THEGAYUK

Category: News

  • Barnardo’s charity throws its support behind gay marriage in Northern Ireland

    Barnardo’s charity throws its support behind gay marriage in Northern Ireland

    “Our support for same-sex couples to marry reflects Barnardo’s core belief that every person is different but equal and everyone’s unique worth should be recognised.”

    © DGLimages Depositphotos

    Barnardo’s NI is throwing its support behind the campaign for civil marriage equality in Northern Ireland. It is the first children’s charity in Northern Ireland to publicly voice its support.

    Barnardo’s is making the announcement to coincide with Belfast Pride’s Coming Out for Change Campaign.

    As a UK-wide organisation Barnardo’s has in the past supported marriage equality campaigns in other areas of the UK and in the Republic of Ireland.

    Director Barnardo’s NI Lynda Wilson said, “We work with many children, young people and families who are lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender. Many of our workforce and volunteers as a reflection of society also identify as LGBTQ and we do not discriminate.”

    “We are committed to providing equality of opportunity and believe marriage equality is an extension of that. As a children’s charity we want the children and families we support as well as our staff and volunteers to know that we will stand up for them and support them.  We believe marriage equality should be a right for all regardless of sexual orientation.”

    “Our support for same sex couples to marry reflects Barnardo’s core belief that every person is different but equal and everyone’s unique worth should be recognised. We work and live in a diverse and multi-cultural environment which Barnardo’s embraces and promotes.”

    “Marriage equality legislation has been passed in the rest of the UK, the Republic of Ireland, across western Europe, the USA and Australia and we hope that Northern Ireland will soon follow, giving same sex couples the right and freedom to marry if they so wish.”

    Marriage and Northern Ireland

    (C) BIGSTOCK

    Gay marriage continues to be a contentious issue in Northern Ireland for its politicians, particularly the DUP. Despite same-sex marriage being legal in England, Wales and Scotland, Northern Ireland is the only nation within the UK that doesn’t allow its gay and lesbian couples to get married. Instead, gay couples are only permitted to have Civil Partnerships, which are legally different to marriages.

    The subject of same-sex marriage has been voted on five times by the Northern Ireland Assembly. Each time it was blocked by the DUP.

     

  • A restaurant just served something that looks utterly gross to Milo Yiannopoulos

    The Cheesecake Factory allegedly served Milo Yiannopoulos this dish – that doesn’t look like it’s supposed to look like.

    Controversial journalist and speaker, Milo Yiannopoulos shared a photo of food that was served to him in a restaurant in South Miami. The item, which is supposed to be topped with melted white cheddar cheese, looked as though it had actually been spat or ejaculated in. He commented the photo “I was just served this”. He tagged the photo from The Cheesecake Factory in South Miami.

    The item he was served was supposed to be the Grilled Steak Tacos served with black beans and melted white cheddar cheese, according to the Cheesecake Factory.

    The post has been “liked” nearly 13,400 times and attracted thousands of comments. One commenter wrote that Milo should report the outlet to the authorities as it is a felony to tamper with someone’s food. Other users have pushed for Milo to sue the food outlet.

    I was just served this.

    A post shared by MILO (@milo.yiannopoulos) on

    Another user, savannahskyebruner, who works in the restaurant industry wrote, “As a full time food handler in the restaurant industry, I take pride in my work. Regardless of who I serve, it’s business as usual and always remains professional. This is absolutely vile and that/those employee(s) responsible should be fired”.

    The Cheesecake Factory replied on Instagram saying “Thanks for dining at The Cheesecake Factory. We’re so pleased to hear from our manager that you enjoyed your Grilled Steak Tacos served with black beans and melted white cheddar cheese. Please DM us if you need anything else.”.

    THEGAYUK.com has reached out to The Cheesecake Factory for comment.

     

  • TWITTER POWERLIST | The 15 most popular LGBT actors on Twitter

    Between them, the top 15 gay, lesbian and bisexual actors on Twitter have a reach of over 164 million people across the globe.

