A photo posted by Glennon Doyle Melton (@glennondoylemelton) on Nov 24, 2016 at 4:32pm PST

Christian mommy blogger, Glennon Doyle Melton, announced her relationship with US Soccer star Abby Wambach on social media in November. Melton took to both Instagram and Facebook to make the announcement; which came two months after Wambach announced her divorce and three months after Melton announced her own divorce.

As most of us remember, Wambach was married to fellow soccer star Sarah Huffman. The two were married in 2013. Rumors of trouble in their relationship started surfacing after Wambach was arrested for a DUI in 2015. Melton, for her part, was married to a man for 10 years and wrote two books about saving her marriage. Melton also has a history of substance abuse. However, she indicated that the two women are building a relationship based on faith. Read the full post below. Best of luck to the new couple!

[[[LOVE WINS ANNOUNCEMENT PART ONE]]] Feels like the world could use all the love it can get right now. So today, I’m going to share with you my new love. Her name is Abby. You might recognize her from soccer. She was one of the best players of all time, and she has been a fierce and committed advocate for women’s equality for a decade. And honestly? Those are the least impressive things about her. Abby is deeply sensitive and kind. The kids call her an M&M because she looks tough on the outside but inside she’s really mushy and sweet. Abby’s brave. Not just with her words but with her entire being. She’s unwaveringly good to Craig, to the kids, to Sister and to all my people. And oh my God, she is so good to me. She loves me for all the things I’ve always wanted to be loved for. She’s just my favorite. My person. Wanted to answer a few questions you might have: Isn’t this fast, G? Yes, it is. How is Craig? He’s his beautiful, kind, brave self. He’s dating too — and we are both supportive of each other’s relationships. How are the kids? I’ll let them speak for themselves, or not. I can tell you that as usual, we’re walking through this together. They have the love and support of their dad, me, their grandparents, their aunts and uncles, their church, their teachers, their friends’ families. They’re lucky kids, to be surrounded by so much love. We have family dinners together – all six of us — and Abby cooks. (She is an AMAZING chef because Jesus loves me). We are a modern, beautiful family. Our children are loved. So loved. And because of all of that love, they are brave. When Craig and I sat them down to tell them about Abby I started by saying: “In our family, we live and tell the truth about who we are no matter what, and then love each other through it — and I’m about to show you how that’s done.” [[CONTINUED IN LOVE WINS PART TWO]]]

A photo posted by Glennon Doyle Melton (@glennondoylemelton) on Nov 13, 2016 at 5:55pm PST

[[[LOVE WINS PART TWO, CONTINUED FROM PART ONE]]] How are we supposed to FEEL about this? My loves, here is the good news: You are allowed to think and feel WHATEVER YOU NEED OR WANT TO FEEL! Come close–because I need to explain this part well: It has been my job for so long as a leader in this community to care deeply about what you think and feel about me and the way I live my life. I have cared so much, for so long. It has been a great honor. Now we are entering a new time which calls for a different type of leadership. And now it is my job as a leader not to concern myself too deeply about what you think and feel about me- about the way I live my life. That is what I want to model now, because that is what I want for YOU: I want you to grow so comfortable in your own being, your own skin, your own knowing – that you become more interested in your own joy and freedom and integrity than in what others think about you. I want you to refuse to betray yourself. Not just for you. For ALL OF US. Because what the world needs — in order to grow, in order to relax, in order to find peace, in order to become brave — is to watch one woman at a time live her truth without asking for permission or offering explanation. The most revolutionary thing a woman can do is not explain herself. What I need you to know- and what I know you need to know- is that I am deeply, finally, FINE. Fine through my bones and soul and mind and just every fiber of me. You have the room to feel and react with your truth….because I am so unshakably certain inside of mine. I have officially become a woman who knows who she is and refuses to betray herself. So anyway. What I’m trying to say is. PRECIOUS WORLD: I LOVE ABBY. Love Wins. G

A photo posted by Glennon Doyle Melton (@glennondoylemelton) on Nov 13, 2016 at 5:57pm PST

The post Christian mommy blogger announces relationship with Abby Wambach first appeared on Lesbian.com.

