When I was younger I thought I was never going to be anything or achieve anything because of who I was,’ says Daley after his Olympic gold.


Tom Daley and Matty Lee with their gold medals in synchronized diving.

“Oh, my God!” “Oh, my God!” That was the reaction of British diver Tom Daley when he and Matty Lee won the gold medal Monday in the men’s 10-meter synchronized diving at the Tokyo Olympics.

For Daley, who is openly gay, and Lee, it was a stunning win over the favoured Chinese divers Cao Yuan and Chen Aisen and played out in dramatic fashion that saw the Brits win the gold by 1.23 points over the six dives.

It was Daley’s first gold medal (he has two Olympic bronzes) and he and Lee took the lead on their fourth dive and hold off a furious charge by the Chinese. In the sixth dive, a forward with 4 1⁄2 somersaults, Daley and Lee scored 101.52 points. Cao and Chen scored 101.52 on their final dive but they came up just short.

The Chinese were the last team to dive and Daley and Lee could only watch as their scores came in. When it was shown that their score would hold up for the gold, Daley and Lee embraced, yelling and jumping up and down, with Daley saying, “Oh, my God!” “Oh, my God!” It was pure sports drama.

After the competition, Daley had some powerful comments on what it meant to win the gold medal as an openly gay athlete.

“There are more out LGBT athletes at this Olympic Games than any Olympic Games previously, “ Daley said. “I came out in 2013, December 2013 ... when I was younger I was always the one who felt alone, alone and different, there was something about me that was never going to be as good as society wanted to be and I hope that any young LGBT person out there see that no matter how alone you feel right now, that you are not alone and you can achieve anything. There is a whole lot of your chosen family out here ready to support you

“I feel incredibly proud to say I am a gay man and also an Olympic champion. I feel very empowered by that. When I was younger I thought I was never going to be anything or achieve anything because of who I was. To be an Olympic champion now shows that you can achieve anything.”

Kalamazoo Native Lendale Johnson, America’s First Gay Black Tennis Pro, on How ‘Visibility Is Invaluable’.

There's power in coming out as a pro athlete, says Johnson.



“Wimbledon puts me in a great mood.”

This is the first thing Lendale Johnson tells Pride Source after “hello” during a phone interview. He is watching the championship and rooting for Novak Djokovic.

“People just love to hate him because he’s beaten everyone’s favorite player,” Johnson says.

Still, it’s also fair to say that Johnson is cheering on the sport as a whole. “In the tournament, I really want to see everyone just do well,” he says.

You could say that Johnson, who grew up in Kalamazoo but now lives in Brooklyn, is a multidimensional tennis fan. He loves the game not only as a spectator but also from a business perspective as the owner of The Johnson High Performance Tennis Academy in Brooklyn and as a professional player on the men’s ITF circuit.

Johnson is also the first Black male tennis player to come out as gay.



“People need to come out, especially in sports,” Johnson says, adding that the world of sports has the power to change the larger world and that coming out is a way of holding himself accountable. “Visibility is invaluable.”

Not only are there not a lot of out male players in tennis, but tennis also has a reputation as a “white sport” with “a lot of homophobia,” Johnson says.

“With me being a double minority, it’s even more powerful,” he says. “It’s given me more inspiration and more motivation to play and do even better. If I hadn’t come out, I wouldn’t have all this support of people rooting for me and getting all these sponsors and investors.”

That’s not to say coming out has always been a positive experience.

“I’ve created a target for positive and negative things,” he says. Not only does he have to deal with “the homophobia that’s very prevalent in the world,” but also, “being a Black athlete in this sport, you’re still going to get people who don’t want me to be on the court,” he says. “People aren’t going to say that outright, but I’m sure it’s there.”

Thankfully, he has some high-profile well-wishers, including tennis legend and lesbian icon Billie Jean King.

On both Instagram and Twitter, King wrote, “So proud of you and all you’ve accomplished. Keep inspiring others, and keep going for it.”

It means a lot to him. “I can’t even explain. I almost cried,” he says. “She really, really sees me, and she hears me, and she’s supporting me.”