    To make it on to this list celebrities needed to have at least one million followers. Trans stars are vastly underrepresented in the media and therefore may contribute to the fact no trans actors had enough followers to qualify. However, the most popular transgender star on Twitter is Laverne Cox with 679,000 followers.

    (C) BIGSTOCK

    14) Ruby Rose @RubyRose

    Ruby Rose made a name for herself in Netflix’s smash hit Orange Is The New Black. She came out as a lesbian at the age of 12. She now has 1.3 million followers on Twitter.

    13) Kevin McHale @druidDUDE

    (C) BIGSTOCK

    The Glee actor came out in 2018 on Twitter and is a brand new entry to this list. He has over 1.35 million followers on Twitter. Apart from Glee Kevin McHale has also starred in the E4 panel show, Virtually Famous.

    12) Ellen Page @EllenPage

    Ellen Page
    CREDIT: (C) Ellen Page

    In 2016 X Men actor Ellen Page had 1.39 million followers, she has grown that by around 100,000 new fans to reach 1.4 million followers.

    11) Colton Haynes @ColtonLHaynes

    (C) BIGSTOCK

    American Horror Story and Arrow actor Colton Haynes has managed to create a nice following for himself with nearly 2 million followers (1.96 million) In 2016 he had 1.76 million followers.

    10) Jane Lynch @janemarielynch

    (C) BIGSTOCK

    The Glee actor has 1.8 million people following her every word on Twitter, this is slightly down from a peak in 2016 at 1.92 million. Since Glee finished Jane Lynch has appeared in numerous TV shows including, Manhunt: Unabomber.

    9) George Takei @GeorgeTakei

    C) BIGSTOCK

    The Star Trek original George Takei continues to be a Twitter favourite with 2.82 million followers. He’s actually had a huge uptake in followers since 2016 by over a million people. He is the oldest member on our Twitter Power list at 81-years-old.

    8) Chris Colfer @chriscolfer

    (C) BIGSTOCK

    Another Glee alumni, Chris Colfer has 2.36 million followers thanks to his advocacy, acting and range of children’s books – called The Land Of Stories. He has also seen a drop in followers from 2.56 million in 2016.

    7) Sir Ian McKellen @IanMcKellen

    (C) BIGSTOCK

    At 3.92 million followers Sir Ian McKellen is showing that age and technology should be no barrier. He has grown his following from 3.28 in 2016. Sir Ian is famous for his roles in the X Men films, The Hobbit and Lord Of The Rings. He is the second oldest on our list after George Takei who is 81.

    6) Kevin Spacey @KevinSpacey ‏

    (C) BIGSTOCK

    Kevin Spacey is a new addition to the Twitter Powerlist after he came out early in 2018 following accusations of sexual misconduct. He has 4.57 million followers, although he’s been pretty much silent since the allegations came to light.

    5) Stephen Fry @stephenfry

    (C) BIGSTOCK

    Stephen Fry has had a love-hate relationship with Twitter but that doesn’t stop him from being an incredibly popular actor on the platform. In 2016 he had 9.55 million followers, today he has 12.8 million followers. Stephen Fry is a much loved English broadcaster, author and actor. He left twitter in 2016 after receiving abuse on the social platform.

    4) Cara Delevingne @Caradelevingne

    (C) BIGSTOCK

    Model/ actor Cara identifies as bisexual and has been in movies like Valarian and Suicide Squad. She has over 10.3 million followers on Twitter, making her one of the most influential bisexual women on the planet.

    3) Ricky Martin @ricky_martin

    Ricky Martin
    CREDIT: kobby dagan/ bigstock

    Since his starring role in The Assassination of Gianni Versace, Ricky Martin can definitely be included in our actors’ power list. The entertainer who is properly most famous for his singing career in the early 00s has amassed 20.5 million followers.