Girlfriends Charmaine Brooks and Carlie Pearce didn’t know that the love song they recorded together would go viral. Brooks wrote the song 20 years ago, and, when she met Pearce, decided she had finally found someone to record it with. We chatted with Brooks about the song, what it’s like to work with your partner and the music that inspires her.

The post Lesbian couple’s music video goes viral first appeared on Lesbian.com.

As a comedian, I have spent many nights on stage making jokes at Facebook’s expense. It’s actually a union rule, to remain in good standing one must tell one joke about being poked per year or discuss two cat videos. And, I must admit I’ve never been a big fan of Facebook anyway. I don’t hate it. It can be fun and informative and yes, of course, I appreciate the networking and marketing benefits. I do use it to promote my work and shows, but I would not be unhappy if we woke up tomorrow and it were gone from the World Wide Web. I would click that like button.

The reasons I don’t like Facebook are many and varied. I know I’m in the minority on that, but when I heard about Facebook’s “emotional manipulation study” I thought for sure I was vindicated. Even the title sounds creepy. I was ready to joyfully jump up and down in righteous indignation. See? I’m right! Facebook is the work of the devil and its minions here on earth. Give me a minute and I’ll figure out how to tie all of this to Dick Cheney and/or the Koch brothers.

No doubt you heard of the study controlling what was seen in the news feeds of 689,003 people or, as Facebook’s, Adam Kramer, put it, “minimally deprioritizing a small percentage of content in the News Feed (based on whether there was an emotional word in the post).”

And, according to Kramer, “The reason we did this research is because we care about the people that use our product. We felt that it was important to investigate the common worry that seeing friends post positive content leads to people feeling negative or left out. At the same time, we were concerned that exposure to friends’ negativity might lead people to avoid using Facebook.”

For the record, their results seemed to indicate the opposite. “We found that … seeing a certain kind of emotion (positive) encourages it rather than suppresses it.” So feel free to post those vacation photos of the world’s largest ball of twine. You won’t make anyone jealous and that twine is quite photogenic.

Wow, how could I have been so wrong? Look at that. Facebook loves us!

They only did the study because they care about our emotional responses and well-being. They only want to make sure we’re OK and, more importantly, we are not going to leave their virtual playground with all our friends. Because, like Bette Midler says, “Ya got to have friends.”

So, by gosh, it sure looks like the biggest friend I have on Facebook is Facebook itself. Making sure my news feed is a healthy, not too happy, not too sad, organic, gluten free list of things that keeps me scrolling in the deep. What a relief. And, in these difficult times, it’s nice to know someone has our back. Who cares if they are holding a knife.

I know some are complaining that this sort of manipulation and result tracking might be a violation of laws regarding psychological testing. I know some are concerned because, due to the theoretically anonymous nature of the study, it is possible minors were included. And, some are mad because the Facebook Terms of Service (and you know we all read that before we signed up for Facebook), which states that what we post can be collected for “research,” didn’t actually include the word “research” until AFTER this study was conducted. But those people are being too critical. I mean, come on, Facebook’s just looking out for us. Mr. Kramer told us that, “the goal of all our research at Facebook is to learn how to provide a better service. I can tell you our goal was never to upset anyone.”

Facebook loves me, yes I know, because my news feed tells me so.

So, that’s the good news. Now, here’s the even better news.

Surely, now that the altruistic nature of Facebook has been uncovered, it stands to reason that they will be doing all kinds of things to promote our well-being. For example, if anyone out there had issues with mental health during January of 2012, when the study was conducted, you must have been one of the nearly 700,000 study subjects and I’m sure Facebook will pay for your therapy.

Counseling is expensive and if there’s one thing “researchers” understand, it’s numbers. Did you overeat when you saw all the lovely pictures of your friend’s food? Are you now overweight now? Your liposuction is on Facebook.

Did you get married because your wall started to look like a bridal magazine? I’m sure a meeting can be arranged for you with Pope Francis about that annulment. I mean, really, without that manipulation you would never have married that buffoon.

And, if you didn’t marry and instead, uh, acted out, it’s OK, there’s nothing to be ashamed of. Just let them know and Facebook will most assuredly sponsor that vaginal rejuvenation.

It’s a big thing when you realize you’ve misjudged someone or something. When you find out that cold, manipulating, schemer is really just a concerned big brother. What a relief.

