Tim Cook "Outed" by CNBC Reporter

I really didn't know that Tim Cook wasn't already "out." Many media outlets have had him on their "top gay people" lists, and some have even commented that when Cook first moved into position as Apple's CEO, he was announced as a gay CEO. Perhaps we all just assumed he was gay?

Regardless, the bigger issue here is that of all of the people interviewed for James Stewart's piece about gay CEOs, not one of them gave the "OK" to disclose sexuality. Yes, we know that your sexuality is only a part of who you are and does not define you, but in a time when we are having to fight for our rights, every little bit counts, and these are big bits that could help turn the tide against anti LGBTQ mindsets.

Sia at Logo TV's Trailblazers Event

How fun was this!? The Logo TV's Trailblazers event set out to honor those who have paved the way, and continue to pave the way for the LGBTQ movement. Among the guests at the evening's events were Laverne Cox, Lance Bass, Demi Lovato, Jason Collins, and a host of other celebrities. The New York City Gay Men's Chorus also performed Sia's summer hit Chandelier with the pop star, providing vocal backing while Sia's own choreographer, Ryan Heffington danced around stage and in the audience. See if you can find our own Johnathan in the video below!

Logo's Trailblazers Event

Edugaytion's Johnathan recently participated in a pretty big event hosted by Logo TV.



From the LogoTV website:

Watch Trailblazers on Thursday, June 26th, at 9/8c on Logo TV

Almost half a century after the Stonewall Riots, and on the one-year anniversary of DOMA being overruled, Logo is proud to announce Trailblazers , a first of its kind event to honor the pioneers who have made historic strides for LGBT equality. The one-hour special will feature the celebrities, politicians, activists, and trendsetters who are transforming our cultural landscape - as well as musical performances from some of today's biggest artists.Trailblazers will take place at The Cathedral of Saint John the Divine, one of the first churches to host gay marriages in New York.

Trailblazers will honor Edie Windsor and Roberta Kaplan, Jason Collins and 'Orange Is the New Black' for their groundbreaking work in LGBT civil rights. Also during the event, Daniel Radcliffe will introduce Young Trailblazers, which will highlight four members of The Trevor Project's Youth Advisory Council who are making an impact in their communities. Former REM front man Michael Stipe will also be on hand to present the International Trailblazeraward to John 'Longjones' Abdallah Wambere for his work fighting for LGBT rights in Uganda.

The show will feature musical performances by A Great Big World and Sia, with special appearances by Demi Lovato, Pete Wentz, Jared Leto, Kylie Minogue, Ariana Grande, Rita Ora, Iggy Azalea, Tyler Glenn of Neon Trees, Macklemore and Ryan Lewis and Mary Lambert.

As part of Trailblazers, Logo also will be sending one fan and his or her local hero to attend the show in NYC.

Join us June 26th at 9/8c to celebrate this year's Trailblazers, and check back here throughout the month of June for updates on the show, including more information on honorees and performers.

Equality = Equality

                On June 11, 2014 in Glasgow, Scotland, Nathan and Robert Gale won a discrimination lawsuit against the Polo Lounge, a local gay bar. Robert has cerebral palsy and uses a wheelchair, and when they arrived at the bar on June 13, 2013, they were told by management that the bar didn’t have disabled facilities. When Robert explained that they didn’t need disabled facilities, management continued to deny the couple entry. Nathan and Robert have both worked for equality charities in Scotland. They were at the Polo Lounge to celebrate after the 2013 Scottish Charity Awards as guests of the Equality network, a Scottish LGBT equality charity.

                Almost exactly a year after the incident at the Polo Lounge and taking the owners of the bar to court, Nathan and Robert Gale won their case, receiving £2,000 in compensation. According to PinkNews, Nathan and Robert spoke after the ruling and said, “We are delighted with the result which sends a clear message to businesses across Scotland that disability discrimination is illegal and will not be tolerated, just as we would not accept discrimination on the basis of race or sexuality. We hope this ruling will encourage companies to review their policies to ensure they comply with the law and provide the welcoming environment that their disabled customers deserve.” They also said that it was ironic and depressing to face discrimination at a gay venue on the night they had received an award for a major equality campaign. Tim Hopkins, Director of the Equality Network also spoke after the

Bottoms Up!

     “Damn, I shouldn’t have eaten that chipotle earlier today!”  It’s a phrase such as this one that a man usually says to himself when he is just about to bottom.  He doesn’t know whether or not his rabbit hole is ready to welcome home a friendly visitor or if it is ready to say farewell to a different kind of home dweller.  With that said, bottoms all over the world have their own regimen in regards to proper preparation prior to intercourse.  Some routines stem from the use of a simple store-bought disposable enema to a combination douche enema and water bottle system to even utilizing a shower attachment to get the “job” done.  Nevertheless, cleanliness and proper hygiene are imperative to having an enjoyable sexual experience. 
     I myself am a bottom who takes douching very seriously before partaking in intercourse.  Furthermore, I find myself douching even without the intent on having sex.  For me, it makes me feel clean and lighter and it doesn’t hurt to be “prepared” for a spur of the moment type of gig.  However, one must always keep in mind that douching regularly is not healthy for the body.  The rectum is a sensitive region within the body that tends to dry out over time if it is always subjected to enema/saline solution exposure.  Thus, it is key to only douche when necessary, as in the case of bottoming, and/or when prescribed by your physician.  Whatever you decide to do please remember to be careful in your approach.
          Growing up I always heard my mother say in Spanish, “limpieza es belleza” which translates literally to “cleanliness is beauty” which

Bottom Line 053: Why Do Black Gay Celebrities Only Date White People?

