Jasmine Jordan, Michael Jordan’s Daughter, Comes Out

Back on August 29, Michael Jordan’s only daughter Jasmine posted this photograph of herself and girlfriend Tyson-Thomas, former Syracuse Orange basketball star, on Instagram with this caption: 

“This Little Closet Is Holding Me Back.”

As people began to question what she meant, whether or not she was gay, Jasmine confirmed that it is true.

She had previously posted:

“Until love, trust, honesty, respect, loyalty, commitment, genuine happiness and other characteristics or aspects I want in a relationship is defined by one gender then and only then will I discuss my sexual preference.”

Well, of course, welcome out Jasmine, and please accept our copy of The Gay Agenda and the Official Coming Out Toaster Oven.

It’s good out here, but I will ask that you learn that what you have is a particular sexual orientation, not a sexual preference. Think of it like this, some folks have a preference for Air Jordans while others have a preference for Nike. M’kay?

Welcome out!

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Ben Whishaw Comes Out .... Raven-Symoné, Too

Ben Whishaw has always been one of those actors who value their privacy, and rarely, if ever, has spoken about his personal life. But sometimes the news is so good you want to shout it from a rooftop.

Whishaw is out and proud, and has entered into a civil partnership with his partner, Australian composer Mark Bradshaw.

The two men met on the set of Jane Campion’s 2009 film Bright Star, where Whishaw played John Keats and Bradshaw composed the score. Whishaw was last seen as the quirky, nerdy tech wizard in the last Bond film, Skyfall.

Whishaw’s sexual orientation has been the subject of internet debate in recent years, sparked by an interview he gave to Out magazine last year while playing a homosexual character in an off-Broadway play, The Pride. When asked whether it was important for young gay people to have positive role models, Whishaw replied: ‘I feel in my heart that it’s important, but I don’t quite know yet the way to go about that. Maybe that’s the transitional thing I feel I’m in the middle of at the moment.’

Now, however, he wants to share the news: he’s a gay man.

And as such, he will be receiving a copy of the Gay Agenda as well as the obligatory Coming Out Toaster Oven.

Welcome out, Ben; I found you delicious in Skyfall and wondered about you ….

Welcome out.

Raven-Symoné has been dodging questions about her sexuality for a few years now because, well, it’s no one’s business. Last year, the National Enquirer printed a story saying she was gay, and Raven responded:

“I’m living my PERSONAL life the way I’m happiest. I’m not one, in my 25 year career to disclose who I’m dating. And I shall not start now. My sexual orientation is mine, and the person I’m dating to know. I’m not one for a public display of my life. However that is my right as a HUMAN BEing whether straight or gay. To tell or not to tell. As long as I’m not harming anyone. I am a light being made from love. And my career is the only thing I would like to put on display, not my personal life. Kisses!”

But now, I guess since the DOMA Death and the Prop H8 Smackdown, Raven is ready to tell the world, by Tweeting:

She says she’s not getting married anytime soon, but “it is great to know I can now, should I wish to.”

Welcome out, Raven.

And, as soon as we get the presses back up and running here at HOMO HQ, we’ll be sending a copy of the Gay Agenda—which is simple: equality—along with the Coming Out Toaster Oven.

It doesn’t matter when, or how, or where, you come out, it just matters that you do.

Welcome out.

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What This South Carolina? A Lesbian In A Beauty Pageant?

For some gay men, beauty pageants are a special thing; the pageantry, the gowns, the drag queeniness of some of the contestants. Me? Not so much. Give me a good awards show and someone drunk on a Red Carpet and I’m in; but, that may change since I heard this story.

The Miss South Carolina Pageant is next week, with the gowns and the glitter and the gaffes during the question and answer portion of the show—Caite Upton, anyone? See HERE—but this year there is a special contestant like we’ve never seen before in the Palmetto State. For the first time in history, the pageant has an openly gay contestant; and she’s multi-racial.

Her name is Analouisa Valencia and many are calling her the new face of the south.

:::fingers crossed:::

The South could use a new face; just sayin'.

And while this is the second time Analouisa has competed, this is the first year she's competing as an out lesbian.

"Last year, I did compete at state, but I wasn't as comfortable because of the fact I was hiding who I was. This is my first year coming out and saying, 'This is me, girls. Sorry, I'm going to be changing in the same dressing room as you. This is what's going to happen.'"— Analouisa Valencia

But, while it might seem having an openly gay contestant is a first for South Carolina, she is also the first bilingual contestant in pageant history.

