http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/28/nyregion/rights-clash-as-town-clerk-rejects-her-role-in-gay-marriages.html?emc=eta1
The New York Times
September 28, 2011
Rights Collide as Town Clerk Sidesteps Role in Gay Marriages
By THOMAS KAPLAN
LEDYARD, N.Y. — Rose Marie Belforti is a 57-year-old cheese maker, the elected town clerk in this sprawling Finger Lakes farming community and a self-described Bible-believing Christian. She believes that God has condemned homosexuality as a sin, so she does not want to sign same-sex marriage licenses; instead, she has arranged for a deputy to issue all marriage licenses by appointment.
But when a lesbian couple who own a farm near here showed up at the town hall last month, the women said they were unwilling to wait.
Now Ms. Belforti is at the heart of an emerging test case, as national advocacy groups look to Ledyard for an answer to how the state balances a religious freedom claim by a local official against a civil rights claim by a same-sex couple.
Ms. Belforti, represented by a Christian legal advocacy group based in Arizona, the Alliance Defense Fund, is arguing that state law requires New York to accommodate her religious beliefs.
“New York law protects my right to hold both my job and my beliefs,” she said in an interview last week, pausing briefly to collect $50 from a resident planning to take 20 loads of refuse to the town dump. “I’m not supposed to have to leave my beliefs at the door at my government job.”
But the couple, Deirdre DiBiaggio and Katie Carmichael of Miami, are arguing that the law requires all clerks in New York to provide marriage licenses to same-sex couples. The couple are being represented by a liberal advocacy organization, People for the American Way, based in Washington.
“Gay people have fought so long and hard to get these civil rights,” said Ms. Carmichael, 53, a filmmaker. “To have her basically telling us to get in the back of the line is just not acceptable.”
Ms. Belforti is one of several town clerks who have said the state’s Marriage Equality Act, the measure approved in June that legalized same-sex marriage in New York, violates their religious beliefs. Two clerks resigned in July rather than comply with the law.
Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, a Democrat, who made same-sex marriage a priority of his first year in office, has expressed little sympathy for clerks who object to the law. “When you enforce the laws of the state, you don’t get to pick and choose,” he said this summer. And the State Health Department issued a memorandum to clerks that refusing to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples would be a misdemeanor.
But compliance is being tested here in Ledyard, a town of 1,900 people on the shore of Cayuga Lake that has thousands of acres of corn and soybeans and not one traffic light.
Ms. Belforti, a Republican, first won election as town clerk a decade ago, and thought she had a creative solution this summer to a vexing problem by agreeing to delegate the signing of marriage licenses.
“For me to participate in the same-sex marriage application process I don’t feel is right,” she said. “God doesn’t want me to do this, so I can’t do what God doesn’t want me to do, just like I can’t steal, or any of the other things that God doesn’t want me to do.”
The clerk’s office is open nine hours a week — Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday mornings. Ms. Belforti also does duty cleaning the town hall bathrooms. And she is a farmer, married with four grown daughters, who makes probiotic kefir cheese.
A Protestant who worships at several area churches, Ms. Belforti read to a reporter a passage from the first chapter of Romans, which she says condemns homosexual activity, offering it as an explanation for her stance.
“This is about religious freedom,” she said. “This is not about trashing gay people.”
But Ms. DiBiaggio and Ms. Carmichael say it is discriminatory, and they are contemplating filing a lawsuit. The women, who have been together for 10 years and own a working farm in nearby Springport, declined Ms. Belforti’s request that they make an appointment and return later when they stopped by the Ledyard clerk’s office seeking a marriage license.
“I was shocked,” Ms. Carmichael said.
Deborah Liu, the general counsel for the People for the American Way Foundation, which is working with a New York law firm, Proskauer Rose, on the case, said, “We totally respect everyone’s right to have their own personal beliefs.” But Ms. Belforti, Ms. Liu said, “doesn’t have the right to use them to relieve herself from doing a major part of her duties.”
The issue has roiled this town, where Republicans slightly outnumber Democrats, and often on Election Day there are fewer voters than for a race for high school class president. Most of the town is farmland, but Ledyard also contains the village of Aurora, home to Wells College, an opera house and a lakeside inn where a one-night wine country getaway goes for as much as $813 per couple.
In interviews last week, some residents applauded Ms. Belforti for standing up for her beliefs, while others said she should either sign all marriage licenses or find another line of work.
“You get about a 50-50 split,” said Jim Wilcox, 42, who runs the white-clapboard Wilcox General Store and who got his own marriage license from Ms. Belforti a few years ago. He called the Marriage Equality Act “a long time coming” and worried that the controversy could paint Ledyard in a bad light. “We’d hate to be the ones who slowed down the wheels of change here,” he said.
Another resident, Ed Easter, is now seeking to defeat Ms. Belforti in a write-in campaign when she is up for re-election in November. Mr. Easter, 40, who works in a wine tasting room, said he felt that someone needed to challenge her, rather than assuming the courts would eventually settle the matter.
“The easiest way for her to go, and to settle this whole issue, is to take it to a vote — just vote her out of office,” he said.
Ms. Belforti said she had no regrets. Her re-election campaign literature consists of a handout that trumpets her maintenance of nine different record-keeping computer databases and the town’s Web site. She also notes that she is facing a challenger, “because I have taken a stand on same-sex marriage.”
“I’m totally at peace, because God comes first for me,” she said. “It’s not a question at all. If they want to get me out, you know, I’ve shown them what I can do for 10 years — if that’s not good enough and people want somebody else, that is their choice.”
__._,_.___
Thursday, September 29, 2011
"The Way I Am"
http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/staind/thewayiam.html
"The Way I Am"
I'm not very good at just paying attention
I'm not very good at remembering things that you say
I'm not very good at persuing redemption
I'm not very good at concealing the hand that I play
[chorus]
It's the way I am, you'll never change
The way I am, or re arrange
The way I am, just let me be
The way I am, it's the way I am
I'm not really sure of the coming attractions
I'm not really sure of the illusions we read on the wall
I'm not really sure of the preaching we practice
I'm not really sure if we notice it before we fall
[chorus]
It's the way I am, you'll never change
The way I am, or re arrange
The way I am, just let me be
The way I am, it's the way I am
I'm not very good at just paying attention
I'm not very good at remembering things
I'm not very good at pursuing redemption
I'm not very good at concealing the hand that I play
When I'm trying so hard just to beat you
I'm not really good at controlling my fate
I'm not really good at controlling my anger
I'm not really good at subduing my hate
I'm not really good [x3]
[chorus]
It's the way I am, you'll never change
The way I am, or re arrange
The way I am, just let me be
The way I am, it's the way I am
__._,_.___
"The Way I Am"
I'm not very good at just paying attention
I'm not very good at remembering things that you say
I'm not very good at persuing redemption
I'm not very good at concealing the hand that I play
[chorus]
It's the way I am, you'll never change
The way I am, or re arrange
The way I am, just let me be
The way I am, it's the way I am
I'm not really sure of the coming attractions
I'm not really sure of the illusions we read on the wall
I'm not really sure of the preaching we practice
I'm not really sure if we notice it before we fall
[chorus]
It's the way I am, you'll never change
The way I am, or re arrange
The way I am, just let me be
The way I am, it's the way I am
I'm not very good at just paying attention
I'm not very good at remembering things
I'm not very good at pursuing redemption
I'm not very good at concealing the hand that I play
When I'm trying so hard just to beat you
I'm not really good at controlling my fate
I'm not really good at controlling my anger
I'm not really good at subduing my hate
I'm not really good [x3]
[chorus]
It's the way I am, you'll never change
The way I am, or re arrange
The way I am, just let me be
The way I am, it's the way I am
__._,_.___
From mirror balls to leather: First gay football team in Hong Kong
From mirror balls to leather: First gay football team in Hong Kong
by Raymond Ko
The dizzying laser rays in gay bars and the floodlights of a football pitch seem to be irreconcilably distant. One-Nil, the first gay football team in Hong Kong, attempts to bridge the two. Raymond Ko talks to Peter Sabine and Janson Mui, founding members of One-Nil.
Advertisement
It’s 2009, on an ordinary Friday night at a gay bar in Hong Kong. Janson Mui and Peter Sabine start talking about their favourite football team, Manchester United, both surprised that there are other gay men who like football. From then, they decided to see if there were enough to form a football team. “I was at first sceptical that we could form a gay football team,” said Peter. But Janson was ardent. “We went to gay bars, posted on gay websites, emailed our friends, to see if anyone was interested,” said Janson. “And soon we received enough responses to build a team with six to seven core players."
Since its founding, One-Nil has progressed significantly in terms of fame and skill. The team has been featured in TimeOut Hong Kong, as well as local gay magazine DimSum. More important to Peter and Janson, who are serious footballers, is the team’s increasing technical aplomb. “We started playing in a 7-a-side league last year, and since then we have been advancing slowly and steadily. We began by losing badly, but we have now achieved a few draws and wins,” said Peter. “It is also encouraging to see teammates who were complete novices becoming skilled footballers,” said Janson.
Despite One-Nil’s technical advances, its most outstanding feature continues to be the sexual orientation of its players. How does the team reconcile the worlds of bars and pitches? “In the beginning, we feared that there would be a lot of mess, such as hook-ups in the team. Luckily, this never happened,” said Peter. “In a way, we are trying to break the stereotype that gay men can’t be good at football. There are gay guys who don’t like bars and clubs, and who prefer to make friends with other gay guys on a football pitch.”
Peter Sabine and Janson Mui (right), founding members of the One-Nil
“As for our opposing teams, sometimes they know that we are gay and sometimes they don’t, but it has never created a problem for us,” he added. The team is not all hard work and no play. “Of course, we also hang out together at gay bars every week,” said Peter, who is also a DJ at Volume.
Another special feature of One-Nil is its balanced mix of local and expatriate players. Instructions barked out on the field are in both Cantonese and English. The league in which One-Nil competes identifies teams by country names. Since the team’s name in the league is Iceland, the Asian ‘Icelanders’ sometimes play against the majority-expatriate South Koreans.
It is not easy to organise a football team with little resources. “Public football pitches are hard to book. We often have to rent pitches at inflated prices. Practice depends very much on availability of pitches. However, we have just found a private venue, so we are looking forward to more regular practices,” says Janson. The rent for pitches is made up by both the players themselves and private sponsors. Another problem the team faces is finding reliable players. “Some players, for whatever reason, do not show up as promised,” Peter said but added that now that they have a core group of about 10 players, no-shows have become less problematic..
Looking into the future, One-Nil aims to be still more competitive. “We have to get better, before we play against other gay football teams overseas,” said Peter. The team is also building connections to Stonewall FC, a successful gay football team in England, especially in the area of players exchange. As a nod to its gay origins and to raise funds, the team is planning to launch a calendar featuring (almost) nude photos of its players.
As to who can join the team, One-Nil operates a very liberal policy. “We have had one very talented lesbian on our team. Some of our players are straight. Many came to us with no experience in football. So as long as you are interested in football, and willing to commit, feel free to drop us a line,” Peter said.
by Raymond Ko
The dizzying laser rays in gay bars and the floodlights of a football pitch seem to be irreconcilably distant. One-Nil, the first gay football team in Hong Kong, attempts to bridge the two. Raymond Ko talks to Peter Sabine and Janson Mui, founding members of One-Nil.
Advertisement
It’s 2009, on an ordinary Friday night at a gay bar in Hong Kong. Janson Mui and Peter Sabine start talking about their favourite football team, Manchester United, both surprised that there are other gay men who like football. From then, they decided to see if there were enough to form a football team. “I was at first sceptical that we could form a gay football team,” said Peter. But Janson was ardent. “We went to gay bars, posted on gay websites, emailed our friends, to see if anyone was interested,” said Janson. “And soon we received enough responses to build a team with six to seven core players."
Since its founding, One-Nil has progressed significantly in terms of fame and skill. The team has been featured in TimeOut Hong Kong, as well as local gay magazine DimSum. More important to Peter and Janson, who are serious footballers, is the team’s increasing technical aplomb. “We started playing in a 7-a-side league last year, and since then we have been advancing slowly and steadily. We began by losing badly, but we have now achieved a few draws and wins,” said Peter. “It is also encouraging to see teammates who were complete novices becoming skilled footballers,” said Janson.
Despite One-Nil’s technical advances, its most outstanding feature continues to be the sexual orientation of its players. How does the team reconcile the worlds of bars and pitches? “In the beginning, we feared that there would be a lot of mess, such as hook-ups in the team. Luckily, this never happened,” said Peter. “In a way, we are trying to break the stereotype that gay men can’t be good at football. There are gay guys who don’t like bars and clubs, and who prefer to make friends with other gay guys on a football pitch.”
Peter Sabine and Janson Mui (right), founding members of the One-Nil
“As for our opposing teams, sometimes they know that we are gay and sometimes they don’t, but it has never created a problem for us,” he added. The team is not all hard work and no play. “Of course, we also hang out together at gay bars every week,” said Peter, who is also a DJ at Volume.
Another special feature of One-Nil is its balanced mix of local and expatriate players. Instructions barked out on the field are in both Cantonese and English. The league in which One-Nil competes identifies teams by country names. Since the team’s name in the league is Iceland, the Asian ‘Icelanders’ sometimes play against the majority-expatriate South Koreans.
It is not easy to organise a football team with little resources. “Public football pitches are hard to book. We often have to rent pitches at inflated prices. Practice depends very much on availability of pitches. However, we have just found a private venue, so we are looking forward to more regular practices,” says Janson. The rent for pitches is made up by both the players themselves and private sponsors. Another problem the team faces is finding reliable players. “Some players, for whatever reason, do not show up as promised,” Peter said but added that now that they have a core group of about 10 players, no-shows have become less problematic..
Looking into the future, One-Nil aims to be still more competitive. “We have to get better, before we play against other gay football teams overseas,” said Peter. The team is also building connections to Stonewall FC, a successful gay football team in England, especially in the area of players exchange. As a nod to its gay origins and to raise funds, the team is planning to launch a calendar featuring (almost) nude photos of its players.
As to who can join the team, One-Nil operates a very liberal policy. “We have had one very talented lesbian on our team. Some of our players are straight. Many came to us with no experience in football. So as long as you are interested in football, and willing to commit, feel free to drop us a line,” Peter said.
Singapore Court of Appeal to hear section 377A constitutional challenge application
Singapore Court of Appeal to hear section 377A constitutional challenge application, Sep 27
by News Editor
The Court of Appeal will hear an appeal filed by human rights lawyer M. Ravi on behalf of his client Tan Eng Hong who is seeking to challenge the constitutionality of Section 377A of the Penal Code that prohibits sexual relations between men.
Advertisement
The Court of Appeal is scheduled to hear an appeal filed by an openly gay man, Tan Eng Hong on Sep 26 at 10am.
M. Ravi
Tan is seeking to challenge the constitutionality of Section 377A of the Penal Code that prohibits sexual relations between men.
In a judgement dated 15 March 2011, High Court judge Lai Siu Chiu ruled that while Tan did have locus standi meaning he is affected by this law to have a legitimate interest or standing in the issue, she also ruled that there was no "real controversy" which required the court’s attention - meaning that it was not a matter of importance to be decided by a court.
The application was filed by prominent human rights lawyer M. Ravi on behalf of his client Tan, who was originally charged under Section 377A for allegedly having oral sex with another consenting male in a public toilet. The charge was later reduced to one under Section 294 which provides for a jail term of up to three months, or fine, or both for "any obscene act in any public place." Tan was fined S$3000 for committing an obscene act in public.
Members of the public can attend the hearing at the Court of Appeal on level 9 of the Supreme Court Building.
Related Links
High Court waves away 377A controversy (Yawning Bread)
by News Editor
The Court of Appeal will hear an appeal filed by human rights lawyer M. Ravi on behalf of his client Tan Eng Hong who is seeking to challenge the constitutionality of Section 377A of the Penal Code that prohibits sexual relations between men.
Advertisement
The Court of Appeal is scheduled to hear an appeal filed by an openly gay man, Tan Eng Hong on Sep 26 at 10am.
M. Ravi
Tan is seeking to challenge the constitutionality of Section 377A of the Penal Code that prohibits sexual relations between men.
In a judgement dated 15 March 2011, High Court judge Lai Siu Chiu ruled that while Tan did have locus standi meaning he is affected by this law to have a legitimate interest or standing in the issue, she also ruled that there was no "real controversy" which required the court’s attention - meaning that it was not a matter of importance to be decided by a court.
The application was filed by prominent human rights lawyer M. Ravi on behalf of his client Tan, who was originally charged under Section 377A for allegedly having oral sex with another consenting male in a public toilet. The charge was later reduced to one under Section 294 which provides for a jail term of up to three months, or fine, or both for "any obscene act in any public place." Tan was fined S$3000 for committing an obscene act in public.
Members of the public can attend the hearing at the Court of Appeal on level 9 of the Supreme Court Building.
Related Links
High Court waves away 377A controversy (Yawning Bread)
Culhane: The tidal shift in the LGBT movement
Culhane: The tidal shift in the LGBT movement
By John Culhane, Professor of Law, Widener University
09.23.2011 8:00am UTC
Who’s hiding now?
A couple of recent developments – one seismic, the other not so much –
point to a tidal shift in the battle for LGBT equality and dignity.
The biggie, of course, is the long-overdue interment of Don’t Ask,
Don’t Tell. You’d have to be made of a certain kind of dense mineral
not to be moved by the stories that we’re hearing of soldiers who can
now go about their jobs without fear of being outed, then ousted. And
the squawking of those on the hard-right who’d threatened to get
repeal undone are dying away like the gasps of an almost-extinct
species.
Yet the repeal creates problems more complex than the one it solved.
Once these gay and lesbian (but not transgendered) soldiers stand
revealed in the fullness of their identity, it’s also going to become
almost immediately apparent that they’re still not equal. While they
now are allowed to exist, their relationships are not, because these
soldier are not considered legally married for federal purposes.
