our own Gang of Six, in a good way, and in no particular order

Joe Jervis . Pam Spaulding . Wayne Besen . Jeremy Hooper . Andy Towle . Dan Savage

                    

Indiana Has Nation's First LGBT License Plate
[Eagle Country Online, January 17, 2012]

Indiana is now the only state in the country to offer license plates promoting awareness of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender causes.

The new plates will be available beginning in February throughout the state and feature six hands in red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple, which is the logo of the Indiana Youth Group.

That organization provides LGBT training for schools and service agencies and works to promote tolerance.

The specialty plate costs an additional $40 with $25 directly benefitting the group which provides training for schools and service agencies and works to promote tolerance.

The Indiana Youth Group had been trying to get the LGBT plate approved since 2010.

Indiana's American Civil Liberties Union had sued the Indiana Bureau of Motor Vehicles in September after the Indian Youth Group's request for the plate was twice denied.

[Continued here]

• South Carolina issues pro-equality license plate [SC Progressive Network, January 18, 2012]

We are delighted to announce the SC Equality license plate! The plate will be available on Jan. 30, and is a wonderful way to show support for the LGBTQ community in South Carolina. This plate is not just for the LGBTQ community, but for family members, allies and the community at large!

This week, South Carolina joins Indiana as one of three states to claim pro-equality license plates, Maryland being the first in 2008.

• Indiana Wingnut Worried License Plate Will Make Kids Gay, Give Them AIDS [Truth Wins Out, January 23, 2012]

If you live in Indiana, you can now get a special license plate, a portion of the proceeds from which will go to the Indiana Youth Group, which works with issues related to LGBT teens across that state. If you are a normal person, your reaction to this is somewhere between shrugging and being happy that an LGBT youth group has been added to the myriad organizations which benefit from customized license plates. If you are a wingnut from the American Family Association, you are blowing a gasket. ...

Also, we will simply note that it's still grotesque to watch "pro-family" leaders, who seriously do not care about how many gay people die, whether from being bullied to death, or from AIDS, concern troll about the "health risks of homosexual behavior." If they actually cared, they would get on board with real, grown-up sexual education, for all people, including LGBT people, and with making prevention a priority. They would not be spewing alternate-reality hatred about groups "recruiting teens into the homosexual lifestyle." As usual, it is their ideology they care about, and nothing more.

• [California] Assembly Member Mary Hayashi Introduces LGBT Specialty License Plate Legislation [PR Web, January 25, 2012]

"This will be an important opportunity for Californians to show their support for the LGBT community and address a major problem that is affecting all youth," stated Assembly Member Mary Hayashi. "LGBT youth are at an increased risk for bullying, which can have devastating effects on their health, even leading to suicide. By purchasing this plate, the public can put a stop to bullying and help make a difference for our kids."

• Indiana Moves Forward on Banning Gay License Plate [Bilerico Project, February 23, 2012]

That somebody would feel so strongly disgusted by LGBT youth helping one another feel a little less alone they would destroy the ability for nonprofits to raise funds on license plates... well, it fills my heart with a deep sadness.

No. It's worse than that. I don't say this lightly but these kinds of people just piss me the fuck off. This isn't protecting morality; this is stealing table scraps from kids who desperately need an accepting place to fit in.

• Indiana Lawmakers Try Different Route to Ban Gay License Plate [Bilerico Project, March 9, 2012]

After the Hoosier state erupted in outrage to plans by Republican legislators to circumvent the rules to ban a pro-LGBT license plate, they've decided to try a different tactic. Instigated by religious right string-pullers, the legislators had attempted to add language to take away the plate in a conference committee instead of passing anything through both houses.

Paul Rudnick: Pick a Number [New Yorker, December 12, 2011]

Alfred Kinsey believed that human sexuality could be charted on a scale of 0 to 6, with 0 being "Exclusively heterosexual" and 6 being "Exclusively homosexual." Owing to changing cultural boundaries and advanced research, Kinsey's scale has recently been expanded:

0. So heterosexual that you think all other heterosexuals should be shot, because they seem a little gay.

. . .

24. So overwhelmingly homosexual that you dream that Patti LuPone and Mandy Patinkin are your birth parents.

[Continued here]

This Is What Gay Men in America Really Look Like [Gawker, June 20, 2011]

The stereotype of gay men is that they all live in urban environments and prance around in designer clothing saying "fierce" and giving straight women make-overs. We all know that in reality gay men are much more diverse and mundane. Here is a real picture of what today's gay world is like.

Photographer Scott Pasfield traveled the country taking portraits of 140 gay men in all 50 states. He's compiled the photos and personal stories in an upcoming book called Gay in America, which comes out this September.

[Continued here]

The anti-bullying pledge: "I will make it better."

Lady Gaga gives a Canadian teen [Jacques St. Pierre] the thrill of his life by sending a personalised video of thanks for his anti-bullying efforts (1994— )
[Daily Mail, November 26, 2011]

She's long been an advocate of anti-bullying, and now Lady Gaga feels she should reward those who are as dedicated to the cause as she is.

The 25-year-old pop star personally emailed a Canadian teenager a video message thanking him for his motivation.

Jacques St. Pierre, 17, had organised a school assembly with an anti-bullying theme at the Etobicoke School of the Arts in Toronto. ...

The subject line read: 'To Jacques from Lady Gaga.'

It said 'click on the link below to download the video for your assembly.'

The woman famous for wearing a dress made of meat looked almost demure as she spoke directly to the high school student.

In the video, she's shot from the waist up wearing a mint green blazer, a seafoam-coloured pillbox hat and minimal makeup.

'I just wanted to tell you how proud I am of you for being such a strong advocate of the LGBT community in your school,' she said, adding, 'There should be more little monsters like you.'

[Continued here]

• Toronto anti-bullying rally draws 9,000 students [CBC, December 14, 2011]

With anti-bullying campaigns gaining momentum in Canada, 9,000 students in Toronto attended a rally on Wednesday and took a pledge to end bullying at their schools.