Seriously? 2013? And she’s the first bilingual contestant? Oh yeah, South Carolina.

And, with three titles already under her belt, Valencia's family says her success represents the changing face of the south, though it’s a change which finds many folks unprepared as they focus on her sexual orientation and her ethnicity. But Valencia says it’s her passion for coaching Special Olympic athletes that she wants judges to remember. She doesn’t want to be The Gay Contestant, or The Multi-Ethnic Contestant, she wants to be Analouisa, and, hopefully, that’s how people will see her.

And this particular gay might just find himself sitting in front of a TV next week, rooting on one particular pageant gal.

Good luck, Analouisa.

And, if you win, and collect the $25,000 scholarship, there's also a Coming Out Toaster Oven, and copy of The Gay Agenda for you.

It’s a win-win, though, any way you look at it.

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Listen, Charice Pempengco Comes Out

She is best known, up to now, for playing Sunshine Corazon on "Glee," a foreign exchange student from the Philippines, and a little singing dynamo at that, but now Charice Pempengco has taken another big step and come out as a lesbian.

It all happened when she was being interviewed on a Filipino talk show and the host, Boy Abunda, asked if she was gay. Charice responded in her native language, Tagalog, ‘Yes, I am.’

"I have deep gratitude for the Filipinos because they are the ones who know who I really am. I don't know what the problem is because for me, there is no problem with that. So now I ask for forgiveness from those who don't understand. And those who cannot accept. I apologize, I understand you. To those who accept, and who could accept me, thank you very, very much. I just want to say to all of you that I feel very light -- that I can leave the house knowing I am not hiding anything. ... I love myself, that's why I'm able to do this."

Those last couple of lines ring so true; that feeling of lightness you get from lifting that burden of being closeted about your sexual orientation. When you reveal all you are, every piece of you, you seem to stand taller and smile wider, and be happier.

Congratulations, Charice, and Welcome Out.

Naturally, a copy of The Gay Agenda and the obligatory Coming Out Toaster Oven will be winging their way to you from HOMO HQ.

Welcome Out, Charice, welcome out.

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UPDATE: Kaitlyn Hunt Won't Take A Plea

Last week I posted about Kaitlyn Hunt, the Florida high school senior who was arrested and then expelled from school for being in a lesbian relationship with a high school freshman. Kaitlyn Hunt was charged with two felony counts of lewd and lascivious battery on a child and could face up to fifteen years in jail and be labeled a sexual predator for life. [see post HERE]

Now, I got a couple of comments that this wasn’t about Kaitlyn being gay, even though the other girl’s parents were completely against the relationship. And, of course, they waited until about a minute after Kaitlyn turned eighteen to file charges against her. I cannot help but think that if Kaitlyn Hunt had been an eighteen-year-old boy, and star basketball player, those parents would have reacted differently.

But I digress. This isn’t about the parents of the other girl, or straight relationships versus gay relationships, it's about ruining a young girl’s life because she fell in love with one of her teammates on the basketball team.

Kaitlyn Hunt was offered a plea deal in the case, in which she would face two years of house arrest and a year of probation, and her ‘crime’ would stay on her permanent adult record. Kaitlyn Hunt said, ‘No.’

Julia Graves, the attorney for the Hunt family:

"Our client is a courageous teenager who is choosing not to accept the current plea offer by the state of Florida. It’s a situation of two teenagers who happen to be of the same sex involved in a relationship. If this case involved a boy and a girl, we don't believe there'd be the media attention to this case. Our client's a model citizen. She's been placed in an environment of school with her classmates where they go to school together, they have lunch together, and play on the same team (and are) allowed to have communication and contact without barriers. Then when something develops between the two of them as a result of this environment which is created by the state, it leads to criminal prosecution."

Charles Sullivan, who's representing the as-yet-unnamed family of the other teen, says his clients won’t comment yet, and he said he believed the plea deal was a reasonable one and was surprised Hunt didn't take it.

Reasonable for a high school, student who fell in love with another student to accept being labeled a predator for life?

As I said, had this been a straight relationship, I doubt it would be national news. I doubt the other girl’s parents would have filed charges. I doubt the boy would face being labeled a pedophile.

You can say this case has nothing to do with the other girl’s parents’ homophobia, but it reeks of discrimination and bigotry and hate, to me. Now, to be clear, if Kaitlyn Hunt wasn’t a high school student when she began her relationship with the girl, then, yes, she should be punished. But the fact is that, like any number of us, gay and straight, these two girls became friends, fell in love, and started a relationship while they were both high school students and one should not be punished for that.

