HEROES & HISTORY

HEROES

After the yearbooks were printed, the Missouri school district apologizes.

August 20, 2017 compassq Comments Off on After the yearbooks were printed, the Missouri school district apologizes.

A Missouri school district said administrators censored lighthearted yearbook quotes by a pair of gay students celebrating their sexual orientation because they could have “offended” other students. The students, Joey Slivinski and Thomas Swartz, each selected quotes expressing their sexual orientation to appear beneath their senior portraits. The quote Slivinski submitted read: “Of course I dress well, I didn’t spend all that time in the closet for nothing.”

5 THINGS TO KNOW

Internet dads are the first LGBT family to rep a high-fashion clothing line.

August 20, 2017 compassq Comments Off on Internet dads are the first LGBT family to rep a high-fashion clothing line.

You may find many parents playing in the park or taking a dunk in the pool with their kids. But one Atlanta couple has a slightly different agenda. They’re modeling with their little ones, and they’ve just made history as the first black LGBT family to represent a high-fashion European clothing line. Kordale Lewis and Kaleb Anthony first entered the spotlight in 2014 when they posted a photo on Instagram of themselves and their daughters getting ready for school. The pic went viral, garnering more than 50,000 likes.

5 THINGS TO KNOW

How lesbians in Nazi Germany were treated.

August 19, 2017 compassq Comments Off on How lesbians in Nazi Germany were treated.

Among the Nazi regime’s many victims, as many as 15,000 gay men were sent to concentration camps. But there hasn’t been much information on how the regime treated lesbians. Samuel Clowes Huneke, a Ph.D. candidate at Stanford University, stumbled across four files on lesbian couples tucked away in the Berlin State Archive in 2015. To his knowledge, historians haven’t explored most of these files in extensive detail beforehand, though they may have been mentioned in some writings. Regardless, the files paint a detailed, if small, portrait of how Nazi officials treated lesbian women in Berlin.

HEROES

Historic gay representation in the Florida Legislature.

August 19, 2017 compassq Comments Off on Historic gay representation in the Florida Legislature.

The first openly gay candidate elected to the Florida Legislature said this week that he didn’t run as a one-issue candidate and intends to represent all of his constituents regardless of sexual orientation. David Richardson, a certified public accountant from Miami Beach, defeated three other Democrats in the Aug. 14 primary and is unopposed in the Nov. 6 general election. “I did not run as a gay candidate and I’m not going to serve as the gay legislator,” Richardson said in a telephone interview.

HEALTH

HRC conference in Orlando to focus on LGBT youth.

August 19, 2017 compassq Comments Off on HRC conference in Orlando to focus on LGBT youth.

Working to support LGBTQ youth, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) Foundation, in partnership with the National Education Association (NEA) and the American Counseling Association (ACA), will hold its nationally-acclaimed Time to THRIVE Conference February 16-18 at the Hilton Orlando Bonnet Creek in Orlando. Toyota will again be a presenting sponsor. In its fifth year, this premier event of the HRC Foundation, the educational arm of the nation’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) civil rights organization, will address the safety, inclusion and well-being of LGBTQ and questioning youth.

A & E

Life among gay and lesbian couples looking to foster or adopt…”Finding Life”

August 18, 2017 compassq Comments Off on Life among gay and lesbian couples looking to foster or adopt…”Finding Life”

One of the less-publicized but equally important victories to come out of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2015 decision to legalize same-sex marriage was the now-new ability to adopt children. It would take exactly two years to the day for the court to strike down an Arkansas law that tried to uphold the ban but strike it down it did.

HEROES

Benjamin ‘Brotha Ben’ Evans’ legacy of love.

August 18, 2017 compassq Comments Off on Benjamin ‘Brotha Ben’ Evans’ legacy of love.

In the LGBTQ community, there are many leaders but some stand out. One particular influencer is a minister who came out as a gay man at age 30 in 2015 — and has been making his mark in South Florida ever since. “It was all because, again, the work of BMe,” said Benjamin ‘Brotha Ben’ Evans, co-founder and director for the Miami area BMe Community.