So all the benefits that straight servicemembers take for granted –
including housing for their families and spousal death benefits –
aren’t available to same-sex couples. Because of the Defense of
Marriage Act (“DOMA”) that’s true even if the couple is considered
legally married in their state of residence.
This glaring inequality has the potential to do some serious damage to
the anti-equality forces. Soldiers not only enjoy tremendous respect,
but they live in such stifling proximity to each other that these
inequities can’t be missed. In short order, this new set of stories –
told now not by ex-soldiers, or by soldiers concealing their
identities, but by open and proud service members – will create a
compelling narrative that should accelerate the momentum toward the
repeal of DOMA.
Equality and openness beget more of the same.
This could finish even better than you’d think it might. Because
members of the military are constantly on the move, and often
overseas, it won’t do to have their marriages recognized some of the
time (when they’re in states that allow same-sex marriages) but not
always (when they’re anywhere else). So the move to pass something
like the Respect for Marriage Act (“RMA”) will also gain steam. Under
that proposed bill, once you’re legally married in any state that
allows it, you’d be forever deemed married for federal purposes. While
the RMA still won’t force states to recognize marriages from other
states, the pressure on them to do so will increase dramatically.
No other approach makes sense for the military – it would be a
logistical nightmare for the government (and the same-sex couples) to
move in and out of legal marriage as they changed location. This is
already a problem with same-sex marriages under state law: try
dissolving your Massachusetts marriage in Texas, for example.
But the military setting brings the problem into sharp relief.
So the reality of our lives, as we push further and more boldly into
the open, has created irresistible pressure for equality. Look no
further than recent polling data on marriage equality for evidence
that the message is getting through.
And that brings me to the second development, which is a sort of flip
side. As our openness and equality become an increasingly tight and
strong braid, our opponents find themselves on the defensive. That’s
not a good place to be when you have no good arguments for your
position.
So, once again, we had the Prop 8 opponents trying – but failing – to
keep the videotape of the trial from being made public. (An appeal has
been filed, of course.) And a couple of weeks ago, the lawyers working
for the House of Representative on the DOMA case politely refused to
consent to the videotaping of oral arguments before the federal
appellate court. They gave no reason for their refusal, but let me
suggest one:
They know their arguments are neither sympathetic nor compelling.
The more they say, the worse – the meaner, frankly – they seem. David
Boies, one of the attorneys on the Prop 8 challenge, said it
succinctly: “The witness stand is a lonely place to lie.” (Watch the
video, especially around the 3:00 mark. Boies is devastating.) Indeed,
the Prop 8 defenders’ witnesses were such a disaster that the release
of the videotapes would be a huge boon for our side. Better to keep it
– and all opposition arguments – under wraps. I’d be begging for the
same result were I the lawyer representing them.
Who’s hiding now?
John Culhane is stepping up the pace of his own blogging at
wordinedgewise.org as his work on this site rockets toward its
conclusion next week. You can also follow him on Slate, Twitter
(@johnculhane), or through his legal scholarship. He’s also working on
a book about civil unions, and invites your stories.
More:
http://www.365gay.com/opinion/culhane-the-tidal-shift-in-the-lgbt-movement/
--
By John Culhane, Professor of Law, Widener University
09.23.2011 8:00am UTC
Who’s hiding now?
A couple of recent developments – one seismic, the other not so much –
point to a tidal shift in the battle for LGBT equality and dignity.
The biggie, of course, is the long-overdue interment of Don’t Ask,
Don’t Tell. You’d have to be made of a certain kind of dense mineral
not to be moved by the stories that we’re hearing of soldiers who can
now go about their jobs without fear of being outed, then ousted. And
the squawking of those on the hard-right who’d threatened to get
repeal undone are dying away like the gasps of an almost-extinct
species.
Yet the repeal creates problems more complex than the one it solved.
Once these gay and lesbian (but not transgendered) soldiers stand
revealed in the fullness of their identity, it’s also going to become
almost immediately apparent that they’re still not equal. While they
now are allowed to exist, their relationships are not, because these
soldier are not considered legally married for federal purposes.
So all the benefits that straight servicemembers take for granted –
including housing for their families and spousal death benefits –
aren’t available to same-sex couples. Because of the Defense of
Marriage Act (“DOMA”) that’s true even if the couple is considered
legally married in their state of residence.
This glaring inequality has the potential to do some serious damage to
the anti-equality forces. Soldiers not only enjoy tremendous respect,
but they live in such stifling proximity to each other that these
inequities can’t be missed. In short order, this new set of stories –
told now not by ex-soldiers, or by soldiers concealing their
identities, but by open and proud service members – will create a
compelling narrative that should accelerate the momentum toward the
repeal of DOMA.
Equality and openness beget more of the same.
This could finish even better than you’d think it might. Because
members of the military are constantly on the move, and often
overseas, it won’t do to have their marriages recognized some of the
time (when they’re in states that allow same-sex marriages) but not
always (when they’re anywhere else). So the move to pass something
like the Respect for Marriage Act (“RMA”) will also gain steam. Under
that proposed bill, once you’re legally married in any state that
allows it, you’d be forever deemed married for federal purposes. While
the RMA still won’t force states to recognize marriages from other
states, the pressure on them to do so will increase dramatically.
No other approach makes sense for the military – it would be a
logistical nightmare for the government (and the same-sex couples) to
move in and out of legal marriage as they changed location. This is
already a problem with same-sex marriages under state law: try
dissolving your Massachusetts marriage in Texas, for example.
But the military setting brings the problem into sharp relief.
So the reality of our lives, as we push further and more boldly into
the open, has created irresistible pressure for equality. Look no
further than recent polling data on marriage equality for evidence
that the message is getting through.
And that brings me to the second development, which is a sort of flip
side. As our openness and equality become an increasingly tight and
strong braid, our opponents find themselves on the defensive. That’s
not a good place to be when you have no good arguments for your
position.
So, once again, we had the Prop 8 opponents trying – but failing – to
keep the videotape of the trial from being made public. (An appeal has
been filed, of course.) And a couple of weeks ago, the lawyers working
for the House of Representative on the DOMA case politely refused to
consent to the videotaping of oral arguments before the federal
appellate court. They gave no reason for their refusal, but let me
suggest one:
They know their arguments are neither sympathetic nor compelling.
The more they say, the worse – the meaner, frankly – they seem. David
Boies, one of the attorneys on the Prop 8 challenge, said it
succinctly: “The witness stand is a lonely place to lie.” (Watch the
video, especially around the 3:00 mark. Boies is devastating.) Indeed,
the Prop 8 defenders’ witnesses were such a disaster that the release
of the videotapes would be a huge boon for our side. Better to keep it
– and all opposition arguments – under wraps. I’d be begging for the
same result were I the lawyer representing them.
Who’s hiding now?
John Culhane is stepping up the pace of his own blogging at
wordinedgewise.org as his work on this site rockets toward its
conclusion next week. You can also follow him on Slate, Twitter
(@johnculhane), or through his legal scholarship. He’s also working on
a book about civil unions, and invites your stories.
More:
http://www.365gay.com/opinion/culhane-the-tidal-shift-in-the-lgbt-movement/
--
Scotland's gay marriage consultation creates debate among faith groups
Scotland's gay marriage consultation creates debate among faith groups
The Scottish government has begun a 14-week public consultation, running from through to 9 December, on the question of legalising marriage for gay couples, encouraging individuals and groups such as religious organisations to take part - writes Trevor Grundy.
Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland's Deputy First Minister, said the government "[tends] towards the view that religious ceremonies for civil partnerships should no longer be prohibited and that same sex marriage should be introduced so that same sex couples have the option of getting married if that is how they wish to demonstrate their commitment to one another."
Full story
The Scottish government has begun a 14-week public consultation, running from through to 9 December, on the question of legalising marriage for gay couples, encouraging individuals and groups such as religious organisations to take part - writes Trevor Grundy.
Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland's Deputy First Minister, said the government "[tends] towards the view that religious ceremonies for civil partnerships should no longer be prohibited and that same sex marriage should be introduced so that same sex couples have the option of getting married if that is how they wish to demonstrate their commitment to one another."
Full story
Antigay N.C. State Senator Walks Out on Interview
If anyone is inclined to express their feelings,
Here's Senator Forrester's office number (919) 715-3050 and his home phone (704) 263-4716.
Antigay N.C. State Senator Walks Out on Interview
By Andrew Harmon
Sen James Forrester x390 (via TP LGBT) | Advocate.com
North Carolina state senator James Forrester, sponsor of a recent bill that approved an anti-gay marriage constitutional amendment to go before voters in May, walked out on a radio interview with Sirius XM's Michelangelo Signorile Tuesday when confronted by the host about the legislation's intent, as well as the senator's history of peddling falsehoods about gay people. The 22-minute appearance went south when Signorile posed specific questions on marriage — or divorce, to be exact:
SIGNORILE: Why don’t you ban divorce, why not?
FORRESTER: That wasn’t my intent of the legislation.
SIGNORILE: Is divorce a good thing? I’ll ask you some yes or no’s, how’s that? Divorce a good thing?
FORRESTER: I think I’m going to end this conversation right now because I see you’re completely negative, on the other side, trying to set me up.
(Audio of the exchange, as well as Signorile’s take on the interview, is available here.)
The North Carolina antigay amendment has been slammed by LGBT advocates and their allies for both its malicious intent and questionable timing.
“[I]n an unholy alliance between antigay Republicans and some spineless Democrats, the legislature reached a ‘compromise’ to advance this cruel constitutional amendment to the ballot, not in November 2012, where turnout would be large, but in May, to coincide with the Republican presidential primary,” Freedom to Marry national campaign director Marc Solomon wrote this month in an Advocate.com op-Ed.
“This is apparently the case because anti-equality Democrats wanted to vote for the bill as long as they were sure it wouldn’t be on the November 2012 ballot, when they thought it could hurt their own chances by driving social conservatives to the polls,” Solomon wrote. “And while we are in fact making great headway with Republicans, let’s just say that Republican primary voters in North Carolina are not our best demographic.”
Earlier this month, Congressman Brad Miller, a North Carolina Democrat representing the state’s 13th district, told this magazine that he strongly opposed the amendment and decided to cosponsor legislation to repeal the federal Defense of Marriage Act partly as a result. Senator Kay Hagan, a fellow Democrat, has said she “remains wary of attempts to alter constitutions in the heat of today’s charged political environment” but has not specifically addressed the North Carolina amendment (her colleague, Republican senator Richard Burr, hasn’t either).
Here's Senator Forrester's office number (919) 715-3050 and his home phone (704) 263-4716.
Antigay N.C. State Senator Walks Out on Interview
By Andrew Harmon
Sen James Forrester x390 (via TP LGBT) | Advocate.com
North Carolina state senator James Forrester, sponsor of a recent bill that approved an anti-gay marriage constitutional amendment to go before voters in May, walked out on a radio interview with Sirius XM's Michelangelo Signorile Tuesday when confronted by the host about the legislation's intent, as well as the senator's history of peddling falsehoods about gay people. The 22-minute appearance went south when Signorile posed specific questions on marriage — or divorce, to be exact:
SIGNORILE: Why don’t you ban divorce, why not?
FORRESTER: That wasn’t my intent of the legislation.
SIGNORILE: Is divorce a good thing? I’ll ask you some yes or no’s, how’s that? Divorce a good thing?
FORRESTER: I think I’m going to end this conversation right now because I see you’re completely negative, on the other side, trying to set me up.
(Audio of the exchange, as well as Signorile’s take on the interview, is available here.)
The North Carolina antigay amendment has been slammed by LGBT advocates and their allies for both its malicious intent and questionable timing.
“[I]n an unholy alliance between antigay Republicans and some spineless Democrats, the legislature reached a ‘compromise’ to advance this cruel constitutional amendment to the ballot, not in November 2012, where turnout would be large, but in May, to coincide with the Republican presidential primary,” Freedom to Marry national campaign director Marc Solomon wrote this month in an Advocate.com op-Ed.
“This is apparently the case because anti-equality Democrats wanted to vote for the bill as long as they were sure it wouldn’t be on the November 2012 ballot, when they thought it could hurt their own chances by driving social conservatives to the polls,” Solomon wrote. “And while we are in fact making great headway with Republicans, let’s just say that Republican primary voters in North Carolina are not our best demographic.”
Earlier this month, Congressman Brad Miller, a North Carolina Democrat representing the state’s 13th district, told this magazine that he strongly opposed the amendment and decided to cosponsor legislation to repeal the federal Defense of Marriage Act partly as a result. Senator Kay Hagan, a fellow Democrat, has said she “remains wary of attempts to alter constitutions in the heat of today’s charged political environment” but has not specifically addressed the North Carolina amendment (her colleague, Republican senator Richard Burr, hasn’t either).
Promoter of Uganda’s “Kill-the-Gays” Bill To be Honored in Chicago Suburb
Promoter of Uganda’s
“Kill-the-Gays” Bill
To be Honored in Chicago Suburb
GLN Plans Sat., October 15th Protest
A stridently anti-gay organization, “Americans For Truth About Homosexuality” (AFTAH), is planning to honor Scott Lively, a principal proponent of Uganda’s proposed death penalty bill for gays, at its annual banquet Saturday, October 15th at the Christian Liberty Academy, 502 W. Euclid Ave., Arlington Heights, IL.
The Gay Liberation is initiating a protest at 6 PM that night and invites all individuals and organizations who believe in civil rights to join in protest against one of the foremost American advocates of violence against Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender people.
Scott Lively journeyed to Uganda in 2009 with other U.S. evangelical gay bashers to stage a “Seminar on Exposing the Homosexual Agenda” even though homosexuality was already illegal in that nation. Lively helped stoke anti-gay animus by playing the "child molestation" card, asserting that gays are “looking for other people to prey upon, and that when they see someone from a broken home, it’s like they have a flashing neon sign over their head … male homosexuality has not traditionally been adult to adult, it’s been adult to teenager. … The gay movement is an evil institution.”
It was following Lively’s “seminar” that legislation was introduced into the Ugandan parliament that would impose the death penalty for so-called “aggravated homosexuality.” All gay meetings would be banned under this draconian measure, and heterosexuals could be jailed as well for any advocacy of homosexuality or defense of gay people. Lively has supported this further criminalizing of homosexuality, even as some evangelicals like Rick Warren have distanced themselves from it. (Lively advised against death sentences for Ugandan gays, but only because it might result in “public sympathy” for them; he prefers forced “rehabilitation.”)
More recently, Lively justified anti-gay violence when David Kato, Uganda’s leading gay advocate, was murdered. Lively wrote, "It is as if the militant ranks of ‘Code Pink’ were transported back to 1890s America to agitate for ‘sexual freedom.’ Our great grandparents would not have countenanced this. There would have been violence, as there has now been in Uganda." [emphasis added]
AFTAH’s Executive Director, Peter LaBarbera, has also spoken in favor of the Ugandan bill, and AFTAH is cited as a “hate group” by the Southern Poverty Law Center, as is Lively’s Abiding Truth Ministries.. LaBarbera has been hot-wired into Illinois Republican politics for years, serving as the primary local booster of the Alan Keyes senatorial campaign in 2004 and pairing closely with Jim Oberweis's multiple campaigns for governor and senator. Twice LaBarbera has put considerable effort into attempts to get anti-gay referenda on Illinois' ballot, trying to mimic the hate climate that accompanied California's Proposition 8.
Those traveling to the anti-AFTAH protest from Chicago are invited to meet other activists in front of the Ogilvie Metra station at 500 W. Madison at 4:10 PM, Saturday, October 15 to travel on the train to the protest. For more information, email the Gay Liberation Network at LGBTliberation@aol.com
“Kill-the-Gays” Bill
To be Honored in Chicago Suburb
GLN Plans Sat., October 15th Protest
A stridently anti-gay organization, “Americans For Truth About Homosexuality” (AFTAH), is planning to honor Scott Lively, a principal proponent of Uganda’s proposed death penalty bill for gays, at its annual banquet Saturday, October 15th at the Christian Liberty Academy, 502 W. Euclid Ave., Arlington Heights, IL.
The Gay Liberation is initiating a protest at 6 PM that night and invites all individuals and organizations who believe in civil rights to join in protest against one of the foremost American advocates of violence against Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender people.
Scott Lively journeyed to Uganda in 2009 with other U.S. evangelical gay bashers to stage a “Seminar on Exposing the Homosexual Agenda” even though homosexuality was already illegal in that nation. Lively helped stoke anti-gay animus by playing the "child molestation" card, asserting that gays are “looking for other people to prey upon, and that when they see someone from a broken home, it’s like they have a flashing neon sign over their head … male homosexuality has not traditionally been adult to adult, it’s been adult to teenager. … The gay movement is an evil institution.”
It was following Lively’s “seminar” that legislation was introduced into the Ugandan parliament that would impose the death penalty for so-called “aggravated homosexuality.” All gay meetings would be banned under this draconian measure, and heterosexuals could be jailed as well for any advocacy of homosexuality or defense of gay people. Lively has supported this further criminalizing of homosexuality, even as some evangelicals like Rick Warren have distanced themselves from it. (Lively advised against death sentences for Ugandan gays, but only because it might result in “public sympathy” for them; he prefers forced “rehabilitation.”)
More recently, Lively justified anti-gay violence when David Kato, Uganda’s leading gay advocate, was murdered. Lively wrote, "It is as if the militant ranks of ‘Code Pink’ were transported back to 1890s America to agitate for ‘sexual freedom.’ Our great grandparents would not have countenanced this. There would have been violence, as there has now been in Uganda." [emphasis added]
AFTAH’s Executive Director, Peter LaBarbera, has also spoken in favor of the Ugandan bill, and AFTAH is cited as a “hate group” by the Southern Poverty Law Center, as is Lively’s Abiding Truth Ministries.. LaBarbera has been hot-wired into Illinois Republican politics for years, serving as the primary local booster of the Alan Keyes senatorial campaign in 2004 and pairing closely with Jim Oberweis's multiple campaigns for governor and senator. Twice LaBarbera has put considerable effort into attempts to get anti-gay referenda on Illinois' ballot, trying to mimic the hate climate that accompanied California's Proposition 8.