    2) Neil Patrick Harris @ActuallyNPH

    CREDIT: Jean Nelson / Depositphotos.com

    Reaching far out ahead is Neil Patrick Harris with over 21.7 million followers although he has seen a massive decline in followers since 2016 when he had 24.1 million followers. Neil Patrick Harris famous for playing Barney Stinson in How I Met Your Mother and Doogie Howser in the show with the same name.

    1) Ellen DeGeneres @TheEllenShow

    (C) BIGSTOCK

    At the top of the tree, Ellen DeGeneres has a massive following of fans with 76 million of them. That’s nearly 20 million more since 2016 when she had 57.8 million. Since 2003 her talk show The Ellen DeGeneres Show is one of the US’s most successful syndicated shows in history and is now in its 15th series.

  • Owen Jones is encouraging advertisers to drop this radio station

    Owen Jones is encouraging advertisers to drop this radio station

    “The far-right is being normalised by the media”

    Owen Jones
    CREDIT: By Miquel Garcia [CC BY 2.5 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5)], via Wikimedia Commons
    Guardian columnist Owen Jones is urging advertisers to drop the Global radio station, LBC, after suggesting that the outlet is “normalising” the far-right. His campaign started after former UKIP leader, Nigel Farage, who has his own daily show on the station, interviewed former Breitbart co-founder and Donald Trump advisor, Steve Bannon.

    Taking to Twitter Jones wrote, “The threat of the far-right is growing. If fascists like Steve Bannon can be interviewed by his friend on national radio and call for right-wing uprisings and we do nothing – then calamity awaits”

    “LBC are legitimising and making mainstream right-wing extremism and fascism, at a time when the far-right is on the march and poses a grave threat to this whole country.

    “And major companies are absolutely directly complicit in it and they have to be held to account”.

    Natwest, McDonald’s, British Gas et al

    The left-wing writer reached out to a number of advertisers, including NatWest, McDonald’s, British Gas and TK Maxx who currently advertise on the station.

    Jones, using Twitter, wrote,
    “…do you want your brand to be associated with right wing extremism? Stop advertising on @Global Radio which gives Nigel Farage his own show”.

    Natwest, who is also a sponsor of the British LGBT Awards and Gay Star News‘s Digital Pride, said that it had no plans to change its advertising strategy.

    In a statement, Natwest said, “We have no current plans to change our advertising strategy, but we will continue to take steps to ensure our advertising doesn’t appear alongside content which is obscene, illegal, or at odds with our values”.

    Jones’ campaign was met with both praise and criticism with some following his example and writing to the advertisers in question asking them to stop sponsoring LBC‘s output. Some, however, criticised the writer for clamping down on free speech.

    Last year Owen Jones fronted a boycott campaign to rid the station of one of its most controversial presenters, Katie Hopkins. Shortly after Hopkins and LBC came to an agreement for her to leave the station. Jones was given a guest presenting spot.

    LBC is a national radio station which encourages listeners to call in and air their views. It has a broad panel of presenters from all sides of the political spectrum. Subjects regularly discussed on the station include, Brexit, Donald Trump as well as gender and identity politics.

  • Did you know that homosexuality is found in over 1500 species on earth?

    Same-sex attraction has been found in 1,500 species of animals through behaviour observation research studies. There are probably many more species if you consider that the number only accounts for the animals that have been studied. Here’s ten animals were gay liaisons or relationships exist:

    1. Lions

    Are there gay animals?
    CREDIT ©-nicunickie1-Depositphotos

    Male lions in Africa have been observed disregarding available lionesses to form their own same-sex prides. These same males have also been seen mounting one another and doing other actions commonly associated with male to female mating interactions.

    NEXT >>> Cheetahs

    Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

  • The chances of passing HIV to a partner is ZERO when you have an undetectable load

    The chances of passing HIV to a partner is ZERO when you have an undetectable load

    “We’re as confident now that undetectable gay men pose no risk of HIV transmission as we already were for heterosexuals,” researchers say.

    The PARTNER 2 study results found no cases of HIV transmission between men when one partner had HIV but was on effective treatment. This finding offers further confirmation that an undetectable viral load prevents sexual transmission of HIV. This understanding is frequently expressed as Undetectable equals Untransmittable, or U=U.

