Out Texas rugby player shares inspiring story as IRL bans trans women - LGBTQ Nation

 “You’re putting so much more pressure on yourself because you can’t just be yourself.”

By John Russell Sunday, June 26, 2022 

Original Article: LGBTQ NATION

Texas rugby player Knute O’Donnell is sharing his story of self-acceptance and coming out this Pride month. In a short documentary for Texas-based broadcaster and streaming platform FloSports, the 29-year-old, who plays for Austin rugby club the Austin Blacks, describes dealing with crippling anxiety and self-hatred that led him to suicidal ideation.

“I was putting things into my body, I was just hoping that I wasn’t gonna wake up anymore.”

When he finally got help, O’Donnell says his sexuality was a major topic of discussion with his therapist.

“Why do I have so much…self-hate?” he recalls thinking. “The reality is, you’re putting so much more pressure on yourself because you can’t just be yourself.”

O’Donnell further describes what it was like revisiting this painful time in a new essay for OutSports. “You forget how much trauma you bury until you go to therapy, and certain interview questions in the video reignited those traumas,” he writes. “It was important to go back through these events no matter how difficult. It reminded me how far I have come and ultimately made me feel like a burden was lifted.”

O’Donnell says his biggest fear was losing friends when he came out. And initially, his best friend advised him against telling their other friends.

“I did lose a couple friends, but not as many as I originally thought,” he says in the doc.

His family and Austin Blacks teammates were a different story.

“When I told my rugby teammates in Texas the news, they immediately embraced me, and it made all my relationships stronger,” he writes. “All my teammates are straight, and we play a very macho sport in a top division of rugby here in the U.S., so the fear of not being accepted or ridiculed was constantly present.”

The team instead accompanied O’Donnell to Austin’s Pride celebrations in 2018 and 2019.

But as O’Donnell tells his inspiring story of gay acceptance, the world of sports continues to grapple with trans inclusion. This week, the International Rugby League announced a temporary ban on trans women from women’s matches as it conducts research and finalizes its inclusion policy.

Read the original article here: https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2022/06/texas-rugby-player-shares-inspiring-story-irl-bans-trans-women/ 

Alison Steinberg of OAN Goes on GAY HATE RANT

 

Alison Steinberg, allegedly a contributor at the shaky One America Network, goes on a hateful rant against the Pride flag in Huntington Beach, California. 

"Guess what I came home to be greeted with," she says, "This fucking bullshit. What the hell is that? Huntington Beach is the home of good old fashioned hardworking American people. The people that worked all through the Covid lockout. That's right Huntington Beach never shut down through any of the Covid nonesense fuckery. And now we're peddling this garbage. What the hell is this?"

She ends by blurting "Whoever is in charge of this city should be fired." (This blog has not checked, but the people who are in charge are likely elected officials, it is uncertain if Ms. Steinberg understands how elections work.)

In our opinion, not only did Ms. Steinberg embarrass the good people of Huntington Beach, she completely embarrassed herself. 

This is exactly the type of gay hate that needs to stopping. 

Harvey Milk Exhibition - SFO Museum

 

Harvey Milk (1930-1978) made history in 1977 when he became the first openly-gay individual elected to office in the state of California. He would serve just eleven months on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors before his assassination on November 27, 1978.

Harvey Milk "The Mayor of Castro Street"

South Carolina County Council rescinds Pride month designation 3 weeks after it was approved

HORRY COUNTY, S.C. (CNN) — Three weeks after the Horry County, South Carolina, Council voted to designate June as Pride Month, the council voted unanimously to rescind the resolution that proclaimed support and acceptance of the LGTBQ+ community.

The resolution passed unanimously as part of the county's consensus agenda on May 17. Councilman Johnny Vaught told CNN in an email, "No one on council caught it because the resolution just said 'pride month.'"

Vaught said the council began to receive backlash from the community after it passed the resolution.

"Councilmen got many emails expressing dismay that council would vote for an LGBTQIA month in such a conservative county. We brought the resolution back up at the next meeting and it was unanimously voted down. Councilmen voted the way their constituents demanded. End of story," Vaught said.

Danny Hardee, the councilman who motioned to reconsider the resolution, said members initially missed the proposal due to a "perfect storm" of events going on, such as working on the budget and upcoming elections.

"I can assure you I will spend more time on the consent agenda than I have in the past," said Hardee, who felt somebody on the council would have probably picked up on the resolution during "normal times."

"I personally don't think that councils should be doing any kind of thing like that. It doesn't matter whether it's gay months or Confederate months or Juneteenth or whatever; that's not my job to set aside those dates. Those are state and federal holidays," Hardee told CNN.

Hardee added that while he disagreed with the Pride Month resolution, he did not intend to offend or hurt anyone's feelings.

Pat Hartley, clerk to the county council, said Grand Strand PRIDE, a local LGBTQ+ advocacy group, sent an email requesting for the resolution to be placed on the May agenda, which she said was just "par for the course."

Items such as proclamations and resolutions are usually considered noncontroversial and only require the council to vote once according to Hartley. The council chairman, Johnny Gardner, has the sole authority to remove items before approving the agenda, she added.

CNN attempted to contact Gardner for a comment, but he had not responded.

Following the vote to rescind, Grand Strand PRIDE released a statement on Twitter expressing their disappointment.

