It’s Sunday Funday! Did you have a great, wonderful, happy week full of happy feelings? Me neither. But that’s okay. Being a loner is sexy sometimes, right?
This week, gay people have lots of power. Real, tangible power! Like the elected kind! Also, really important people and economic powers are on our side!
Also, there are gay penguins in here. Just saying.
Lesbian Kickboxer Elected Scottish Leader
Ruth Davidson is an openly gay kickboxer who just won an election against three other candidates to become Leader of the Scottish Conservative Party.
This is what she looks like:
She had a lot to say about being elected, but especially this:
“I want to engage the whole party from the grass roots up and to extend that conversation with the electorate at large.
‘The hard work starts here. Today is the first day of a new and bright future of the Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party.”
People, Organizations Stand Up for Gay Marriage
+ Jamie Washington, pastor of the Unity Fellowship Church of Baltimore, wants people to know the important role LGBT-affirming black pastors have in progressing gay rights and affirmation.
+ 70 businesses and organizations have legally documented their support for gay marriage in the form of a brief about DOMA, including Google, Starbucks, and Micrsoft. The companies “paint the law as an overburdening government regulation,” and support its repeal.
+ A New Jersey lawsuit to enact gay marriage has been given the approval to proceed by a Superior Court judge.
Dr. Jill Biden’s PFLAG Speech
Dr. Jill Biden is the Vice President’s wife, a mother, and an educator. She was asked to speak at the PFLAG National Convention’s Opening Ceremony this year, and therefore spoke in front of a big, black curtain.
She spoke Friday about the importance of love and support – especially in the lives of gay people:
I want to say to each of you here today: thank you for raising your voice and working together to open minds, shift attitudes and support all of our sons and daughters, students and neighbors.
Some of you come from places where yours is the only voice of support and acceptance – but when you speak, people listen. And we need you to keep speaking out, to keep shining a light on this important issue. […]
As parents, friends, and families, you have the power to change hearts and minds with your stories of success and failure, tragedy and triumph. I commend you and hope you will all keep up this important work.
On behalf of the President, Vice President, and all of us at the White House, thank you for your courage and commitment — and for promoting the dignity of your sons and daughters.
Gay People In Charge
+ A host of Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund candidates have received endorsements from newspaper editorial boards in preparation for the November 8 elections.
+ Glen Murray is an openly gay man serving in the Ontario legislature, and he wants other political leaders to come out.
Penguin Love
What is it called when a penguin bromance turns into “this is awkward, that’s a mating ritual?” Don’t ask the zookeepers at the Toronto Zoo. They have no idea:
“They do courtship and mating behaviours that females and males would do,’’ one keeper said in an interview. […]
Their relationship is somewhat of a delicate issue for the keepers to discuss with outsiders. But they’ve all noticed the pair’s bond, and talk about it among themselves.
“This is all new for us,’’ said another keeper, pointing out that the zoo hasn’t had African penguins on display since 1993.
“It’s a complicated issue, but they seem to be in a loving relationship of some sort,’’ says Joe Torzsok, chair of the Toronto zoo board.
Buddy and Pedro, two African Penguins, pair off every night and even once raised a baby penguin together. Seriously.
So: are they gay? Does it matter? On a scale from adorable to unbearably cute, where do they lie? That’s all left to be decided.
Beyonce’s Having a Girl, Y’all
I have nothing to say except, “good fucking god Beyonce might raise a daughter.”
Gays on Stage
+ A Baltimore high school has reversed its decision preventing a gay kiss on stage during a performance of “Almost, Maine,” a critically acclaimed play.
+ Brown University is hosting a reading of one-act plays on gay marriage put on by four Rhode Island theater organizations.
Conan O’Brien Marries Gay Couple on TV
I told you this would happen last Sunday Funday and look! It did!
Kitties Rocking Out
One word: thekittencovers.tumblr.com. We talked about it earlier this week, but there’s never too much kitten covers.
It’s Flipper and Eve, not Flipper and Steve.