Those traveling to the anti-AFTAH protest from Chicago are invited to meet other activists in front of the Ogilvie Metra station at 500 W. Madison at 4:10 PM, Saturday, October 15 to travel on the train to the protest. For more information, email the Gay Liberation Network at LGBTliberation@aol.com
Patti Stanger said she had tried to 'curb' gay men
She says all gay men are promiscuous...
Patti Stanger said she had tried to 'curb' gay men
Patti Stanger said she had tried to 'curb' gay menThe presenter of US TV show Millionaire Matchmaker has apologised for saying that gay men cannot be faithful.
Dating expert Patti Stanger, 50, appeared on Bravo’s Watch What Happens Live on Sunday.
Stanger, who runs a dating agency for millionaires, was speaking to a caller who asked for advice on long-term relationships.
She said: “In the gay world, there’s always going to be open [relationships]. There’s no curbing the gay man. You’re going to be OK.”
Show host Andy Cohen, who is gay, appeared surprised and said: “So wait, gays can have open relationships?”
Stanger replied: “I have tried to curb you people.”
But Cohen pressed the issue, saying: “I am a gay and am down for monogamy.”
Stanger retorted: “When’s the last time you had a boyfriend?”
On the same programme, she claimed that “Jewish men lie”.
Yesterday, she defended her remarks on Twitter, claiming that gay men “love variety” and prefer to “hook up 1st, get to know the man after”.
But by yesterday evening, the matchmaker apologised for causing offence.
Her statement said: “I am so sorry. I did not mean to offend anyone with my comments last night on Watch What Happens Live.”
Bravo also said it regretted her remarks, adding: “Her comments are not representative of the network’s beliefs and opinions. We apologise for the offence it caused.”
Stanger has a reputation for outspoken, even offensive, advice.
She recently advised clever women to pretend to be stupid, claiming: “[Men] don’t like [smart women] before they are married. You’ve got to dumb it down a little because men are not that bright.”
She has also urged redheads to dye their hair and curly-haired women to straighten theirs,
__._,_.___
Patti Stanger said she had tried to 'curb' gay men
Patti Stanger said she had tried to 'curb' gay menThe presenter of US TV show Millionaire Matchmaker has apologised for saying that gay men cannot be faithful.
Dating expert Patti Stanger, 50, appeared on Bravo’s Watch What Happens Live on Sunday.
Stanger, who runs a dating agency for millionaires, was speaking to a caller who asked for advice on long-term relationships.
She said: “In the gay world, there’s always going to be open [relationships]. There’s no curbing the gay man. You’re going to be OK.”
Show host Andy Cohen, who is gay, appeared surprised and said: “So wait, gays can have open relationships?”
Stanger replied: “I have tried to curb you people.”
But Cohen pressed the issue, saying: “I am a gay and am down for monogamy.”
Stanger retorted: “When’s the last time you had a boyfriend?”
On the same programme, she claimed that “Jewish men lie”.
Yesterday, she defended her remarks on Twitter, claiming that gay men “love variety” and prefer to “hook up 1st, get to know the man after”.
But by yesterday evening, the matchmaker apologised for causing offence.
Her statement said: “I am so sorry. I did not mean to offend anyone with my comments last night on Watch What Happens Live.”
Bravo also said it regretted her remarks, adding: “Her comments are not representative of the network’s beliefs and opinions. We apologise for the offence it caused.”
Stanger has a reputation for outspoken, even offensive, advice.
She recently advised clever women to pretend to be stupid, claiming: “[Men] don’t like [smart women] before they are married. You’ve got to dumb it down a little because men are not that bright.”
She has also urged redheads to dye their hair and curly-haired women to straighten theirs,
__._,_.___
New Hollywood Chick-fil-A protested over anti-gay policies
New Hollywood Chick-fil-A protested over anti-gay policies
by GoPride.com News Staff
Hollywood, CA — About 30 people gathered Saturday afternoon to protest
the opening of the new Chick-fil-A Hollywood location citing what they
call the restaurant chain's support of anti-gay policies.
The protestors say the Georgia-based fast food chain donates money to
Focus on the Family and other Christian groups that vehemently oppose
LGBT rights, including marriage equality.
"It's about civil rights," Ken Howard, one of the organizers of
Saturday's protest, told WestHollywoodPatch.com. "It's not
anti-Christian. It's pro-civil rights and against hate groups."
The group protesting the new location at Sunset Boulevard and Highland
Avenue held up picket signs and distributed fliers that read, "say no
to homophobia."
The company's corporate mission is explicitly Christian. It includes a
charge "to glorify God by being a faithful steward of all that is
entrusted to us."
Chick-fil-A's mix of Christian culture has attracted controversy
before. In 2002 a lawsuit was filed by a Muslim restaurant owner in
Houston who said he was fired because he did not pray to Jesus with
other employees at a training session.
Company spokeswoman Kim Hardcastle told Patch the chain does not
discriminate against anyone.
The chain, which has found success in rural areas, has recently been
entering larger metropolitan cities including Los Angeles and Chicago.
More:
http://chicago.gopride.com/news/article.cfm/articleid/22425076/new-hollywood-chickfila-protested-over-antigay-policies
--
by GoPride.com News Staff
Hollywood, CA — About 30 people gathered Saturday afternoon to protest
the opening of the new Chick-fil-A Hollywood location citing what they
call the restaurant chain's support of anti-gay policies.
The protestors say the Georgia-based fast food chain donates money to
Focus on the Family and other Christian groups that vehemently oppose
LGBT rights, including marriage equality.
"It's about civil rights," Ken Howard, one of the organizers of
Saturday's protest, told WestHollywoodPatch.com. "It's not
anti-Christian. It's pro-civil rights and against hate groups."
The group protesting the new location at Sunset Boulevard and Highland
Avenue held up picket signs and distributed fliers that read, "say no
to homophobia."
The company's corporate mission is explicitly Christian. It includes a
charge "to glorify God by being a faithful steward of all that is
entrusted to us."
Chick-fil-A's mix of Christian culture has attracted controversy
before. In 2002 a lawsuit was filed by a Muslim restaurant owner in
Houston who said he was fired because he did not pray to Jesus with
other employees at a training session.
Company spokeswoman Kim Hardcastle told Patch the chain does not
discriminate against anyone.
The chain, which has found success in rural areas, has recently been
entering larger metropolitan cities including Los Angeles and Chicago.
More:
http://chicago.gopride.com/news/article.cfm/articleid/22425076/new-hollywood-chickfila-protested-over-antigay-policies
--
A List of Creepy Things Facebook Will Remember Forever
A List of Creepy Things Facebook Will Remember Forever
A List of Creepy Things Facebook Will Remember ForeverDelete all you want, but Facebook never forgets. At least when it comes to your defriendings, pokes, and RSVPS, it doesn't. And it also has a keen memory for what computers you've used, and who you were sharing those computers with. Your Facebook dossier can easily run to hundreds of pages, as some European citizens have learned.
Across the pond, where regulators have teeth and where corporations don't get to rewrite the legal definition of "privacy," citizens can force Facebook to send them a dossier of everything it knows about them. Two anonymous Europeans have shared their database dumps publicly, Forbes reports. One of them ran to 880 pages.
For a user who joined the site in 2007, dubbed "LB" by Forbes, Facebook's data included the following:
Records of all friend requests LB rejected.
Records of the 12+ friends LB has unfriended over the years.
A list of devices from which LB logged in to Facebook, plus a list of other users on those machines. Meaning Facebook knows who spent the night at your place last night.
Records of more than 50 incoming "pokes" since 2008, including most often by a friend named "T.V."
Some 75 event invites, along with 38 RSVPs.
A history of messages and chats.
Facebook really does have us all by the nuts. Which is why it's comforting that the company routinely acts in the best interest of its users and their privacy, even when it means sacrificing revenue. Yay Facebook!
[Photo via Getty Images]
A List of Creepy Things Facebook Will Remember ForeverDelete all you want, but Facebook never forgets. At least when it comes to your defriendings, pokes, and RSVPS, it doesn't. And it also has a keen memory for what computers you've used, and who you were sharing those computers with. Your Facebook dossier can easily run to hundreds of pages, as some European citizens have learned.
Across the pond, where regulators have teeth and where corporations don't get to rewrite the legal definition of "privacy," citizens can force Facebook to send them a dossier of everything it knows about them. Two anonymous Europeans have shared their database dumps publicly, Forbes reports. One of them ran to 880 pages.
For a user who joined the site in 2007, dubbed "LB" by Forbes, Facebook's data included the following:
Records of all friend requests LB rejected.
Records of the 12+ friends LB has unfriended over the years.
A list of devices from which LB logged in to Facebook, plus a list of other users on those machines. Meaning Facebook knows who spent the night at your place last night.
Records of more than 50 incoming "pokes" since 2008, including most often by a friend named "T.V."
Some 75 event invites, along with 38 RSVPs.
A history of messages and chats.
Facebook really does have us all by the nuts. Which is why it's comforting that the company routinely acts in the best interest of its users and their privacy, even when it means sacrificing revenue. Yay Facebook!
[Photo via Getty Images]
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
In First-Ever Count, Census Bureau Reports 131,729 Same-Sex Married Couples in the U.S.
In First-Ever Count, Census Bureau Reports 131,729 Same-Sex Married Couples in the U.S.
The U.S. Census Bureau has released its first-ever estimated count of same-sex couples in the U.S.:
House The U.S. Census Bureau released today new statistics on same-sex married couple and unmarried partner households. According to revised estimates from the 2010 Census, there were 131,729 same-sex married couple households and 514,735 same-sex unmarried partner households in the United States.
The results of the 2010 Census revised estimates are closer to the results of the 2010 American Community Survey (ACS) for same-sex married and unmarried partners. The 2010 ACS estimated same-sex married couples at 152,335 and same-sex unmarried partners at 440,989.
The new, preferred figures revise earlier estimates of same-sex unmarried partners released this summer from the 2010 Census Summary File 1 because Census Bureau staff discovered an inconsistency in the responses in the 2010 Census summary file statistics that artificially inflated the number of same-sex couples. In addition, a breakdown of couples who reported as same-sex spouses is now available. The summary file counts originally showed that there were 349,377 married couple households and 552,620 same-sex unmarried partner households.
Statistics on same-sex couple households are derived from two questions on the census and ACS questionnaire: relationship to householder and the sex of each person. When data were captured for these two questions on the 2010 Census door-to-door form, the wrong box may have been checked for the sex of a small percentage of opposite-sex spouses and unmarried partners. Because the population of opposite-sex married couples is large and the population of same-sex married couples in particular is small, an error of this type artificially inflates the number of same-sex married partners.
After discovering the inconsistency, Census Bureau staff developed another set of estimates to provide a more accurate way to measure same-sex couple households. The revised figures were developed by using an index of names to re-estimate the number of same-sex married and unmarried partners by the sex commonly associated with the person's first name.
Census The Bureau adds: "The 2010 Census preferred estimates have been peer-reviewed by Gary Gates, a demographer with the UCLA School of Law's Williams Institute on Sexual Orientation Law and Public Policy, by Philip Cohen, a professor of sociology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and by Megan Sweeney, professor of sociology at UCLA. These experts concluded the methodology behind these revised estimates was sound."
According to a separate release from the Williams Institute:
The Williams Institute conducted a survey of same-sex couples immediately after Census 2010 showing that most same-sex couples who described themselves as spouses are in legally recognized relationships, but not all are actually married. The analyses suggest that approximately 70% reported that they were legally married, and another 15% said that they were in civil unions or registered domestic partnerships. The remaining 15% indicated that while they were not actually in a legally recognized relationship, they considered themselves to be spouses.
Same-sex couples can marry in six states and the District of Columbia. Thirteen states offer non-marital forms of relationship recognition like civil unions or registered domestic partnership.
The Williams Institute estimates that about 50,000 same-sex couples have married in the following states, and in the following numbers: Massachusetts (2004-2009) 16,129; California (2008) 18,000; Connecticut (2008-2010) 6,752; Iowa (2009-2010) 2,099; Vermont (2009-2010) 1,425; New Hampshire (2010) 1,805; District of Columbia (2010) 3,500. Data on marriages in New York are not yet available. In addition, as many as 30,000 same-sex couples may have been married outside of the US. The Williams Institute also estimates that approximately 100,000 same-sex couples are in non-marital forms of relationship recognition like civil unions and registered domestic partnerships.
Posted 2:56 PM EST by Andy Towle in Census
Read more: http://www.towleroad.com/2011/09/in-first-ever-count-census-bureau-reports-131729-same-sex-married-couples-in-the-us.html#ixzz1ZHlS4rhG
The U.S. Census Bureau has released its first-ever estimated count of same-sex couples in the U.S.:
House The U.S. Census Bureau released today new statistics on same-sex married couple and unmarried partner households. According to revised estimates from the 2010 Census, there were 131,729 same-sex married couple households and 514,735 same-sex unmarried partner households in the United States.
The results of the 2010 Census revised estimates are closer to the results of the 2010 American Community Survey (ACS) for same-sex married and unmarried partners. The 2010 ACS estimated same-sex married couples at 152,335 and same-sex unmarried partners at 440,989.
The new, preferred figures revise earlier estimates of same-sex unmarried partners released this summer from the 2010 Census Summary File 1 because Census Bureau staff discovered an inconsistency in the responses in the 2010 Census summary file statistics that artificially inflated the number of same-sex couples. In addition, a breakdown of couples who reported as same-sex spouses is now available. The summary file counts originally showed that there were 349,377 married couple households and 552,620 same-sex unmarried partner households.
Statistics on same-sex couple households are derived from two questions on the census and ACS questionnaire: relationship to householder and the sex of each person. When data were captured for these two questions on the 2010 Census door-to-door form, the wrong box may have been checked for the sex of a small percentage of opposite-sex spouses and unmarried partners. Because the population of opposite-sex married couples is large and the population of same-sex married couples in particular is small, an error of this type artificially inflates the number of same-sex married partners.
After discovering the inconsistency, Census Bureau staff developed another set of estimates to provide a more accurate way to measure same-sex couple households. The revised figures were developed by using an index of names to re-estimate the number of same-sex married and unmarried partners by the sex commonly associated with the person's first name.
Census The Bureau adds: "The 2010 Census preferred estimates have been peer-reviewed by Gary Gates, a demographer with the UCLA School of Law's Williams Institute on Sexual Orientation Law and Public Policy, by Philip Cohen, a professor of sociology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and by Megan Sweeney, professor of sociology at UCLA. These experts concluded the methodology behind these revised estimates was sound."
According to a separate release from the Williams Institute:
The Williams Institute conducted a survey of same-sex couples immediately after Census 2010 showing that most same-sex couples who described themselves as spouses are in legally recognized relationships, but not all are actually married. The analyses suggest that approximately 70% reported that they were legally married, and another 15% said that they were in civil unions or registered domestic partnerships. The remaining 15% indicated that while they were not actually in a legally recognized relationship, they considered themselves to be spouses.
Same-sex couples can marry in six states and the District of Columbia. Thirteen states offer non-marital forms of relationship recognition like civil unions or registered domestic partnership.
The Williams Institute estimates that about 50,000 same-sex couples have married in the following states, and in the following numbers: Massachusetts (2004-2009) 16,129; California (2008) 18,000; Connecticut (2008-2010) 6,752; Iowa (2009-2010) 2,099; Vermont (2009-2010) 1,425; New Hampshire (2010) 1,805; District of Columbia (2010) 3,500. Data on marriages in New York are not yet available. In addition, as many as 30,000 same-sex couples may have been married outside of the US. The Williams Institute also estimates that approximately 100,000 same-sex couples are in non-marital forms of relationship recognition like civil unions and registered domestic partnerships.
Posted 2:56 PM EST by Andy Towle in Census
Read more: http://www.towleroad.com/2011/09/in-first-ever-count-census-bureau-reports-131729-same-sex-married-couples-in-the-us.html#ixzz1ZHlS4rhG
Jamey Rodemeyer's Mom Says Her Son's Bullies Chanted 'We're Glad You're Dead' at Homecoming Dance
Jamey Rodemeyer's Mom Says Her Son's Bullies Chanted 'We're Glad You're Dead' at Homecoming Dance: VIDEO
Rodemeyermom
The mother of gay teen Jamey Rodemeyer, who committed suicide recently after years of bullying, says that the jeering from some of his anti-gay schoolmates has continued after his death:
At a homecoming dance she attended shortly after her brother’s death, a potentially poignant moment turned ugly after a song by Lady Gaga, Jamey’s favorite artist, who recently dedicated a song at a concert in his memory.
“She was having a great time, and all of a sudden a Lady Gaga song came on, and they all started chanting for Jamey, all of his friends,’’ Jamey’s mother, Tracy, told Curry. “Then the bullies that put him into this situation started chanting, ‘You’re better off dead!’ and ‘We’re glad you’re dead!’ and things like that.
“My daughter came home all upset. It was supposed to be a time for her to grieve and have fun with her friends, and it turned into bullying even after he’s gone.’’
Watch, AFTER THE JUMP...
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
Posted 1:16 PM EST by Andy Towle in Bullying
Read more: http://www.towleroad.com/2011/09/jrm.html#ixzz1ZHkzVLiE
Rodemeyermom
The mother of gay teen Jamey Rodemeyer, who committed suicide recently after years of bullying, says that the jeering from some of his anti-gay schoolmates has continued after his death:
At a homecoming dance she attended shortly after her brother’s death, a potentially poignant moment turned ugly after a song by Lady Gaga, Jamey’s favorite artist, who recently dedicated a song at a concert in his memory.
