US 2012 Election: Stances on LGBTQ Rights

Here’s visual confirmation of each 2012 presidential candidate’s plans on 12 issues that affect America’s estimated 31 million LGBT voters.

(via tyleroakley, marriageequality.org)

LGBTQ Tumblr blog highlight: homohelp

Equalitopia sits down with homohelp, a Tumblr blog whose concept is quite simple: brightly colored images featuring tips about everything LGBTQ-related. These tips range from inspirational to sarcastic to witty.

Homohelp started less than three months ago and now its posts are receiving hundreds and even thousands of reblogs. Recently, homohelp was added to Tumblr's new LGBTQ section of the “Spotlight” directory.

Equalitopia: What was your initial inspiration for starting homohelp?

Homohelp: Honestly? It was just boredom and an attempt to get a cheap laugh just to see who was reading. The first handful of posts really weren’t very good, in my opinion. They were very cringe-worthy, and some were downright offensive. (Some people will argue that homohelp is still offensive, but I don’t think any of our posts now are as bad as some of our very first posts.)

Equalitopia: What are you aiming to accomplish with the blog?

Homohelp: At this point, we’re trying to encourage people to realize that just because people are not-straight doesn’t mean that they’re totally different people from those who are. The comment I see more than any other one (Which happens to be my least favourite, actually.) is something along the lines of “Uh… Why is this called homohelp? Straight people do this, too.” I always get really frustrated reading that, because I never wanted to make a blog that excluded anyone, including straight people. I’ll be the first to admit that homohelp is essentially a ripoff of a certain other “tips” blog about male siblings. I could never personally connect with that one, because I don’t think I have much swagg, but you don’t need to be a “bro” to appreciate that blog, and you don’t need to be a homo to appreciate homohelp.

Equalitopia: You started homohelp less than three months ago and now your posts are receiving hundreds and even thousands of reblogs. How did you establish that audience?

Homohelp: I have no idea, actually. I’m still surprised everyday to see how many people are supporting this blog. I never really bothered with trying to get more people to follow the blog. I’ve never asked anyone to do promotions for it and I use the same handful of tags for every post. Really, all I do is write the posts and hope somebody is reading them. Any success we’ve had with the readers is thanks to our readers themselves. They’ve been the ones spreading the word about homohelp, and we’ve received some really nice messages. It’s kind words from our readers that really keep motivation up for this. There have been a few times where I’m totally stumped for posts and think about just taking a break for a while, or giving up all together, but I can’t do that at this point. I feel like I’d be letting people down, which is the last thing I want to do.

Equalitopia: How many people are behind homohelp? Who are they?

Homohelp: I always feel really silly answering this, because I’ve always referred to homohelp as a “we.” Technically, I’m the only person behind homohelp at this point, but I still refer to it as a “we.” The blog encourages readers to submit their ideas for posts to us, so I would feel really silly referring to homohelp as just me, because it’s not. Even a good chunk of the posts I write are inspired by comments on past posts or messages from readers, and I feel like I would take credit away from them if I just referred to myself when talking about the blog. homohelp is more than just me, it’s everyone writing into us and reading our posts and sharing our words.

Equalitopia: What’s your personal favourite homohelp?

Homohelp: I think I have to go with #32. (never act out of spite. it is always wrong, no matter what the cause. even if you’re being bullied or teased, remember that you are above petty actions, and that you are a better person than anyone who’s ever tried to hurt you.) It definitely doesn’t represent the tone of the blog now, and it’s not worded quite as well as it should be, but it’s my biggest moral guideline. If there is any one message I could get out to the entire world, it would be that. I see so many people saying that things will get better and you can get even with the bullies from high school, and tons of bullshit that never made any sense to me. The minute you stoop down to the level of bullies and try to get even, you ARE a bully, and everyone should aspire to be better than that. I always thought one of the things our community was pushing for was an end to hate, and when you fight hate with more hate, you don’t get rid of it, you just make more.

Equalitopia: What are your favorite LGBTQ-related Tumblr blogs?

Homohelp: I don’t actually follow very many blogs. (I don’t think I’ve been fully swept into the Tumblr craze yet.) I do enjoy reading gaywrites, I think they do a good job at finding which news stories deserve highlighting, and lgbtlaughs, because they make me giggle every day.

Equalitopia: Anything else you’d like to add?

homohelp: Thank you so much to everyone who’s been reading this blog. (And also to you, Equalitopia!) So many of you have been so supportive of this, and it really does mean so much to know that we’ve been able to help people in any way at all.

Also, somebody also wrote into us once and accused homohelp of being “a bunch of gay-hating, condescending lesbians,” which to my knowledge is not the case, so I just want to clear that up.

Oh! And I don’t know if this is tacky or not, but our merchandise store is opening this week! We’ll be selling four different t-shirts for now, and 25% of all proceeds will be donated right to GLSEN, so I hope people check that out, because it’s all for a good cause.

• Visit homohelp
• Follow homohelp
• Know an interesting LGBTQ Tumblr blog that should be interviewed? Suggest it!

Mike Huckabee compares gays to drug addicts

In an interview last week with The College of New Jersey’s magazine The Perspective, former Arkansas governor and Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee voiced his opposition to same-sex marriage and the repeal of ‘Don’t Ask Don’t Tell,’ and attacked LGBT American families.

The popular Fox News drew parallels between homosexuality and other lifestyles that are considered by some to be morally aberrant. “You don’t go ahead and accommodate every behavioral pattern that is against the ideal,” he said of same-sex marriage.

“That would be like saying, well, there are a lot of people who like to use drugs, so let’s go ahead and accommodate those who want who use drugs. There are some people who believe in incest, so we should accommodate them. There are people who believe in polygamy, so we should accommodate them.”

He opposes any government recognition of same-sex relationships, even calling civil unions “not necessary.”

David Cameron slip leaves gay people out of election speech

David Cameron, leader of the British Conservative Party, may have made another gaffe over his support for gay rights - after he left out a reference to gay people he was supposed to make in his speech kick-starting their election campaign, reports The Metro.

The original text of this morning’s speech, which had been circulated to journalists before he gave it, included the sentence: ’We’re fighting this election for the Great Ignored – young, old, rich, poor, black, white, gay, straight.’

But when he gave the speech, Mr Cameron appeared to forget several of those categories, instead describing the ‘Great Ignored’ by saying: ’They may be black or white, they may be rich or poor, they may live in the town or country.’

It comes after a series of controversies over the Conservatives’ position on gay rights. First, Cameron appeared flustered in an interview with Gay Times, appearing uncertain how to respond to questions about how Tory MEPs had voted in a European Parliament vote condemning homophobic laws in Lithuania.

Then over the weekend, the Conservative shadow home secretary, Chris Grayling, was embroiled in controversy after he was recorded saying that he thought people who ran bed and breakfasts should have the right to turn away gay couples.