LGBTQ Breaking News Service

LGBT+ people have shared photos showing just how gloriously ecstatic they really are after a far-right conspiracy theorist said gay people can’t be happy.

Gemma O’Doherty, a former journalist from Ireland who has been permanently banned from Twitter, made her incendiary comments about queer people in a live-streamed video.

“I don’t see anyone or know anyone who is gay who is happy. I just don’t,” O’Doherty said in the video, which was subsequently uploaded to Twitter.

“It’s a miserable lifestyle. It’s a promiscuous lifestyle. It’s a dark lifestyle.”

The video was widely-shared on social media, prompting LGBT+ people to share photos of themselves showing just how happy, bright and colourful their lives are.

Emmerdale star Michelle Hardwick shot the far-right down with beautiful family photo

Michelle Hardwick, who plays Vanessa Woodfield in Emmerdale, led the charge, sharing a gorgeous photo of herself, her wife and their son together on a sunny day.

“Yup, this picture radiates misery,” Hardwick tweeted, along with a smiley face emoji and a Pride-flag emoji.

Countless other queer people responded to O’Doherty’s video with their own photos showing just how happy they are.

Gemma O’Doherty was once a highly-regarded journalist in Ireland where she worked for the Irish Independent. In recent years, she has become known for sharing conspiracy theories about migration, George Soros and Islam.

In 2019, a mixed-race couple from Meath, Ireland, were dogpiled with racist abuse after O’Doherty shared a Lidl advert they were featured in. Writing on Twitter at the time, O’Doherty alluded to the white nationalist “Great Replacement” conspiracy theory, which falsely claims white people are being replaced by people of other ethnicities.

O’Doherty was permanently suspended from Twitter in July 2020 following repeated violations of the social media platform’s policies. She was banned from YouTube in 2019 shortly after she posted a video in which she spoke about ethnic minorities in Ireland.

In 2018, O’Doherty had a very public run-in with Ireland’s foremost drag queen Panti Bliss after she asked for her support in the country’s presidential election.

Panti Bliss shared O’Doherty’s plea for help on Twitter, saying her alleged support for the LGBT+ community was “bulls**t”.

A foster agency with ties to the Baptist in Kentucky has said it will punish children if it’s not allowed to freely discriminate queer couples.

Sunrise Children’s Services has refused to sign a contract with the state of Kentucky unless it is given an exemption on religious grounds to bar queer couples from adopting.

The agency, one of the largest and oldest in the state, must renew its contract with the Kentucky State Cabinet for Health and Family Services each year to secure vital funding to support its users.

But a standoff has been sparked around a new clause from state officials to ban discrimination based on sexual orientation, according to the Associated Press.

Sunrise leaders have refused to renew the contract, claiming that sponsoring same-sex couples as foster or adoptive parents could clash against their religious beliefs.

According to the agency’s website, Sunrise Children’s Services provides care for around 1,000 abused and neglected children and family members statewide.

And if the state loses Sunrise, which it has been contracted with for at least 50 years and is one of Kentucky’s largest service providers, it places an already strained child welfare system into further jeopardy.

“You cannot pivot from losing such a large provider of child welfare services and not anticipate some degree of disruption,” Terry Brooks, executive director of Kentucky Youth Advocates, told AP.

This almost blunt dismissal of Sunrise’s willingness to compromise its care for children in favour of religious beliefs was shared among local LGBT+ advocacy groups

“If Sunrise Children’s Services doesn’t want to abide by that, that’s fine,” said Chris Hartman, executive director of the Fairness Campaign.

“They shouldn’t have access to state money, state contracts or children in the state’s care.”

Moreover, Hartman alleged that LGBT+ young people in Sunrise’s care are “deeply closeted” out of fear of “indoctrination and proselytization”.

Such claims, Sunrise’s attorney John Sheller said, are “outrageous”. The shelter “willingly and gladly” accepts queer youth and will not, he alleged, force them to undergo conversion therapy.

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The agency has until 30 June to sign the contract. If it does decline, Kentucky state officials have vowed to stop placing children into the agency’s care as well as cut access to state funding.

It’s the latest round between LGBT+ rights and Sunrise Children’s Services, which has long been dogged by criticism for its anti-queer policies that are, in part, the upshot of its entrenched ties to the Baptist church.

In 2014, Sunrise bosses sought to peel back its ban on hiring queer people. At the time, similar concerns over a loss of taxpayer funding were floated amid then proposed anti-discrimination legislation.

