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Tag: Gay

  • Celina Jaitly’s musical video for LGBT gets one million views

    Celina Jaitly’s musical video for LGBT gets one million views

    NEW DELHI: A Bollywood-style music video featuring United Nations Equality Champion Celina Jaitly which promotes equal rights for the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) community received more than a million views online.

     

    The two-and-a-half minute video, titled ‘welcome’ has become one of UN’s most watched videos. Jaitly was named UN Equality Champion by Human Rights Chief Navi Pillay last year for her support for LGBT rights.

     

    The video tells the story of a young man who brings his boyfriend home to meet his family for the first time. Charles Radcliff of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) tweeted that the video had become one of the “UN’s most watched ever”.

     

    Jaitly, who made her music debut in the video, also took to Twitter to express her gratitude for the response. “As my song/video for @UN @free_equal #thewelcome crosses one million views on @YouTube I feel so blessed in the holy month of Ramadan! Thank you all,” she said.

     

    Click here to watch the video

     

    The 32-year-old also expressed the hope that the video would spread the broader message of the need to change not just laws but also attitudes and to challenge stereotypes about the LGBT community in light of the threats and discrimination the community faced in India and across the world, the Press Trust of India reported.

     

    Jaitly, a mother of two-year old twins, has said that she has received threats for supporting gays and lesbians but will continue to work towards achieving equality for the community.

     

    Born to a Punjabi father and an Afghan mother, Jaitly was crowned Femina Miss India Universe in 2001. Her breakthrough film role was in the 2003 thriller Janasheen. She rose to fame in the late 2000s following roles in the films Silsiilay (2005), No Entry (2005), Tom, Dick, and Harry (2006) and Golmaal Returns (2008).

     

    She is married to Austrian businessman Peter Haag and the couple has two-year-old twin boys Winston and Viraaj. Jaitly divides her time Mumbai, Dubai and Singapore.

  • CNN suspends political analyst Martin for anti-gay tweets

    CNN suspends political analyst Martin for anti-gay tweets

    MUMBAI: CNN has suspended its political analyst Roland Martin three days after he posted Twitter messages that were said to be anti-gay.

    “Roland Martin’s tweets were regrettable and offensive,” the cable news channel said in a statement. “Language that demeans is inconsistent with the values and culture of our organization, and is not tolerated. We have been giving careful consideration to this matter, and Roland will not be appearing on our air for the time being,” it read.

    In one of his many Tweets,Martin had said that if a “dude at your Super Bowl party is hyped about David Beckham’s H&M underwear ad, he should be smacked.” In another message he made a similar statement about a football fan wearing a “head to toe pink suit” on TV.

    After angry comments from online readers about the Beckham remark started pouring in, he defended himself by saying that he was mocking soccer players and not gay people.“I was not referring to sexuality directly or indirectly regarding the David Beckham ad, and I’m sorry folks took it otherwise,” he wrote.

    Later on Monday, Martin issued a longer statement late Monday night that Erik Wemple of The Washington Post said was “old hogwash.”

    By then, the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation had highlighted other comments by Martin and insisted that he be fired from CNN.

    The next day, CNN indicated that no punishment was forthcoming as Martin had apologized in a statement and noted that the original comments were made on Twitter and not the television network. “For the moment we’re letting him apologize and we’re hoping that people will understand that he is sorry for what he said.”

    Along with him regularly appearing on CNN, Martin is the host of “Washington Watch,” a weekly broadcast on cable channel TV One.