    CREIT: © garyphoto Depositphotos

    PARTNER 2 is an extension of the PARTNER study, which in 2014 indicated that people with an undetectable viral load do not transmit HIV. Gay and bisexual men were included in the previous study, but PARTNER 2 was added on to the earlier study to ensure that this finding was at least as certain for gay men as it was for heterosexuals.

    It had been speculated that because HIV is transmitted more easily via anal than vaginal sex, the results might not hold for gay men. PARTNER 2 now tells us that U=U holds just as strongly for gay men (and for anal sex) as for heterosexuals.

    No transmission of HIV in nearly 77,000 acts of bareback sex

    (C) BIGSTOCK

    The 14-country study found no transmissions between gay couples where the HIV-positive partner had a viral load under 200 – even though there were nearly 77,000 acts of condomless sex between them.

    A detailed analysis of the research findings is available on NAM’s website, www.aidsmap.com

    PARTNER, together with another study, Opposites Attract, have between them not found a single case of HIV transmission in 126,000 acts of condomless anal sex between partners of differing HIV status.

    This new data adds further strength to the U=U Campaign, whose consensus statement has been signed by NAM and hundreds of other organisations around the world, including the International AIDS Society, which runs the International AIDS Conferences.

    Dr Pietro Vernazza, author of the 2008 Swiss Statement, which first affirmed that viral suppression meant that HIV could not be passed on, commented at an earlier conference session, “Those who say that HIV can be transmitted should be able to provide evidence of it.” No study has identified a case of sexual transmission from someone who is virally suppressed on treatment.

    NAM’s Executive Director, Matthew Hodson, commented, “This is the moment when science trumps stigma. This is the moment when facts must conquer fear. The knowledge that when we are undetectable we can’t pass the virus on to our sexual partners has the power to encourage people to test and to remain adherent to their treatment. Just as importantly it can have an impact on the way that people with HIV think about themselves, removing some of the stress and fear that many in our communities experience.”

    Matthew Hodson continued, “The preventative impact of effective HIV treatment underlines the importance of expanding access to treatment and of improving treatment uptake and adherence for all people living with HIV worldwide.”

  • Vandals leave Pride bench with “f**king queers” written in faeces

    Homophobes have left a public bench, which was specially painted in rainbow colours to mark Cornwall Pride, covered in sh*t.

    Organisers of Cornwall Pride have been left gutted after a bench, which had been freshly painted in the rainbow flag, was covered in what is assumed to be human excrement, with the words “f**king queers” written in it.

    The bench was due to be unveiled shortly to celebrate pride season in Cornwall, however, within 13 hours of the paint job completion someone had dumped on the bench and written a homophobic slur in the mess.

    Taking to social media the Cornwall Pride team wrote, “Why LGBTQ+ Pride? Last Night Someone Shit on our unfinished and spelt out “F***ing Queers” in shit. P.S Police have CCTV”

    PICTURED: The bench being finished by the Cornwall Pride team, before someone defaced the bench by defecating on it.

    The bench paint update was to do with a local project called DIY SOS Local a project which helps give Newquay’s Beach Parade a “sprucing up”. Cornwall Pride were gifted two benches on the Beach Parade.

    The bench will require scraping and repainting as the paint had not dried before it was damaged.

    A statement from Cornwall Pride said, “After all that hard work it was heart breaking to work through today knowing what had happened.

    This has been condemned by Cornwall Pride organisers the Newquay community leaders, council the Devon and Cornwall police as an obvious hate crime. It has been given to the Police as and they will be investigating as they have CCTV of the area. “A vile act of a individual or individuals that do not represent the feelings and support Newquay has for the community”

    “Please do not allow this to deter that Newquay is incredibly supportive of the LGBTQ+ community. Cornwall Pride our supporters and the whole LGBTQ+ in Newquay are in shock but are now stanging stronger against the hate, which is why Pride exists”.