I suggest we all go to Facebook’s Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/facebook) and tell them just how swell we now know it to be. Or, better yet, don’t go on it at all and tell some real, live person in your life how swell it is. There still are some folks not on Facebook to recruit, you know. You can recognize them. They’re the ones eating their meal, not photographing it.

Jennie McNulty was named one of Curve magazine’s Top 10 lesbian comedians. She can be heard weekly as co-host of LA Talk Radio‘s “Cathy Is In: The Cathy DeBuono Show.”

The post Big brother Facebook is looking out for you first appeared on Lesbian.com.

A sampling from Facebook’s Pride pack

BY CANDY PARKER
Lesbian.com

What did you miss this week in the world of LGBT news? Check out our Lesbian.com round-up and you’ll be ready to gather ’round the rainbow-colored water cooler to talk about five of the biggest, best and most interesting stories for June 1-7.

Hill hurls homophobic slur; redeems with heartfelt apology

Jonah Hill found himself in some hot water last weekend when he chose to lash out at a paparazzo with a homophobic slur. But on Tuesday, the actor redeemed himself to many during an appearance on Jimmy Fallon’s “Tonight Show” with what appeared to be a sincere apology. Hill has been a long-time advocate for LGBT rights and seemed genuinely contrite as he addressed Fallon’s audience. “The word I chose was grotesque and no one deserves to say or hear words like that,” said Hill.

You can watch Hill’s apology below.

Chicago Sun-Times decides Laverne Cox is a woman after all

The Chicago Sun-Times drew harsh criticism for an op-ed piece which it ran last weekend titled “Laverne Cox is Not a Woman.” The piece, authored by the National Review’s Kevin D. Williamson and prompted by Cox’s recent Time magazine cover, argued that Cox was still a man whether she chose to label herself as one or not.

By Tuesday, the Chicago Sun-Times had realized the error of its ways (or had at least grown fearful of the resulting firestorm), pulled the story and issued an apology.

North Dakota last state to enter marriage equality fray

North Dakota no longer stands alone as the only state without a challenge to its constitutional ban on same sex marriage. On Friday, seven couples filed a lawsuit in the U.S. district court in Fargo, calling for an end to North Dakota’s constitutional ban and its refusal to accept gay marriages from out of state. With the filing, all 31 states which continue to have laws on the books defining marriage as a union between one man and one woman now face legal challenges at the federal level.

Military color guard makes history at D.C. Pride

History was made Saturday night in Washington, D.C., as an eight-member color guard team from U.S. Army Military District of Washington led off the 39th annual Capital Gay Pride parade. The group was the first Armed Forces color guard in American history to march in a gay pride parade.

Facebook releases LGBT emojis

Facebook kicked off LGBT Pride season by announcing the release of a 28-emoticon “Pride pack” available for Facebook Messenger users.

A Facebook diversity spokesperson told NewNowNext, ““We’re celebrating Pride by adding these free Facebook Messenger stickers to the Sticker Store. We see this as one more way we can make Facebook a place where people can express their authentic identity. Happy Pride!”

The post LGBT week in review: Apologies, emojis and a Pride parade first, oh my! first appeared on Lesbian.com.

The post Fortune shines at GLAAD, Jodie Foster’s first lesbian experience first appeared on Lesbian.com.

Facebook’s introduction of PGPs (preferred gender pronouns) and new gender identity options allows users to choose among Female, Male or “Custom” where they can then view a multitude of trans* and non-binary gender options.

BY Lesbian.com

On Thursday, February 13, the queer world was abuzz with news that Facebook was opening up their gender specification fields and allowing a vast array of identities to be easily expressed via profiles on the online social networking site.

The changes have been hailed as an important step forward in recognizing LGBTQ identities and gender variant people.

From “Cisgender Woman” and “Transgender Man” to “Genderqueer”, users in the US can now express their gender identities a little more accurately on the site. Users can also select their preferred pronouns: “she”, “he” or the gender-neutral “they”.

According to the Associated Press, the new options will first be available to users in the US and and are “aimed at giving people more choices in how they describe themselves, such as androgynous, bi-gender, intersex, gender fluid or transsexual.”

The post Facebook expands gender options first appeared on Lesbian.com.

