Gay-positive song wins Country Music Awards song of the year
A song about smoking pot, ignoring the critics and kissing whomever you want won song of the year at the Country Music Awards in Nashville Wednesday night. Kacey Musgraves’s “Follow Your Arrow” has the chorus “Make lots of noise/ kiss lots of boys/ kiss lots of girls/ if that’s what you’re into/ if the straight and narrow gets a little too straight/ light up a joint/ or don’t/ and follow your arrow wherever it points.” Musgraves also accidentally lost her underwear while performing at the awards. This sounds like a girl we could learn to like.
Court of appeal upholds marriage ban, sets up Supreme Court challenge (United States)
The US 6th Circuit Court of Appeal has upheld gay-marriage bans in Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and Tennessee, reversing trial court decisions in each of those states striking down the bans. This could actually be good news for gay marriage, strangely. Because a number of other courts of appeal have ruled the opposite way, that gay-marriage bans should be struck down, this ruling could force the US Supreme Court to take the case. If the American Civil Liberties Union decides to go to the Supreme Court, according to SCOTUS Blog, a ruling could settle gay marriage in the US once and for all.
Latvian foreign minister comes out (Latvia)
Latvian foreign minister Edgars Rinkevics tweeted Thursday, “I proudly announce I’am gay . . . Good luck all of you.” Gay marriage is not legal in Latvia, which is part of the often homophobic post-Soviet bloc. Rinkevics is the first major politician in the region to come out. The Associated Press says the Latvian Foreign Ministry confirmed the tweets were authentic.
Malaysian court allows crossdressing (Malaysia)
A Malaysian appeals court has struck down a state law that forbids Muslim men from dressing as women. The judges wrote in their ruling that the law “deprives the appellants of the right to live with dignity . . . It has the effect of denying the appellants and other sufferers of GID (gender identity disorder) to move freely in public places . . . This is degrading, oppressive and inhuman.” The appellants in the case were three Muslims who were born men but identify as women and were arrested for crossdressing. In Malaysia, a separate court system governs Islamic law only for the Muslim majority.
A watershed for PrEP
HIV prevention campaigner Gus Cairns writes at The Huffington Post that two new studies show just how effective pre-exposure prophylaxis can be at preventing HIV transmission. Cairns writes that, taking into account actual effectiveness rates and usage patterns, PrEP is just as effective as condoms and that PrEP may someday become the prevention method of choice for gay men.
Read more at The Huffington Post.
Gay bull faces slaughterhouse (Ireland)
An Irish farmer says he has had to replace a breeding bull after he discovered it is gay. Benjy is a pedigree Charolais bull that the farmer bought to inseminate his herd. It turned out, however, that Benjy was more into the other bulls. “At first I didn’t take seriously that the bull could be gay, but after seeking advice I know this can happen,” he said. Sadly, Benjy’s sexuality makes him useless as a breeder and destines him for the slaughterhouse.
Image Credit: YouTube, Kacey Musgraves
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