But the Sunrise board shot down the bid and the Kentucky Baptist Convention passed a no-confidence vote to boot the boss out of the agency.

The swift reprisal came after Church benefactors across Kentucky choked it of their donations.

It all comes amid a showdown between religious freedoms and LGBT+ rights in the Supreme Court.

In just weeks, a decision is expected to be handed down about a case in Pennsylvania where a Catholic adoption and foster care agency refused to sig a contract that didn’t allow it to discrimination against LGBT+ people.

Special star Ryan O’Connell has taken aim at straight actors who play gay characters.

Speaking to The Guardian, the actor and writer mocked those who furiously defend straight actors who take on gay roles.

Adopting a “shrill straight-splaining voice”, O’Connell said: “It’s called acting! It’s literally their job!” echoing the arguments most frequently wheeled out in favour of straight people playing gay on-screen.

“‘Honey, baby, sweetie, I understand what acting is. I’m Emmy-nominated!’ But the reality is that if you’re a straight actor, you already have more opportunities than an out gay actor,” he explained.

“Why would I take another role from them and give it to someone straight?” he asked.

O’Connell said he specifically cast gay actors to play gay characters in Special, and he even cast some queer people to play straight roles in a bid to right the historic wrongs facing LGBT+ actors.

“Can you believe it? It’s possible!” he said.

Special star Ryan O’Connell says Hollywood treats disabled people like ‘inspiration porn’

Elsewhere in the interview, O’Connell – who has cerebral palsy – opened up about the discrimination disabled people routinely face in Hollywood.

O’Connell said ableism is “so systemic and ingrained in our culture”, adding: “I don’t think Hollywood is like Mr Burns cackling behind a desk, going ‘Keep those disable people out!’ It’s more that no one considers disabled people in general, which is very dark and very sad.

“We’re usually only there for ‘inspiration porn’ or to serve an able-bodied character’s personal growth.”

O’Connell said that will only change when more disabled creators are working behind the scenes on films and television shows.

“We need to stop putting disabled characters in the hands of able-bodied people because that doesn’t give us money or opportunities, and they don’t fully get what it’s like,” he said.

The second and final season of Special – which follows a young disabled gay man as he navigates life in Los Angeles – debuted on Netflix on 20 May.

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Speaking to HuffPost ahead of the second season’s release date, O’Connell said he wants Special to be remembered for “lube and disabled awareness“.

“I want my show to be known for topping, bottoming, top anxiety, lube – all those things,” he said.

“I want to take the mystery and shame out of gay sex by depicting it as I’ve experienced it: erotic, humiliating, empowering, funny and intense, all within the same thrust.”

Republican congressional candidate and convicted stalker Omar Navarro has said a “flamboyant gay” in Disney’s Cruella has “ruined his childhood”.

Navarro, who is running for the seat of California’s 43rd congressional district against Maxine Waters, has publicly opposed LGBT+ rights, declaring last year that “you cannot be for gay marriage and also be Christian”.

But on Sunday (30 May), the Republican congressional hopeful took to Twitter to declare that Disney was “ruining his childhood” by daring to include an LGBT+ character in its Cruella remake.

He wrote: “The new Disney Cruella with Emma Stone just ruined my childhood with an openly flamboyant gay in the movie.

“Disney persist shoving the LGBT agenda down our throat.”

This isn’t the first time Navarro has expressed his concern over Disney “shoving the LGBT agenda” down the throats of conservative Christians.

Last year, when Disney announced it a protagonist on the Disney Channel’s The Owl House is canonically bisexual, Navarro was equally outraged.

He shared on Facebook:”Disney confirms its first bisexual lead character.

“I don’t agree with this crap being pushed down our throats. What people do at home is there business but publicly I shouldn’t have to be forced.

“Will Christians please stand up?”

Navarro has also frequently ranted about Drag Queen Story Hours, claiming the performers who simply read stories to kids are “indoctrinating” them.

In a letter to all parents, published in 2019 by The American Reporter, he said: “Would you let… pornography stars arrive at your child’s classroom dressed in their performance costumes and ‘teach’ (i.e. indoctrinate) kids about sex? No?

“Then why would you allow transvestites, transgendered, lesbians and/or homosexuals impact the impressionable minds of your children?

“Adults can do whatever they like, but when it comes to kids, it’s a question of values. And values need to be taught.”

Navarro, who pleaded guilty to stalking his former girlfriend and spent six months in prison in 2019, was defeated by long-time Democratic congressperson Waters in 2016, 2018, and 2020, and is set to run against her again in 2022.

