What's Happening, Hot Stuff?? 8/1/2012

Welcome to the first What's Happening, Hot Stuff?? of 2012! Well, there is quite a bit to catch up on...check out the rest of our blog for what we've been up to or HERE to see where our love story began, as below is focused purely on the whats happening in the big wide world.....

Stateside, we have been hearing positive news about Washington State - they are putting a bill forward to legalize gay marriage in their state!! The reason this is good news (other than the obvious) is that Washington legalizing it could be the gateway to lead other states on the west side of America to follow suit! (and put pressure on Idaho - our eventual home) to change their stance. Laura went to university in Bellingham, Washington and LOVES the state (especially Seattle!) - we could definitely get comfortable with the idea of becoming Washington-ians!

It's a shame most Republicans remain closed-minded on the 'gay marriage' issue - in the US you may have seen Newt Gingrich (I promise he's a real person & not a Harry Potter character) tell a voter that if he wants any support for gay rights he should vote for Obama! Basically saying that he would do NOTHING to support the gay cause - NOT nice!

And on the same thread, Rick Santorum (unfortunately one of the leaders in the Presidential Race thus far) has just said to the L.A. Times that a man in jail would be a better parent than a same-sex couple. He said that if a same-sex couple were to raise a child, they would be "robbing children of something they need, they deserve, they have a right to. You may rationalize that that isn't true, but in your own life and in your own heart, you know it's true." (See the full article HERE!!) I guess ole' Rick hasn't seen our previous WHHS!! In case you missed it too, see HERE!

In other Presidential Race 2012 news, the caucus in Iowa happened a few days ago for the Republican candidates - the first! The main things you need to know that came out of it were that the leaders are Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum - and GOOD NEWS: the awful Michelle Bachmann is out of the race! We will be keeping a close eye on the Presidential Race this year, because the outcome really affects us and thousands of other LGBT people and couples in the USA - for us it's the difference between realizing our dream of moving to the USA, and another four years in England. Of course we'll be happy enough wherever we are as long as we are together, but GO OBAMA!!! :)

Back on UK soil there is good news on the New Years Honour list- a gay rights activist whose legal challenge led to the decriminalisation of homosexuality in Northern Ireland was a recipient! Jeff Dudgeon may have made his case back in the 1980's but it's clear that what he fought for is still a BIG issue world wide, especially in Africa and the Middle East.

Sadly we also saw an awful article from the Philippines. A Filipino father has told police he drunkenly attacked his son after learning that three of his children were gay. The Philippine LGBT Hate Crime Watch said today that 19-year-old Edmund Padilla was left with burns and blisters after his father, Erano, attacked him with boiling water. Erano Padilla reportedly told police he attacked his son as a result of pent-up feelings experienced when he found out three of his children were gay. He has been charged and detained. Thankfully my parents haven't resorted to violence to show their dislike....it's just not right and no-one should have to go through that.

In Spain they are organising a residential retirement home in the suburbs - perfect for those of you who plan to retire somewhere warmer! It may end up full of women though, as the men may not live that long - an article we read that says 50% of gay men would be willing to sacrifice a year of their life for the perfect body. That's in comparison to 30% of straight men.

Ohhhh yeeeeaaaahhh - you're welcome for the censorship :)

PinkNews have published their list of LGBT Twitter users having an impact - how many do you follow? We were surprised to know we already follow 6 out of the 10!
10) Karl Lagerfield (designer)
9) George Michael (singer)
8) George Takei (actor)
7) Derron Brown (illusionist/mentalist)

6) Lady GaGa (music superstar)
5) Neil Patrick Harris (see him at his best: HERE)
4) Ricky Martin (pop star & Dad to v.cute twins)
3) Ellen Degeneres (TV personality)
2) Perez Hilton (Blogger & Media personality)
1) Stephen Fry (actor/writer/comedian)


It seems that outside the LGBT community there really isn't much else to report this week unless you are a Celebrity Big Brother fan...which we are not. However something that made us smile (it's not really news, but -) Sir Ian McKellen has decided to share his thoughts and opinion on Shakespeare. Those of you clever people who read the very first SFFF will already know, but it is rumoured that Shakespeare was gay! Sir Ian has claimed '“no doubt” the complexities and plot devices of Shakespeare’s work mean the playwright was gay. The Daily Mail reports a comment made by McKellen that the relationship between two characters in The Merchant of Venice made it “obvious” the writer had sexual relationships with men. So there you go.

We did see that one of our favourite comediennes Miranda Hart has been nominated for four British Comedy Awards.....if you haven't seen her show try and catch an episode - or anything she guest stars in - she's hilarious! So good luck to her. 

And finally, here's a little video we did with Laura's brother when we were in Idaho - watch it in daylight, it's pretty scary!!!!

This was filmed back in 2009, we can confirm we are far more grown up and mature now :), and learnt a very important lesson - it's actually REALLY easy to get lost in a corn maze. As this footage ended we realised we were in fact LOST and it took us another 2 hours to get out! Lesson learnt!

Happy New Year to one and all!

Love, Sarah & Laura

xoxo