“She was having a great time, and all of a sudden a Lady Gaga song came on, and they all started chanting for Jamey, all of his friends,’’ Jamey’s mother, Tracy, told Curry. “Then the bullies that put him into this situation started chanting, ‘You’re better off dead!’ and ‘We’re glad you’re dead!’ and things like that.
“My daughter came home all upset. It was supposed to be a time for her to grieve and have fun with her friends, and it turned into bullying even after he’s gone.’’
Watch, AFTER THE JUMP...
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
Posted 1:16 PM EST by Andy Towle in Bullying
Read more: http://www.towleroad.com/2011/09/jrm.html#ixzz1ZHkzVLiE
Anti-Gay Activists Using Child Molestation to Fool People Into Signing Petition Against California LGBT History Bill
Anti-Gay Activists Using Child Molestation to Fool People Into Signing Petition Against California LGBT History Bill: VIDEO
Sb48
Here's some video shot in Oceanside, California by a gay man who was visiting the beach with his husband. He just happened to be walking by and saw an activist gathering signatures for the ballot measure to repeal SB48, California's recently passed LGBT History law (the FAIR Education Act), which requires school curriculum to include teaching about gay people and LGBT history.
The way this activist was getting people to sign the petition was by telling them they were signing something that would protect children from child molesters.
Watch and be disgusted, AFTER THE JUMP...
Meanwhile, the 'Stop SB48' campaign told its supporters in an email yesterday that its petition drive will be successful. And in related news, no press turned up to cover Rev. Lou Sheldon's press conference yesterday opposing SB48.
Posted 11:57 AM EST by
Read more: http://www.towleroad.com/2011/09/sb48-1.html#ixzz1ZHkUxqm9
Sb48
Here's some video shot in Oceanside, California by a gay man who was visiting the beach with his husband. He just happened to be walking by and saw an activist gathering signatures for the ballot measure to repeal SB48, California's recently passed LGBT History law (the FAIR Education Act), which requires school curriculum to include teaching about gay people and LGBT history.
The way this activist was getting people to sign the petition was by telling them they were signing something that would protect children from child molesters.
Watch and be disgusted, AFTER THE JUMP...
Meanwhile, the 'Stop SB48' campaign told its supporters in an email yesterday that its petition drive will be successful. And in related news, no press turned up to cover Rev. Lou Sheldon's press conference yesterday opposing SB48.
Posted 11:57 AM EST by
Read more: http://www.towleroad.com/2011/09/sb48-1.html#ixzz1ZHkUxqm9
Top Catholic bishop warns Obama about marriage stance
Top Catholic bishop warns Obama about marriage stance
Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York has sent a letter to President Barack Obama warning of "a national conflict between church and state of enormous proportions," if Obama does not retreat from his opposition to the Defense of Marriage Act. Dolan said he believes sanctioning marriage equality for same-sex couples will lead to discrimination against those who oppose it on religious grounds. USA TODAY/Religion News Service
Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York has sent a letter to President Barack Obama warning of "a national conflict between church and state of enormous proportions," if Obama does not retreat from his opposition to the Defense of Marriage Act. Dolan said he believes sanctioning marriage equality for same-sex couples will lead to discrimination against those who oppose it on religious grounds. USA TODAY/Religion News Service
Cyber bullies bill introduced in New York
Cyber bullies bill introduced in New York
Legislator says outdated harassment laws fail to punish digital tormentors
Reuters
NEW YORK — New York State Senator Jeffrey Klein introduced a new "cyber bullying" bill on Monday, saying outdated pre-digital harassment laws fail to punish bullies who use the Internet and smartphones to torment others.
The New York bill is a response to several highly publicized cases of teen suicides in the aftermath of some form of online bullying. Klein, a Democrat from the Bronx and Westchester, argued that current state law had not been keeping pace with technology as life increasingly moved online.
"If people know there is a tough law on the books and they're going to be punished, they are going to act accordingly," Klein told a news conference outside the Manhattan Criminal Court in New York City, where he was joined by members of two anti-bullying organizations.
At least 30 states already have laws dealing with online harassment. At least five have laws dealing explicitly with cyber bullying, which a study found last year may be even harder on the victims than physical beatings or name-calling.
Under Klein's bill, the crime of stalking in the third degree would be updated to explicitly include harassing a child using electronic communication.
To better reflect the nature of online interactions, the bill removes requirements that the offender initiate the contact and that the victim be a direct recipient of the communication.
Although it is already a crime to "intentionally cause or aid" another person's suicide, the bill would update the state's second-degree manslaughter statute to explicitly include cyber bullying as a possible cause of such a suicide.
Senator Diane Savino, a Democrat from Staten Island and Brooklyn and a co-sponsor of the bill, said that although bullying has existed "since Cain and Abel," it has been transformed by the Internet and smartphone technology.
A taunting remark in a school playground might be heard by a few and eventually forgotten, she said. But the same remark posted online can potentially be seen by anyone and linger indefinitely.
Anne Isaacs, whose daughter Jamie, now 15, had to switch schools because of bullies, said online bullying was also much harder to escape than other forms.
"When Jamie would go online to do her homework she would go online and be screaming because messages would come up," said Isaacs, who joined Klein at the press conference.
An attempt to legislate against cyber bullying at the federal level foundered in 2008, and it has been left to the states to decide how to deal with the problem.
Mary Sue Backus, a law professor at the University of Oklahoma who has studied cyber-bullying, was cited several times in Klein's supporting arguments for his bill. She said in an interview she generally opposed the kind of legislation he was pushing for, which could fail to act as a deterrent and instead have the effect of criminalizing adolescent behavior.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44678607/ns/technology_and_science-tech_and_gadgets/t/cyber-bullies-bill-introduced-new-york/
Legislator says outdated harassment laws fail to punish digital tormentors
Reuters
NEW YORK — New York State Senator Jeffrey Klein introduced a new "cyber bullying" bill on Monday, saying outdated pre-digital harassment laws fail to punish bullies who use the Internet and smartphones to torment others.
The New York bill is a response to several highly publicized cases of teen suicides in the aftermath of some form of online bullying. Klein, a Democrat from the Bronx and Westchester, argued that current state law had not been keeping pace with technology as life increasingly moved online.
"If people know there is a tough law on the books and they're going to be punished, they are going to act accordingly," Klein told a news conference outside the Manhattan Criminal Court in New York City, where he was joined by members of two anti-bullying organizations.
At least 30 states already have laws dealing with online harassment. At least five have laws dealing explicitly with cyber bullying, which a study found last year may be even harder on the victims than physical beatings or name-calling.
Under Klein's bill, the crime of stalking in the third degree would be updated to explicitly include harassing a child using electronic communication.
To better reflect the nature of online interactions, the bill removes requirements that the offender initiate the contact and that the victim be a direct recipient of the communication.
Although it is already a crime to "intentionally cause or aid" another person's suicide, the bill would update the state's second-degree manslaughter statute to explicitly include cyber bullying as a possible cause of such a suicide.
Senator Diane Savino, a Democrat from Staten Island and Brooklyn and a co-sponsor of the bill, said that although bullying has existed "since Cain and Abel," it has been transformed by the Internet and smartphone technology.
A taunting remark in a school playground might be heard by a few and eventually forgotten, she said. But the same remark posted online can potentially be seen by anyone and linger indefinitely.
Anne Isaacs, whose daughter Jamie, now 15, had to switch schools because of bullies, said online bullying was also much harder to escape than other forms.
"When Jamie would go online to do her homework she would go online and be screaming because messages would come up," said Isaacs, who joined Klein at the press conference.
An attempt to legislate against cyber bullying at the federal level foundered in 2008, and it has been left to the states to decide how to deal with the problem.
Mary Sue Backus, a law professor at the University of Oklahoma who has studied cyber-bullying, was cited several times in Klein's supporting arguments for his bill. She said in an interview she generally opposed the kind of legislation he was pushing for, which could fail to act as a deterrent and instead have the effect of criminalizing adolescent behavior.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44678607/ns/technology_and_science-tech_and_gadgets/t/cyber-bullies-bill-introduced-new-york/
Saturday, September 24, 2011
Death and Taxes: The Real Cost of the Death Penalty
Death and Taxes: The Real Cost of the Death Penalty
http://www.forbes.com/sites/kellyphillipserb/2011/09/22/death-and-taxes-the-real-cost-of-the-death-penalty/
On September 21, 2011, at exactly 11:08 p.m. EST, Troy Davis was put to death by the state of Georgia after the U.S. Supreme Court failed to grant him a stay. His execution by legal injection became the 1,268th recorded execution in the United States since 1976. Later that same day, Lawrence Brewer of Texas would become 1,269.
Davis’ death has become a polarizing story in the death penalty debate in the U.S. Capital punishment is allowed in most states since it was reinstated by the Supreme Court in 1976; it was suspended from 1972 to 1976 following the Supreme Court’s decision in Furman v. Georgia, 408 U.S. 238 (1972). As of 2011, only fifteen states have abolished the death penalty. They are Alaska, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Rhode Island, Vermont, West Virginia and Wisconsin. But there’s a chance that those numbers might increase. And maybe not for the reasons that you might think.
Opponents of the death penalty have cited a number of factors that argue in favor of abolishing the death penalty. It is, they say, not an effective deterrent against crime. Statistics appear to back this up: states which impose the death penalty continue to report the highest murder rates in the country with only three states without the death penalty ranked in the top twenty five (Michigan, New York and Alaska).
Other arguments include evidence that the death penalty may be racially biased and that it disproportionately punishes the poor. And of course, there is the fundamental assertion that the death penalty is cruel and inhumane.
For years, these reasonings have failed to sway a majority of Americans. But now, something else may be turning the tide of public opinion – and it has little to do with ethical, moral or legal arguments. It’s all about cold, hard cash.
As states face increased pressure to cut costs in their budgets, every line item is getting a second look. One startling finding? Death penalty cases are, from start to finish, more expensive than other criminal cases including those that result in life without parole.
How expensive is the death penalty? Just over a year ago, Fox News issued this alarming statement:
Every time a killer is sentenced to die, a school closes.
Dramatic, sure. But some claim that the data backs up these assertions.
While the actual execution costs taxpayers fairly little (the drugs used in Texas run a mere $83), the costs associated with death penalty trials and the resulting incarceration are disproportionately higher.
Citing Richard C. Dieter of the Death Penalty Information Center, Fox reported that studies have “uniformly and conservatively shown that a death-penalty trial costs $1 million more than one in which prosecutors seek life without parole.”
A Urban Institute study (downloads as a pdf) found that “[i]n Maryland death penalty cases cost 3 times more than non-death penalty cases, or $3 million for a single case” while a 2004 Report from Tennessee Comptroller of the Treasury Office of Research that claimed “[i]n Tennessee, death penalty trials cost an average of 48% more than the average cost of trials in which prosecutors seek life imprisonment.”
And in cash strapped California, the California Commission on the Fair Administration of Justice issued a report (downloads as a pdf) that concluded, among other things, that “[i]t can certainly be said that death penalty trials take longer and cost considerably more than non-death murder trials.”
I assumed that this was because of all of the post-trial finagling that goes on. I was wrong. After reviewing data from state reports, Amnesty International concluded that “the greatest costs associated with the death penalty occur prior to and during trial, not in post-conviction proceedings. Even if all post-conviction proceedings (appeals) were abolished, the death penalty would still be more expensive than alternative sentences.”
The numbers associated with jail time are just as large. In terms of dollars spent behind bars, the California Commission found that “the additional cost of confining an inmate to death row, as compared to the maximum security prisons where those sentenced to life without possibility of parole ordinarily serve their sentences, is $90,000 per year per inmate. With California’s current death row population of 670, that accounts for $63.3 million annually.” Since that statement, California’s death row has grown to 721, the largest in the country.
The story is the same in North Carolina. A 2010 Duke University study found that taxpayers in the Tarheel State could save $11 million a year by substituting life in prison for the death penalty.
The numbers are even more dramatic in Garden State. Prior to the abolishing the death penalty in the state, a report by New Jersey Policy Perspectives found that “New Jersey taxpayers over the last 23 years have paid more than a quarter billion dollars on a capital punishment system that has executed no one.”
But the end result is worth it, right?
Maybe not. At least ten states, including Florida, Texas and California, have been forced to release prisoners early because of overcrowding – all of those states have expensive death penalty programs. Budgetary restraints have resulted in shortened sentences (some as low as 20%) and lay-offs of corrections officers inside prisons, as well as reduced numbers of police officers on the streets. More telling, in one Washington county, Prosecutor Dan Satterberg was forced to eliminate the jobs of 36 prosecutors since 2008 – all while the cost of defending two active capital cases escalated.
Who pays those costs? You and I. State and local governments typically bear the burden of paying to pursue death penalty cases – and that means tax dollars. Even prosecutors agree that those costs aren’t always worth it.
Raising taxes to pay for death penalty prosecutions isn’t going to win over many taxpayers even though such increases have happened in some counties (as it did notoriously in Lincoln County, Georgia). However, the alternatives – cutting police or releasing prisoners early – are hardly appealing.
So in a depressed economy, do you cut your losses? Is now the time to say goodbye to the death penalty? Some states, like Kansas, have been making some noise about it. Will others follow suit? I don’t know.
I do know that it feels weird to be talking about a person’s life in terms of dollars and taxes. But then, to pretend that it isn’t a real consideration would clearly be disingenuous.
__._,_.___
http://www.forbes.com/sites/kellyphillipserb/2011/09/22/death-and-taxes-the-real-cost-of-the-death-penalty/
On September 21, 2011, at exactly 11:08 p.m. EST, Troy Davis was put to death by the state of Georgia after the U.S. Supreme Court failed to grant him a stay. His execution by legal injection became the 1,268th recorded execution in the United States since 1976. Later that same day, Lawrence Brewer of Texas would become 1,269.
Davis’ death has become a polarizing story in the death penalty debate in the U.S. Capital punishment is allowed in most states since it was reinstated by the Supreme Court in 1976; it was suspended from 1972 to 1976 following the Supreme Court’s decision in Furman v. Georgia, 408 U.S. 238 (1972). As of 2011, only fifteen states have abolished the death penalty. They are Alaska, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Rhode Island, Vermont, West Virginia and Wisconsin. But there’s a chance that those numbers might increase. And maybe not for the reasons that you might think.
Opponents of the death penalty have cited a number of factors that argue in favor of abolishing the death penalty. It is, they say, not an effective deterrent against crime. Statistics appear to back this up: states which impose the death penalty continue to report the highest murder rates in the country with only three states without the death penalty ranked in the top twenty five (Michigan, New York and Alaska).
Other arguments include evidence that the death penalty may be racially biased and that it disproportionately punishes the poor. And of course, there is the fundamental assertion that the death penalty is cruel and inhumane.
For years, these reasonings have failed to sway a majority of Americans. But now, something else may be turning the tide of public opinion – and it has little to do with ethical, moral or legal arguments. It’s all about cold, hard cash.
As states face increased pressure to cut costs in their budgets, every line item is getting a second look. One startling finding? Death penalty cases are, from start to finish, more expensive than other criminal cases including those that result in life without parole.
How expensive is the death penalty? Just over a year ago, Fox News issued this alarming statement:
Every time a killer is sentenced to die, a school closes.
Dramatic, sure. But some claim that the data backs up these assertions.
While the actual execution costs taxpayers fairly little (the drugs used in Texas run a mere $83), the costs associated with death penalty trials and the resulting incarceration are disproportionately higher.
Citing Richard C. Dieter of the Death Penalty Information Center, Fox reported that studies have “uniformly and conservatively shown that a death-penalty trial costs $1 million more than one in which prosecutors seek life without parole.”
A Urban Institute study (downloads as a pdf) found that “[i]n Maryland death penalty cases cost 3 times more than non-death penalty cases, or $3 million for a single case” while a 2004 Report from Tennessee Comptroller of the Treasury Office of Research that claimed “[i]n Tennessee, death penalty trials cost an average of 48% more than the average cost of trials in which prosecutors seek life imprisonment.”
And in cash strapped California, the California Commission on the Fair Administration of Justice issued a report (downloads as a pdf) that concluded, among other things, that “[i]t can certainly be said that death penalty trials take longer and cost considerably more than non-death murder trials.”
I assumed that this was because of all of the post-trial finagling that goes on. I was wrong. After reviewing data from state reports, Amnesty International concluded that “the greatest costs associated with the death penalty occur prior to and during trial, not in post-conviction proceedings. Even if all post-conviction proceedings (appeals) were abolished, the death penalty would still be more expensive than alternative sentences.”
The numbers associated with jail time are just as large. In terms of dollars spent behind bars, the California Commission found that “the additional cost of confining an inmate to death row, as compared to the maximum security prisons where those sentenced to life without possibility of parole ordinarily serve their sentences, is $90,000 per year per inmate. With California’s current death row population of 670, that accounts for $63.3 million annually.” Since that statement, California’s death row has grown to 721, the largest in the country.
The story is the same in North Carolina. A 2010 Duke University study found that taxpayers in the Tarheel State could save $11 million a year by substituting life in prison for the death penalty.
The numbers are even more dramatic in Garden State. Prior to the abolishing the death penalty in the state, a report by New Jersey Policy Perspectives found that “New Jersey taxpayers over the last 23 years have paid more than a quarter billion dollars on a capital punishment system that has executed no one.”
But the end result is worth it, right?
Maybe not. At least ten states, including Florida, Texas and California, have been forced to release prisoners early because of overcrowding – all of those states have expensive death penalty programs. Budgetary restraints have resulted in shortened sentences (some as low as 20%) and lay-offs of corrections officers inside prisons, as well as reduced numbers of police officers on the streets. More telling, in one Washington county, Prosecutor Dan Satterberg was forced to eliminate the jobs of 36 prosecutors since 2008 – all while the cost of defending two active capital cases escalated.
Who pays those costs? You and I. State and local governments typically bear the burden of paying to pursue death penalty cases – and that means tax dollars. Even prosecutors agree that those costs aren’t always worth it.
