Huffpost Queer Voices – Spoken Edition

Kim Davis, the Kentucky county clerk whose steadfast opposition to same-sex marriage made her a darling ofChristian conservatives,may draw a re-election opponent next year that again puts her in the national spotlight. The Associated Press reports that David Ermold, a gay mandenied a marriage license by Davis in June 2015,is “seriously considering” a run for Rowan County clerk. Davis, for her part, already has announced plans to seek another term.

It seems like outrage over Starbucks cups is almost as much of a holiday tradition as crowded malls, Mariah Carey and sappy movie marathons. The coffee giant released a commercial earlier this month that showed different people enjoying the holidays, including two women who were obviously in love. The ad was released in conjunction with a new cup that’s also creating a buzz. Among other holiday motifs, it features two hands that could conceivably belong to a same-sex couple.

“Transparent” writer Our Lady J has voiced her support of the women who accused star Jeffrey Tambor of sexual harassment― and one of the women’s idea on moving the series forward. In an Instagram post Thursday, the writer said she agreed with “Transparent” actress Trace Lysette’s suggestion to continue the series by refocusing away from Tambor’s character, Maura.

A California man has beenconvicted of torturing and killing his girlfriend’s 8-year-old son, driven the prosecution argued by his belief that the boy was gay. Isauro Aguirre was found guilty of first-degree murder Wednesday in the May 2013 death of Gabriel Fernandez.

I wrote angry columns as an editor and columnist at OutWeek from 1989 through 1991, referenced in some of these current assessments, excoriating Smith for her role in helping to keep the queer closet in pop culture tightly closed at a time when visibility was literally a life or death issue.

That’s because a number of people are using November as a month to cool their jets, so to speak, and not masturbate. It’s not as hard it as it might sound: Participants actually are allowed three strikes, and sex with a parter is OK. The big difference is that No Nut November is more of a loosely organized social media phenomenon in which people post tweets like this to celebrate the new “powers” they’ve gained as a result of not masturbating.

George Takei is blaming all the attention being given to the sexual assault allegations against him on Russian bots. On Friday, former model Scott R. Brunton accused the “Star Trek” legend of sexually assaulting him in 1981. Takei denied the allegations on Saturday, sayingthat he was “shocked and bewildered” by the claims. The story has received tons of online attention, coming at the end of a week when more Hollywood celebrities, including Richard Dreyfuss, Louis C.K.

The coffee giant hit the ground running with its annual yuletide campaign Nov. 1. In a nod to the adult coloring book craze, this year’s cups feature hints of red and green, but are mostly black-and-white, encouraging customers to fill in the stylized trees, ornaments, and gifts with the hues of their choice. However, it’s the commercial for this year’s holiday campaign, titled “Give Good,” that’s generating the most buzz.

A Nevada man charged with shooting his 14-year-old son to death last week disapproved of the teen’s sexual orientation and had threatened him over it, friends said. Wendell Melton, 53, told police he accidentally shot his son, Giovanni Melton, Thursday during a heated argument over the boy skipping school, Henderson police said.Melton told police his son shoved him to the ground.

But no. We’ve been living the nightmare for a year already. And none of us knows where it’s going, nor for how long. And yet, we are unleashed, finding our way, hitting back and ducking for cover in a new political battlefield. And we’re banging on doors and waking people up. The Resistance has made all of us stronger. And yesterday, Election Day 2017, gave us enormous hope and has now energized us further.

The gay men of Haifa, Israel steam up the latest edition of Elska Magazine, an independent queer culture and lifestyle publication. This article contains images that may be considered not suitable for work. When Elska’s founder and editor Liam Campbell launched the bimonthly magazine in 2015, his aim was to present the queer community as one of deep diversity. Previous issues of the magazine have featured pictorials shot in Lisbon, Portugal; Mumbai, India; and Yokohama, Japan.

Over 25 years ago, in 1990, as an editor, reporter and columnist, I was vilified by many in the media, and in the LGBT community,for reporting on the sexual orientation of public figures when such truths were relevant to a larger story. This came to be dubbed by Time magazine as “outing”―a word I never accepted since I simply saw it as reporting. What made it relevant to report? Lots of things.

As an openly gay male artist in mainstream pop, Sam Smith is aware that he’s still very much an anomaly. The 25-year-old singer-songwriter appears to be having more fun exploring his sexuality through his music on his new album, “The Thrill of It All,” due out Friday. But in a new interview with the Herald Sun, Smith opened up about the challenges that come with “speaking for a community” and, as such, “constantly trying to say the right thing.

Just one day after Halloween, Kristen Bell and Mila Kunis will kick off the holiday season with the release of their hotly anticipated new movie,“A Bad Moms Christmas.” To promote the film, the two stars sat down for a candid PrideSource interview, in which they reveal that they separately waited for marriage equality to become the law of the land before tying the knot with their respective husbands.

Celebrities and others were swift and blistering in their condemnation of actorKevin Spacey’s Twitter apology to fellow actor Anthony Rapp early Monday. Spacey, 58,issued the statement after a BuzzFeed News reportalleged that the “House of Cards” star had sexually harassed Rapp when he was just 14. In his statement, Spacey did not deny the incident but said he could “not remember the encounter.

And then, we’ll look at how the closet and power corrupts, turning an individual’s self-loathing into a weapon against an entire community. In the case of Kevin Spacey, that now has the potential to do terrible damage. Defamation no.

With the prominent political journalist Mark Halperin now joining the ranks of men accused of sexual assault and harassment―in his case, five women anonymouslytold CNN on Thursday that they were harassed or assaulted, and others since have identified themselves―the remark that Donald Trump made on his infamous Access Hollywood tape seems to be the rationale for just about every other well-known man who’s been exposed in recent weeks: “When you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything.” Marina Fang noted here on HuffPost that...

In a bold, history-making move, the Disney Channel’s “Andi Mack” will kick off its second season by revealing one of its principal characters to be gay. The coming-of-age series, which debuted in April, follows the adventures of Andi Mack (Peyton Elizabeth Lee) and her pals, Buffy Driscoll (Sofia Wylie) and Cyrus Goodman (Joshua Rush) as they navigate adolescence.

More than 100 students at a Maine high school rallied this week in support of a classmate who says he’s been subjected to intense bullying on campus because he’s gay. Garrett McCann, who attends York High School in York, Maine, told Bangor Daily Newshe “definitely” felt supported after he spotted the rally, which began at 6:30 a.m. Monday.

A free-speech debate has erupted at Cleveland State University after the school’s lukewarm response to the posting of a homophobic flier that encourages lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer students to commit suicide. The flier was posted last week on a billboard in CSU’s main classroom building,according to Cleveland’s Plain Dealer newspaper. It reportedly appeared the same day that the university’s first LGBTQ center opened its doors.