I hope Kaitlyn sticks to her guns and fights this all the way to the end. She was a high school girl who fell in love with another student and anyone who thinks that makes her a predator or a pedophile just isn’t thinking clearly. 

Head on over to Free Kate, read her story, and add your name to Kate's 296,450 supporters.

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Kaitlyn Hunt Was Arrested, Expelled From School, For Being In A Lesbian Relationship

Kaitlyn Hunt was one of those all-American high school girls. She was blond, and a cheerleader; she played on the basketball team. She’s gay.

Oops.

Not so fast. Not really so ‘all-American’ now, is she? At least not in Florida.

Kaitlyn Hunt started dating a girl she met on the basketball team and, according to her father, Steven everything changed. Kaitlyn was dropped from the team because the coach didn’t want the “drama” of a lesbian relationship.

Then it gets worse because, at the time, Hunt was seventeen and her girlfriend just fifteen. Kaitlyn’s girlfriend’s parents were not about to have a lesbian daughter, and the moment Kaitlyn Hunt turned eighteen, those parents had her arrested. Kaitlyn Hunt was charged with two felony counts of lewd and lascivious battery on a child. And then she was expelled from school, just weeks before her graduation.

"[The girlfriend's parents] are out to destroy my daughter, because they feel like she ‘made’ their daughter gay. They see being gay as wrong and they blame my daughter. Of course, I see it 100% differently. I don’t see or label these girls as gay. They are teenagers in high school experimenting with their sexuality – with mutual consent. And even if their daughter is gay, who cares? She is still their daughter.”—Kelley Hunt Smith, Kaitlyn’s mother

The attorney general offered Kaitlyn a plea deal: two years of house arrest and a year of probation, though the ‘crime’ would stay on her permanent adult record.

Crime. Being a Lesbian in high school and falling in love with a younger girl. Kaitlyn’s parents are asking people to sign a Change.org petition urging authorities to drop or lessen the charges.

You know, of being gay.

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Change.org Petition

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Judge John Roach Jr. Enforces Morality Clause In Divorce, Orders Lesbian Couple To Separate

The facts are these:

• Carolyn Compton was married to a man and together they had two children. They were divorced in 2011.
• For the past three years, Carolyn Compton has been involved in a same sex relationship with Paige Price.

Therein lies the rub …..

In Collin County, Texas, Judge John Roach Jr., a Republican—naturally—who presides over the 296th District Court, enforced the “morality clause” in Compton’s divorce papers last week, basically telling Paige Price she cannot legally live with Carolyn Compton.

Under the morality clause—and isn’t it always the GOP who trumpet their morality—someone who has a “dating or intimate relationship” with the person or is not related “by blood or marriage” to that person is not allowed in the home after 9 PM when the children are present. 

Paige Price, who says the judge, himself, placed the clause in the Compton’s divorce papers because he didn’t like Compton’s “lifestyle”, has 30 days to move out of the home because the children live with the two women couple.

“Our children are all happy and well adjusted. By his enforcement, being that we cannot marry in this state, I have been ordered to move out of my home.”—Paige Price

The judge apparently did not bother to learn that, not only does Carolyn’s ex-husband, Joshua Compton, rarely see his two children, but that he was once charged with stalking Compton. Court records show the ex-husband, Joshua Compton, was charged with third-degree felony stalking in 2011 but pleaded to a misdemeanor charge of criminal trespassing.

Ken Upton Jr., senior staff attorney for Lambda Legal’s Dallas office, says these so-called ‘morality clauses’ are rarely enforced and were historically used to prevent unmarried people from cohabitating with children present. And since gay couples are legally barred from marrying in Texas, and since courts often include morality clauses without people knowing, Upton says that gay couples are being unfairly targeted.

“It’s a problem that continues with homophobia.”—Ken Upton

Price and Compton can appeal the decision, which would likely be overturned; Upton believes that since the couple already lives together with a healthy environment for the kids, they stand a good chance to win on appeal.

This is yet another example of the roadblocks that LGBT couples face because of bans on same-sex marriage, and Republican ‘activist’ judges who impose their own bent morality on others. I checked around this whole internet-y thing and haven’t found one case where this ‘morality clause’ was imposed on a heterosexual couple.

So, again, anyone who thinks the need for a full federal recognition of same-sex marriages needs to take a good look at a couple being torn apart because they happen to be gay; a couple who chose to commit to one another and to co-parent  children, being told they are not allowed to do so.

Way to go Texas.

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