The inspiration behind the rally at a downtown sports arena came from student Jacques St. Pierre, who organized a smaller one at his school last month that famously attracted a video of support from pop star Lady Gaga.

St. Pierre also came up with the idea to change the anti-bully mantra from "It gets better" to "I will make it better."

• Toronto school board anti-bullying event draws 9,000 students [Toronto Star, December 14, 2011]

One of the most telling exchanges came near the beginning of the almost three-hour event when Jacques St. Pierre, student council president at Etobicoke School of the Arts, asked everyone to participate in an exercise.

"Close your eyes and raise your hands'' if you've been bullied, he asked the students. A check around the stadium revealed raised hands in every row.

The 17-year-old student put out a second request. "Close your eyes and raise your hands if you've ever bullied . . . caused some pain, spread a rumor.''

At least an equal number of hands went up.

"If you can admit to that, you can do something about it,'' said St. Pierre, who successfully obtained the personal anti-bullying video from Lady Gaga, which was shown at an Etobicoke School of the Arts assembly last month.

"We can do our best to make it better and take the pledge to make it better,'' said St. Pierre, to a round of cheers from students, many of whom wore green school board T-shirts emblazoned with "I will make it better."

Matt's Twitter handle is #linn_mar_love



How a Bullied Gay Marion Teen [Matt Shankles] Used Secret Identity to Fight Back
[Marion Iowa Patch, May 1, 2012]

Matt Shankles lost friends and self-esteem and his depression grew when his eighth-grade classmates learned he was gay. They bullied him relentlessly.

He one day locked himself in his bathroom and jammed the door shut with a drawer, intending to end his life with of a box of X-Acto blades.

"I hated myself more than I hate war," said Shankles, 16, now a Linn-Mar High School sophomore. "More than I hate famine, more than I hate hate."

Thankfully, Shankles didn't die that day.

Rather than give in to his suffering, as do too many other bullying victims, he has devoted his high school career to fighting bullying. He has been reaching out and reassuring victims, advocating for anti-bullying legislation in our nation's capitol and telling his painful story in front of the very classmates that still ridicule him.

Shankles' story provides optimism to bullied children, and their parents, everywhere. And, it offers some hope in the battle against bullying and cyber-bullying less than a month after a gay Iowa teen took his own life. Kenneth Weishuhn Jr., 14, committed suicide after being teased and bullied by classmates at South O'Brien High School in western Iowa. ...

Shankles is most known around school for a Twitter account he started last fall.

Shankles said a Linn-Mar student started a Twitter account specifically to harass students, divulge unflattering secrets and spread false rumors.

So, Shankles decided to create a rival Twitter account to tweet kind words to ridiculed students. The handle is linn_mar_love.

But he knew he couldn't take ownership of the account. Despite his advocacy work, Shankles is still bullied. He said he can't walk home from school alone without having derogatory words shouted at him from cars. So he remained anonymous to keep his credibility.

[Continued here]

Speaking truth to authority



The catholic church's war on GLT kids and Canada's
Charter of Rights and Freedoms

"Homosexuality is a natural orientation for a minority of people in our world. Sexual activity flowing from that orientation is naturally good. Experiences that express mutual affirmation and support are good. Sexual relationships that develop on the basis of the same-sex partners' mutual attraction are good to the extent that they are honest, equal, responsible and enjoyable, rather than deceptive, oppressive, or irresponsible. Marriage and caring for children is as appropriate for same-sex couples as for heterosexual couples." — Noel Cooper

[Continued here]

Paul Marai: Opening doors to Bay St. (1989— ) [Toronto Star, June 23, 2010]

Paul Marai, 21, the conference co-chair who recently graduated from U of T with an Honours BA in economics and international relations, says both sides benefit when queer students are hired.

"There's an advantage to having these students in the workforce," he says. They bring with them "open-minded" and "diverse" perspectives that are an asset to any business.

Both Marai and Zhao say members of the queer community still face discrimination in the workplace - although it's less likely to occur at big firms in major centres. Discrimination can range from failure to get key assignments and promotions to an unfriendly atmosphere, where the signals are more subtle but can be just as damaging.

Douglas says education is crucial in addressing the challenges faced by queer students, so his bank and many other corporations and firms conduct sensitivity training for employees. TD is also a sponsor of Toronto's Pride Week and similar events across the country. This, he says, ensures "you send a signal, not only to the world but to your employees, that this is what you believe in."

Adds Caverly, whose firm is a conference sponsor and does pro-bono work for Out on Bay Street: "A generation ago, you could be put in prison in Canada for being gay. The progress that has been made in a matter of one mere generation is incredible. The idea that you can go from criminalized activity to sensitivity training in corporate Canada, I find unbelievably optimistic and promising."

[Continued here]

• Trustee's gay lifestyle no threat to equity policy, says Rowe [Inside Halton, January 3, 2011]

Concerns that an Oakville Halton Catholic District School Board trustee, who's also a gay activist, could put the board's equity policy in jeopardy are unfounded said Halton Hills Trustee Mark Rowe.

"I agree with HCDSB Chair Alice Ann LeMay that the equity policy of the board is not threatened in the least by Mr. (Paul) Marai's private life," said Rowe last week. "We are all there to work for the good of the students based on the principles of the Roman Catholic Church."

Marai, 21, who was elected to the board in October, says his lifestyle isn't an issue. ...

As of this year, all Ontario's school boards had to have policies that ensure they provide positive school environments for students of all races, religions and sexual orientation, which outline how to deal with issues of sexism, racism, homophobia and other forms of discrimination.

While the Halton board passed the policy, it included a statement saying, "While the Board is committed to equity and inclusion, some Ministry proposed activities such as 'gay-straight alliances' or clubs cannot be permitted."

"I can't believe we're having this discussion in the 21st Century," said Marai. "I wonder if these people have been living under a rock for the past 20 years. I think a lot of people, a majority of people, in Oakville would say the same thing."