"Grand Strand PRIDE is disheartened by the action of the Horry County Council at their meeting last night quietly rescinding their resolution designating the month of June as PRIDE month in Horry County. This news dampens our spirits but we resolve to make progress by continuing our advocacy work to make all of Horry County inclusive, diverse and equal for all."

Horry County encompasses the cities of Conway and Myrtle Beach.

Oregon Man Charged with Federal Hate Crime After Attacking Gay Man

Source: United States Department of Justice

JUSTICE NEWS

Department of Justice

Office of Public Affairs

---

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Tuesday, November 16, 2021

Oregon Man Charged with Federal Hate Crime After Attacking Gay Man

An Oregon man has been charged with a federal hate crime after using the internet to target and brutally assault a gay man because of his sexual orientation.

Daniel Andrew McGee, of Springfield, has been charged by criminal complaint with a hate crime. The complaint alleges that McGee attempted to kill the victim.

According to court documents, McGee and his victim met using Grindr, a social media and networking application designed for, and used primarily by, gay men. On July 5, after agreeing to meet, McGee entered his victim’s apartment and proceeded to assault the man with a wooden club over a period of several minutes. Despite the victim’s pleas for McGee to stop, McGee continued striking the man repeatedly in the head with the club. The victim sustained life-threatening injuries and was transported to a local hospital.

Further investigation revealed that, in the weeks leading up to the attack, McGee used the internet to search for and view graphically violent anti-gay material, including videos of anti-gay attacks. McGee also used the internet to plan the assault, purchasing the weapon and other materials online. In addition, McGee searched online for suggestions about how to get away with murder and how murderers avoid getting caught.

On Nov. 15, McGee was arrested by the FBI and made his initial appearance in federal court before a U.S. Magistrate Judge. He was ordered detained pending further court proceedings.

Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division and Acting U.S. Attorney Scott Erik Asphaug of the District of Oregon made the announcement.

This case was investigated by the FBI with assistance from the Eugene Police Department. It is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Gavin W. Bruce for the District of Oregon and Trial Attorney Cameron A. Bell of the Civil Rights Division.

A criminal complaint is only an accusation of a crime, and a defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.

Topic(s): 

Civil Rights

Hate Crimes

Component(s): 

Civil Rights Division

Civil Rights - Criminal Section

Press Release Number: 

21-1132

Former Irvine Mayor's Homophobic Past Called Into Question

 

Irvine Watchdog Opinion: Christina Shea’s Homophobic Past Called Into Question

Read the original article at Irvine Watchdog here

This November, the Irvine mayoral seat is up for election, with incumbent Mayor Christina Shea running for the position. While Shea is the incumbent, she was not elected, and assumed the seat when the previous mayor resigned.

Shea is now running for “reelection.” Before you mark your ballot this November, I think it is worthwhile to take a look into Christina Shea’s past.

Last year, I began researching the LGBT rights movement in Orange County during the 1980s. While in the process of conducting this research, I found out that Christina Shea, Mayor of Irvine, was heavily involved in a homophobic organization during 1989, and that her involvement in this organization got her name on the political map in Irvine – leading to her become elected as a city councilor for the first time in 1992.

In 1988, the Irvine City Council unanimously approved its Human Rights Ordinance, which was meant to prevent discrimination “based on race, color, religion, national origin, sex, age, marital status, physical handicap or sexual orientation.”1 In 1989, relying on help from Louis Sheldon, founder of the homophobic Traditional Values Coalition, Christina Shea, Michael Shea, and Scott Peotter founded the Irvine Values Coalition.2 The Irvine Values Coalition then gathered enough signatures to place a measure on the 1989 ballot, Measure N, which removed “sexual orientation” as a protected category under the Human Rights Ordinance, leaving the rest of the language of the Ordinance intact. 

While involved in this campaign:

• The Sheas gave over $5,000 ($10,480.56 today)3 to the Irvine Values Coalition.4
• Shea wrote several op-eds in the Los Angeles Times voicing her opinion on Measure N. In one, Shea claimed that the Human Rights Ordinance granted “special protection” to homosexuals – but not to any of the other protected groups included within it.5
• During the week of the 1989 election, Shea was paraphrased in the Orange County Register: “By acknowledging homosexuals as a minority in law, [Shea] said, the government is condoning a behavior that runs contrary to accepted moral beliefs that have run this country since its inception.”6
• The Sheas stated that they had a gay person in the family and “love[d] him very much.” But, Michael told the Los Angeles Times: “We don’t happen to agree with that lifestyle.”7
• Michael Shea told the Times after Measure N’s victory that “in my opinion and Christina’s opinion, [homosexuals] are neither unchangeable nor morally neutral…If you give minority status to behavior-based life styles, you open up a Pandora’s box – to smokers, drinkers, neo-Nazis if you will.”8

Measure N succeeded 52.5% to 47.5%,9 and the city of Irvine was forced to remove its sexual orientation protections.  Today, these protections are codified under California law. But at the time, they were extremely progressive; Irvine was one of the first cities in the country to adopt a law protecting sexual orientation. The damage that the Sheas, Peotter, and the Irvine Values Coalition did to the Irvine Human Rights Ordinance was only undone this July, when the Irvine City Council voted to repeal Measure N.