-jin:

“It’s a time-honored tradition at Navy homecomings — one lucky sailor is chosen to be first off the ship for the long-awaited kiss with a loved one. Today, for the first time [according to the Navy], the happily reunited couple was gay.”

Love should exist in all forms, everyone. ♥

Love is love is love.

ilovethegayoneandthehobbit:

You support animal rights? Are you an animal?

Really now.

On another note, thank you New York City for FINALLY legalizing same-sex marriage!

thedailywhat:

This Is Important, You Should Know About It of the Day: Openly lesbian Syrian blogger Amina Arraf, who fearlessly wrote about her country’s political turmoil at A Gay Girl in Damascus under the nom de plume Amina Abdallah, was abducted last night by armed men while on her way to a meeting in Damascus.

Her cousin Rania wrote about the abduction on Amina’s blog: “Amina was seized by three men in their early 20s. According to the witness (who does not want her identity known), the men were armed.” Rania goes on to report that the men covered Amina’s mouth and hustled her into “a red Dacia Logan with a window sticker of [president Bashar al-Assad’s deceased brother] Basel Assad.”

The Guardian says Amina — who is an American citizen as well — “had become increasingly popular after capturing the imagination of the Syrian opposition as the protest movement struggled in the face of the government crackdown.”

Supporters have taken to Facebook and Twitter to draw attention to Amina’s unlawful seizing, but, according to Rania, it’s unclear who took her or why. “Unfortunately, there are at least 18 different police formations in Syria as well as multiple different party militias and gangs,” she wrote in a recent update. “We do not know who took her so we do not know who to ask to get her back. It is possible that they are forcibly deporting her.”

Updates on Amina’s situation will be posted on her blog.

[guardian / globalvoices.]

“Your hatred do not define us but explains who you are.” - Gino and JR

timetruthhumor:

Memo To Home Depot: Thank You For Supporting Gay Rights

 

*********************************************************

Recently, the American Family Association (AFA) presented Home Depot’s board of directors with AFA’s demand that they stop funding gay pride events and other events that promote tolerance and diversity.

The AFA had a petition with about 500,000 signatures from people who have vowed to boycott the store unless it joins them in their campaign against gay people.

Home Depot responded with a resounding “No Way!”

From boingboing:

Home Depot Chairman Frank Blake told the AFA to take a hike, stated that Home Depot was proud of its support for diversity, and that’s that.

Like all big box stores, Home Depot isn’t without its problems, but today, they’ve shown some real backbone.

Click here to sign our petition to say THANK YOU to Home Depot Chairman Frank Blake for taking this strong stand.

From Judy Molland of Care2.com

justonedimple:

My Top 5 Michael Jackson Singles

#5| They Don’t Care About Us (HIStory, 1995)

“I’m tired of being a victim of shame, they’re throwing me in a class with a bad name, I can’t believe this is the land from which I came.”

Hits close to home- and to a lot of issues.

breathsoftruth:

monkeyknifefight / invertebrateparty:

When I was in fourth grade, I was sitting with my cello, waiting for my orchestra concert to begin. The cello was on the floor, but I was seated in my section in a long dress with my knees spread wide, and my elbows on my thighs. My mom - in the audience - gestured to me for five minutes to sit “properly,” and when I didn’t follow her instructions, she came up and reprimanded me for sitting “like a boy.”

When I was a senior in high school, I gave one of my good friend’s a copy of my senior portrait. Rather than thanking me and saying I looked cute/pretty/whatever, she looked at it for a while until she asked, “Why are you posing like a guy?” In the photo, I was sitting on steps, but my legs weren’t crossed … you know, how people normally sit on steps.

When I was in graduate school, I was walking to dinner with some colleagues. I was in front of the group with a male friend, walking as I normally do - rather quickly and in a straight line. A guy moving toward us had to step out of the way for me, and my male friend said to me, “Wow, you just barrel right through, don’t you?” I replied, “Yeah? Why shouldn’t people get out of the way for me?”

The way women use space and move through space is constantly policed. We are told to fold up, cross our legs, defer space to others, be as small and insignificant as possible, and interfere with the movement and space of others as little as possible. I see it on public transit, where women shrink into their seats. I see it in classrooms, where women don’t spread their stuff beyond the width of their chair. I see it in magazines, where women are photographed differently from men. I see it everywhere.

A good number of these “presence” norms are embedded into gendered constructions of etiquette, and they get internalized; so much of the policing women experience is actually self-policing. It is rude for a woman to cross her ankle over her knee, or stand with her legs shoulder-width apart, or to expect others to move around her. A woman can get all of the other bits of a feminine gender performance right, but if that woman doesn’t use space in the proper manner, she will be met with resistance and condemnation - her own or someone else’s. But where she has gone wrong will be noticed, and she will be told. Even if she is not corrected outright, her behavior will be the subject of comment (as was the case with my male colleague above). She will be made to feel continually anxious about her presence in space. She will shrink and fold until she nearly disappears.

Men can be expansive, and command as much space as they like. They can sit with knees splayed wide and arms draped over several seats, their crap strewn six feet in either direction, creating a massive bubble of space that is theirs. They can walk down the street, and assume the straight line in front of them is theirs, as far as they desire to go. Men take up space - even technically unoccupied space - and no one questions them.

Women’s space is always borrowed. Even women’s bodies don’t really create a bubble that is all their own. If a woman has enough room to sit or to stand, that is deemed to be enough for her. She isn’t supposed to claim anything beyond her physical, bodily allotment, and even that is policed if she is “too tall” or “too fat.” If she does, she’ll be made to feel it.

THIS

equalitopia:

Unfair Adoption

An illustration by Michael Dimotta for Instinct Magazine.

My heart, it breaks in the truth of this.

clickclaire:

NO TO HETEROSEXISM!!

I sure hope we can organize something similar in the Philippines! <3 LOVE is LOVE is LOVE.

I want to live in a Philippines that is more open-minded, inclusive. A country that does not hold double standards and recognizes an individual’s right to be protected from discrimination and violence. A country that recognizes the equal right to love.

PASS THE ANTI-DISCRIMINATION BILL NOW!

freemah-ness:

stfuhomophobes:

UPDATE: 300,000 around the world have already signed this urgent call. Add your voice now to keep up the pressure!

Can you please sign and share this petition demanding that Ugandan President Museveni stop the human rights violations by publicly vowing to veto the “Kill the Gays” bill?

In the next 24 hours, conservative lawmakers could move a bill that would make being LGBT in Uganda a crime punishable by death.

This hateful bill is part of a pattern of the Ugandan government’s violent repression of pro-democracy forces within the country - and time is running out to stop it.

PLEASE SIGN. We must not allow this law to be passed.

PLEASE. JUST PLEASE.

sexualsuicide:

lalatoostupid:

technicol0urhipster:

1-direction-:

iloveaidengrimshaw:

So much respect for this man.

This is amazing.

^^^

;O

 you win at life, sir.

THIS <3

aceshitsuji:

thisaintafairyytale:

There are people who have said that I’m being brave for being openly supportive of gay marriage, gay adoption, basically of gay rights but with all due respect I humbly dissent, I’m not being brave, I’m being a decent human being. And I don’t think I should receive an award for that or for merely stating what I believe to be true, that love is a human experience not a political statement, however, I acknowledge that sadly we live in a world where not everybody feels the same. My family and I will help the good fight continue until that long awaited moment arrives, when our rights are equal and when the political limits on love have been smashed.

I like this.