• The catholic church's war on GLT kids and Canada's Charter of Rights and Freedoms [GayNorfolk-net]

Pariah (2011) [Focus Features]

A world premiere at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival, the contemporary drama Pariah is the feature-length expansion of writer/director Dee Rees' award-winning 2007 short film Pariah. Spike Lee is among the feature's executive producers. At Sundance, cinematographer Bradford Young was honored with the [U.S. Dramatic Competition] Excellence in Cinematography Award.

Adepero Oduye, who had earlier starred in the short film, portrays Alike (pronounced ah-lee-kay), a 17-year-old African-American woman who lives with her parents Audrey and Arthur (Kim Wayans and Charles Parnell) and younger sister Sharonda (Sahra Mellesse) in Brooklyn's Fort Greene neighborhood. She has a flair for poetry, and is a good student at her local high school.

[Continued here]

• Pariah Personals: Intro [Salon, December, 2011]
• Pariah Personals: Jamilah King [Salon, December 26, 2011]

"Are you going to that gay pride parade?" my mother asked late one morning as I was rushing off to work last June. For a moment, I didn't know how to respond. I stopped in my tracks, looked back at her and mumbled something about how I'd probably be too busy and didn't like big crowds anyway. Sensing my discomfort, Mom nonchalantly added, "Well, if you decide to go, I could go with you."

It was a watershed moment for both of us, one that proved that my mom had finally become my ally.

• Pariah Personals: Jean Melesaine [Salon, December 27, 2011]

I never told my parents or my family I was gay, never felt I had to "come out" to them. I knew by the way my parents raised me that they knew there was a possibility that their daughter, who was always mistaken as a little boy, could be queer. By the way they let me out of the house, unlike my older sisters. By never worrying that I might come home pregnant. By never asking me whom I'm dating. By my mother never saying anything when women said her little son was handsome. It was clear, but never spoken. In Samoa, where my family is from, masculinity can go hand in hand with being a woman. Men on the island are raised to cook and clean, activities that Americans would consider feminine. Samoans always had two-spirit people in our culture, meaning people who were in touch with both masculine and feminine spirits. In Samoa they use the terms "fafa'afine" (like a woman) and "fafa'atama" (like a man).

• Pariah Personals: Andres Garcia [Salon, December 28, 2011]

Coming out of the closet as gay to your best friends - the ones who see you every day and know you best - can feel like a relatively simple task compared with the anguish of coming out to family members. I know this for a fact. With my own family, I was in the closet for six long years. Coming from a Catholic Latino family in the small agricultural town of Lamont in south Kern County, California, I just figured they'd be close-minded. My niece Mercedes, 15, was the one I always felt I could talk to about personal situations, so she's the first one in the family I came out to. "I have no problem with you being bisexual. In fact, I believe it makes you the person you are," she said. "I love you for that and I always will." Her reaction gave me the power to open up to the rest of my family. Now, not everyone was as thrilled about it as Mercedes was. The news initially resulted in arguments between me and my brother and father."If you would have just told me a long time ago, I wouldn't have had a problem with it!" said my brother. "But the fact that I had to find out last makes me believe that our relationship as brothers is not strong enough to talk about personal feelings."

• Pariah Personals: Raul Rodriguez [Salon, December 29, 2011]

It was harder to come out as undocumented than it was to come out as gay.

Despite the stereotypes and prejudices that may still linger around the gay community, I always found comfort in my gay identity - a comfort I often struggled with living as an undocumented immigrant.

When I come out to people as gay, I don't have to wait for the questions, "How did you get here?" or "Why can't you just fix your status?" No, I usually get, "Oh, OK, I just wasn't sure," or my favorite, "Of course you're gay! Why would a hot guy like you be straight?" That one usually makes me blush and laugh.

But just like being gay, being undocumented wasn't a choice for me. It was something I discovered as I grew up.

• Pariah Personals: Prumsodun Ok [Salon, December 30, 2011]

I don't even remember how it began.

My eldest sister is in my apartment, screaming and yelling at me with a nonsensical fury. There is something about my not going to work. There is something about my going out late at night. Is this woman crazy? I shut down her every attack with calm but assertive responses, revealing the faults in her strange accusations. The exchange is escalating wildly, but she is unable to faze me. Finally, in an angry, spiteful resignation, she says, "You're just a faggot."

The shit was about to hit the fan. And, seeing this, everyone who intruded into the apartment with her - her husband, my brother - tries to pull her out of my path.

The Kids Are All Right: Eight Young LGBT Leaders Of Tomorrow
[Queerty, September 7, 2011]

With homophobic demagogues like Maggie Gallagher and Michele Bachmann grabbing the media spotlight, it can feel like we're in a losing battle for LGBT rights in this country. But there's a new generation of out youth proudly taking on the mantle of leadership.

As the kids of America head back to the classroom, Queerty decided to profile eight young LGBT trailblazers who are changing the conversation both locally and nationwide. They run the gamut of the LGBT rainbow, hail from across the country and range in age from teens too young to drive to young adults graduating college. But they all share at least one trait: They've taken it upon themselves to make sure it gets better for themselves, their peers and our community. Meet the class of 2011.

        • Aaron Shapiro, 22, Rockville, Maryland

        • Corey Bernstein, 16, Millburn, NJ

        • Kathryn "Kat" Marchand, 21, Ypsilanti, Michigan

        • Graeme Taylor, 15, Ann Arbor, Michigan

        • Gabe Aderhold, 17, Edina, Minnesota

        • Jennifer Rokakis, 20, Ypsilanti, Michigan

        • Charles Poulson, 20, Ames, Iowa

        • Caleb Laieski, 16, Surprise, Arizona

[Continued here]

Adriana Barton: Are you OK with pink being the new blue — for boys?
[Globe & Mail, July 18, 2011]

For impressionable little girls bombarded with Disney princesses, pink stinks, according to an online campaign for "real role models."

But it looks like pink is okay if it's on a boy, Jezebel.com reports. The writer cites a Good Morning America segment in which dads talked about how they feel about their son wearing blush-coloured clothing.

