Ricky Martin

direct lender payday loans

UNITED NATIONS – Latin superstar Ricky Martin is telling a U.N. conference on homophobia that he wishes he could come out again so he could tell people struggling with their identities that “it’s just beautiful – you find love.”
Martin said Tuesday that “for many years, I lived in fear … because I was hating myself because I grew up listening to a very crooked concept: `You’re gay. You belong in hell.’”
Martin, who is currently starring on Broadway in “Evita,” said it was amazing to be at the United Nations surrounded by people “fighting for one cause – equality and love and social justice.”
He praised U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon who got a standing ovation after telling the conference that lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people – the LGBTs – “are entitled to the same rights as everyone else.”
“They, too, are born free and equal,” Ban said. “I stand shoulder-to-shoulder with them in their struggle for human rights.”
The secretary-general said he is “pained” that more than 76 countries still criminalize homosexuality.
“I am here to again denounce violence and demand action for true equality,” he said.
While the past decade has seen far-reaching reforms in Europe, the Americas and a number of African and Asian countries, Ban said, in a number of countries – including Ukraine – draft laws have been proposed that would criminalize public discussion of homosexuality.
South African singing star Yvonne Chaka Chaka, a human rights activist and goodwill ambassador for the U.N. children’s fund who is married and has four children, said “I think straight people should respect other people because, for me, I don’t think there’s anything crooked about LGBT.”
Their only “crime,” she said, “is because they love the same gender.”
Chaka said her husband is a prince who is allowed to have three or four wives “but I would not let him.”
I will never allow him to have a second wife, and he knows that. That is why he chose me,” she said. “If he wants to, goodbye.”
from The Associated Press

Ricky Martin

Ricky Martin will join the Australian edition of The Voice as a coach for the music competition show’s second season.
The first season of the show on the Nine network became the country’s top-rated TV show. Martin replaces Keith Urban who left the show to take on his new role on American Idol.
Martin will join the Australian version of The Voice alongside coaches Seal, Joel Madden and Delta Goodrem for the 2013 season.
The Latino star, known for such hits as “Livin’ la Vida Loca,” has sold more than 60 million albums globally.
Some fans immediately congratulated Martin via Twitter. “Sending some mad love to everyone in #Australia!” he tweeted in response. “Cant wait to go back! Peace!”
“Ricky Martin is one of the world’s biggest stars,” said Nine’s director of television, Michael Healy. “He brings huge experience to our panel of coaches, which he’ll pass on to our Australian Voice artists in 2013. Most of all, we think he’s the perfect addition.”
from The Hollywood Reporter

Ricky Martin / 'Glee' / Fox

Filming has begun for singer Ricky Martin’s guest spot on Glee.
On Thursday evening, the 40-year-old tweeted a photo of himself with the cast, including Lea Michele, Vanessa Lengies, Naya Rivera, Chris Colfer, Kevin McHale, Matthew Morrison, Mark Salling, Cory Monteith, Damian McGinty and Harry Shum Jr., with the message: “First day!! )”
Michele, who has worked with Martin before in a production of Les Miserables when she was younger, was genuinely excited to have Martin on-set. “I’ve known Ricky since I’m 8 years old! He was in Les Mis on Broadway with me in 1996!,” Michele shared with her 1.4 million followers. “Crazy huh?!”
Later on, she shared another photo with Martin, calling him “a great fit for our show.”
On Glee, Martin plays a musically-inclined Spanish teacher in an upcoming episode of the Fox juggernaut. The gig would see Martin headline two big musical numbers. Shortly after news surfaced that he may be appearing on the hourlong series, Martin tweeted, “I hear McKinley high has an opening for a Spanish teacher…Maybe I’ll apply.”
Martin will star as Che in April’s Broadway revival of Evita.
from The Hollywood Reporter
*
*
*
Related Post:

Ricky Martin To Guest Star On ‘Glee’

Ricky Martin

Ricky Martin, the Grammy-award winning iconic pop singer who will star in the Broadway revival of “Evita” next year, and who just celebrated his first anniversary as an out gay man, has been told by a Catholic Cardinal to not promote homosexuality. ”To foster homosexuality or sexual promiscuity among our young people is certainly immoral, no matter where it comes from,” said Cardinal Luis Aponte Martinez of San Juan, Puerto Rico, Martin’s birthplace.
“I have personally admired Ricky for the great artistic gifts with which God has endowed him,” the Cardinal, according to a translation said, further imploring Martin to, “please, for the sake of their children, for whom I imagine [you] want the best, try to set an example to our young people of the great values we all share, besides sex.”
Ricky Martin has twin sons, Matteo and Valentino, who were born in 2008. Last month Martin received GLAAD’s highest honor, the 2011 Vito Russo Award, for increasing awareness of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) issues.
The 88-year old Cardinal Martinez, profiled in the Spanish-language newspaper Primera Hora, claimed the Catholic Church “does not reject the homosexual person, but rather the actions and conduct that go against morality.”
(Interesting that God, according to Martinez, gave Martin “great artistic gifts,” and God, the Cardinal must assume, also made Martin homosexual. How is it Martinez does not want Martin to embrace his homosexuality?)
The Cardinal is not the only religious figure to take Martin on. Just a few weeks ago, self-proclaimed apostol and Megachurch Pastor Wanda Rolón, who compared homosexuals to “a drug addict, an alcoholic,” claimed Martin’s new music tour, “Musica+Alma+Sexo,” would lead Puerto Ricans to hell.
“This weekend Puerto Rico receives a man saved and brought from hell to the light, Nicky Cruz, while another one pretends to drag us all to hell,” Rolón wrote in a message to her fans on Facebook, adding, ”RM [Ricky Martin] has been proclaimed its ambassador (hell’s, that is). Puerto Rico wake up, everyone praise the lord. This is the island of the Lamb. Alert God.”
The message was later deleted thanks to many angry Facebook fans.
Ricky Martin, who has been working with UNICEF since 1984, was appointed a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador in 2003, and has received many awards for his humanitarian work. Martin created the Ricky Martin Foundation which “advocates for the well-being of children in critical areas such as social justice, education and health. His foundation’s principal project, People for Children, seeks to eliminate child trafficking through education,” according to UNICEF.
Last fall, in an interview with Oprah Winfrey, Martin said, “I’m in a relationship and it feels amazing!”
On March 29, 2010, the 39-year old former Menudo star who enjoys a continuing and quite successful career, and has sold over 65 million albums, told the world, “I am proud to say that I am a fortunate homosexual man. I am very blessed to be who I am.”
from The New Civil Rights Movement
*
*
*

Ricky Martin

Ricky Martin, the HBO-series True Blood and NBC’s 30 Rock were among those honored at the 22nd annual GLAAD Media Awards.
Other winners included music mogul Russell Simmons and CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360 for its series on gay teen suicides.
The prizes were presented in 25 categories by the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation on Saturday, during a New York ceremony Saturday night hosted by Bravo’s Andy Cohen.
Simmons received the Excellence in Media Award.
Martin was cited for an appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Show in which the pop singer discussed raising twin boys and his decision to come out as gay.
True Blood won for Outstanding Drama Series.
Spanish-language networks Univision and Telemundo were also recognized.
The  band the Scissor Sisters were named outstanding music artists for the album Night Work. The website Essence.com was saluted for outstanding digital journalism.
Nonelectronic media winners include The New York Times columnist Frank Rich and Peter David for his Marvel comic book X-Factor.
Winners were announced in 25 of this year’s total of 32 media categories. The remaining awards will be presented at ceremonies to be held in Los Angeles and San Francisco in April and May, respectively.  Kristin Chenoweth will receive an award in San Francisco.
from The Hollywood Reporter
*
*
*