    Last month Cornwall Pride became the world’s first touring pride. Stopping off at Wadebridge, Launceston, Bodmin, St Austell, Truro, Falmouth, Heartlands, Hayle, Marazion, Penzance and Newquay, the touring pride allowed thousands of people to take part and witness the pride event. Some of the towns, like Bodmin, had never hosted a pride event before.

    The tour bus took off just after 9:00 AM in Newquay and returned over 12 hours later.

    Cornwall Pride’s official pride is to take place on the 25th August 2018.  To find out more visit their website.

     

  • Daily Mail columnist schooled over PrEP inaccuracies

    The National AIDS Trust just had to school one Mail Online columnist over a story published in which he peddled “misinformation, myths and stigma” over PrEP usage.

    PrEP pills
    (C) marcbruxel Depositphotos

    In the article, Mail Online columnist Ross Clark, reveals that after a recent visit to his GP for a suspected hernia, the doctor was unable to refer him to have an operation or to a specialist due the fact that he wasn’t in pain and didn’t have any heavy lifting in his job, the GP told him he “wasn’t bad enough to qualify for funding under new NHS guidelines”.

    However, later on in the article, which the Terrence Higgins Trust has blasted as fuelling misinformation, myths and stigma, he draws comparisons between what the NHS could pay for and what they couldn’t. PrEP and transgender surgery was, it seems, central to his argument.

    He wrote, “There is the £22 million a year being spent on transgender surgery, at a cost of £20,000 per patient. There is £730 million a year being spent pumping drug addicts full of Methadone — a heroin substitute which is supposed to help wean people off that drug, but which is itself addictive.

    “The NHS has started, too, to prescribe PrEP — a drug which cuts the risk of HIV transmission in gay men who have sex without a condom.

    “It is prescribing the drug —which costs £400 a month for a single patient — in spite of warnings that it will be encouraging risky behaviour, and it could increase other infections such as syphilis and gonorrhea [sic], against which PrEP offers no protection.”

    “Not One Thing accurate”

    Well, the Twitter team at National AIDS Trust had to put him right – and point out exactly why his article is so wrong.

    “Trying to create a Twitter storm”

    The columnist Ross Clark then accused the National AIDS Trust of trying to start a “Twitter Storm” saying, “You are trying to create a Twitter storm based on something I haven’t written, knowing that most who retweet won’t actually bother to read the piece”.

    Losing Advertisers

    Recently the MailOnline lost a number of high-profile advertisers when companies started to pull out of contracts with the publication after a successful awareness campaign by pressure group, Stop Funding Hate. Eventually, the newspaper removed advertising from many of its columnists including Richard Littlejohn.

     

     

  • Disgraced MP Jared O’Mara quits Labour following on from exposed homophobic comments

    Apparently, Jared O’Mara was made to feel like a criminal during the probe into his historic online comments.

    Labour MP Jared O’Mara has quit the party after being reinstated following a suspension while historic homophobic and misogynistic online comments were investigated.

    The MP was suspended but was to be reinstated. He has now quit the party, saying “I am of the opinion that the Labour Party no longer shares my commitment to the true definition of equality and compassion,” he said.

    “There is no doubt that I made mistakes as a young man using distasteful language as a clumsy attempt at satire and sarcasm online. But that does not mean that is who I am today.”

    However, he seemed to suggest that he won’t be stepping down as an MP.

    He said, “I might be leaving Labour but I am still at your side”,

    Identifying himself as “the first autistic MP in our history”, he wrote: “I didn’t commit any crimes, yet I have been made unfairly to feel like a criminal.

    “Nobody should be made to feel ashamed for mistakes they make when they are young.”

    He added: “I would be lying to those of you whom I represent, and those close to me like my parents and sister respectively, if I continued under the pretence that I feel there is a place of acceptance and empathy for me as a working-class, underprivileged disabled man within the Labour Party.

    “I have experienced little to make me feel welcome, understood and accepted during this last year.”