The dudes on air had no doubt memorized the politically correct handbook. When the interviewer waved a frilly pink skirt and tiara in their faces, most of the dads said things like: "It's not really the point of what I like, it's what my child likes."

One dad confessed, "I struggled with my own comfort level," but nevertheless agreed to let his son to wear a skirt to preschool. Rednecks on the panel were significant by their absence (ditto references to Johnny Cash's A Boy Named Sue).

Nevertheless, anecdotal evidence suggests acceptance is growing for little boys who see the world through rose-coloured glasses.

[Continued here]

• 2011 Gender Spectrum Family Conference — July 29 to August 1 [genderspectrum.org]

The Gender Spectrum Family Conference is the only event of its kind, a celebration of gender inclusiveness for all children and teens. A unique gathering dedicated solely to the needs of transgender and gender nonconforming children and teens, their families and loved ones, and the community of professionals and allies who surround them, the weekend is a transformative experience for all involved. Last year's gathering drew more than 350 participants from across the world, and 2011 promises to be larger still. The conference will once more offer programming at multiple levels organized into various areas of focus. Whether a five time attendee or a brand new member of the Gender Spectrum community, the 2011 event will have something for everyone!

Raising My Rainbow

RaisingMyRainbow.com is a blog about the adventures in raising a slightly effeminate, possibly gay, totally fabulous son. Raising My Rainbow has earned loyal readers in more than 31 countries around the world and its content is syndicated on Queerty.com, a leading source of LGBT news online. Raising My Rainbow is written by C.J.'s Mom, a feisty, sassy girl-woman trying to have it all and usually feeling like she is failing miserably while all those around her are none-the-wiser. She works part-time as a business consultant, full-time as a mother and overtime as a walking panic attack. And it's about raising C.J. (age 4), the most enchanting child you will ever meet with an insane knack for art and color, interior design and dance. His passions include Barbie, Disney Princesses, Strawberry Shortcake and women's hair and shoes. Paula Deen holds a special place in his heart.

[Continued here]

• Amelia: When Your 7-Year-Old Son Announces, 'I'm Gay' [Huffington Post, February 16, 2012]

Considering that my son has a longstanding crush on Glee's Blaine and regularly refers to him as "my boyfriend," I thought there was a fair chance that he would someday say, "I'm gay." But my kid is only 7 years old. I figured I had a few years before we crossed that threshold (if we ever did), probably when he was 14 or 15. I never thought it would happen this soon.

Six months ago "gay" wasn't even a word in my son's vocabulary. He has always known that some of our male friends are married to men and some of our female friends to women, and it is such a normal part of his life that he never needed a special word to describe them. When he did notice the word and asked what it meant, I told him that when boys want to marry boys and girls want to marry girls, we call that "gay." He didn't seem very interested and quickly went off to do something else more exciting than a vocabulary lesson with his mom.

"We're all going to go crazy, living this epidemic every minute, while the rest of the world
goes on out there, all around us, as if nothing is happening."



Larry Kramer (1935— ) [Wikipedia]

In 1978 Kramer delivered the final of four drafts of a novel that he wrote about the fast lifestyle of gay men of Fire Island and Manhattan. In Faggots, the primary character was modeled on himself, a man who is unable to find love while encountering the drugs and emotionless sex in the trendy bars and discos. He stated his inspiration for the novel: "I wanted to be in love. Almost everybody I knew felt the same way. I think most people, at some level, wanted what I was looking for, whether they pooh-poohed it or said that we can't live like the straight people or whatever excuses they gave." Kramer researched the book, talking to many men, and visiting various establishments. As he interviewed people, he heard a common question: "Are you writing a negative book? Are you going to make it positive? ... I began to think, 'My God, people must really be conflicted about the lives they're leading.' And that was true. I think people were guilty about all the promiscuity and all the partying." The book was called Faggots.

The novel caused an uproar in the community it portrayed; it was taken off the shelves of the Oscar Wilde Memorial Bookstore-New York's only gay bookstore, and Kramer was banned from the grocery store near his home on Fire Island. Reviewers found it difficult to believe that Kramer's accounts of gay relationships were accurate; both the gay and mainstream press panned the book. On the reception of the novel Kramer says, "The straight world thought I was repulsive, and the gay world treated me like a traitor. People would literally turn their back when I walked by. You know what my real crime was? I put the truth in writing. That's what I do: I have told the fucking truth to everyone I have ever met." Faggots, however, became one of the best-selling gay novels of all time.

In 2000, Reynolds Price wrote that the novel's lasting relevance is that "anyone who searches out present-day responses on the Internet will quickly find that the wounds inflicted by Faggots are burning still". Although Kramer was rejected by the people he thought would be laudatory, the book has never been out of publication and is often taught in gay studies classes. "Faggots struck a chord," wrote Andrew Sullivan, "It exuded a sense that gay men could do better if they understood themselves as fully human, if they could shed their self-loathing and self-deception...."

[Continued here]

• Faggots by Larry Kramer [Paperback Amazon.ca]

Very few writers have the prescience or audacity to produce one of the standard works of their era--not a classic, necessarily, but a book that defines its own cultural moment in startling new terms, like One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest or Portnoy's Complaint. Activist and rabble-rouser Larry Kramer has the distinction of having written not only one of the earliest and best-known plays on AIDS, The Normal Heart, but also the astonishing satire of gay urban sexual mores Faggots, perhaps the most reviled novel in the gay literary canon....

Celebrated and excoriated when it first appeared in 1978, this reprint of a gay anticlassic is not for the faint of heart. For the rest of us, it is a harsh, fascinating, and somewhat eerie revisitation of the carnal excesses of a generation that couldn't hear the bell tolling over the disco beat.

• Larry Kramer's 1983 AIDS polemic [New York Native, Issue 59, March 14-27, 1983]
• AIDS is a plague allowed to happen [CNN, January 14, 2011]

I want this article to break your heart. But it deals with a subject that has had a tough time of it in the break-everyone's-heart department. I'll bet that a number of you will be more angry at me than sympathetic by the time you finish reading it. If indeed you finish reading it.

From its very beginning, most people have not wanted to know the truths about AIDS. This is an indisputable fact that continues until this very minute. I have been on the front lines since Day 1, so I know what I'm talking about.

• Larry Kramer on the 20th Anniversary of ACT UP [Democracy Now!, March 29, 2007]

This month, ACT UP — the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power — is marking its 20th anniversary. We spend the hour with ACT UP co-founder, Larry Kramer.

• 4,000 Pages and Counting [New York magazine, December 27, 2009]

Larry Kramer's boundless outrage changed the course of AIDS. Now, with his still-unfinished epic about America's hidden gay past (George Washington, Alexander Hamilton...), he's furiously rewriting history again.

• Interview: The problem with gay men today [Salon, April 23, 2011]

To say Larry Kramer is polarizing is like saying Rush Limbaugh is a little bit conservative. The Pulitzer-nominated playwright, screenwriter, author and activist has been one of the most controversial figures in American gay life over the past 30 years. He first incensed gay men in 1978 with "Faggots," his eerily prescient novel that critiqued the gay community's culture of promiscuity. And as a co-founder of Gay Men's Health Crisis and the founder of ACT UP, the influential AIDS activist group, he became one of the most strident and passionate voices in the early years of the AIDS crisis. While making countless enemies, most notably New York Mayor Ed Koch, he was one of the people most responsible for drawing attention to the disease.

Over the last decade and a half, as AIDS has transitioned from a death sentence to largely treatable and gay culture has transitioned from the margins to somewhere closer to the mainstream, Kramer has remained (almost) as angry as ever. In 2005, he published "The Tragedy of Today's Gays," a transcript of a speech in which he attacked the younger generation of gay men for their apathy over gay causes and accused them of condemning their "predecessors to nonexistence."

• Larry Kramer Says "I'm Being Tarred for Something I Did Not Say" [The Advocate, July 27, 2011]

It is very difficult to take a strong position in the gay world without being, at the least, misunderstood, and at the most extreme, vilified mercilessly. I suppose it's like this in the straight world as well. Perhaps I shouldn't bitch so when I'm taken to such extremes as a recent quote from me in The New York Times has provoked. I have always maintained fervently that in our world, in any world, you have to speak loudly and boldly to be heard at all. And my loud voice, which I cherish and try to use as much as I can to aid causes and beliefs I support, is one I wish everyone else also possessed and used. God, whoever made us, gave us voices to use, to speak up with. So I shouldn't complain when my anger comes back to hit me in the face. Usually I don't. Usually I'm pleased when my words provoke a usually passive population into getting off their asses and, well, using their own voice.

I am upset this time, though, because I'm being tarred for something I did not say. And this misstatement in my behalf is now escalating beyond sane margins and I feel the need to step in and respond, to hopefully turn this into what I believe is known as "a teachable moment."

• Pictures From a Battlefield [New York magazine, March 25, 2012]

The gay ghetto was a tinderbox by March 1987. Ten thousand New Yorkers had already become sick with AIDS; half were dead. Along Christopher Street you could see the dazed look of the doomed, skeletons and their caregivers alike. There was not even a false-hope pill for doctors to prescribe.

Then the posters appeared. A small collective of artists had been working on a striking image they hoped would galvanize the community to act. Overnight, images bearing the radical truism SILENCE = DEATH appeared on walls and scaffolding all over lower Manhattan. The fuse was set-and then the writer and activist Larry Kramer struck a match. He'd been invited to be a last-minute substitute for a lecture series at the Lesbian and Gay Community Center.

• Larry Kramer: Happy Birthday, ACT UP, Wherever You Are [HuffPo, March 28, 2012]

I'm an ungrateful sonofabitch. ACT UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power), which helped save my life, is 25 years old, and I am going to be 77 years old come June, and I should be grateful, right?

It's difficult to be grateful when the AIDS plague is worse than ever all over the world and the two organizations I helped found to stop it are, if not no more, then in such pathetic shape as to almost be no more.

It's hard to blame these remnants of former greatness when the gay population of this country continues to be so passive, so apathetic, so shut-the-fuck-up-with-all-your-message-queen-shit.

The Stranger's Pulitzer-winning story told of Seattle's 'bravest woman'
[Seattle Times, April 16, 2012]

One of the first people Eli Sanders, associate editor of The Stranger, contacted shortly after noon Monday to tell he had won a Pulitzer for feature writing was the woman whose harrowing courtroom story he depicted in his prize-winning account.

Later, the woman, Jennifer Hopper, 39, stopped by the alternative weekly on Capitol Hill to congratulate Sanders.

"I gave him a hug," Hopper said. "He's such a good writer, and I find that sometimes the best writers don't always get the accolades."

Pulitzer jurors said "The Bravest Woman in Seattle," published by The Stranger last June, was a "haunting story of a woman who survived a brutal attack that took the life of her partner, using the woman's brave courtroom testimony and the details of the crime to construct a moving narrative."

Isaiah Kalebu last year was sentenced to life without parole for raping and killing Teresa Butz, and for the rape and attempted murder of Hopper in the couple's South Park home. In July 2009, he had broken in through an open bathroom window as they slept.

[Continued here]

• The Bravest Woman in Seattle [the stranger, June 14, 2011]

The prosecutor wanted to know about window coverings. He asked: Which windows in the house on South Rose Street, the house where you woke up to him standing over you with a knife that night-which windows had curtains that blocked out the rest of the world and which did not?

She answered the prosecutor's questions, pointing to a map of the small South Park home she used to share with her partner, Teresa Butz, a downtown Seattle property manager. When the two of them lived in this house, it was red, a bit run-down, much loved, filled with their lives together, typical of the neighborhood. Now it was a two-dimensional schematic, State's Exhibit 2, set on an easel next to the witness stand. She narrated with a red laser pointer for the prosecutor and the jury: These windows had curtains that couldn't be seen through. These windows had just a sheer fabric.

SLDN Client To Be Reinstated To Active Duty in Air Force [SLDN, April 17, 2012]

Servicemembers Legal Defense Network (SLDN) and the law firm, Morrison & Foerster today announced that their client, Staff Sergeant Anthony Loverde, discharged in 2008 under the discriminatory "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" DADT law, will be reinstated in the U.S. Air Force and will return to active duty. He will take the oath in Sacramento in May 2012 and be assigned to the 19th Operations Squadron at Little Rock AFB in Arkansas. The reinstatement is set to make Loverde the second service member - and second SLDN client - reinstated to active duty following the repeal of DADT in September 2011.

"I am honored and humbled to return to the service of my country and the job I love. I am grateful to my legal team and all of those in the armed forces who helped to facilitate this reinstatement. I am eager to take the oath and get to work," said Loverde.

[Continued here]

Urvashi Vaid (1958— ) [Wikipedia]

Urvashi Vaid... is an American activist who has worked for over 25 years promoting civil rights for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender persons.

Vaid was born in India and moved to the United States at age eight with her family. Vaid was politically active from an early age, participating in the anti-Vietnam war movement at 11 years old, then at Vassar College, becoming active in a variety of feminist and human rights causes. She received a law degree from Northeastern University School of Law in Boston in 1983, where she founded the Boston Lesbian/Gay Political Alliance, a non-partisan political organization that interviews and endorses candidates for political office and advocates for Boston's gay community.

Vaid believes that true liberation of lesbians and gays from injustice will only occur when the larger institutions of society and the family are transformed through lesbians and gays working within mainstream groups for inclusion and change. Her book, Virtual Equality: The Mainstreaming of Gay and Lesbian Liberation (published in 1996), which won the Stonewall Book Award, addresses her beliefs regarding mainstreaming.

Vaid became Executive Director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force in 1989, and quickly built the NGLTF into the nation's pre-eminent gay rights NGO. She pushed gay issues into the public eye through coordinated media manipulation and staged numerous protests on such subjects as abortion and the Persian Gulf War. Vaid went on hiatus from the NGLTF between 1992 and 1997 and wrote Virtual Equality: The Mainstreaming of Gay and Lesbian Liberation during this time. She resumed working at the NGLTF, serving as the organization's executive director for three years.

[Continued here]

• Urvashi Vaid: Speech At The March On Washington [April 25, 1993]

The Christian supremacists are wrong spiritually when they demonize us. They are wrong when they reduce the complexity and beauty of our spirit into a freak show. They are wrong spiritually, because, if we are the untouchables of America -- if we are the untouchables -- then we are, as Mahatma Gandhi said, children of God. And as God's children we know that the gods of our understanding, the gods of goodness and love and righteousness, march right here with us today.

The supremacists who lead the anti-gay crusade are wrong morally. They are wrong because justice is moral, and prejudice is evil; because truth is moral and the lie of the closet is the real sin; because the claim of morality is a subtle sort of subterfuge, a stratagem which hides the real aim which is much more secular. Christian supremacist leaders like Bill Bennett and Pat Robertson, Lou Sheldon and Pat Buchanan, supremacists like Phyllis Schlafley, Ralph Reid, Bill Bristol, R.J., Rushoodie -- the supremacists don't care about morality, they care about power. They care about social control. And their goal, my friends, is the reconstruction of American Democracy into American Theocracy.

[Note: It's been nearly 20 years since Urvashi Vaid's speech and we're still being subjected to the same old self-serving, maliciously dishonest, soul-destroying christianist bullshit — even here in Ontario, Canada where we're supposedly 'protected' by Canada's Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the province of Ontario's Human Rights Code.]

John Harnick: "There was a time when Rex was virtually the only source of
reliable news concerning the GLT communities."



Rex Wockner (1957— ) [Wikipedia]

Rex Wockner... is an American freelance journalist who has reported news for the gay press and mainstream periodicals since 1985. His work has appeared in more than 325 gay publications in 38 countries. ...

Wockner has made a specialty of covering gay and lesbian news stories from around the world. Wockner traveled to Denmark to report on the world's first same-sex civil unions in 1989, and likewise covered the world's first same-sex marriages in the Netherlands in 2001. Wockner also reported from the scene on the first gay pride events in Moscow and Leningrad in 1991, and has reported extensively on gay rights movements in the former East Bloc and developing countries, as well as from the International Lesbian and Gay Association world conferences and international AIDS conferences.

[Continued here]

• Rex Wockner's blog [wockner.blogspot.com]

John A. Harnick: "Deb, too, was a source of informed and thoughtful commentary
when there were few other voices speaking for and to our community."



Deb Price Writes Her Last Column, But Not Her Last Piece
[South Florida Gay News, June 5, 2010]

Deb Price, one of the first journalists to expose gay issues to America through her writing with The Detroit News, has released her last column. At the time she started, nearly 20 years ago, there were no openly gay, nationally-syndicated columnists.

The Washington, D.C., native has been awarded the prestigious Nieman Fellowship at Harvard University. Price and her spouse, Joyce Murdoch, were married in Canada in 2003. They say they are thrilled to be moving to Massachusetts, where gay marriage is fully legal.

"Maryland, where we live, recently began recognizing out-of-state same-sex marriages," Price says. "So, on some level, we are in a place where our marriage is recognized-but not like Massachusetts. We've never experienced that before."

The opportunity to study at Harvard will also be extended to Murdoch-who, as Price's spouse, will be allowed to take courses at the prestigious university. But Price will discontinue her column, which she has been committed to for nearly 20 years. She likens writing a column to playing the piano-one has to write and work on it every day.

[Continued here]

• Articles by Deb Price [Detroit News via Alternet]

"The goal of Exodus International and Focus on the Family is to purge LGBT people
from society, although they disingenuously frame the issue as eliminating
homosexuality, which is not possible."



Wayne Besen (c. 1971— ) [WayneBesen.com]

Wayne Besen is an author, activist, columnist and public speaker.

He is the author of a book nominated this year for two Lambda Literary Awards, "Anything But Straight: Unmasking the Scandals and Lies Behind the Ex-Gay Myth".

Besen made international news when he photographed "ex-gay" poster boy John Paulk cruising in a gay bar in Washington, D.C. ...

He currently serves as the Executive Director of Truth Wins Out, an organization founded to combat the 'ex-gay' myth and right wing propaganda.

[Continued here]

• Truth Wins Out [TruthWinsOut.org]
• Wayne Besen: Why Gay Cultural Progress Is Meeting Stiff Political Resistance [Huffington Post, May 16, 2011]
• Wayne Besen: Belgium's Raid on Catholic Church Was Model For World To Follow [Huffington Post, July 1, 2010]
• Wayne Besen: The Gay Community's Pope Problem [Huffington Post, December 2, 2009]
• I Just Got Married... [Truth Wins Out, December 8, 2011]

On this beautiful snowy morning, Jamie Brundage and I got married at City Hall in Burlington, VT. We had an amazing Justice of the Peace, Gloria Gil, (pictured below)who was just incredible and made the ceremony at her home a joyous occasion. She has a wonderful cat and a really cool exotic bird too - and they get along. ...

I met Jamie, who is originally from Cairo, Nebraska, five years ago in New York City online and the rest is history. We will be having an exciting party in the summer when Vermont is pretty and green. Thank you to friends and family (Shout out to my mother and father and grandma) for your love and support. We greatly appreciate it and it means a great deal to us.

"You can't pray away the gay, but you can torture a conflicted closet case to death."



Dan Savage (1964— ) [Wikipedia]

Daniel Keenan Savage... is an American author, media pundit, journalist and newspaper editor. Savage writes the internationally syndicated relationship and sex advice column Savage Love. Its tone is frank in its discussion of sexuality, often humorous, and hostile to social conservatives, as in the Santorum controversy. Savage, who is gay, has often been the subject of controversy regarding some of his opinions that pointedly clash with cultural conservatives and those put forth by what Savage has been known to call the "gay establishment". He has also worked as a theater director, both under his real name and under the name Keenan Hollahan, using his middle name and his grandmother's maiden name. In 2010, Savage began the It Gets Better Project to help prevent suicide among LGBT youth.

[Continued here]

• It Gets Better [itgetsbetter.org]
• Savage Love [The Stranger]
• Syndicated columnist Dan Savage wins Webby Award [Seattle Times, June 2, 2011]

Dan Savage, editorial director of The Stranger and a syndicated columnist in Seattle, will be presented a Webby Special Achievement Award in New York City this month for an online-video project aimed at stopping bullying against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) youth.

• Dan Savage: For Gay Teens, Life 'Gets Better' [NPR, March 23, 2011]
• The evolution of Dan Savage [Salon, August 16, 2011]

The evolution of Dan Savage from sex columnist to political stunt artist has been an inspiring, and often really dirty, tale.

Early readers who discovered his Savage Love advice column (which he launched in 1991 for Seattle's the Stranger and which went into heavy syndication in the nation's free weeklies) were first jarred by how readers' questions began -- "Hey, Faggot," Savage's attempt to reclaim and defuse the word -- then hooked by his remarkably candid style. In that just barely pre-Internet world, when sex was a subject left to breathy advice columnists in the glossies and late-night radio, Savage was like a breath of fresh air. Or maybe a quick whiff of poppers.

• Dan Savage Gets Glitterbombed, Called Transphobic At University Of Oregon [Huffington Post, November 2, 2011]

Though he has yet to comment on the glitterbomb incident, Savage dismissed the allegations to David Badash of The New Civil Rights Movement, noting that his view of the transgender community had shifted considerably in recent years. "How do you disprove a charge like you're transphobic? I'm not afraid of trans people," he said. "I certainly have had a journey in the last 20 years -- as have we all -- on trans issues. When I started writing 'Savage Love' 20 years ago, and you can yank quotes 15, 18 years ago and flat them up today and say, 'You know, that's transphobic,' I'd probably agree with you. [Fifteen] years ago I didn't know as much as I know now -- nor did anybody."

• Dan Savage Glittered Again, Student Arrested [Bilerico Project, November 14, 2011]

According to my source at the event, Savage was in the middle of answering a question from a student who was wondering if her boyfriend was a freak because he watched porn featuring trans women. Savage suggested that her boyfriend was a freak, while freely using the terms "shemale" and "freaky tranny porn." That is when two individuals ran up and threw glitter on him yelling "Transphobe!" Someone from the MTV tech crew muttered "Oh, not again!" Savage laughed it off and said that being gay he loves glitter.

Later, when another student was asking him about the incident, Savage answered, "I'm used to it."

• For gay teens, words of understanding and support on YouTube [Globe & Mail, December 22, 2011]

Here's the life cycle of a typical viral video: It's uploaded to YouTube, picked up by a high-traffic site such as BoingBoing and then shared widely on Twitter, Facebook and corporate e-mail. Traffic soars and after a few weeks, or sometimes even days, it flat-lines. We've all seen them: mildly amusing, occasionally shocking, ultimately forgettable.

But a funny thing happened when sex columnist Dan Savage uploaded a video he created with his long-time partner Terry: YouTube became an agent for grassroots social change.

The video featured two gay men (Mr. Savage and Terry) explaining, in an 8½-minute confessional, how they were bullied as kids, came out to initially unsupportive parents but later thrived as adults. There were no baby seals in the video. No celebrities. No toddlers dancing to Beyoncé.

Still, it spread in a way no other video has. It wasn't the number of views it scored that made it remarkable (a relatively modest 1.5 million compared to the 180 million views on Rebecca Black's Friday video). Rather it was the ripple effect it created. Tens of thousands of users recorded their own videos, spreading the message to bullied teens that as rough as it may be, "it gets better."

• Dan Savage: Rick Santorum Google Bomb Is An 'Insanely Dirty Joke,' Just Like His Views On Gay Rights [Huffington Post, February 6, 2012]

Savage's anti-Santorum drive is best remembered by his public campaign to change the definition of the word "Santorum" from the last name of the former Pennsylvania senator to a sexual neologism involving anal sex. In his interview, he admitted that the move was incredibly crass, and said that was the point.

