TRAILER: About Ray

Via Vanity Fair:

With transgender people more visible than ever in the media and in everyday life, more trans people have been able, at younger ages, to begin their own transitions. In the new drama About Ray we see the way a family is rocked, as daughter Ramona (Elle Fanning) begins the process of becoming Ray. Despite the title, the film is not just about Ray—Ray’s mother (Naomi Watts), father (Tate Donovan), and grandmother (Susan Sarandon) are all deeply impacted by his identity. Ray may have finally found a way to become who he truly is, but finding that understanding in his own family may be a much greater challenge.

Ali Forney Center Breaks Ground On Residence Named For Bea Arthur

Via press release:

On Monday, July 20, 2015, there will be a groundbreaking ceremony for the Bea Arthur Residence, an 18-bed residence for homeless LGBT youth operated by the Ali Forney Center. In 2012 the New York City Council and the Manhattan Borough President awarded $3,300,000 for the renovation of a long vacant building owned by the New York City Department of Housing and Preservation Development. The building has now been turned over to the Ali Forney Center in partnership with Cooper Square Committee, and renovations are beginning this month. It is anticipated that the building will begin to provide housing by the end of 2016.

Bea Arthur gave one of her final public performances as a benefit for the Ali Forney Center in 2005. She was very upset to learn that hundreds of thousands of LGBT teens were rejected by their families, and driven to homelessness. She said that she would do anything in her power to help these teens. When she died in 2009 the Ali Forney Center learned that she had bequeathed $300,000 to us in her will. At that time, Carl Siciliano, the Executive Director of the Ali Forney Center, pledged that the first building they owned would be named in her memory.

The groundbreaking will be attended by state and city political leaders and by the staff and clients of the Ali Forney Center.

Christopher Doyle Has The JONAH Sadz

"Because of the lack of respect by Judge Bariso for JONAH’s spiritual practices, it was practically impossible for the jury to hand down a not-guilty verdict. At nearly every point before, during and after testimony was given, the judge undermined JONAH’s freedom of religion. Potential jurors who believed homosexuality is a sin were screened out; defense attorney Charles Limandri was not allowed to discuss JONAH’s 1st Amendment freedom of religious expression in his closing arguments; and Judge Bariso effectively handicapped JONAH’s ability to defend itself by cutting out the ability to argue with a synthesis of faith and science, which would have been a true reflection of their religious counseling program. In order to mount an appeal, JONAH’s attorneys, the Freedom of Conscience Defense Fund, will need upwards of a million dollars. This is in addition to the three million it already cost for the initial defense, and the nearly four million JONAH might have to pay for the Plaintiff’s legal costs should the guilty verdict be upheld." - Ex-gay crackpot Christopher Doyle, in a money beg posted today on BarbWire.

Rush Limbaugh: Hillary Clinton Faked The Gay Humans Of New York Viral Photo

"Where the Clintons are concerned, there are no coincidences with the Clintons. There just aren't any. And I feel very confident and safe speculating that this whole thing is as phony as it gets. We're supposed to believe a photographer walking the streets of New York City sees this kid crying on his stoop then takes his picture? And then the kid says this to the photographer 'I'm crying about my future because I'm gay and I'm really worried about my future and I don't think I'm going to be loved and it's going to be really hard out there.' The kids looks like he's 8 or 9. You know who the kid looks like? The kid looks like the kid that was in the gay pride parade last week- picture showed his mom proudly had him out there dressed up in some kind of rainbow colored drag queen get-up with a Roman crown of whatever on his head. This kid looks exactly like that kid. I'm not saying its the same kid. I'm just saying that's what this 8-year-old looks like. Anyway, its just a little too convenient." - Rush Limbaugh, speaking today on his radio show.

RELATED: The Humans Of New York story is here.

A Very Young Gay Human Of New York

Mashable reports:

Sometimes the Internet can be a good place filled with good people. On Friday, Humans of New York photographer Brandon Stanton posted a heartbreaking image of a young boy with the caption, "I'm homosexual, and I'm afraid about what my future will be and that people won't like me." Even 2016 presidential candidate Hillary Clinton left a few inspirational words, writing, "Prediction from a grown-up: Your future is going to be amazing. You will surprise yourself with what you’re capable of and the incredible things you go on to do. Find the people who love and believe in you –- there will be lots of them."

Your day will truly be better if you read the comments. And that's a sentence you won't see very often.

One Million Moms Vs PBS

One Million Moms is ever so pissing about Growing Up Trans, which debuted last night on PBS.

