If you missed last year’s DragCon do not worry Drag Race fans. World of Wonder has announced the 2nd Annual RuPaul’s DragCon will be held in Los Angeles May 7 and 8 2016. The Huffington Post reveals this year’s convention is supposed to bring in tens of thousands of people to LA to celebrate the art and style of drag and is said to be more wild than the first.
After much speculation about his sexuality, 19-year-old British diver Tom Daley admitted in a YouTube video he is dating a man. Daley tweeted the video to his more than 2.4 million Twitter followers early Monday, according to the Huffington Post. In the video Daley confesses he met the guy this past spring and it “made him feel so happy, so safe.” He felt that “everything just feels right.” Spring transformed Tom Daley’s life and he felt his “whole world changed right then and there.” Get more…
New England is one of the best places to work if you are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender, according to a new report by XpertHR, an employment law website. The Top 10 LGBT-Employment Friendly States survey based rankings on marriage equality, workplace discrimination protections and same-sex partner benefits. The Huffington Post revealed the North East had the most states including New York, with California and Iowa joining the list.
XpertHR’s Head of Content, Peggy Carter-Ward, praised the states for their efforts in a press release:
“These states are leaders in safeguarding LGBTs against discrimination in the workplace — by passing gay rights ordinances, permitting same-sex marriage, providing benefits to same-sex partners, and/or outlawing hate crimes.”
Another huge impact, according to XpertHR’s Legal Editor Beth P. Zoller, was the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling on the Defense of Marriage Act. Zoller also shares in the report that 52% of the LGBT population reside in states that do not promote employment discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity. Though a number of states have put forth legislation protecting the LGBT community from employment discrimination, Zoller points out no equivalent federal protections currently exist. She echoes Carter-Ward by reporting these states permit couples same-sex marriages and provide them with the same or similar rights and benefits as heterosexual couples and have enacted legislation by banning hate crimes against LGBT individuals.
Here are the The Top 10 LGBT Employment Friendly States (in alphabetical order):
California
Connecticut
Iowa
Maine
Massachusetts
Minnesota
New York
Rhode Island
Vermont
Washington
James Franco published his thoughts on Ryan Goslings new film The Place Beyond the Pines and reading it sounds somewhat like a gay porno review.
According to the Gay, Lesbian, & Straight Education Network’s (GLSEN) report entitled “Strength and Silences: The Experiences of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Students in Rural and Small Town Schools,” students living in rural areas are more likely to feel unsafe in their academic environments then those who live in urban areas. GLSEN collected information for the study from the 2011 National School Climate survey and documented the experiences of more than 2,300 LGBT students attending schools in rural U.S. regions.
Only 13 percent of rural LGBT students stated school workers always or most of the time intervened when hearing anti-gay remarks and 27 percent reported having a gay-straight alliance at school, compared to the 53 percent of their urban counterparts. It was also noted that a rural LGBT student who experienced high levels of victimization and trauma was less likely to plan to go to college than those who were barely bullied at all. The Huffington Post shares other interesting findings in the report: