ColumnWhile this past week has been full of gross news about how certain states (ahem, MISSISSIPPI and NORTH CAROLINA) view LGBT people in a less than favorable way, there is a beacon of hope in Pennsylvania, Governor Tom Wolf, who is taking a progressive political stand against the recent bigoted legislation.

Over the past weeks, the Mississippi and North Carolina governments created legislation that allows “individuals and institutions with religious objections to deny services to gay couples,” The New York Times reports.

The North Carolina law, signed by Governor Pat McCory, “made it legal to fire someone for their sexual orientation or gender identity… [and] forced trans people to use the restrooms in public buildings that correspond with the sex they were assigned at birth,” Advocate reports. And the Mississippi law, also known as the “religious liberty” law, “allows businesses to discriminate against customers and employees based on their “sincerely held religious beliefs,” Advocate adds.

Mmm. Smells like fresh shit institutional de-evolution.

Well, thank goodness for Pennsylvania’s Governor Tom Wolf, because he’s had enough of this bigoted bullshit.

On April 6, Wolf announced plans to sign executive orders “to protect LGBT state employees in response to North Carolina’s anti-gay law,” Advocate reports. He signed those executive orders on April 7.

And Wolf isn’t trying to sneak this legislation in — in fact, he’s making loud statements concerning the issue.

During an interview with WESA, a Pittsburgh radio station, he called the N.C. law discriminatory.

“This is not something we want in [Pennsylvania] — we want to be known as a welcoming state,” Wolf said in the radio interview. “We want to be known as a place that’s open for everybody.”

In an initial press release concerning the signings, Wolf detailed what the executive orders would entail. One executive order concerns commonwealth employees, and the  other pertains to commonwealth grants and procurement process, the release states. “Each say no agency under the governor’s jurisdiction shall discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation, gender expression, and identity, among other areas.”

Hell yeah, Governor Wolf. All we can add is that we hope more American states will follow Wolf’s lead and stop the bigotry now.

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Image of Governor Tom Wolf via his Facebook page

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This week’s Link Love we learn how to use vinegar to clean without smelling like salad dressing, the scoop on Whole Foods delivery, BIG news for LGBT community in Turkey, why Germany rocks at clean energy and why in the world are you always late?

Vinegar cleaning but no vinegar smell! [via Eat Drink Better]

Whole Foods to offer home delivery. Now we’re really never leaving the house. [via Organic Authority]

Turkey’s LGBT community is breathing a big sigh of relief. [via Mashable]

When it comes to clean energy, does Germany hold the key to success? [via Earth Island Journal]

Why you’re always late. [via Elle]

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image via Organic Authority

The post Link Love: Whole Foods Delivers + Vinegar Cleaning Without the Smell + Why You’re Always Late appeared first on EcoSalon.

Laugh and learn by digging deep into these five stand up comedians who address serious issues through comedy.

“What’s the deal with airline food?”

Now that we’ve gotten the heavy-hitting stuff out of the way, let’s talk about other things.

Comedy serves as a natural distraction and relief from the trials and tribulations of everyday life. However, it doesn’t always have to be light one-liners, and can instead serve as a powerful medium for addressing heavy, hard-to-digest dialogue in a different, more understandable context.

Check out these five stand up comedians who don’t always keep things comfortable and instead use part of their artform for social consciousness.

Disclaimer: Some clips below are NSFW, so view at your own discretion.

Maria Bamford

I won’t mince words: Maria Bamford is one of my favorite stand up comedians on the planet and has been so since I first watched her on Comedy Central Presents as a kid. As an unorthodox, quirky female comedian with bipolar disorder — “the new gladiator sandal,” as she calls it — she addresses issues such as gender inequality, mental illness, and suicide in ways that bring about an”Aha!” kind of perspective, clarity, and laughter. The spaces into which she pushes the medium are often uncomfortable, but wildly important.

Tig Notaro

Imagine for a moment that you’re hospitalized with a life-threatening disease. Then, on top of that, your mother passes away a few days after you’re discharged. Now on TOP of that, your relationship ends. Now on TOP of that, you’re diagnosed with breast cancer and require a double mastectomy. Meet Tig Notaro.

“Hello. Good evening, hello. I have cancer, how are you? Hi, how are you? Is everybody having a good time? I have cancer, how are you?”

Notaro experienced what seems like a lifetime of tragic events in the span of four months, and her stand up special, “Tig Notaro: Live!” — recorded just days after she was diagnosed with cancer — is unlike any other comedy album you’ll ever hear as it intimately addresses all of the above with humor, emotion, and an impact that cannot be understated.

Patton Oswalt

If you don’t recognize Oswalt’s name from his illustrious stand up comedy career, you may recognize him from his enormous social media presence that has been the subject of many articles, tweets, and other discussions, which have collectively made Oswalt into one of culture’s biggest critics and satirists.

Though he’s currently on a much-needed break from social media, he utilizes his Twitter following of 1.8 million as a significant off-stage platform to offer challenging perspectives both in support of liberal causes and as critique of the leftist PC police who seem eager to judge and sensationalize nearly anything.

Danielle K.L. Grégoire

While a wonderful stand up herself, Danielle’s biggest social impact comes from her founding and management of The Comedy Womb, a “female-focused-but-not-female-exclusive” stand up comedy space in Seattle. In the boy’s club that is the greater comedy world, Grégoire has successfully created a place where female stand up comedians can feel safe and supported as the Womb reserves half of its open mic spots for self-identifying women comedians. Adding in the room’s well-understood content policy against misogyny, racism, homophobia or hate-ridden material, Grégoire has created a place for everyone to laugh together.

Margaret Cho

Loud. Crass. Cho.

Maragaret Cho is an undeniably unique figure in the stand up comedy world, and as a bisexual, female, Asian-American comedian, she is a subcultural reservoir from which many perspectives may be drawn. The subject matter of her comedy focuses at length on LGBT issues — helping create her large following in this community — while also covering race, eating disorders, substance abuse, gender, and more.

Follow Garth on Twitter @garthinkingcap

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Photo by Paul Hocksenar

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A weekly look at sex and culture, by the numbers.

What better way to celebrate SCOTUS’ preservation of Obamacare than a new installment of Sex by Numbers?

35: Percentage of survey respondents who believed more than a quarter of Americans are LGBT

<5: Percentage of Americans who are actually LGBT

28: Witnesses for officials at St. Mary’s Church in Birmingham who testified that public sex in the churchyard occurs frequently enough to issue an ordinance banning visitors after dark

500: defendants in a New Orleans sex-solicitation whose names have been stricken from the record to preserve anonymity

3: Number of Louisiana government officials listed in the ruling

1: Number of Zynga games in which participants can engage in simulated sex (The Ville, available tomorrow – no word yet on FarmVille)

3: Number of legs on the dog a Florida man is currently facing criminal charges for having engaged in sexual acts with

Image: bdearth

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