Obviously, PBS is attempting to desensitize America's youth by airing a program starring children. This alone will entice kids to watch. The show is attempting to normalize the transgender lifestyle and make it appear OK while using young cast members to lure a young audience. Many families have already discovered that PBS is anything but family-friendly. But 1MM thought a warning should still be sent out for anyone who continues to watch the channel. PBS is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization and relies heavily on donations from sponsors. Take Action" Please use the information 1MM has provided to contact PBS concerning "Growing Up Trans" and strongly encourage PBS to drop all plans to air this program. Let them also know you are prepared to join thousands of other voices in urging sponsors to no longer financially support PBS.

BREAKING: SPLC Wins Fraud Suit Against New Jersey "Ex-Gay" Torture Group

NJ.com reports:

A New Jersey jury on Thursday found a non-profit group that provides gay-to-straight conversion therapy guilty of consumer fraud for promising clients they could overcome their sexual urges by undressing in front of other men, pummeling an effigy of their mothers, and re–enacting traumatic childhood experiences.

In the first case in the nation to put the controversial practice on trial, the jury concluded that Arthur Goldberg and Elaine Berk, the founders of Jews Offering New Alternatives for Healing in Jersey City and life coach Alan Downing to whom JONAH referred patients, "engaged in unconscionable commercial practices" and misrepresented their services.

The verdict requires JONAH and Downing to refund thousands of dollars paid by former clients Michael Ferguson, Benjamin Unger, Sheldon Bruck, Chaim Levin, and parents Jo Bruck and Bella Levin for the individual and group counseling sessions and the "journey into manhood" weekends in the woods. Downing charged $60 to $100 for group and individual sessions but shared 20 percent with JONAH to help defray its administrative costs.

The SPLC says they will now seek an injunction to force JONAH from operating. They'll also seek legal fees. What a terrible, terrible month for Maggie Gallagher!

Cathie Adams: SCOTUS Can't Make It OK For Men To Penetrate Each OTher

Adams is the former head of the Texas Republican Party.

UPDATE: The clip has been removed from YouTube.

Fame Or Shame: A Short Documentary About Harlem Hate Pastor James Manning

Quote Of The Day - Maggie Gallagher

"By some mysterious providence, three things happened in the past few weeks: Rachel Dolezal was outed as a white woman. Bruce Jenner was lauded as a white woman. And in a New Jersey consumer-fraud case against JONAH (Jews Offering New Alternatives for Healing), the Southern Poverty Law Center has spent millions to deprive any future New Jerseyans of the basic right even to try to change their sexual orientation. Together they lay down the new moral rules: Apparently, you can change your racial identity, but if you do, you are lying. You can dress up as a woman on the cover of Vanity Fair, and everyone must believe that you are in fact female. But when it comes to sexual orientation, even the attempt to change your identity or behavior must be viewed as an imposition against the laws of nature, if not nature’s God." - Maggie Gallagher, writing for the National Review. Gallagher is the head of the legal group defending "ex-gay" torture against the SPLC's  lawsuit. (Tipped by JMG reader Christopher)

CANADA: Ontario Bans "Ex-Gay" Torture

Ontario has become the first Canadian province to ban "ex-gay" torture. Via the Toronto Star:

Ontario has passed a landmark law banning so-called “conversion therapy” on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender children and preventing medical practitioners from billing OHIP for it. The legislation proposed by New Democrat MPP Cheri DiNovo won unanimous support from all three parties at Queen’s Park on Thursday, in time for Pride week, which begins June 19. It’s the first law of its kind in Canada and goes further than conversion therapy bans in several U.S. states by including protection for the transgender community. “We’re sending an incredibly strong message . . . there’s absolutely no room in an inclusive society for trying to change somebody’s sexual identity or their gender expression or their gender identity,” DiNovo told the Star. She said LGBTQ children are sometimes forced into the therapy by anxious parents and noted transgender people have an attempted suicide rate of 50 per cent. Susan Gapka, founder and chair of the Trans Lobby Group, called the bill “huge progress” while Health Minister Eric Hoskins, a family doctor, called conversion therapy a “dangerous treatment” and said people have the right “to be who they are.”

In the US "ex-gay" torture is banned in California, New Jersey, Oregon, and Washington DC.

