland, and may not do so until the dispute is settled.
Last week, three Polish regional councils voted not to declare their provinces “LGBT-free zones” following the European Union’s threats to cut up to €126 million in funding to the local governments. This is a change to recent resolutions, which first passed intended to “protect heterosexual family values, and battle an attack on “traditional” Catholic values.
The European Commission wrote to five Polish regional councils at the beginning of September urging them to abandon declarations that they are “LGBT-free” in order to receive funding.
Poland has been ruled by the ultra-conservative right-wing Law and Justice (PiS) party since 2015.
But many in Poland question if the change is really true. “Politicians are playing with us,” Polish LGBT activist Bart Staszewski told the BBC news. “I mean they don’t want to revoke the whole resolution, they just want to replace it with another one.”
Poland, one of the worst countries next to Russia for LGBT opression is entering a decisive phase after the EUs top court declared, not for the first time, Wednesday that Poland is undermining the independence of its judiciary.
Wednesday’s ruling from the Court of Justice added more weight to its previous decisions against Poland acceptance into the European Union.
The ruling came in a case brought by an outspoken Polish judge who accuses the government of harassing judges it doesn’t like and trying to kick them off the bench.
Six members of an Islamist militant group were sentenced to death on Tuesday by a court in Bangladesh for the brutal killing of two gay rights activists five years ago.
Xulhaz Mannan, 35, the editor of Bangladesh’s first magazine for gay people, and actor Mahbub Rabbi Tonoy, 25, were hacked to death in Mannan’s apartment in the capital Dhaka in April 2016.
The most serious attack came in July of 2016, when gunmen stormed a cafe in the diplomatic quarter of Dhaka and killed 22 people, most of them foreigners.
The brutal murders were part of a series of attack claimed by Ansar Al Islam, the regional arm of al Qaeda.
Of the eight defendants in the case, six were found guilty of murder and sentenced to death,
The Special Anti-Terrorism Tribunal also convicted the six of belonging to a terrorist organization, the al Qaeda-inspired domestic militant organization Ansar Ullah Bangla Team, Khan said, a group that police believe is responsible for the murders of more than a dozen activists and bloggers
A lawsuit has been filed by LGBT students and alumni of Yeshiva University, (YU) a private modern Orthodox Jewish research university in New York City, alleging the university is violating their rights under NYC’s human rights law by denying the recognition of the universities LGBT group the YU Pride Alliance, as an official club
The university released the following statement on the lawsuit:
“At the heart of our Jewish values is love — love for God and love for each of His children,” the statement said. “Our LGBTQ+ students are our sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, family and friends. Our policies on harassment and discrimination against students on the basis of protected classifications including LGBTQ+ are strong and vigorously enforced. Our Torah-guided decision about this club in no way minimizes the care and sensitivity that we have for each of our students, nor the numerous steps the university has already taken.”
Yeshiva University is unique because it has had secular status since 1969 and should be treated like any other institution that would not be allowed to discriminate against a group of LGBT students. Without formal recognition from the university, the LGBT students cannot use campus facilities for meetings, receive funding and advertise on campus platforms.
According to a 1995 university memo obtained by one of the alumni and mentioned in the lawsuit, Yeshiva University received advice from a law firm that it was required to allow LGBTQ students to form a recognized student organization under the city’s human rights law, but it has not complied with that legal advice.
In a surprise move Puerto Rico Governor, Wanda Vázquez signed new civil codes into effect earlier this week that overhauls a series of laws regulating various rights, including LGBT rights. The changes and the fact that no public hearings were held has angered the LGBT community and many of the island’s citizens.
Via METROWEEKLY:
Among the 130 amendments in the newly approved code were provisions that eliminate the ability of transgender individuals to change the name and gender marker on their birth certificates — even though Vázquez claims that the process for amending a birth certificate remains the same — and removes legal protections for LGBT[Q] people that prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity.
Vázquez signed the new Civil Code against the backdrop of continued criticism of her administration’s response to the murders of nearly a dozen LGBT Puerto Ricans over the last year and a half.
In a prepared statement Governor Vasquez had the nerve to refernece George Floyd and also quoted Martin Luther King, Jr.
“Abuse, mistreatment, discrimination nor the violation of human rights in any way is neither acceptable nor permitted,” said Vázquez. “We all have a civic duty to respect that is fundamental in a peaceful society.”
Pedro Julio Serrano, founder of Puerto Rico Para Tod@s, a Puerto Rican LGBTQ advocacy group, in a statement noted: “They removed the discrimination bans in order not to include sexual orientation and gender identity. When they gouge LGBT+ (my acronym) people’s eyes out, they gouge everyone’s eyes out.”
San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz also criticized Vázquez.
“With this signature to the Civil Code, the governor makes it clear that she has no words. And worse, she creates the scenario for a rollback of our rights.
On a personal note: This writer had planned a trip to Puerto Rico this November over Thanksgiving. This morning we have cancelled all reservations and airline tickets. We urge all in the LGBT community to do the same and avoid Puerto Rico as a tourist destination.
#BoycottPuertoRico
#PuertoRicoIsOverParty
Via the BBC:
Voters in Switzerland have backed a proposal to make discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and sexual identity illegal. The result of 63.1% in favour to 36.9% against is a huge boost for Switzerland’s LGBT community.
It had argued Swiss law on the issue lagged far behind other countries in Europe. Opponents of the new law argued it could restrict free speech. In Switzerland, discrimination because of race or religion is already illegal.
In the run up to the vote, campaigners had said they thought the result would be tight, and that a yes vote of more than 60% was unlikely. Sunday’s outcome shows public opinion is far more receptive to strengthening anti-discrimination legislation than analysts had predicted.
Under the new law, those who “publicly degrade or discriminate” others on the basis of their sexual orientation, for example by denying same-sex couples entry to a nightclub, could face a jail sentence of up to three years. The law does not affect private conversations such as among friends or family.
Several European countries such as Belgium, Germany, France, Ireland and the UK already have similar legislation in place.