King’s encouragement is something Johnson will draw strength from “for the rest of my life,” he says. “If I have a bad day in the office or I’m doubting myself, Billie Jean King is in my ear, and she always will be.”

He also heard from Venus Williams. “Makes me feel very proud of myself,” he says. “I just want to keep making everyone proud and keep going for it.”

While Johnson is currently focused on his tennis career, he’s a model and an actor set to star in Amazon Prime’s upcoming reality show “Deuces And Love.” The show will follow Johnson around Hollywood as he takes on issues like racism and problems in the world of professional tennis, his career and his love life.

Johnson has come a long way from his days as a kid growing up in a religious family in Kalamazoo, where he says that despite feeling sheltered, he experienced white supremacy, discrimination, and homophobia.

“At that age, you don’t really know what those things are,” he says. “I felt at a young age that I wasn’t being treated like everyone else.”

He got through it, he says, by being “a strong-willed kid.”

“I grew up in a predominately white school. There weren’t any Black people in that school at all, let alone being gay as well,” he says. “I got made fun of and bullied in middle school.”

High school wasn’t any easier. “Back in high school, I had really long hair, a really feminine voice,” he says.

He acknowledges that his experience was, unfortunately, not unusual. “High school is really a jungle, and you have to deal with what’s in your face.”

He recalls one encounter at school that led to his suspension during his senior year at Portage Northern. During final exams in his math class, a white teacher kept misgendering Johnson, even after being corrected by other students.

“I finally just had it, and I ended up saying some profanity to her, and I had to leave the classroom and leave the building,” he recalls. “When my parents found out, they weren’t even upset about it because they understood what happened.”

Many of his classmates, however, were surprised to witness the eruption. “It’s funny because I’m so soft-spoken,” he says.

Johnson had been misgendered before in school, and he recalls that some students stood up for him, including one who yelled at someone disrespecting him. “She got removed from class for trying to protect me,” he says. “A really popular student supporting you really changes the dynamics of the entire classroom. Kudos to those popular students for having my back.”

He has since heard from some of those very same people who treated him badly. “Most of them just reach out and apologize and just praise me for my success,” he says.

Johnson came out right after high school. “My mom was doing my hair. She slapped me in the face when I told her I was gay, and I ran away from home.”

He recalls that she said, “You won’t claim that. You won’t claim gayism in my home. I wasn’t going to disrespect myself, so I left.”

Looking back, Johnson understands where she was coming from. “She clearly wasn’t happy with it,” he says. “And I feel like that was her way of being a Black mother to try to protect me: ‘You can’t be like that, the world is going to be harder for you if you’re like that.’ She didn’t say that out of her mouth, [though].”

Johnson describes his parents and family as “extremely religious. Black church religious.”



Growing up in this environment was hard for him. “My mom had tried to pray and asked the pastors for a prayer for me about my homosexuality,” he says.

“Obviously, that didn’t work. That’s never going to work,” he says. “Trying to pray away homosexuality is never going to work — that’s part of our DNA. You’re not going to pray that out.”

Things are much different now. Johnson’s ex-boyfriend did his mother’s hair for his cousin’s wedding that they all attended together.

“It took her time to adjust,” he says, but she is accepting now.

“She’s just so religious, you know,” he says. “She believes in the Bible, and she believes homosexuals will, I guess, go to hell. But she’s had a change of heart, and I think now, it’s more about how God, I guess, looks at your heart at the end of the day, and I think that helped her get over the whole gay son thing.”

Johnson hopes more closeted athletes will come out, noting that it is bad for the mental health of LGBTQ+ athletes to do otherwise.

“I don’t think it’s good for the players mentally, at all, to not be out,” he says. “Every person is their own person, and we don’t know everyone’s exact reasons why they’re in the closet.”

Coming out today is much different than, say, when Billie Jean King was at the beginning of her career.

“Things are just getting better and better,” he says. “The future is bright, but we’re still fighting.”

Coming out has only helped his career, Johnson believes. “I feel very honestly it gives me more power.”

“There’s a lot of power in my racket now, and I have to realize that and stand and deliver,” he says.