Raising taxes to pay for death penalty prosecutions isn’t going to win over many taxpayers even though such increases have happened in some counties (as it did notoriously in Lincoln County, Georgia). However, the alternatives – cutting police or releasing prisoners early – are hardly appealing.
So in a depressed economy, do you cut your losses? Is now the time to say goodbye to the death penalty? Some states, like Kansas, have been making some noise about it. Will others follow suit? I don’t know.
I do know that it feels weird to be talking about a person’s life in terms of dollars and taxes. But then, to pretend that it isn’t a real consideration would clearly be disingenuous.
__._,_.___
Majority of Britons oppose gay marriage
Majority of Britons oppose gay marriage
A government report has revealed that more than half of Britons are against gay marriage, and two thirds are against gay couples adopting children.
A government report has revealed that more than half of Britons are against gay marriage, and two thirds are against gay couples adopting children.
The research by the Office for National Statistics was based on sources including the annual British Social Attitudes survey and research by the EU’s Eurobarometer research arm, reports The Daily Mail.
Findings by ONS show that only 45 per cent of British people believe that gay marriages should be legal throughout Europe.
The opposition towards gay couples adopting children is even higher, with only 33 per cent in support.
The ONS report said: “While the majority of British people now accept the concept of same-sex couples as being rarely wrong, or not wrong at all, fewer people approve of same-sex couples adopting children.
“On average females have more liberal attitudes to same-sex partnerships than males.”
The government announced on September 17 that they would be launching a public consultation in March, to legalise gay marriage before the next election in 2015.
A government report has revealed that more than half of Britons are against gay marriage, and two thirds are against gay couples adopting children.
A government report has revealed that more than half of Britons are against gay marriage, and two thirds are against gay couples adopting children.
The research by the Office for National Statistics was based on sources including the annual British Social Attitudes survey and research by the EU’s Eurobarometer research arm, reports The Daily Mail.
Findings by ONS show that only 45 per cent of British people believe that gay marriages should be legal throughout Europe.
The opposition towards gay couples adopting children is even higher, with only 33 per cent in support.
The ONS report said: “While the majority of British people now accept the concept of same-sex couples as being rarely wrong, or not wrong at all, fewer people approve of same-sex couples adopting children.
“On average females have more liberal attitudes to same-sex partnerships than males.”
The government announced on September 17 that they would be launching a public consultation in March, to legalise gay marriage before the next election in 2015.
Jamey Rodemeyer bullies may face hate crime charges
Jamey Rodemeyer bullies may face hate crime charges
Bullies who subjected tragic teen Jamey Rodemeyer to homophobic taunts, may be charged with hate crimes, harassment or cyber-harassment according to local police.
Bullies who subjected tragic teen Jamey Rodemeyer to homophobic taunts, may be charged with hate crimes, harassment or cyber-harassment according to local police.
At least three teens are said to be of interest to police for the bullying of 14-year-old Jamey that ultimately lead to his suicide.
Jamey Rodemeyer, from Buffalo, New York, was found dead outside his home in an apparent suicide last Sunday.
Rodemeyer blogged about being suicidal on his Tumblr account and family and friends say suicide was a popular topic with him. He regularly posted about being bullied at school and being subjected to gay insults.
But students found out about the blogs and began a torrent of abuse on his Formspring account, where people can post anonymously.
On September 9, Jamey wrote on his Tumblr site: “I always say how bullied I am, but no one listens. What do I have to do so people will listen to me?”
At 1.30am on Sunday, Jamey left his final two messages, one that said he was looking forward to seeing his great grandmother who had died recently and another thanking Lady Gaga.
Police said on Thursday that crimes may have been committed against Jamey while he was a student at Williamsville North High School.
ABC News reports that The Amherst Police Department's Special Victims Unit said it will determine whether to charge some students with harassment, cyber-harassment or hate crimes.
Lady Gaga said on Wednesday she would be meeting with President Obama following the death of Jamey to make bullying illegal, launching the Twitter trend #MakeALawForJamey.
Bullies who subjected tragic teen Jamey Rodemeyer to homophobic taunts, may be charged with hate crimes, harassment or cyber-harassment according to local police.
Bullies who subjected tragic teen Jamey Rodemeyer to homophobic taunts, may be charged with hate crimes, harassment or cyber-harassment according to local police.
At least three teens are said to be of interest to police for the bullying of 14-year-old Jamey that ultimately lead to his suicide.
Jamey Rodemeyer, from Buffalo, New York, was found dead outside his home in an apparent suicide last Sunday.
Rodemeyer blogged about being suicidal on his Tumblr account and family and friends say suicide was a popular topic with him. He regularly posted about being bullied at school and being subjected to gay insults.
But students found out about the blogs and began a torrent of abuse on his Formspring account, where people can post anonymously.
On September 9, Jamey wrote on his Tumblr site: “I always say how bullied I am, but no one listens. What do I have to do so people will listen to me?”
At 1.30am on Sunday, Jamey left his final two messages, one that said he was looking forward to seeing his great grandmother who had died recently and another thanking Lady Gaga.
Police said on Thursday that crimes may have been committed against Jamey while he was a student at Williamsville North High School.
ABC News reports that The Amherst Police Department's Special Victims Unit said it will determine whether to charge some students with harassment, cyber-harassment or hate crimes.
Lady Gaga said on Wednesday she would be meeting with President Obama following the death of Jamey to make bullying illegal, launching the Twitter trend #MakeALawForJamey.
Northern Ireland Minister under fire over gay blood ban
Northern Ireland Minister under fire over gay blood ban
The health minister for Northern Ireland has caused outrage by refusing to lift the lifetime ban on gay men giving blood, despite the ban being relaxed in the rest of the UK.
The health minister for Northern Ireland has caused outrage by refusing to lift the lifetime ban on gay men giving blood, despite the ban being relaxed in the rest of the UK.
Democratic Union minister Edwin Poots told the Stormont assembly on Wednesday that the current position in Northern Ireland "should not be altered".
The decision was confirmed in a letter to the UUP MLA where Poots said: "The Advisory Committee on the Safety of Blood, Tissues and Organs (SaBTO) has confirmed that the risk of HIV infection would, although by a small margin, increase as a result of a relaxation in the present lifetime deferral.
"Safety must be my primary concern and I want to ensure public confidence in our blood supply."
Northern Ireland gay rights campaigner PA Mag Lochlainn told The Guardian: "I am very surprised that a minister who is a member of a unionist party should consider what is good enough for British people in the rest of the UK is not good enough for British people in Northern Ireland."
Following advice from a Government Advisory Committee, the lifetime ban on blood donation by gay and bisexual men will be eased in England, Scotland and Wales from November, so that men who have not had sex with another man in the last year are allowed to donate blood.
The health minister for Northern Ireland has caused outrage by refusing to lift the lifetime ban on gay men giving blood, despite the ban being relaxed in the rest of the UK.
The health minister for Northern Ireland has caused outrage by refusing to lift the lifetime ban on gay men giving blood, despite the ban being relaxed in the rest of the UK.
Democratic Union minister Edwin Poots told the Stormont assembly on Wednesday that the current position in Northern Ireland "should not be altered".
The decision was confirmed in a letter to the UUP MLA where Poots said: "The Advisory Committee on the Safety of Blood, Tissues and Organs (SaBTO) has confirmed that the risk of HIV infection would, although by a small margin, increase as a result of a relaxation in the present lifetime deferral.
"Safety must be my primary concern and I want to ensure public confidence in our blood supply."
Northern Ireland gay rights campaigner PA Mag Lochlainn told The Guardian: "I am very surprised that a minister who is a member of a unionist party should consider what is good enough for British people in the rest of the UK is not good enough for British people in Northern Ireland."
Following advice from a Government Advisory Committee, the lifetime ban on blood donation by gay and bisexual men will be eased in England, Scotland and Wales from November, so that men who have not had sex with another man in the last year are allowed to donate blood.
Peter Tatchell says gay marriage consultation delay is unjustified
Peter Tatchell says gay marriage consultation delay is unjustified
Peter Tatchell, coordinator of the Equal Love campaign, has said that there is no excuse for the delay in the consultation on gay marriage.
Peter Tatchell, coordinator of the Equal Love campaign, has said that there is no excuse for the delay in the consultation on gay marriage.
Equality Minister Lynne Featherstone announced on Saturday that the government would be holding a public consultation on legalising gay marriage from March next year .
However, Tatchell says this delay is unjustified: “This consultation was supposed to begin in June this year. There is no excuse for postponing it until March next year. Why can’t the consultation start now?
“I am not convinced that there needs to be any consultation at all. The ban on same-sex marriage is homophobic discrimination and should therefore be repealed immediately.
“No other government legislation is being subjected to such prolonged consultation and postponements.
“The Scottish government’s consultation on marriage equality began earlier this month. Why is the UK government dragging its feet and delaying the consultation until next spring? It doesn’t make sense.
“If black or Jewish people had been banned from marriage, the government would act swiftly to ensure marriage equality. There would be no long drawn out consultation period. Why the double standards?
“Despite the government’s assurances, there is a very serious danger that this delay will prevent marriage equality being passed before the next election. Because the consultation will not begin until March 2012, it is unlikely that legislation will be presented to parliament before mid-2013. Allowing for obstruction by the House of Lords, it is doubtful that it would be passed before late 2014, which is perilously close to the deadline for the next election. If the Prime Minister called an early election, the legislation would fall.
“Ending sexual orientation discrimination in marriage law is the right thing to do and it has majority public support. There is no reason for the government to delay in bringing forward legislation to end this legal iniquity.”
Tatchell also said that it was outrageous that Featherstone would be not be repealing the ban on gay religious marriages and straight civil partnerships as part of the consultation.
“It is outrageous that the Equality Minister wants to maintain the unequal, discriminatory laws that bar gay religious marriages and opposite-sex civil partnerships. She should be renamed the Minister for Inequality.”
Equal Love is campaigning to repeal the twin bans on gay civil marriages and heterosexual civil partnerships. It currently has an appeal against these bans before the European Court of Human Rights.
Peter Tatchell, coordinator of the Equal Love campaign, has said that there is no excuse for the delay in the consultation on gay marriage.
Peter Tatchell, coordinator of the Equal Love campaign, has said that there is no excuse for the delay in the consultation on gay marriage.
Equality Minister Lynne Featherstone announced on Saturday that the government would be holding a public consultation on legalising gay marriage from March next year .
However, Tatchell says this delay is unjustified: “This consultation was supposed to begin in June this year. There is no excuse for postponing it until March next year. Why can’t the consultation start now?
“I am not convinced that there needs to be any consultation at all. The ban on same-sex marriage is homophobic discrimination and should therefore be repealed immediately.
“No other government legislation is being subjected to such prolonged consultation and postponements.
“The Scottish government’s consultation on marriage equality began earlier this month. Why is the UK government dragging its feet and delaying the consultation until next spring? It doesn’t make sense.
“If black or Jewish people had been banned from marriage, the government would act swiftly to ensure marriage equality. There would be no long drawn out consultation period. Why the double standards?
“Despite the government’s assurances, there is a very serious danger that this delay will prevent marriage equality being passed before the next election. Because the consultation will not begin until March 2012, it is unlikely that legislation will be presented to parliament before mid-2013. Allowing for obstruction by the House of Lords, it is doubtful that it would be passed before late 2014, which is perilously close to the deadline for the next election. If the Prime Minister called an early election, the legislation would fall.
“Ending sexual orientation discrimination in marriage law is the right thing to do and it has majority public support. There is no reason for the government to delay in bringing forward legislation to end this legal iniquity.”
Tatchell also said that it was outrageous that Featherstone would be not be repealing the ban on gay religious marriages and straight civil partnerships as part of the consultation.
“It is outrageous that the Equality Minister wants to maintain the unequal, discriminatory laws that bar gay religious marriages and opposite-sex civil partnerships. She should be renamed the Minister for Inequality.”
Equal Love is campaigning to repeal the twin bans on gay civil marriages and heterosexual civil partnerships. It currently has an appeal against these bans before the European Court of Human Rights.
Gay marriage vote passed in Tasmania
Gay marriage vote passed in Tasmania
The Tasmania House Assembly has passed a motion backing same sex marriage, marking the first time an Australian parliament has voted for marriage equality for gays and lesbians.
The Tasmania House Assembly has passed a motion backing same sex marriage, marking the first time an Australian parliament has voted for marriage equality for gays and lesbians.
The motion was greeted with applause by members from the Labour and Green parties, and with a standing ovation by gay marriage activists in the public gallery, reports The Tasmanian Mercury.
Premier Lara Giddings told the Mercury: "Tasmania has come a long way since 1997 when we rectified the terrible situation of having homosexual relationships considered illegal in this state.
"We've come a long way to show we are in fact a tolerant and compassionate community."
Tasmanian Gay and Lesbian Rights Group spokesman, Rodney Croome, said: “If every state and territory parliament were to do what we have seen in Tasmania today it would be impossible for the federal parliament to continue to resist change,
“Some people think it’s remarkable that the last state to decriminalise homosexuality is now the state leading on full equality for same-sex couples but it makes perfect sense to me because Tasmanians remember the damage done by discrimination and prejudice and want to see everyone treated equally.”
Federal Labour will debate the issue of gay marriage at its December conference. Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard is against gay marriage.
The Tasmania House Assembly has passed a motion backing same sex marriage, marking the first time an Australian parliament has voted for marriage equality for gays and lesbians.
The Tasmania House Assembly has passed a motion backing same sex marriage, marking the first time an Australian parliament has voted for marriage equality for gays and lesbians.
The motion was greeted with applause by members from the Labour and Green parties, and with a standing ovation by gay marriage activists in the public gallery, reports The Tasmanian Mercury.
Premier Lara Giddings told the Mercury: "Tasmania has come a long way since 1997 when we rectified the terrible situation of having homosexual relationships considered illegal in this state.
"We've come a long way to show we are in fact a tolerant and compassionate community."
Tasmanian Gay and Lesbian Rights Group spokesman, Rodney Croome, said: “If every state and territory parliament were to do what we have seen in Tasmania today it would be impossible for the federal parliament to continue to resist change,
“Some people think it’s remarkable that the last state to decriminalise homosexuality is now the state leading on full equality for same-sex couples but it makes perfect sense to me because Tasmanians remember the damage done by discrimination and prejudice and want to see everyone treated equally.”
Federal Labour will debate the issue of gay marriage at its December conference. Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard is against gay marriage.
Ahmadinejad Calls Homosexuality an 'Ugly Deed' to the 'Detriment of Humanity', Says No Known Gays in Iran
Ahmadinejad Calls Homosexuality an 'Ugly Deed' to the 'Detriment of Humanity', Says No Known Gays in Iran: VIDEO
Ahmadinejad
Yesterday, at a meeting with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who is in New York for the UN General Assembly, CNN's Wolf Blitzer asked Ahmadinejad about his past remarks that there are no homosexuals in Iran.
Said Ahmadinejad:
"My position hasn't changed. In Iran, homosexuality is looked down upon as an ugly deed. Perhaps there are those who engage in such activities and you may be in contact with them and more aware of them. But in Iranian society such activities, thoughts, and behaviors are shameful. Therefore, these are not known elements within Iranian society. Rest assured, this is one of the ugliest behaviors in our society. It is against divine will, divine teachings of any and every faith, and it is certainly at the detriment of humans and humanity. But as the government, I cannot go in the street and stop my population and ask them about specific orientation, so my position is clear about that."
Watch, AFTER THE JUMP...
► Retweet
Read more: http://www.towleroad.com/2011/09/ahmadinejad.html#ixzz1YotjZ1G9
Ahmadinejad
Yesterday, at a meeting with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who is in New York for the UN General Assembly, CNN's Wolf Blitzer asked Ahmadinejad about his past remarks that there are no homosexuals in Iran.
Said Ahmadinejad:
"My position hasn't changed. In Iran, homosexuality is looked down upon as an ugly deed. Perhaps there are those who engage in such activities and you may be in contact with them and more aware of them. But in Iranian society such activities, thoughts, and behaviors are shameful. Therefore, these are not known elements within Iranian society. Rest assured, this is one of the ugliest behaviors in our society. It is against divine will, divine teachings of any and every faith, and it is certainly at the detriment of humans and humanity. But as the government, I cannot go in the street and stop my population and ask them about specific orientation, so my position is clear about that."
Watch, AFTER THE JUMP...
► Retweet
Read more: http://www.towleroad.com/2011/09/ahmadinejad.html#ixzz1YotjZ1G9
Serbian Interior Minister Wants to Call Off Gay Pride Parade So the Police Will Be Safe
Serbian Interior Minister Wants to Call Off Gay Pride Parade So the Police Will Be Safe
Belgrade
You may recall that last year Belgrade was host to Serbia's first Gay Pride parade since 2001. It was a nightmare. Hundreds of nationalist and religious right-wing protesters attacked and injured more than 100 people, including many of the 5,000 police officers who were present to protect it.
Dacic Serbian Interior Minister Ivica Dačić said this week that this year's parade should be called off in order to protect the police force:
“Police always pays the highest price, not only financially but also when it comes to injuries. Many police officers were injured last year,” he pointed out.
The minister stated that if police operated in accordance with the security assessments, the Pride Parade would be declared a high risk event and they would think about calling it off.
“It is not up to police to make such decisions whether some gathering should be held or not,” Dačić stressed and called on state organs and society to voice their opinion about the parade.
The European Commission and the European Parliament are closely monitoring activities in Serbia related to the Pride event, the minister noted.
Read more: http://www.towleroad.com/2011/09/serbian-interior-minister-wants-to-call-off-gay-pride-parade-so-the-police-will-be-safe.html#ixzz1Yorox9Ex
Belgrade
You may recall that last year Belgrade was host to Serbia's first Gay Pride parade since 2001. It was a nightmare. Hundreds of nationalist and religious right-wing protesters attacked and injured more than 100 people, including many of the 5,000 police officers who were present to protect it.