A+, all the awards for you for that reference.
I own “And Tango makes Three” it is an adorable book.
I demand lesbian kickboxing penguins. DEMAND.
My high school put on Almost Maine my senior year. I went to a catholic school, so after the play there were several complaints about the gay scene. But the best part about the whole thing was that my very straight brother auditioned for and played one of the gay characters. My heart just isn’t big enough sometimes to hold all the love I feel for him.
Man, some days I love my alma mater. (Mostly the days when they don’t send me a loan bill.) Between the gay marriage plays, President Simmons recently saying the university wouldn’t host ROTC because the military still discriminates against trans people, and the fact that Kate Bornstein went there, I am proud to be a Brown alum…or a Brunonian if you wanna go all silly and pretentiously-Latinized.
“And Tango Makes Three” is about a different gay penguin couple from NYC’s central park zoo called Roy and Silo. After raising their baby together, they eventually split up and one of them ran off with a lady penguin. Which makes me way sadder than it probably should. :(
i request clarification on why the (aide?) man is gesticulating towards the lady kickboxer’s box and luring at the camera. clearly i’m not the only one who thought it awkward, as the woman behind the pair is clearly like OH WOULD YOU LOOK AT THE TIMEEEE
if someone hadnt brought this up, i was going to. it looks like he’s trying to be all sneaky and cunt-punch her… “heh heh, watch this, she doesnt even see it coming, she’s too busy being a badass…” that poor man is going to get his ass kicked.
Ruth Davidson–
This is awesome! I love kickboxing and out athletes! :) it makes me super happy! Before this I only heard of Liz Carmouche for being out in mma! soo this is a great addition to my lovely weekend!
-also the rest of this post is pretty fantastic :)
Ruth Davidson is unfortunately only Leader of the Scottish Conservative Party, not the Parliament :(
omg thank you! i misread the source. i will edit it rn!
#thankyou
I had already done that, just fyi.
Beyonce’s daughter will grow up to be president. CALLING IT.
Glen Murray was actually the mayor of Winnipeg for a decade, and he was much beloved. We want him back =( (Also, him being gay was not a big deal at all, which is awesome retrospectively)
There have been a lot of gay penguin pairings. I think one was Silo and Roy and there was another famous couple. I remember that the zoo people wanted the penguins to mate and tried forcing them to mate with females by keeping the males apart and they just flat out refused. Eventually the males kept mating and even adopted a rock, so the zoo people gave them an actual penguin egg to incubate and then raise. It warmed my gay little heart.
Gay penguins have their own Wikipedia page. I ended up going down the internet rabbit hole and learning about various gay animals. This amused me: “Dolphins of several species engage in homosexual acts, though it is best studied in the bottlenose dolphins. Sexual encounters between females take the shape of ‘beak-genital propulsion,’ where one female inserts her beak in the genital opening of the other while swimming gently forward.” Our fingerbabies are their beakbabies. Aww.
“Our fingerbabies are their beakbabies. Aww.”
LOL! That was a good one.
I’m superpsyched that a lesbian kickboxer became the leader of the Scottish Conservative Party.
Why, however, is the dude on her right going in for a crotch grab?
I am a politically active Scot, and was vaguely following the leadership election. While I agree that it’s remarkable that a lesbian has become leader of a party that 10 years ago was (and to a large extent still is) pretty homophobic, the Tories are pretty ineffectual in Scotland these days, the Scottish people never having forgiven the party for screwing them over under Margaret Thatcher in the 80s. The Conservatives may be the senior partner in the coalition governing the UK as a whole, but only two of their parliamentary seats came from Scotland, and they’re only the fourth biggest party in the Scottish Parliament.
Sorry for the politics geeking; just thought I’d give a bit of local perspective on the news.
I stand corrected: they are the third biggest party at Holyrood, not the fourth.
Go Scotland! A lesbian kickboxer becomes the leader of the Scottish Conservative Party, amazing! But, really what is that guy on her right doing??