Episode 53! Another ratchet edition of Bottom Line. This one got REALLY ratchet. Oh well. Enjoy!

Bottom Line 053 Why Do Black Gay Celebrities Date Only White People by Edugaytion

More Than Just Butts

Reading through Kotaku this week, I came across a very interesting study, reported by Slate. The study consisted of 375 WoW players, both male and female. It found that 23% of the male players surveyed chose to play as female characters/avatars, compared to 7% of the females playing as men. The researchers conducting this study go on to say that the men role play to an extent, consciously trying to “play the part” by saying more feminine or emotional things in chat.

The lead author of the paper, Rosa Martey at Colorado State University, told [Yee] via email that “it's not necessarily the case that men are trying to appear female when they use a female avatar. Our interviews did not suggest that those who switched were trying to ‘pretend’ to be women players.”

However, Nick Yee, the author of the article on Slate, essentially boils all of this research down to butts. He talks a little about his own research that shows that gamers will conform to their avatars—that is to say adopt the expected mannerisms and behavior of their avatar. But still, it's all about butts. Guys would like to stare at a girl’s butt rather than a guy’s butt while they are playing their game, WoW or not. He even says that “the equivalent [to sexual female avatars] is not an obscenely muscular male avatar in a tank top holding a machine gun.” (Then what exactly is the equivalent to a 90% naked girl, complete with a large butt and breasts, holding a machine gun?) He goes on to talk about men having more of an “incentive” to gender-bend, because female avatars are crafted with their demographic in mind. But I think that might be trivializing this research a bit too much. 

Which looks most like an explorer?
via Gamechup

There are many more RPGs, which traditionally are more of a masculine game by way of the action involved, which have the main player character as a female, and they achieve ratings as good—or better than—as games where you get to pick your avatar or character to play as. Notably, there is the 2013 reboot of the Tomb Raider franchise. This game achieved higher ratings and sales than previous installments in the series, and it was most definitely a different path than previous games took. In the reboot, Lara actually resembles a cartographer and adventurer, as opposed to some kind of dominatrix that stumbled into a cave in the Amazon jungle.

Cut to the Final Fantasy series. Final Fantasy XIII’s character development team decided to create Lightning (FF13-1, not Lightning Returns' costumes) with the idea that she would be “strong and beautiful” and somewhat less feminine than previous female characters. This didn’t seem to deter the game from becoming the fastest-selling Final Fantasy yet, a large chunk of which I'm sure are male players. Given that I completed the game in roughly 30 hours, I think there’s far more than butts that decide a player’s choices.

That said, these are not games where you can choose the character you want to play. They are not MMOs. While that may be true, I would consider MMOs to fall under the RPG umbrella. You are still playing a game that thrusts you into the role of someone beside yourself. To borrow a phrase from Nathan Grayson of Kotaku, gamers “are people—maddeningly complex amalgams of wants, needs, dreams, and desires.” I think that rings very true, for our own LGBT gaymers or others. There’s a lot more than butts that go into deciding who you want to game as.

Click here to read the article written by Nick Yee.

MediCare Now Allowed to Accept Claims for Sex Change Surgeries

        On Friday, May 30^th, 2014, the Obama administration struck down the ban on Medicare-funded gender confirmation, or more commonly, sex reassignment surgeries. According to BuzzFeed, gender confirmation surgeries were banned in 1981 from being covered by Medicare because of a fear of “serious complications” resulting from the “experimental surgeries”. Most medical professional organizations now consider sex reassignment surgeries to be safe and accepted procedures. The decision to lift the ban is a monumental one, because people’s dreams of finally being closer to having the body that they feel they were always supposed to have can now be reached a bit easier. Even though the ban was lifted, it doesn’t mean that Medicare must approve every claim they receive. Experts are saying that Medicare now accepting gender confirmation surgeries will prompt private insurance companies to begin funding the surgeries themselves.

                The only question I had was “Why was this not bigger news?” It turns out that the news of the lifting of the ban was released as a statement of bringing Medicare up to speed with the rest of the medical community. This may be the biggest movement but it isn’t the first instance of people fighting for better healthcare for trans* people. A friend of mine informed me of a petition on his university’s insurance company to include doctors and medications for students that identify as trans*. The petition was granted and the rules of their insurance guidelines were changed. Striking down the ban on gender confirmation surgeries is the second big advance for LGBT medicine since last November when President Obama legalized HIV positive donor to HIV positive recipient transplants. To some of you this may seem familiar if you watch Grey’s Anatomy. In the most recent season of Grey’s Anatomy, an HIV positive gay man gave his HIV positive friend one of his kidneys.    

             

                All of these procedures being legalized are now safer and becoming more common in the medical community. We are quite a bit more medically advanced and know more than we did in 1981. If these surgeries become more available and more affordable, even through private insurance, the trans* community will be able to live their lives the way they want. Surgeries will be so much safer done here in the United States as opposed to traveling out of the country to have a confirmation surgery done, risking infection, then traveling back to the states weeks later due to healing time in the hospital.
                Because we are collectively called the LGBT community, we as the L, G, and B sections should fight alongside our trans* brothers and sisters and help them with their fight for equality. In my region, trans* rights aren’t extremely prevalent, nor do trans* people make it into the media very often, even though they are slowly becoming more accepted. My overall standing on the lifting of the ban is: if it helps the trans* community be happy and allows them to express themselves as the rest of us do, why not let them? Striving to find who you are, to feel like yourself, is a normal thing, and if you feel like you’re in the wrong body and wish to fix it, then nobody should stop you. For people of the trans* community, the price of happiness just became a bit cheaper.

Bottom Line 052: The Normal Heart and People of Color

Episode 52! The guys discuss a bunch of things and end up on HBO's "The Normal Heart."