Dacic Serbian Interior Minister Ivica Dačić said this week that this year's parade should be called off in order to protect the police force:
“Police always pays the highest price, not only financially but also when it comes to injuries. Many police officers were injured last year,” he pointed out.
The minister stated that if police operated in accordance with the security assessments, the Pride Parade would be declared a high risk event and they would think about calling it off.
“It is not up to police to make such decisions whether some gathering should be held or not,” Dačić stressed and called on state organs and society to voice their opinion about the parade.
The European Commission and the European Parliament are closely monitoring activities in Serbia related to the Pride event, the minister noted.
Read more: http://www.towleroad.com/2011/09/serbian-interior-minister-wants-to-call-off-gay-pride-parade-so-the-police-will-be-safe.html#ixzz1Yorox9Ex
Friday, September 23, 2011
The Battle Over Don't Ask Don't Tell Was Won, But Are LGBT Activists in Danger of Losing the War?
The Battle Over Don't Ask Don't Tell Was Won, But Are LGBT Activists in Danger of Losing the War?
By Jason Farago, Comment Is Free
Posted on September 22, 2011, Printed on September 23, 2011
http://www.alternet.org/story/152494/the_battle_over_don%27t_ask_don%27t_tell_was_won%2C_but_are_lgbt_activists_in_danger_of_losing_the_war
Ask and tell all you want – the grubby compromise of nearly two decades is finally over. As of midnight on Monday, the United States military now finally permits gay service members to serve openly after nearly two decades of second-class status.
Goodness knows it took long enough: years of debate, enervating delays by the new administration, and the final review period before Don't Ask, Don't Tell was finally abolished. Many soldiers and sailors dismissed under the policy have said they plan to re-enlist. The next Fleet Week will be something to look forward to.
It's an important, historic achievement, of course. But the repeal comes at a peculiar juncture, and not only for those gay people who, like me, have been rather less than elated with a military that wages unilateral preemptive war in Iraq and still operates an extralegal prison camp at Guantánamo Bay nearly three years after Barack Obama's election.
The fight for open military service and its fellow traditionalist cause, freedom to marry, have transformed gay politics, and they've transformed gay Americans as well. They've changed our ambitions, and perhaps not for the best.
The Aids epidemic, which has not gone away and is in fact getting worse in big cities like New York, has fallen into obscurity. So have struggles to reform employment laws to protect gays from discrimination. And most glaringly of all, the freedom that the Stonewall generation fought for, freedom of sexual desire, no longer has many defenders.
As the flamingly heterosexual narrator of Philip Roth's The Dying Animalobserves, "I expected more from those guys.... They want marriage and they want openly to join the army and be accepted. The two institutions I loathed."
It's largely forgotten now, but when Bill Clinton introduced his fudge of Don't Ask, Don't Tell in 1993, he actually included a third don't: Don't Pursue. That don't may have carried a regrettable quiver of predation. But the phrase Don't Pursue at least acknowledged that gay people have sexual longings, and that desire can be difficult to control.
And we should always recall that, for all the stereotypes of sweat-soaked Navy Seals checking each other out in the barracks, it was lesbians and not gay men who suffered most under Don't Ask, Don't Tell. Only 15 percent of service members are women, yet by 2007 women accounted for nearly half of all dismissals.
Advocates for repeal consistently trumpeted the "professionalism" of gay service members, insisting on their responsibility and decorum rather than their right to love who they love. Strategically, this made sense: the military is an employer, and the messiness of desire is inimical to the regimentation of the armed forces.
But by stripping same-sex desire out of gay identity, the professionalism argument may have had a more deleterious consequence. It erased the characteristic that makes gay people gay, and thereby may have diminished the standing of gay people ourselves.
This isn't just a theoretical worry. Consider a poll conducted around the time of Don't Ask, Don't Tell's repeal, which found that 58% of Americans thought "gay men and lesbians" should be allowed to serve openly. When the pollster asked whether "homosexuals" should have the same rights, that figure dropped sharply, to 44 percent.
Allow for confusion or ignorance among some of the respondents, and the sheer size of the drop still implies something disturbing: gays only find acceptance when they sound like an undifferentiated group. When reminded of the sex at the core of homosexuality, Americans seize up. Is it any coincidence that the largest gay advocacy organization in America, in a slippery and ultimately homophobic elision, calls itself the Human Rights Campaign, and that its more or less cute clipboard-toting volunteers on Ninth Avenue sport nothing more provocative than an equals-sign logo?
Marriage, you might think, offers a better chance to put love and sex at center stage. Yet the strategy for winning the right to marry has been depressingly similar to that deployed to win the Don't Ask, Don't Tell repeal: gradualism, assimilation, and a suppression of desire. "Families, I hate you!" the gay hero André Gide famously wrote – yet "families" has been the key word for gay marriage advocates, who insist up and down that "our" families are just like "yours."
That gay and straight couples might love differently, and that such a difference might still be worthy of legal protection, goes unspoken. And even more distressingly, unconsidered.
I have no intention of finding any value in a stupid, unproductive, homophobic law that I'm happy to see annulled today. But by taking the gayness out of gayness, by making gay rights solely about participation in pre-existing and not very liberating institutions, we may ultimately lose more than we gain. With Don't Ask, Don't Tell off the books, and with same-sex marriage legalized here in New York and on its way to the Supreme Court under the wing of George W Bush's solicitor general, it's hard not to conclude that we are facing a moment like that of the women's movement in the late 1970s, from which it has not recovered.
Having set out to defeat sexism in society, feminism took a turn and began to say that individual choices, rather than society-wide change, were what really mattered. We know the result: women still face violence, pay inequity, gross media distortions, and all sorts of other disadvantages, while the whole language of societal change has been lost.
Something similar is afoot with us. With Don't Ask, Don't Tell gone, marriage is the only battle remaining before the gay rights movement as currently constructed exhausts itself. An America in which gays can choose to serve in the armed forces and choose to marry their partners will be a better country, but only to a degree. Aids will not be eradicated, religious intolerance will not recede, adolescents will still commit suicide at shockingly high rates. And the unity forged in opposition will be long gone.
Not exactly what the boys at Stonewall were fighting for. The freedom to serve and to marry are worth the struggle, surely. But winning the freedom to love, to desire, and to be ourselves is a much trickier business.
Jason Farago is a New York-based writer and critic who contributes to the London Review of Books, Monocle, n+1, and other magazines. He is also editor of The Bugle, an American publication on culture and ecology.
© 2011 Comment Is Free All rights reserved.
View this story online at: http://www.alternet.org/story/152494/
By Jason Farago, Comment Is Free
Posted on September 22, 2011, Printed on September 23, 2011
http://www.alternet.org/story/152494/the_battle_over_don%27t_ask_don%27t_tell_was_won%2C_but_are_lgbt_activists_in_danger_of_losing_the_war
Ask and tell all you want – the grubby compromise of nearly two decades is finally over. As of midnight on Monday, the United States military now finally permits gay service members to serve openly after nearly two decades of second-class status.
Goodness knows it took long enough: years of debate, enervating delays by the new administration, and the final review period before Don't Ask, Don't Tell was finally abolished. Many soldiers and sailors dismissed under the policy have said they plan to re-enlist. The next Fleet Week will be something to look forward to.
It's an important, historic achievement, of course. But the repeal comes at a peculiar juncture, and not only for those gay people who, like me, have been rather less than elated with a military that wages unilateral preemptive war in Iraq and still operates an extralegal prison camp at Guantánamo Bay nearly three years after Barack Obama's election.
The fight for open military service and its fellow traditionalist cause, freedom to marry, have transformed gay politics, and they've transformed gay Americans as well. They've changed our ambitions, and perhaps not for the best.
The Aids epidemic, which has not gone away and is in fact getting worse in big cities like New York, has fallen into obscurity. So have struggles to reform employment laws to protect gays from discrimination. And most glaringly of all, the freedom that the Stonewall generation fought for, freedom of sexual desire, no longer has many defenders.
As the flamingly heterosexual narrator of Philip Roth's The Dying Animalobserves, "I expected more from those guys.... They want marriage and they want openly to join the army and be accepted. The two institutions I loathed."
It's largely forgotten now, but when Bill Clinton introduced his fudge of Don't Ask, Don't Tell in 1993, he actually included a third don't: Don't Pursue. That don't may have carried a regrettable quiver of predation. But the phrase Don't Pursue at least acknowledged that gay people have sexual longings, and that desire can be difficult to control.
And we should always recall that, for all the stereotypes of sweat-soaked Navy Seals checking each other out in the barracks, it was lesbians and not gay men who suffered most under Don't Ask, Don't Tell. Only 15 percent of service members are women, yet by 2007 women accounted for nearly half of all dismissals.
Advocates for repeal consistently trumpeted the "professionalism" of gay service members, insisting on their responsibility and decorum rather than their right to love who they love. Strategically, this made sense: the military is an employer, and the messiness of desire is inimical to the regimentation of the armed forces.
But by stripping same-sex desire out of gay identity, the professionalism argument may have had a more deleterious consequence. It erased the characteristic that makes gay people gay, and thereby may have diminished the standing of gay people ourselves.
This isn't just a theoretical worry. Consider a poll conducted around the time of Don't Ask, Don't Tell's repeal, which found that 58% of Americans thought "gay men and lesbians" should be allowed to serve openly. When the pollster asked whether "homosexuals" should have the same rights, that figure dropped sharply, to 44 percent.
Allow for confusion or ignorance among some of the respondents, and the sheer size of the drop still implies something disturbing: gays only find acceptance when they sound like an undifferentiated group. When reminded of the sex at the core of homosexuality, Americans seize up. Is it any coincidence that the largest gay advocacy organization in America, in a slippery and ultimately homophobic elision, calls itself the Human Rights Campaign, and that its more or less cute clipboard-toting volunteers on Ninth Avenue sport nothing more provocative than an equals-sign logo?
Marriage, you might think, offers a better chance to put love and sex at center stage. Yet the strategy for winning the right to marry has been depressingly similar to that deployed to win the Don't Ask, Don't Tell repeal: gradualism, assimilation, and a suppression of desire. "Families, I hate you!" the gay hero André Gide famously wrote – yet "families" has been the key word for gay marriage advocates, who insist up and down that "our" families are just like "yours."
That gay and straight couples might love differently, and that such a difference might still be worthy of legal protection, goes unspoken. And even more distressingly, unconsidered.
I have no intention of finding any value in a stupid, unproductive, homophobic law that I'm happy to see annulled today. But by taking the gayness out of gayness, by making gay rights solely about participation in pre-existing and not very liberating institutions, we may ultimately lose more than we gain. With Don't Ask, Don't Tell off the books, and with same-sex marriage legalized here in New York and on its way to the Supreme Court under the wing of George W Bush's solicitor general, it's hard not to conclude that we are facing a moment like that of the women's movement in the late 1970s, from which it has not recovered.
Having set out to defeat sexism in society, feminism took a turn and began to say that individual choices, rather than society-wide change, were what really mattered. We know the result: women still face violence, pay inequity, gross media distortions, and all sorts of other disadvantages, while the whole language of societal change has been lost.
Something similar is afoot with us. With Don't Ask, Don't Tell gone, marriage is the only battle remaining before the gay rights movement as currently constructed exhausts itself. An America in which gays can choose to serve in the armed forces and choose to marry their partners will be a better country, but only to a degree. Aids will not be eradicated, religious intolerance will not recede, adolescents will still commit suicide at shockingly high rates. And the unity forged in opposition will be long gone.
Not exactly what the boys at Stonewall were fighting for. The freedom to serve and to marry are worth the struggle, surely. But winning the freedom to love, to desire, and to be ourselves is a much trickier business.
Jason Farago is a New York-based writer and critic who contributes to the London Review of Books, Monocle, n+1, and other magazines. He is also editor of The Bugle, an American publication on culture and ecology.
© 2011 Comment Is Free All rights reserved.
View this story online at: http://www.alternet.org/story/152494/
London Police Release Surveillance Video of Anti-Gay Attack
London Police Release Surveillance Video of Anti-Gay Attack: VIDEO
Gaybashing
London police have released surveillance video of a gay bashing caught on CCTV in hopes the public can provide them with information they can use to arrest the attackers, the Evening Standard reports:
In the video a group of four men are seen following, then assaulting, two gay men on their way home after a night out in Charing Cross Road, leaving one unconscious in the street.
The couple, aged 25 and 22, were heading towards Tottenham Court Road at 1.30am on August 9. As they passed a kebab shop opposite Superdrug, four men attacked the 22-year-old from behind, hitting him over the head. His partner tried to defend him but was punched in the face by one yob, who shouted homophobic abuse.
The thugs ran off, leaving the 22-year-old lying in the road. The couple were treated in hospital.
Detective Constable Camilla Phillips, of Westminster police, said: "This was a particularly nasty attack, completely unprovoked." Anyone with information should contact police on 020 7321 9388 or Crimestoppers on 0800 555111
Watch the video, AFTER THE JUMP...
► Retweet
Read more: http://www.towleroad.com/2011/09/charing.html#ixzz1YjhKDbEP
Gaybashing
London police have released surveillance video of a gay bashing caught on CCTV in hopes the public can provide them with information they can use to arrest the attackers, the Evening Standard reports:
In the video a group of four men are seen following, then assaulting, two gay men on their way home after a night out in Charing Cross Road, leaving one unconscious in the street.
The couple, aged 25 and 22, were heading towards Tottenham Court Road at 1.30am on August 9. As they passed a kebab shop opposite Superdrug, four men attacked the 22-year-old from behind, hitting him over the head. His partner tried to defend him but was punched in the face by one yob, who shouted homophobic abuse.
The thugs ran off, leaving the 22-year-old lying in the road. The couple were treated in hospital.
Detective Constable Camilla Phillips, of Westminster police, said: "This was a particularly nasty attack, completely unprovoked." Anyone with information should contact police on 020 7321 9388 or Crimestoppers on 0800 555111
Watch the video, AFTER THE JUMP...
► Retweet
Read more: http://www.towleroad.com/2011/09/charing.html#ixzz1YjhKDbEP
TIME Magazine's 'Officer X' Come Out of the Closet
TIME Magazine's 'Officer X' Come Out of the Closet
For the past few months a service member has been blogging at TIME about the repeal of 'DADT' and today he came out of the closet as 1st Lt. Karl Johnson:
Johnson A 25 year old -- who flies U.S. Air Force C-17 cargo jets and has a degree in mechanical engineering from Syracuse University -- may seem like an unlikely candidate to blog for TIME, or wear the hat of an activist. At first the idea of writing for Battleland was nothing short of intimidating, but the decision of whether or not to accept was easy: the opportunity to give a voice to those of us who have been voiceless for years, as a matter of federal law, was too good to pass up.
Being the mind behind the OX silhouette has been an eye-opening experience. I've thoroughly enjoyed reading every comment, every email, every tweet, and trying my best to keep up with the responses. My only regret in this whole process is that I didn't start sooner.
At the moment this blog goes live I will be walking out my front door to start my first day at the squadron out of the closet.
Previously...
Officer X: Gay U.S. Military Pilot Writes Blog for TIME Magazine [tr]
Read more: http://www.towleroad.com/2011/09/time-magazines-officer-x-come-out-of-the-closet.html#ixzz1Yjgk8vR6
For the past few months a service member has been blogging at TIME about the repeal of 'DADT' and today he came out of the closet as 1st Lt. Karl Johnson:
Johnson A 25 year old -- who flies U.S. Air Force C-17 cargo jets and has a degree in mechanical engineering from Syracuse University -- may seem like an unlikely candidate to blog for TIME, or wear the hat of an activist. At first the idea of writing for Battleland was nothing short of intimidating, but the decision of whether or not to accept was easy: the opportunity to give a voice to those of us who have been voiceless for years, as a matter of federal law, was too good to pass up.
Being the mind behind the OX silhouette has been an eye-opening experience. I've thoroughly enjoyed reading every comment, every email, every tweet, and trying my best to keep up with the responses. My only regret in this whole process is that I didn't start sooner.
At the moment this blog goes live I will be walking out my front door to start my first day at the squadron out of the closet.
Previously...
Officer X: Gay U.S. Military Pilot Writes Blog for TIME Magazine [tr]
Read more: http://www.towleroad.com/2011/09/time-magazines-officer-x-come-out-of-the-closet.html#ixzz1Yjgk8vR6
Police Open Criminal Investigation in Bullying Suicide of Gay Teen
Police Open Criminal Investigation in Bullying Suicide of Gay Teen Jamey Rodemeyer
A criminal investigation is being launched over the suicide of gay teen Jamey Rodemeyer, who took his own life over the weekend after what his parents said was years of bullying.
Rodemeyer ABC News reports:
The Amherst Police Department's Special Victims Unit has said it will determine whether to charge some students with harassment, cyber-harassment or hate crimes. Police said three students in particular might have been involved. Jamey was a student at Heim Middle School.
Jamey had just started his freshman year at Williamsville North High School. (Both Amherst and Williamsville are just outside Buffalo.) But the bullying had begun during middle school, according to his parents. He had told family and friends that he had endured hateful comments in school and online, mostly related to his sexual orientation.
Jamey was found dead outside his home Sunday morning, but Amherst police would not release any details on how he killed himself.
The Buffalo News adds:
"We're going to look into whether he was the victim of any crimes leading up to his suicide," Police Chief John C. Askey said.
"We're not indicating, not speculating at this point, that that is the cause of his death, ... but independently, there may have been crimes that have been committed against him."
Askey said he spoke Wednesday with Williamsville School Superintendent Scott G. Martzloff, who has pledged the district's cooperation.
Read more: http://www.towleroad.com/2011/09/police-open-criminal-investigation-in-bullying-suicide-of-gay-teen-jamey-rodemeyer.html#ixzz1YjfQfDWG
A criminal investigation is being launched over the suicide of gay teen Jamey Rodemeyer, who took his own life over the weekend after what his parents said was years of bullying.
