1. Oscar looked just a wee bit more fabulous than usual last night. From lesbian icon Ellen DeGeneres leading the festivities, to a “Wizard of Oz” tribute featuring a Liza Minnelli sighting and gay fave Pink singing “Somewhere Over the Rainbow,” it was a gay old night—with wins by “Dallas Buyers Club” stars Matthew McConaughey and Jared Leto factoring in heavily to the flavor of the evening. “Hollywood is so righteous, suddenly, about gay rights, and that’s a little puzzling because for so long, movies were part of the problem,” New York Times TV critic Alessandra Stanley points out. “Professional basketball has its first openly gay player, Jason Collins, but it’s still hard to think of romantic leads — male or female — who are A-list Hollywood movie stars and also openly gay.”
2. Grindr for girls, it isn’t. Dattch, a dating app aimed at lesbians and bisexual or bi-curious women, has launched in San Francisco. Unlike Grindr, it doesn’t emphasize proximity-based networking. “It incorporates Facebook Connect and makes a point of weeding out fake profiles created by straight men fishing for willing partners,” according to Tech Crunch. The mostly female team at Dattch is led by CEO Robyn Exton, and they plan a city-by-city rollout in the US.
3. The Mouse House is sending a message to the Boy Scouts that they didn’t make enough room in their tent. While the youth organization started accepting openly gay scouts this year, they still ban openly gay scout leaders, and that has factored into Disney halting all donations to the group starting in 2015. While Disney doesn’t donate to the Boy Scouts’ national or local councils, they do (did) provide grants to local troops and packs according to a Boy Scout spokesman.
4. March on. A gay veterans group can march in Boston’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade, thanks to a deal with some strings attached. “The veterans will be allowed to march under an official banner for MassEquality after a deal was brokered by parade organizers and Boston Mayor Martin Walsh — loosening restrictions that have shadowed the event for two decades,” per a NY Daily News report. “However, the marchers still cannot wear clothing or hold signs that indicate their sexual orientation,” said MassEquality executive director Kara Coredini. Organizers of the New York parade are holding firm so far on their no-gay-groups policy.
5. Great Scot! Scotland is offering asylum to “any Ugandans” being persecuted by the country’s newest anti-gay policies that were signed into law by President Yoweri Museveni last week. According to PolicyMic, a Scottish member of parliament wrote a letter to UK Foreign Secretary William Hague with the offer, saying “”Scotland will play her part in providing asylum for those seeking refuge from this draconian legislation.”
psaunders@thegavoice.com | @patricksaunders
(photo via Slate)