NEW JERSEY: SPLC's Fraud Suit Against "Ex-Gay" Group Begins This Week

Via the SPLC:

Jury selection is underway in the SPLC’s landmark consumer fraud case against a New Jersey provider of conversion therapy, which purports to turn gay people straight. Opening arguments in the Superior Court of New Jersey are expected to begin on either Tuesday, June 2 or Wednesday, June 3. The SPLC filed the suit – Michael Ferguson, et al., v. JONAH – in 2012 against conversion therapy provider JONAH for deceptive practices that lured plaintiffs into the expensive, harmful therapy. The case, brought under New Jersey’s Consumer Fraud Act, is the first of its kind nationally. “This case is about exposing the lie that LGBT people are mentally ill and that they need to be cured,” said David Dinielli, SPLC deputy legal director. “Groups like JONAH should not be allowed to use bogus therapy, based on junk science, to scam LGBT people and their families out of thousands of dollars.”

More from Mic.com:

According to the complaint filed at the case's inception, customers of JONAH's services typically paid a minimum of $100 for weekly individual counseling sessions and another $60 for group therapy sessions, with some paying as much as $10,000 a year for the services. The lawsuit describes sessions in which unlicensed therapists ordered them to strip naked and touch their genitals while saying negative things about themselves in front of a mirror, group exercises involving the reenactment of childhood sexual abuse and the use of homophobic slurs while the plaintiffs tried to grab a pair of oranges meant to symbolize testicles.

"Stuck in the past": According to every mainstream mental health authority in the United States, JONAH's practices fall so far outside the mainstream as to be unethical, even dangerous. "It's unethical for counselors to be involved in reparative therapy," David Kaplan, chief professional officer and former president of the American Counseling Association, told Mic. "It's not a mental health intervention — it's a religious practice."

Kaplan is such an outspoken critic of conversion therapy that he dislikes even using the word "therapy" to describe the practice. "A lot of us refer to it as 'sexual orientation change efforts.' 'Therapy' connotes a mental health intervention. This is not a mental health intervention. A mental health intervention relates to the diagnosis and treatment of a mental disorder. Homosexuality is not a mental disorder. There's nothing to fix, there's nothing to repair, there's nothing to convert."

Former NOM chairman Maggie Gallagher heads the legal group defending JONAH. Yesterday Gallagher told CBN that "it will be fun to beat the Southern Poverty Law Center."

In Their Own Words: HRC Recaps Anti-Gay Positions Of Graham And Santorum

ILLINOIS: State Senate Passes "Ex-Gay" Torture Ban By 2-1 Margin

The bill now goes to the governor's desk. From the NCLR:

“We couldn’t be prouder to add Illinois to the list of legislatures that have acted to protect LGBT youth, and we applaud the dedication of Equality Illinois and the tireless coalition on the ground. We hope Governor Bruce Rauner will join fellow Republicans like Chris Christie, who signed New Jersey’s conversion therapy ban in 2013. No matter our sexual orientation, gender identity, or political party, we can all agree that children’s lives are worth protecting. We call on Governer Rauner to sign this lifesaving bill and protect LGBT youth and their families from these dangerous and fraudulent practices.”

Lindsay Lohan Completes Community Service At NYC's Ali Forney Center

Via People:

After nearly eight years in and out of the court room, Lindsay Lohan can finally say good riddance to probation. Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Mark Young ruled on Thursday that the actress – who was not present at the hearing – has completed her mandatory community service hours stemming from a 2012 reckless driving case, according to the Associated Press. "I am very grateful to those at Brooklyn Community Services, Duffield and The Ali Forney Center for welcoming me into their services and allowing me to finish my court ordered Community Service hours," Lohan tells PEOPLE in a statement.

Ali Forney Center founder Carl Siciliano writes to us: "Lindsay Lohan spent five days volunteering at the Ali Forney Center in order to complete her community service requirements. She worked at our drop-in center and at our office, rearranging our donations and storage closets, and assembling 400 gift bags, as well as a number of other assorted tasks. She was a hard worker, was friendly, and showed concern for the plight of the youths we serve. It's definitely not every day that we have a superstar folding socks and underwear for our kids!"

Broadway Cares Salutes Cyndi Lauper, Donates $150K To True Colors Fund

Clip recap:

From Executive Director Tom Viola: I had the pleasure of dropping by the stage door of the Hirschfeld Theatre this week to join the cast of Kinky Boots in presenting Cyndi Lauper with a “big check” representing the $150,000 donated to True Colors Fund by Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS from the more than $1.2 million in resources raised by the show since it opened in April 2013. Broadway Cares salutes Cyndi and True Colors Fund for everything they have done to advance equality for all and, in doing so, helping to end homelessness for gay and transgendered youth. “You change the world when you change your mind!” But our voices are stronger and the change embraces us all when we stand together.