Rodemeyer ABC News reports:
The Amherst Police Department's Special Victims Unit has said it will determine whether to charge some students with harassment, cyber-harassment or hate crimes. Police said three students in particular might have been involved. Jamey was a student at Heim Middle School.
Jamey had just started his freshman year at Williamsville North High School. (Both Amherst and Williamsville are just outside Buffalo.) But the bullying had begun during middle school, according to his parents. He had told family and friends that he had endured hateful comments in school and online, mostly related to his sexual orientation.
Jamey was found dead outside his home Sunday morning, but Amherst police would not release any details on how he killed himself.
The Buffalo News adds:
"We're going to look into whether he was the victim of any crimes leading up to his suicide," Police Chief John C. Askey said.
"We're not indicating, not speculating at this point, that that is the cause of his death, ... but independently, there may have been crimes that have been committed against him."
Askey said he spoke Wednesday with Williamsville School Superintendent Scott G. Martzloff, who has pledged the district's cooperation.
Read more: http://www.towleroad.com/2011/09/police-open-criminal-investigation-in-bullying-suicide-of-gay-teen-jamey-rodemeyer.html#ixzz1YjfQfDWG
High School Water Polo Coach Says He Was Fired for Being Gay
High School Water Polo Coach Says He Was Fired for Being Gay Over Anonymous Complaint About Facebook Photos
Mitch Stein, the former summer water polo coach at Charter Oak High School in Covina, California, has filed a complaint against the school district following his firing in response to photos that were taken from his Facebook and MySpace pages and mailed to the principal anonymously, the Whittier Daily News reports:
Stein Stein said the letter included two photos, one of him posing with two drag queens and the other of him about to eat a corn dog. According to the complaint, the letter's author called Stein "unfit to coach" and threatened to go to the school board if he was not fired immediately.
Stein said he promised to have the pictures taken down, but he said Wiard was adamant that he be fired. Wiard did not return calls requesting comment.
"The reaction to that letter, in my opinion, was homophobic," Stein said.
According to Stein's attorney, the principal told Stein, "Oh, by the way, we're not doing it because you're gay," which immediately made him realize the opposite.
Superintendent Mike Hendricks denies the charges: "We do not discriminate against anyone."
Students are reportedly rallying around Stein, whose team was undefeated.
Read more: http://www.towleroad.com/2011/09/high-school-water-polo-coach-says-he-was-fired-for-being-gay-over-anonymous-complaint-about-facebook.html#ixzz1Yjef2sKk
Mitch Stein, the former summer water polo coach at Charter Oak High School in Covina, California, has filed a complaint against the school district following his firing in response to photos that were taken from his Facebook and MySpace pages and mailed to the principal anonymously, the Whittier Daily News reports:
Stein Stein said the letter included two photos, one of him posing with two drag queens and the other of him about to eat a corn dog. According to the complaint, the letter's author called Stein "unfit to coach" and threatened to go to the school board if he was not fired immediately.
Stein said he promised to have the pictures taken down, but he said Wiard was adamant that he be fired. Wiard did not return calls requesting comment.
"The reaction to that letter, in my opinion, was homophobic," Stein said.
According to Stein's attorney, the principal told Stein, "Oh, by the way, we're not doing it because you're gay," which immediately made him realize the opposite.
Superintendent Mike Hendricks denies the charges: "We do not discriminate against anyone."
Students are reportedly rallying around Stein, whose team was undefeated.
Read more: http://www.towleroad.com/2011/09/high-school-water-polo-coach-says-he-was-fired-for-being-gay-over-anonymous-complaint-about-facebook.html#ixzz1Yjef2sKk
Thursday, September 22, 2011
Gay porn star Ryan Idol convicted of attempted murder
Gay porn star Ryan Idol convicted of attempted murder
SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Gay porn star Ryan Idol, aka Marc Anthony Donais, was convicted of attempted murder on Tuesday by a Sacramento Superior Court jury.
Donais, 45, was accused of using a toilet tank lid to batter his ex-girlfriend in the head in an attack at the woman's home on Sept. 5, 2009. The adult film star, who identifies as bisexual although he performed in gay porn, and the woman had broken up before the incident.
During the trial, Donais testified that he thought his ex-girlfriend had a knife when they were in the bathroom, where she was taking a bath. He said he hit the woman in self-defense. Jurors, however, didn't buy his argument.
Donais got his first big break when he appeared as the "Man of the Month" centerfold in the Playgirl issues of February 1989. He was considered a major gay porn star from 1990 to 1996, when he retired. His X-rated film titles include "Idol Eyes," "Idol Worship," "Idle Thoughts," "Idol Country" and "Idol In The Sky."
SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Gay porn star Ryan Idol, aka Marc Anthony Donais, was convicted of attempted murder on Tuesday by a Sacramento Superior Court jury.
Donais, 45, was accused of using a toilet tank lid to batter his ex-girlfriend in the head in an attack at the woman's home on Sept. 5, 2009. The adult film star, who identifies as bisexual although he performed in gay porn, and the woman had broken up before the incident.
During the trial, Donais testified that he thought his ex-girlfriend had a knife when they were in the bathroom, where she was taking a bath. He said he hit the woman in self-defense. Jurors, however, didn't buy his argument.
Donais got his first big break when he appeared as the "Man of the Month" centerfold in the Playgirl issues of February 1989. He was considered a major gay porn star from 1990 to 1996, when he retired. His X-rated film titles include "Idol Eyes," "Idol Worship," "Idle Thoughts," "Idol Country" and "Idol In The Sky."
THIS DAY IN GAY HISTORY SEPTEMBER 21
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GAY WISDOM for Daily Living...
from White Crane a magazine exploring
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THIS DAY IN GAY HISTORY
SEPTEMBER 21
1898 – PAVEL TCHELITCHEW, Russian surrealist painter, born (d: 1957) His father, a follower of Tolstoyian principles, supported his desire to become a painter. In spite of his father's liberal views, however, the family was expelled from its property in 1918 following the revolution of 1917. Tchelitchew joined the White army, and the family fled to Kiev, which was not yet under Communist control. While in Kiev he studied with Alexandra Exter and produced his first theater designs.
By 1920 he was in Odessa, escaping the advancing Red armies. He went on to Berlin via Istanbul. There he met Allen Tanner, an American pianist, and became his lover. In 1923 they moved to Paris and Tchelitchew began painting portraits of the avant-garde and homosexual elite.
Tchelitchew developed a predilection for outrageous blues and pinks, calling himself the "Prince of Bad Taste." Gertrude Stein noticed his entry in the 1925 Salon D'Automne, Basket of Strawberries (1925), and bought the entire contents of his studio. In addition to becoming an accomplished painter, he also became one of the most innovative stage designers of the period and designed ballets for Diaghilev and the Ballets Russes in Paris. Tchelitchew's American debut was in a group show of drawings at New York's Museum of Modern Art in 1930.
In 1934 he moved to New York with his new lover, writer and critic Charles Henri Ford, and exhibited in the Julien Levy Gallery. He and Ford were at the center of a social world of wealthy Gay men, such as Lincoln Kirstein, for whom he also designed ballets. He continued his work in design for Balanchine's fledgling American Ballet and for A. Everett "Chick" Austin, a friend and director of the pioneering Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford, Connecticut.
In 1952 Tchelitchew became a U.S. citizen, but shortly afterwards moved to Frascati, Italy. He suffered a heart attack in 1956 and died on July 31, 1957 in Rome, with Ford by his bedside.
While Tchelitchew was trained in traditional classical drawing, his earliest influences were cubism and constructivism. He soon reacted against their emphasis on the geometric shapes of cones and cubes and began working in curves, a decision that led to his representational style, which used every traditional device of anatomy and perspective.
In 1926 he was included by the Galerie Druet, Paris, in a group show the title of which gave rise to the appellation "Neo-Romantic," a designation applied to an amorphous combination of figurative painters of various temperaments and attitudes. The artist always disapproved of the term; and in spite of similarities of his work with such artists as Salvador Dalí, he also always denied any association with Surrealism.
Phenomena (1936-1938), the first painting of a projected series of three major works, aroused violent reactions because of its lurid color and characterization of persons then still alive (including a self-portrait and images of Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas). The most prominent of the nude male figures in this painting is Nicholas Magallanes, a favorite model, who later became a famous dancer.
The second work, Hide and Seek (1940-1942), a strikingly red painting of an enormous tree composed of human body parts, remains one of the most popular paintings in the Museum of Modern Art. The final work in the series was never finished. Tchelitchew's later style developed as a result of his search for "interior landscapes" inspired by metamorphoses of the human body.
His works include, in addition to well-known nudes such as Tattooed Man (1934), a number of pen-and-ink sketches that illustrate homoerotic desire, some of which are housed in the Kinsey Collection of erotic art. The artist also executed watercolor illustrations of the Gay novel by Ford and Parker Tyler, The Young and Evil (1933). These illustrations were not published with the text until 1988.
Tchelitchew's critical reputation declined in the 1950s and 1960s along with the decline of interest in figurative art. The retrospective that was the opening exhibition of Huntington Hartford's conservative Gallery of Modern Art in New York in 1964 was the last museum survey of his career until the 1998 exhibition at the Katonah Museum of Art in Katonah, New York.
For more, and images: http://kinseyinstitute.org/services/gallery/russia/tchelitchew.php
1902 - LUIS CERNUDA (born Luis Cernuda Bidón September 21, 1902, Seville – November 1963, Mexico City), was a Spanish poet and literary critic. The central concerns of this poet are evident in the title of his life's major opus: La realidad y el deseo ("Reality and Desire"). He published his first collection of verse, Perfil del aire ("Air's profile"), in 1927. Several books followed, and he collected new and already published poetry under this title in 1936. Subsequent editions would include new poetry as new books inside La realidad y el deseo. Expanded on almost until his death in 1963, in this work the poet explores desire, love, subject, object, history and sexuality in poems which draw influences from romanticism, classicism, and the surrealist avant-garde. Besides verse, he also published a collection of reminiscent prose poems, 'Ocnos', about his childhood in Seville.
Cernuda is known as a member of the Generation of '27, a group of Spanish poets and artists including Federico García Lorca. He broke new ground with Los Placeres Prohibidos ("Forbidden Pleasures"), an avant-garde work in which the poet used surrealism to explore his sexuality.
Deeply influenced by André Gide, Cernuda embraced his homosexuality at an early age and made homosexual desire and love the core of his poetry. Or, at least, unlike other Gay poets at the time, in his poetry he was never ambiguous about the fact that the objects of his desire and love were men. One of the most influential poets in contemporary Spanish poetry, he is definitely a crucial ground-breaking figure for homosexual writing in Spanish.
During the Spanish Civil War, deeply moved by the assassination of Federico Garcia Lorca, Cernuda fled to England, where he began an exile that later took him to France, Scotland, Massachusetts (Mount Holyoke College), California and finally settling in Mexico; he never returned to Spain.
1955 - DAUGHTERS OF BILITIS, the first Lesbian organization, is formed by four Lesbian couples, including Phyllis Lyon and Del Martin. As the DOB gained members, their focus shifted to providing support to women who were afraid to come out, by educating them about their rights and gay history. Historian Lillian Faderman declared, "Its very establishment in the midst of witch hunts and police harassment was an act of courage, since members always had to fear that they were under attack, not because of what they did, but merely because of who they were."
In 1955, Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon had been together as lovers for three years when they complained to a gay male couple that they did not know any other lesbians. The gay couple introduced Martin and Lyon to another lesbian couple, one of whom suggested they create a social club. In October 1955, eight women — four couples — met to provide each other with a social outlet. One of their priorities was to have a place to dance, as dancing with the same sex in a public place was illegal. Martin and Lyon recalled later, "Women needed privacy...not only from the watchful eye of the police, but from gaping tourists in the bars and from inquisitive parents and families." Although unsure of how exactly to proceed with the group, they began to meet regularly, realized they should be organized, and quickly elected Martin as president. From the start they had a clear focus to educate other women about lesbians, and reduce their self-loathing brought on by the socially repressive times.
Within a year of its creation, most of the original eight participants were no longer part of the group, but their numbers had grown to 16, and they decided they wanted to be more than only a social alternative to bars. Historian Marcia Gallo writes "They recognized that many women felt shame about their sexual desires and were afraid to admit them. They knew that...without support to develop the self-confidence necessary to advocate for one's rights, no social change would be possible for lesbians."
By 1959 there were chapters of the DOB in New York City (see yesterday's Daily GayWisdom), Los Angeles, Chicago and Rhode Island along with the original chapter in San Francisco. Upon arrival at a meeting, attendees would be greeted at the door. In a show of good faith, the greeter would say, "I'm ---. Who are you? You don't have to give me your real name, not even your real first name."
Soon after forming, the DOB wrote a mission statement that addressed the most significant problem Martin and Lyon had faced as a couple: the complete lack of information about female homosexuality in what historian Martin Meeker termed, "the most fundamental journey a lesbian has to make." When the club realized they were not allowed to advertise their meetings in the local newspaper, Lyon and Martin, who both had backgrounds in journalism, began to print a newsletter to distribute to as many women as the group knew. In October 1956 it became The Ladder, the first nationally distributed lesbian publication in the U.S. and one of the first to publish statistics on lesbians, when they mailed surveys to their readers in 1958 and 1964. Martin was the first president and Lyon became the editor of The Ladder.
The DOB advertised itself as "A Woman's Organization for the purpose of Promoting the Integration of the Homosexual into Society." The statement was composed of four parts that prioritized the purpose of the organization, and it was printed on the inside of the cover of every issue of The Ladder until 1970:
1. Education of the variant...to enable her to understand herself and make her adjustment to society...this to be accomplished by establishing...a library...on the sex deviant theme; by sponsoring public discussions...to be conducted by leading members of the legal psychiatric, religious and other professions; by advocating a mode of behavior and dress acceptable to society.
2. Education of the public...leading to an eventual breakdown of erroneous taboos and prejudices...
3. Participation in research projects by duly authorized and responsible psychologists, sociologists, and other such experts directed towards further knowledge of the homosexual.
4. Investigation of the penal code as it pertain to the homosexual, proposal of changes,...and promotion of these changes through the due process of law in the state legislatures."
New York chapter president Barbara Gittings noted that the word "variant" was used instead of "Lesbian" in the mission statement, because "Lesbian" was a word that had a very negative meaning in 1956.
As a national organization, the Daughters of Bilitis folded in 1970, although some local chapters still continue. Grier also effectively ended The Ladder, despite her plans for the magazine to run on advertising (something The Ladder had not previously had) and subscriptions, when the $3,000 checks from "Pennsylvania", written to the DOB, stopped coming. By 1972, The Ladder had run out of funds and it folded.
Dozens of other lesbian and feminist organizations were created in the wake of the Daughters of Bilitis. However, the impact of the fourteen-year run of the DOB on the lives of women was described by historian Martin Meeker: "The DOB succeeded in linking hundreds of lesbians across the country with one another and gathering them into a distinctly modern communication network that was mediated through print and, consequently, imagination, rather than sight, sound, smell, and touch.
[{(o)}]|[{(o)}]|[{(o)}]|[{(o)}]|[{(o)}]|[{(o)}]
GAY WISDOM for Daily Living...
from White Crane a magazine exploring
Gay wisdom & culture http://www.Gaywisdom.org
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THIS DAY IN GAY HISTORY
SEPTEMBER 21
1898 – PAVEL TCHELITCHEW, Russian surrealist painter, born (d: 1957) His father, a follower of Tolstoyian principles, supported his desire to become a painter. In spite of his father's liberal views, however, the family was expelled from its property in 1918 following the revolution of 1917. Tchelitchew joined the White army, and the family fled to Kiev, which was not yet under Communist control. While in Kiev he studied with Alexandra Exter and produced his first theater designs.
By 1920 he was in Odessa, escaping the advancing Red armies. He went on to Berlin via Istanbul. There he met Allen Tanner, an American pianist, and became his lover. In 1923 they moved to Paris and Tchelitchew began painting portraits of the avant-garde and homosexual elite.
Tchelitchew developed a predilection for outrageous blues and pinks, calling himself the "Prince of Bad Taste." Gertrude Stein noticed his entry in the 1925 Salon D'Automne, Basket of Strawberries (1925), and bought the entire contents of his studio. In addition to becoming an accomplished painter, he also became one of the most innovative stage designers of the period and designed ballets for Diaghilev and the Ballets Russes in Paris. Tchelitchew's American debut was in a group show of drawings at New York's Museum of Modern Art in 1930.
In 1934 he moved to New York with his new lover, writer and critic Charles Henri Ford, and exhibited in the Julien Levy Gallery. He and Ford were at the center of a social world of wealthy Gay men, such as Lincoln Kirstein, for whom he also designed ballets. He continued his work in design for Balanchine's fledgling American Ballet and for A. Everett "Chick" Austin, a friend and director of the pioneering Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford, Connecticut.
In 1952 Tchelitchew became a U.S. citizen, but shortly afterwards moved to Frascati, Italy. He suffered a heart attack in 1956 and died on July 31, 1957 in Rome, with Ford by his bedside.
While Tchelitchew was trained in traditional classical drawing, his earliest influences were cubism and constructivism. He soon reacted against their emphasis on the geometric shapes of cones and cubes and began working in curves, a decision that led to his representational style, which used every traditional device of anatomy and perspective.
In 1926 he was included by the Galerie Druet, Paris, in a group show the title of which gave rise to the appellation "Neo-Romantic," a designation applied to an amorphous combination of figurative painters of various temperaments and attitudes. The artist always disapproved of the term; and in spite of similarities of his work with such artists as Salvador Dalí, he also always denied any association with Surrealism.
Phenomena (1936-1938), the first painting of a projected series of three major works, aroused violent reactions because of its lurid color and characterization of persons then still alive (including a self-portrait and images of Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas). The most prominent of the nude male figures in this painting is Nicholas Magallanes, a favorite model, who later became a famous dancer.