To “stand and deliver” in tennis means that “your back is against the wall, a very difficult shot is coming right at you, and you take the shot, and you become victorious,” he explains. “I am standing and delivering now.”

For more on Lendale Johnson, visit https://www.lendalejohnson.com

**Warning - The content of this YouTube video contains footage of riots and looting in South Africa and may be offensive to some and does not reflect my opinions on the subject matter **

I do subscribe to the YouTube channel serpentza. He is from South Africa, he grew up there and also lived in China for 15 years. I thought I would share this as South Africa is not in the news here about all the rioting, looting and so forth and since serpentza is from there and has inside information about what is going on.

A Gay Pride parade in Warsaw, Poland, last month, comes amid rising tensions

Hungary and Poland are facing legal proceedings for their treatment of gay people.

In Poland 100 towns and villages have been declared ‘free of LGBTQ ideology’ with pride parades and other gay-friendly events being blocked.

In Hungary schools have been ordered not to use materials that feature gay people, which critics say conflates paedophilia and pornography with LGBT issues.

The EU says the laws are restrictive, discriminatory and infringe on human rights.

The body said in a statement: ‘The two member states now have two months to respond to the arguments put forward by the Commission.

‘Otherwise, the Commission may decide to send them a reasoned opinion and in a further step refer them to the Court of Justice of the European Union.’

Viktor Orban, Prime Minister of Hungary, said the LGBT issue was a matter of national sovereignty.


Activists in Budapest, Hungary, flew a giant heart balloon in rainbow colors to protest against a new law on July 8

Poland’s government in June denied having any laws that discriminated against people based on their sexual orientation.

Previously, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said: ‘Europe will never allow parts of our society to be stigmatised: be it because of whom they love, because of their age, their ethnicity, their political opinions, or their religious beliefs.’

Last month thousands turned out at a pride event in Warsaw in defiance of Poland’s actions. In Hungary, activists flew a giant balloon in rainbow colours through the streets of Budapest.

If the legal action is successful, both countries could face significant financial penalties.

But by no means the first same sex marriage within the Royal Familly:

https://getpocket.com/explore/item/the-k...obal-en-GB

European Rights Court Orders Russia to Recognize Same-Sex Unions


Europe’s top human rights court has ordered Russia to recognize same-sex unions in a new ruling on Tuesday.

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR)’s ruling came in response to complaints filed in 2010 by three Russian same-sex couples whose attempts to register their marriages in Russia were rejected.

The ECHR judges unanimously ruled that Russia violated Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights — the right to respect for private and family life — by not granting legal status to the couples’ unions, the court said in a press release.

The court ruled that Russia had an obligation to ensure respect for the applicants’ private and family life by establishing a framework for their relationships to be legally acknowledged and protected.

Although Article 8 does not explicitly oblige Council of Europe member states to recognize same-sex marriage, it does imply a need to strike a fair balance between same-sex couples’ needs and those of the community, the court said.

https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2021/07/1...ons-a74509

The lesbian survivor who took down Bill Cosby said it’s “disappointing” that he won his appeal

By Alex Bollinger Thursday, July 1, 2021  

The lesbian Temple University employee who was able to finally put Bill Cosby behind bars after decades of accusations from 60 women said that it’s “disappointing” that the Pennsylvania Supreme Court vacated his conviction and set him free.

Cosby was accused of drugging and sexually assaulting Andrea Constand in 2004 when she worked with the university’s women’s basketball team, and in 2018 a jury found him guilty on three second degree felony counts of aggravated indecent assault. But the state’s supreme court just overturned that conviction.

“Today’s majority decision regarding Bill Cosby is not only disappointing but of concern in that it may discourage those who seek justice for sexual assault in the criminal justice system from reporting,” she said in a statement that was also signed by her lawyers Dolores Troiani and Bebe Kivitz.
“We remain grateful to those women who came forward to tell their stories,” the statement continues. “We do not intend to make any further comment.”


https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2021/07/lesb...on-appeal/

Alyson Stoner Reveals She Attended ‘Gay Conversion’ Therapy: ‘There Are Scars There’
The “Step Up” actor, who is pansexual, said the painful impact of the experience has been “measurable.”