  • Terrence Higgins Trust slams the Daily Mail for misinformation, myths and stigma around PrEP

    “we’d love to have a cuppa to explain”

    PrEP pills
    (C) marcbruxel Depositphotos

    Ooo the sass coming from the Terrence Higgins Trust’s Twitter feed, the UK’s leading HIV charity, was palpable and we love it. In the tweet, they slam the Mail Online for fuelling misinformation, myths and stigma surrounding the use of PrEP.

    So far the journalist who worked on a story nor the publication itself has replied to have a cuppa with THT.

    In the article, Mail Online columnist Ross Clark, reveals that after a recent visit to his GP for a suspected hernia, she was unable to refer him to have an operation or to a specialist due the fact that he wasn’t in pain and didn’t have any heavy lifting in his job, the GP told him he “wasn’t bad enough to qualify for funding under new NHS guidelines”.

    However, later on in the article, he draws comparisons between what the NHS could pay for and what they couldn’t. PrEP and transgender surgery was, it seems, central to his argument.

    He wrote, “There is the £22 million a year being spent on transgender surgery, at a cost of £20,000 per patient. There is £730 million a year being spent pumping drug addicts full of Methadone — a heroin substitute which is supposed to help wean people off that drug, but which is itself addictive.

    “The NHS has started, too, to prescribe PrEP — a drug which cuts the risk of HIV transmission in gay men who have sex without a condom.

    “It is prescribing the drug —which costs £400 a month for a single patient — in spite of warnings that it will be encouraging risky behaviour, and it could increase other infections such as syphilis and gonorrhea [sic], against which PrEP offers no protection.”

    “Cost-effective”

    Speaking to THEGAYUK.com Liam Beattie, PrEP policy lead at Terrence Higgins Trust, said, “There’s no place in the media for articles filled with misinformation, myths and stigma-fuelling. Ross Clark’s piece on PrEP is highly inaccurate and we would love him to come in to Terrence Higgins Trust to find out more about the realities of PrEP. Because there’s nothing controversial about PrEP – it’s highly effective at preventing HIV, cost effective and will ultimately stop many, many people from becoming HIV positive.

    “Currently PrEP is available in England via a 10,000 place trial but we want to see a national PrEP programme in England to ensure it’s made available to all who need it”’

    There’s been no evidence to suggest that users on PrEP are being any more “risky” than those who currently aren’t on PrEP.

    Losing Advertisers

    Recently the MailOnline lost a number of high-profile advertisers when companies started to pull out of contracts with the publication after a successful awareness campaign by pressure group, Stop Funding Hate. Eventually, the newspaper removed advertising from many of its columnists including Richard Littlejohn.

     

  • Disgustingly, paedophiles have created their own Pride flag

    Disgustingly, paedophiles have created their own Pride flag

    This is an update to this story, click here to read.

    Gross.

    A group called MAPS which stands for Minor Attracted Person, a term which aims to destigmatising paedophiles has apparently created their own pride flag in a bid to legitimise their sexual preference.

    Some news outlets are claiming that the group insists that paedophiles are misunderstood and that they do not act on their attraction to children.

    The flag opts for pastel blues, yellows and pinks.

    A Twitter user put out a warning in June telling all minors if they saw the flag being flown to be warned.

    It is not known who designed the flag or whether you can actually buy the flag anywhere.

    It goes without saying that any sexual relationships with a minor is illegal in most countries across the globe. In the UK the age of consent is equalised between same and opposite-sex couples at 16-year-old.

    The rise of identity flags.

    In recent years there has been an explosion of gender and sexual identities and along with that diversity within the LGBT+ community has been the proliferation of pride flags. Almost every identity has its own flag.

    One of the first subsets to create their own flag away from the traditional rainbow flag was the bear community, who created the brown/orange and paw print flag in 1995. The flag was designed by Craig Brynes.

    The rainbow flag was designed by renowned artist Gilbert Baker in 1978. The world’s largest version of the rainbow flag was unveiled in Key West in 2004.