The second work, Hide and Seek (1940-1942), a strikingly red painting of an enormous tree composed of human body parts, remains one of the most popular paintings in the Museum of Modern Art. The final work in the series was never finished. Tchelitchew's later style developed as a result of his search for "interior landscapes" inspired by metamorphoses of the human body.
His works include, in addition to well-known nudes such as Tattooed Man (1934), a number of pen-and-ink sketches that illustrate homoerotic desire, some of which are housed in the Kinsey Collection of erotic art. The artist also executed watercolor illustrations of the Gay novel by Ford and Parker Tyler, The Young and Evil (1933). These illustrations were not published with the text until 1988.
Tchelitchew's critical reputation declined in the 1950s and 1960s along with the decline of interest in figurative art. The retrospective that was the opening exhibition of Huntington Hartford's conservative Gallery of Modern Art in New York in 1964 was the last museum survey of his career until the 1998 exhibition at the Katonah Museum of Art in Katonah, New York.
For more, and images: http://kinseyinstitute.org/services/gallery/russia/tchelitchew.php
1902 - LUIS CERNUDA (born Luis Cernuda Bidón September 21, 1902, Seville – November 1963, Mexico City), was a Spanish poet and literary critic. The central concerns of this poet are evident in the title of his life's major opus: La realidad y el deseo ("Reality and Desire"). He published his first collection of verse, Perfil del aire ("Air's profile"), in 1927. Several books followed, and he collected new and already published poetry under this title in 1936. Subsequent editions would include new poetry as new books inside La realidad y el deseo. Expanded on almost until his death in 1963, in this work the poet explores desire, love, subject, object, history and sexuality in poems which draw influences from romanticism, classicism, and the surrealist avant-garde. Besides verse, he also published a collection of reminiscent prose poems, 'Ocnos', about his childhood in Seville.
Cernuda is known as a member of the Generation of '27, a group of Spanish poets and artists including Federico García Lorca. He broke new ground with Los Placeres Prohibidos ("Forbidden Pleasures"), an avant-garde work in which the poet used surrealism to explore his sexuality.
Deeply influenced by André Gide, Cernuda embraced his homosexuality at an early age and made homosexual desire and love the core of his poetry. Or, at least, unlike other Gay poets at the time, in his poetry he was never ambiguous about the fact that the objects of his desire and love were men. One of the most influential poets in contemporary Spanish poetry, he is definitely a crucial ground-breaking figure for homosexual writing in Spanish.
During the Spanish Civil War, deeply moved by the assassination of Federico Garcia Lorca, Cernuda fled to England, where he began an exile that later took him to France, Scotland, Massachusetts (Mount Holyoke College), California and finally settling in Mexico; he never returned to Spain.
1955 - DAUGHTERS OF BILITIS, the first Lesbian organization, is formed by four Lesbian couples, including Phyllis Lyon and Del Martin. As the DOB gained members, their focus shifted to providing support to women who were afraid to come out, by educating them about their rights and gay history. Historian Lillian Faderman declared, "Its very establishment in the midst of witch hunts and police harassment was an act of courage, since members always had to fear that they were under attack, not because of what they did, but merely because of who they were."
In 1955, Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon had been together as lovers for three years when they complained to a gay male couple that they did not know any other lesbians. The gay couple introduced Martin and Lyon to another lesbian couple, one of whom suggested they create a social club. In October 1955, eight women — four couples — met to provide each other with a social outlet. One of their priorities was to have a place to dance, as dancing with the same sex in a public place was illegal. Martin and Lyon recalled later, "Women needed privacy...not only from the watchful eye of the police, but from gaping tourists in the bars and from inquisitive parents and families." Although unsure of how exactly to proceed with the group, they began to meet regularly, realized they should be organized, and quickly elected Martin as president. From the start they had a clear focus to educate other women about lesbians, and reduce their self-loathing brought on by the socially repressive times.
Within a year of its creation, most of the original eight participants were no longer part of the group, but their numbers had grown to 16, and they decided they wanted to be more than only a social alternative to bars. Historian Marcia Gallo writes "They recognized that many women felt shame about their sexual desires and were afraid to admit them. They knew that...without support to develop the self-confidence necessary to advocate for one's rights, no social change would be possible for lesbians."
By 1959 there were chapters of the DOB in New York City (see yesterday's Daily GayWisdom), Los Angeles, Chicago and Rhode Island along with the original chapter in San Francisco. Upon arrival at a meeting, attendees would be greeted at the door. In a show of good faith, the greeter would say, "I'm ---. Who are you? You don't have to give me your real name, not even your real first name."
Soon after forming, the DOB wrote a mission statement that addressed the most significant problem Martin and Lyon had faced as a couple: the complete lack of information about female homosexuality in what historian Martin Meeker termed, "the most fundamental journey a lesbian has to make." When the club realized they were not allowed to advertise their meetings in the local newspaper, Lyon and Martin, who both had backgrounds in journalism, began to print a newsletter to distribute to as many women as the group knew. In October 1956 it became The Ladder, the first nationally distributed lesbian publication in the U.S. and one of the first to publish statistics on lesbians, when they mailed surveys to their readers in 1958 and 1964. Martin was the first president and Lyon became the editor of The Ladder.
The DOB advertised itself as "A Woman's Organization for the purpose of Promoting the Integration of the Homosexual into Society." The statement was composed of four parts that prioritized the purpose of the organization, and it was printed on the inside of the cover of every issue of The Ladder until 1970:
1. Education of the variant...to enable her to understand herself and make her adjustment to society...this to be accomplished by establishing...a library...on the sex deviant theme; by sponsoring public discussions...to be conducted by leading members of the legal psychiatric, religious and other professions; by advocating a mode of behavior and dress acceptable to society.
2. Education of the public...leading to an eventual breakdown of erroneous taboos and prejudices...
3. Participation in research projects by duly authorized and responsible psychologists, sociologists, and other such experts directed towards further knowledge of the homosexual.
4. Investigation of the penal code as it pertain to the homosexual, proposal of changes,...and promotion of these changes through the due process of law in the state legislatures."
New York chapter president Barbara Gittings noted that the word "variant" was used instead of "Lesbian" in the mission statement, because "Lesbian" was a word that had a very negative meaning in 1956.
As a national organization, the Daughters of Bilitis folded in 1970, although some local chapters still continue. Grier also effectively ended The Ladder, despite her plans for the magazine to run on advertising (something The Ladder had not previously had) and subscriptions, when the $3,000 checks from "Pennsylvania", written to the DOB, stopped coming. By 1972, The Ladder had run out of funds and it folded.
Dozens of other lesbian and feminist organizations were created in the wake of the Daughters of Bilitis. However, the impact of the fourteen-year run of the DOB on the lives of women was described by historian Martin Meeker: "The DOB succeeded in linking hundreds of lesbians across the country with one another and gathering them into a distinctly modern communication network that was mediated through print and, consequently, imagination, rather than sight, sound, smell, and touch.
[{(o)}]|[{(o)}]|[{(o)}]|[{(o)}]|[{(o)}]|[{(o)}]
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
AIDS-Denying Foo Fighters Counter-Protest Westboro Baptists
AIDS-Denying Foo Fighters Counter-Protest Westboro Baptists: VIDEO
Picture 2
When the Westboro clan showed up to picket a Foo Fighters concert in Kansas City, lo, the Foo Fighters themselves pulled up in the back of a truck and gave them a performance of "Keep It Clean," which includes the lyric:
I've got a hankering for something, think I'm in the mood for some hot man-muffins.
Nice gesture, yes. But let's not forget that the Foo Fighters have vigorously promoted AIDS denialism. Mother Jones reported in 2000:
The multimillion-album-selling alternative rock outfit has thrown its weight behind Alive and Well, an "alternative AIDS information group" that denies any link between HIV and AIDS. In January, Foo Fighters bassist Nate Mendel helped organize a sold-out concert in Hollywood to benefit the group.
How many infected people at that Hollywood concert forwent meds? How many ended up dead? It throws the counter-protest into a new relief, doesn't it? On the one side, the church that insists almost everyone on Earth will burn in hell because of the gays. On the other, an alt-rock band that propagandizes for a lethal superstition - that AIDS is akin to the common cold. Clowns to the left, jokers to the right.
Watch, AFTER THE JUMP...
► Retweet
Read more: http://www.towleroad.com/2011/09/aids-denying-foo-fighters-counter-protest-westboro-baptists.html#ixzz1YatI2ghM
Picture 2
When the Westboro clan showed up to picket a Foo Fighters concert in Kansas City, lo, the Foo Fighters themselves pulled up in the back of a truck and gave them a performance of "Keep It Clean," which includes the lyric:
I've got a hankering for something, think I'm in the mood for some hot man-muffins.
Nice gesture, yes. But let's not forget that the Foo Fighters have vigorously promoted AIDS denialism. Mother Jones reported in 2000:
The multimillion-album-selling alternative rock outfit has thrown its weight behind Alive and Well, an "alternative AIDS information group" that denies any link between HIV and AIDS. In January, Foo Fighters bassist Nate Mendel helped organize a sold-out concert in Hollywood to benefit the group.
How many infected people at that Hollywood concert forwent meds? How many ended up dead? It throws the counter-protest into a new relief, doesn't it? On the one side, the church that insists almost everyone on Earth will burn in hell because of the gays. On the other, an alt-rock band that propagandizes for a lethal superstition - that AIDS is akin to the common cold. Clowns to the left, jokers to the right.
Watch, AFTER THE JUMP...
► Retweet
Read more: http://www.towleroad.com/2011/09/aids-denying-foo-fighters-counter-protest-westboro-baptists.html#ixzz1YatI2ghM
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Comment
jameysuicideteenstacey
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Comment
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Buffalo teen kills himself after homophobic taunts
Stacey Cosens
A 14-year-old boy from Buffalo has committed suicide following relentless bullying from his school peers, despite public calls for help.
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Jane Lynch hosts 63rd Primetime Emmy Awards
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Jane Lynch hosted America’s Primetime Emmy Awards last night, opening the show with a skit that saw her flirting with a Mad Men cast member.
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British passports could soon no longer declare a person’s sex, under moves from Lib Dems to become “fierce champions of equality”.
Americans split on gay marriage
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Navy changes gay sailor’s discharge after 70 years
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An 89-year-old former corpsman has had his discharge papers changed from “undesirable” to “honourable”, seventy years after he was expelled from the navy for being gay.
Lib Dem Party President hits back over gay rumours
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The Liberal Democrat Party President, who has faced rumours over his sexuality after being linked to a blackmail case in his constituency, has hit back at the “wicked, poisonous and horrible” suggestions that he is gay.
David Norris re-enters Irish presidential race
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New York clerk could face law suit over marriage licence refusal
Stacey Cosens
A town clerk in New York could face legal action for refusing to issue a marriage licence to a lesbian couple and failing to comply with the state’s new marriage equality law.
Former Mr Gay UK speaks out on sexual assault charges
Former Mr Gay UK speaks out on sexual assault charges
A former winner of Mr Gay UK has spoken out after being cleared of several charges against him during two years he described as “a living nightmare”.
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markcarter400 A former winner of Mr Gay UK has spoken out after being cleared of several charges against him during two years he described as “a living nightmare”.
PC Mark Carter was accused of raping a man and sexually assaulting two others while on a drunken night out with colleagues.
Speaking to ITV Calendar News, Carter said: "After nearly two years of wait, I have now been found not guilty of all charges held against me.
"I would like to thank all those who have stood by me: my legal team, West Yorkshire Police Federation, my family and friends and my work colleagues. These people have supported me in what can only be described as a living nightmare."
Carter was due to face trial later this year on separate charges for possessing the anabolic steroid stanozolol, but the case was discontinued within the terms of the Medicines Act 1968.
A West Yorkshire police spokesman said: "PC Mark Carter remains suspended at this time. A decision regarding disciplinary action remains under consideration."
Carter was crowned Mr Gay UK in 2006 at the Flamingo Club in Blackpool.
A former winner of Mr Gay UK has spoken out after being cleared of several charges against him during two years he described as “a living nightmare”.
post a comment
markcarter400 A former winner of Mr Gay UK has spoken out after being cleared of several charges against him during two years he described as “a living nightmare”.
PC Mark Carter was accused of raping a man and sexually assaulting two others while on a drunken night out with colleagues.
Speaking to ITV Calendar News, Carter said: "After nearly two years of wait, I have now been found not guilty of all charges held against me.
"I would like to thank all those who have stood by me: my legal team, West Yorkshire Police Federation, my family and friends and my work colleagues. These people have supported me in what can only be described as a living nightmare."
Carter was due to face trial later this year on separate charges for possessing the anabolic steroid stanozolol, but the case was discontinued within the terms of the Medicines Act 1968.
A West Yorkshire police spokesman said: "PC Mark Carter remains suspended at this time. A decision regarding disciplinary action remains under consideration."
Carter was crowned Mr Gay UK in 2006 at the Flamingo Club in Blackpool.
Lib Dems say gay blood ban change is not enough
Lib Dems say gay blood ban change is not enough
Liberal Democrats have called for the government to go further in their repeal of the lifetime ban on gay men giving blood.
21 September 2011
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Bloodbags Liberal Democrats have called for the government to go further in their repeal of the lifetime ban on gay men giving blood.
Under proposed new plans, only men who have had anal or oral sex with another man in the past 12 months (with or without a condom) will be asked not to donate blood. Men whose last relevant sexual contact with another man was more than 12 months ago will be able to donate (subject to meeting the other donor selection criteria).
But at the Liberal Democrat party conference in Birmingham this week, a member of the party said that replacing the lifetime ban with 12 month deferral period is a “ban by any other name”.
Dij Davies told the conference there was no reason why men who practised safe sex, should be prevented from giving blood.
He said: “It stigmatises male same sex contact by perpetuating the myth they can't be trusted in matters of sexual health.”
Davies was prevented from donating blood to his mother when she needed a transfusion, because he was gay.
Ross Pepper, another party member, said the new rules were an example of "institutionalised homophobia", pointing out that thousands of people had contracted HIV through heterosexual sex.
Pepper said: "It's not just a gay disease,"
HIV can be detected four weeks after infection but hepatitis B takes significantly longer, and then has a second window period in the later stages of infection (up to 12 months) which is why there must be a deferral period of one year for those most at risk of transmitting the viruses.
Liberal Democrats have called for the government to go further in their repeal of the lifetime ban on gay men giving blood.
21 September 2011
Post your comment post a comment
Bloodbags Liberal Democrats have called for the government to go further in their repeal of the lifetime ban on gay men giving blood.
Under proposed new plans, only men who have had anal or oral sex with another man in the past 12 months (with or without a condom) will be asked not to donate blood. Men whose last relevant sexual contact with another man was more than 12 months ago will be able to donate (subject to meeting the other donor selection criteria).
But at the Liberal Democrat party conference in Birmingham this week, a member of the party said that replacing the lifetime ban with 12 month deferral period is a “ban by any other name”.
Dij Davies told the conference there was no reason why men who practised safe sex, should be prevented from giving blood.
He said: “It stigmatises male same sex contact by perpetuating the myth they can't be trusted in matters of sexual health.”
Davies was prevented from donating blood to his mother when she needed a transfusion, because he was gay.
Ross Pepper, another party member, said the new rules were an example of "institutionalised homophobia", pointing out that thousands of people had contracted HIV through heterosexual sex.
Pepper said: "It's not just a gay disease,"
HIV can be detected four weeks after infection but hepatitis B takes significantly longer, and then has a second window period in the later stages of infection (up to 12 months) which is why there must be a deferral period of one year for those most at risk of transmitting the viruses.
Gay soldier comes out to father live on YouTube
Gay soldier comes out to father live on YouTube
A gay soldier filmed himself coming out to his father, and uploaded it to YouTube as the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell finally became official on Tuesday.
21 September 2011
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soldieryoutubestacey A gay soldier filmed himself coming out to his father, and uploaded it to YouTube as the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell finally became official on Tuesday.
The 21-year-old active duty military officer stationed in Germany, phoned his father in Alabama to tell him the news, following weeks of uploading to Twitter and YouTube under the pseudonym, AreYouSurpised.
The video displays the soldiers face for the first time, but his name is not yet known.
The soldier had announced to his fellow servicemen that he was gay, and as he waits for the phone to connect to his father, he is visibly nervous and says: “My God, my heart is beating like crazy.”
After some catching up, the soldier asks his father if he can tell him something and if he will love him no matter what before announcing: “Dad, I’m gay. I always have been, I’ve known since forever.
"I don’t know when’s the next time I would be able to see you. I didn’t want to do it over the phone. I wanted to tell you in person, but uh … I didn't want you to find out in any other way,"
His father replies with: "It doesn't change our relationship, I will always be proud of you
"I will always love you."
AreYouSurprised has attracted more than 98,000 subscribers on YouTube channel, and more than 2 million video views.
A gay soldier filmed himself coming out to his father, and uploaded it to YouTube as the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell finally became official on Tuesday.
21 September 2011
Post your comment post a comment
soldieryoutubestacey A gay soldier filmed himself coming out to his father, and uploaded it to YouTube as the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell finally became official on Tuesday.
The 21-year-old active duty military officer stationed in Germany, phoned his father in Alabama to tell him the news, following weeks of uploading to Twitter and YouTube under the pseudonym, AreYouSurpised.
The video displays the soldiers face for the first time, but his name is not yet known.
The soldier had announced to his fellow servicemen that he was gay, and as he waits for the phone to connect to his father, he is visibly nervous and says: “My God, my heart is beating like crazy.”
After some catching up, the soldier asks his father if he can tell him something and if he will love him no matter what before announcing: “Dad, I’m gay. I always have been, I’ve known since forever.
"I don’t know when’s the next time I would be able to see you. I didn’t want to do it over the phone. I wanted to tell you in person, but uh … I didn't want you to find out in any other way,"
His father replies with: "It doesn't change our relationship, I will always be proud of you
"I will always love you."
AreYouSurprised has attracted more than 98,000 subscribers on YouTube channel, and more than 2 million video views.
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