Editorial Of The Day

From the Chicago Sun-Times:

Being gay is not an illness. It requires no cure. And anybody who practices “conversion therapy,” purporting to be able to change a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity, is a quack, engaged in medical malpractice. Conversion therapy does not work. On this, the scientific and medical consensus is strong. It can only do harm. We urge the Illinois Senate to support a measure, sponsored by Rep. Kelly Cassidy, D-Chicago, and Sen. Daniel Biss, D-Evanston, that would bar mental health workers from engaging in treatments designed to change the sexual orientation of minors. The bill passed in the House on Tuesday by a vote of 68 to 43. Biss tells us he is “optimistic” it will pass in the Senate as well, next week, but he’s still rounding up the votes. Conversion therapy is one of those issues on which there are not really two opposing credible views, and to claim otherwise is to create a false equivalency. On the one side are defenders of the practice, their views usually grounded in religious belief, who can cite no credible evidence. On the other side is the full weight of America’s mainstream medical and mental health communities, who come armed with facts. The cure does not work, and nobody needs curing.

The editorial also endorses the federal ban introduced in the US House earlier this week. The federal bill would outlaw all "ex-gay" torture (not just for minors) on the basis of it being a fraudulent practice.

MICHIGAN: Mother Says Outed "Grindr Pastor" Told Her Gay Son To Kill Himself UPDATE: The Son Speaks Out Himself

Via the CBS affiliate in Flint, Michigan:

A mother came forward with new accusations against the local pastor who resigned after being outed as gay. She said what that pastor told her son nearly drove him to suicide. Jennifer Kish is angered over the recent revelation that Matthew Makela might be gay, not because of his alleged sexual preference, but because of how he treated her son while they were parishioners at his church. Makela is a Midland pastor who resigned after being outed by a website. The website said it outed Makela because of his outspoken stance in recent years against homosexuality, a stance one woman said was particularly harmful to her family. Kish said her then 17-year-old son Tyler suffered from serious depression and was considering suicide because he was told by Makela he was going to hell because he was gay. "If he's going to hell for being gay then he might as well commit suicide," Kish said. Makela is the subject of scrutiny because of the alleged hypocrisy. The website Queerty posted a conversation it claims shows Makela soliciting sex with another man on the app Grindr, an app geared toward gay and bisexual men.

UPDATE: Some readers have noted that the mother in the above story may be putting words into the mouth of the so-called Grindr Pastor, who may have "only" told her son that being gay was as bad a sin as committing suicide. In the clip below, the teenager tells the story himself.

ILLINOIS: State House Approves Ban On "Ex-Gay" Torture Of Minors By 68-43 Vote

Via Equality Illinois:

"Ending conversion therapy is our top priority in the legislature right now. Trying to change the unchangeable, our innate sexual orientation and gender identity, should not be attempted because it risks the health of LGBT youth," said Bernard Cherkasov, CEO of Equality Illinois. "We thank Rep. Kelly Cassidy, the chief House sponsor of HB217, for protecting the young people of Illinois and advancing this important legislation, and Sen. Daniel Biss, who is now taking up the bill in the Senate," Cherkasov said. The bill passed 68 to 43, with 61 Democrats and seven Republicans voting to protect the LGBT youth of Illinois, including the House Republican leader Rep. Jim Durkin among the "yes" votes. The roll call continues the history in Illinois of all laws that advance LGBT equality succeeding due to votes from both parties.

RELATED: Oregon Gov. Kate Brown yesterday signed her state's ban into law.

Quote Of The Day - Cahir O'Doherty

Irish Central arts editor Cahir O'Doherty grew up in Ireland's northernmost and rural County Donegal. Today he's written a mournful recounting of the time that a Catholic school teacher, sensing that something was troubling her teenaged pupil, asked him if he was OK. An excerpt:

One moment of naked honesty would have made the whole town collapse like a painted backdrop in a pantomime, to be replaced by a hard vision of where we actually were, and who we really were to each other. So she never knew how close she came. I never knew if it would have helped me. We could both see the problem, but we knew we couldn't say it, not if we wanted to go on. I left her class without another word and she never asked me how I was again. But I still sometimes think of that searching look on her face. I think it of it when I think of the scattershot damage that intolerance does. There was never a chance of her doing any good. This Friday, May 22 the Irish people are being asked to finally break a centuries long, murderous silence in the marriage referendum – and to do some good. I really don't know if they will. What I do know is that if they vote to maintain that old murderous silence many thousands of other 15-year-old Irish teens will suffer needlessly and silently at the moment in life when they are least equipped to handle it. Many will buckle under the weight of it. It's your choice.

Cahir is a JMG reader. Hit the link for his full essay.