By Curtis M. Wong


It’s been more than three years since Alyson Stoner first opened up about her sexuality in a poignant essay for Teen Vogue, but the time she spent struggling with her true self was fraught with challenges. 

Stoner, who is pansexual, spoke to Insider this week about her new memoir, “Mind Body Pride.” She revealed that she briefly attended reparative, or “gay conversion,” therapy sessions in hopes of reconciling her sexuality with her religious faith. 

“I felt like everything was wrong with me, even though I, in my heart of hearts, only desired to be a devoted follower of God,” said the actor, whose credits include “Step Up” and “Cheaper by the Dozen,” as well as Missy Elliott’s “Work It” video. “So to hear from people you trust, from people you respect, from people you might even aspire to become, that you at your core are ‘rotten,’ ‘abominable,’ that the devil has a target on your back because of your position in Hollywood ... it just sends you into a spiral, at least for me, because I just wanted to do the right thing.”

The American Medical Association, the American Psychological Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics have discredited so-called conversion therapy, which attempts to end or reduce people’s same-sex attraction or sexual activity.



https://www.huffpost.com/entry/alyson-st...4d34df22aa

Gay businesswoman shares her military discrimination story from the 1990s

By Katya Guillaume - Jun. 22, 2021

Like many Americans, Laura Spaulding joined the military when she was just 19 years old, but her experience in the military did not turn out as she thought it would.

“I really had no choices, I couldn’t afford college on my own. So my only way to get to college was through the G.I. Bill,” Spaulding told Spectrum Bay News 9’s Katya Guillaume.

Spaulding said a career in law enforcement or the military was always something she wanted to pursue.

“It was very challenging both physically and mentally - it was exhausting at the same time - but I liked those challenges and I was learning things that I would’ve never learned anywhere else,” she said as she recalled her time in boot camp.

The enjoyment for her stopped shortly after boot camp, though, during military police training.

“All of a sudden,” Spaulding said, “One evening, I hear over the loud speakers the XO which is like the chief of that base calling individual females by themselves, they would come back and look terrified." She said the late night interrogation came at a surprise for everyone.

“He asked me who I thought was gay." Still stunned by the words, she continued to share her story. “You could tell by his demeanor that this was a vengeance thing for him. He was pissed off that Bill Clinton had signed that bill and he was going to find a way to circumvent it.”

Laura knew who she was before joining the military. She thought the ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ bill, signed by former president Clinton in 1993, made joining that much better, until it didn't.

https://www.baynews9.com/fl/tampa/news/2...rimination

How gay neighborhoods used the traumas of HIV to help American cities fight coronavirus

By Daniel Baldwin Hess & Alex Bitterman


Throughout the pandemic, local neighborhoods have played a critical and well-documented role providing the health and social services necessary for American communities and businesses to survive and recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Gay neighborhoods were particularly well equipped to meet this challenge, according to our latest research on these communities.

We find that the lessons learned and trauma experienced early in the HIV/AIDS pandemic helped urban gay areas respond to COVID-19 quickly and effectively – especially in the face of early federal government paralysis.



Gay neighborhoods are those that welcome lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual, queer and other sexual minorities – a population generally referred to by the shorthand LGBTQ+. Well-known examples include the Castro district in San Francisco, Dupont Circle in Washington and Greenwich Village and Chelsea in New York City.

“Gayborhoods” grew during the sexual liberation movements of the 1960s and 1970s, offering LGTBQ people and their allies an escape from pervasive discrimination and prejudice. In these areas, sexual minorities could rent apartments, socialize in bars and express themselves freely in a like-minded, compassionate community.

Even as LGBTQ people in the U.S. began to live more openly, gay neighborhoods really coalesced around the HIV/AIDS pandemic.

When that mysterious new disease began ravaging the LGBTQ community in the 1980s, the U.S. government turned away from, not toward, those communities. Support critical for fighting HIV – including health care subsidies for uninsured people and funding for research on treatments and cures – was initially not provided. Information given by governments about disease transmission and treatment was inconsistent and sometimes inaccurate.



https://theconversation.com/how-gay-neig...rus-162213