In February, Tom Brady led the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to a Super Bowl title at age 43, his second championship in his 40s, and his seventh overall. The win also minted Tampa Bay head coach Bruce Arians as the oldest head coach to win a Super Bowl, at age 68. 

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The committee that is organizing the 2021 Summer Olympics in Tokyo has declined to say whether Japanese lawmakers’ anti-LGBTQ comments violated the Olympic Charter’s nondiscrimination clause.

Mainichi, a Japanese newspaper, reported members of Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party who attended a meeting about an LGBTQ+ rights bill described LGBTQ+ people as “morally unacceptable” and said “from a biological perspective, human beings must preserve the species, LGBT people go against this.”

The International Olympic Committee in 2014 added sexual orientation to the Olympic Charter’s nondiscrimination clause, known as Principle 6, after Russia’s LGBTQ+ rights record overshadowed the 2014 Winter Olympics that took place that year in the Black Sea resort city of Sochi.

“Please be aware that per the Fundamental Principles of Olympism in the Olympic Charter, as a sports organization within the Olympic Movement, that Tokyo 2020 applies political neutrality and cannot comment on matters concerning remarks from politicians, government legislature and the like,” Tokyo 2020 told the Washington Blade on Wednesday in an emailed statement.

Tokyo 2020 President Seiko Hashimoto, who is a member of the Liberal Democratic Party, on April 27 visited Pride House Tokyo Legacy, which is Japan’s first permanent LGBTQ+ community center. The statement that Tokyo 2020 sent to the Blade notes the visit.

“President Hashimoto Seiko visited Pride House Tokyo Legacy for the purpose of gaining, on behalf of Tokyo 2020, an understanding of how diversity and inclusion can be promoted through dialogue,” said Tokyo 2020. “She further aims to bolster Tokyo 2020’s LGBTQ legacy through partnership with Pride House Tokyo, whose key message is ‘Everyone should be able to live in their own way without discrimination or harassment, understanding and respecting each other’s differences.’”

The statement notes Tokyo 2020 “will share information and raise awareness on LGBTQ issues, sport, culture and education” in its official program. Tokyo 2020 also told the Blade that “diversity and inclusion … is essential to achieving the Tokyo 2020 games vision and delivering successful games.”

“Tokyo 2020 will embrace ‘diversity’ by celebrating the differences of individuals, while ‘inclusion’ will see people accepted and respected regardless of age, ethnicity, nationality, gender, sexual orientation, religious beliefs or intellectual or physical impairment,” reads the statement.

“People of diverse backgrounds influence each other, and these differences lead to the creation of new values within organizations and societies,” it added. “Tokyo 2020 want to achieve diversity and inclusion through ‘Know Differences, Show Differences,’ allowing each person to demonstrate their full capabilities because everyone will understand and respect each other.”

Tokyo 2020 further said it “will share this approach with athletes, spectators and games-related personnel. By raising awareness of D&I (diversity and inclusion) to everyone taking part in or attending the games, Tokyo 2020 aims to make D&I an integral part of Japanese society as a post-games legacy.”

The IOC Press Office on Friday in a statement to the Blade noted IOC President Thomas Bach has expressed his support for Pride House Tokyo Legacy and welcomes Tokyo 2020’s efforts to “embed diversity and inclusion in the Olympic Games model.”

The statement notes it is IOC “policy that we hear all concerns, which are directly related to the Olympic Games, and address them through our partners, the organizing committees.”

“The IOC addresses each and every one individually,” the IOC told the BLade.

The IOC said it works “to ensure these principles are applied in practice,” noting the Russian government in 2014 ensured it would not discriminate against athletes who participated in the Sochi games after President Vladimir Putin signed a law that banned the promotion of so-called gay propaganda to minors.

“At the same time, the IOC has neither the mandate nor the capability to change the laws or the political system of a sovereign country,” the IOC told the Blade. “This must rightfully remain the legitimate role of governments and respective intergovernmental organizations.”

The Olympics were supposed to take place in 2020, but the pandemic prompted officials to postpone them. They are now scheduled to open on July 23 and close on Aug. 8. The Paralympics are slated to take place from Aug. 24 through Sept. 5.

Advocacy groups in Japan and around the world are using the Olympics to underscore the lack of LGBTQ rights in the country.

This article originally appeared in the Washington Blade and is made available in partnership with the National LGBT Media Association.