In the last week of December, Facebook not only removed a photo from the Have A Gay Day page, but slapped a 30-day ban on all of the page’s 106 administrators, claiming that the photo “violates community standards.”  After a wave of backlash for its actions, the company changed its mind on January 2; according to PinkNews, a Facebook spokesperson announced that the photo’s removal had been in error and as such had been restored. As for the page’s admins, it denied any had been banned.

A member of the Facebook Policy team, Fred Wolens, told 429Magazine that “there are millions of groups on Facebook, and it simply wouldn’t be feasible to setup [sic] a pre-approval process for this type of content, that’s why we provide report links throughout the site.” In practice, the policy often means that all it takes to get content taken down is enough users flagging it for being offensive—whether or not it violates any rules at all.

Read more at dot429.com 

The post Facebook restores accounts after gay kiss photo controversy first appeared on Lesbian.com.

An image posted by Godawari Singh on Facebook.

BY JAMES NICHOLS
Huffington Post Gay Voices

Last week, India reinforced its institutionalized discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) individuals when the country’s Supreme Court upheld a colonial-era law, previously struck down by the High Court in 2009, that criminalizes homosexuality.

In response, LGBT Indians and their allies are protesting the court’s decision and expressing support for the community. Through a Facebook group called “Gay for a day!” users are changing their profile pictures “to one in which you are kissing someone from your gender in protest of the Supreme Court of India’s ruling that criminalizes homosexuality.”

Read more at Huffington Post Gay Voices

The post Facebook users ‘go gay’ in solidarity with LGBT Indians first appeared on Lesbian.com.

I have noticed in the last few months that some of my friends have been posting to Facebook and unknowingly making those posts public. I have wondered if those friends realized it, when I see the little globe icon next to their status. I don’t want to assume people don’t know what they’re doing in terms of privacy settings, so often I don’t reach out to ask. But sometimes it’s pretty obvious they intend a post to be “friends-only” and it’s really posting so the whole wide world can see. It’s happened about a half a dozen times that the person didn’t know it was public and either had a social catastrophe or just a long period of stepping back in time manually changing the settings on a bunch of statuses themselves.

This post is a friendly heads-up to folks to check their default settings on Facebook and be wary of what they are putting on the internet intentionally public. Sure, this is going to be “duh” to some people, but if it saves a few of you from social catastrophe, I think that’s all the better.

If a post is friends-only, the little icon next to the time stamp on the status has a couple of stick figure heads on it.

If anyone knows of a campground I should look at within a couple hours of NYC, preferably also outside of Philly, let me know.

My personal Facebook account is intentionally friends-only. I sometimes crowd-source support, like when my cat Bear was dying, and I don’t need all of that stuff public.

If a post is public, the little icon next to the time stamp is a globe.

My Rebel Gateau profile is intentionally public, since I use it to promote parties. If you want to get invites to my events, friend me there!

You can also make posts custom-privacy and exclude certain people. For example, if you’re crowd-sourcing support for a recent break-up and want to exclude your ex and their besties.

If you want to check your default settings, there is an icon next to your name on the top right hand side of the page that has a lock image–that’s a shortcut to show you what your future post settings are defaulting to. If you don’t want it to be public, double check that it’s defaulting the way you want it to.

And if you find you’ve been accidentally posting publicly… nobody ever died of awkward.

Originally published by QueerFatFemme.com

Bevin Branlandingham is your femmecee at QueerFatFemme where she chronicles the relentless pursuit of her joy

The post How private are your Facebook posts? first appeared on Lesbian.com.

On Tuesday, after an onslaught of tweets and emails and facing a growing advertising boycott, Facebook agreed to do more to combat gender-based hate speech.

In a statement, Facebook admitted that its system for identifying and removing hate speech has been less than effective, and it has pledged to take some concrete steps.

• We will complete our review and update the guidelines that our User Operations team uses to evaluate reports of violations of our Community Standards around hate speech. To ensure that these guidelines reflect best practices, we will solicit feedback from legal experts and others, including representatives of the women’s coalition and other groups that have historically faced discrimination.

Read more at Care2.com

Care2 is the largest online community of people passionate about making a difference.

The post Facebook announces effort to combat anti-women hate speech first appeared on Lesbian.com.