"It's still out there and it is an insanely dirty joke," Savage told the Star-Telegram. "It is crude. It is vile, as are Santorum's comments about gay people."

"We've exposed the tea party as nothing more than a reconfiguration of all the religious
zealots, moral crusaders, racists and bigots who've been around for years."



Michelangelo Signorile (1960— ) [Wikipedia]

Michelangelo Signorile... is a gay American writer and a national talk radio host whose program is aired each weekday across the United States and Canada. He is a political liberal, and covers a wide variety of political and cultural issues.

Signorile is noted for his various books and articles on gay and lesbian politics, and is an outspoken supporter of gay rights. Signorile's seminal 1993 book Queer in America explored the negative effects of the LGBT closet, and provided one of the first intellectual justifications for the practice of outing public officials, influencing the debate and treatment of the issue among journalists from that point on. Signorile has argued in favor of outing from a journalistic perspective, calling for the "equalization" of reporting on homosexual public figures and heterosexual public figures. He has argued that the homosexuality of public figures-and only public figures-should be reported on when relevant, and only when relevant. In 1992 Newsweek listed him as one of America's "100 Cultural Elite," and he is included in the 2002 book, The Gay 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Gay Men and Lesbians, Past and Present, which begins with Socrates at number 1 and ends with Signorile at number 100.

[Continued here]

• Michelangelo Signorile on Sirius OutQ 109 [msignorile.com]

Every weekday afternoon, Michelangelo Signorile takes on the right-wing gasbags (as well as their enablers in the media) with hard-hitting analysis and commentary - and with just enough laughter at the sheer lunacy that often passes for political discourse in America. He reports on the news of the day in politics, media and pop culture, and he interviews all the big names - authors, newsmakers and icons from politics to entertainment.

• Michelangelo Signorile: Expanding the Conversation [Huffington Post, November 22, 2011]

I honestly can't count the reasons why I'm thrilled to begin today as Editor-at-Large of HuffPost Gay Voices. This is a pivotal, exciting time for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Americans. From Hollywood and corporate America to the halls of Congress and our nation's schools, gay lives are at the forefront of the national conversation. To be able to help guide that discussion here at The Huffington Post is something most journalists and commentators would relish. But for someone like me, who has passionately covered gay culture and politics for just about two decades, it's truly a great privilege.

Russian gay rights campaigner Nikolai Alekseev retires (1977— )
[Pink News, October 26, 2011]

In an email sent to supporters last week, the 34-year-old said he would no longer head Moscow Pride and GayRussia.ru but gave little reason for his decision.

In a Facebook post, he wrote: "Dear friends . today on 21 October 2011, one year anniversary of the European Court of Human Rights verdict in the case of illegality of Moscow Pride bans, I decided to resign from the positions of the head of Russian LGBT Human Rights Project GayRussia.ru and head of Moscow Pride Organizing Committee.

"From midnight 21 October 2011 in Moscow and up to the decision on the new leadership, Project GayRussia.ru will be headed by Nikolay Baev and Moscow Pride Organizing Committee by Alexander Naumchik."

Speaking to UKGayNews.org.uk, he added: "It is true that I am fed up, and that is why I decided to step down. I also decided not to give any further comments on my decision."

Mr Baev, who will take over GayRussia.ru, said: "The reason [for Alekseev's resignation] is totally personal. He just decided to change his activity and lifestyle, and he has a full right to this.

Alekseev, a former journalist, turned his attention to full-time gay rights campaigning in 2005, setting up GayRussia.ru and making plans for a Pride march in Moscow.

He has appeared regularly on Russian television and has been honoured for his work by LGBT organisations worldwide.

[Continued here]

• Peter Tatchell: A tribute to Nikolai Alekseev [Pink News, October 26, 2011]

His efforts and those of his Moscow Pride colleagues put the human rights of LGBT Russians in the media and public consciousness worldwide. They ensured that LGBT rights were on the news and political agenda in Russia, to a degree that had never happened before. An extraordinary achievement for a small number of volunteer activists with no funding, apart from their own pockets.

Over the years, Nikolai said and did a few things that were in my opinion mistaken (but haven't we all made errors?). I disagreed with his decision to collaborate with the right-wing politician Aleksey Mitrofanov in 2007 and I refused to appear at the Moscow Pride news conference where Mitrofanov spoke. With little success, I urged Nikolai to build closer links with other LGBT groups and the mainstream human rights and democratic/left movements in Russia. I disapproved of Nikolai's remarks which appeared to be anti-Semitic (although I personally doubt that he is prejudiced against Jewish people).

These criticisms do not, however, negate the overall hugely positive contribution that Nikolai has made to the Russian LGBT human rights struggle.

[Note: Damning with faint praise, Peter.]

• Curtis M. Wong: Nikolai Alekseev, Russian Gay Activist, Speaks In New York Amidst Allegations Of Anti-Semitism [Huffington Post, March 4, 2011]

Nikolai Alekseev has been called many things in his lifetime, but easily intimidated isn't one of them. Though he is known globally as the face of the Russian gay rights movement, the Moscow-based activist -- who has been arrested, beaten and kidnapped over the course of his career -- insists his work relies more on persistence than courage.

"I never wanted to be an activist, I wanted to do scientific work," the 33-year-old attorney says. "But I'm the kind of person who doesn't like to see injustice...and the longer you do something, the less you fear." ...

Alekseev's international profile grew exponentially in 2010, after winning a groundbreaking human rights case against the Russian government in October in which the European Court of Human Rights ruled that former Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzkhov had violated LGBT activists' right to assemble peacefully during gay pride events, which continue to be routinely banned. (Still, the Russian government quickly filed an appeal, and Moscow's newly-appointed Mayor Sergei Sobyanin -- whom Alekseev deems "more careful to leave the door open for future negotiations" than his predecessor -- is vowing to oppose this year's event).

Interview with Azerbaijani gay activist [Ruslan Balukhin]
[LGBT Asylum News, November 15, 2011]

Interview with Ruslan Balukhin, co-founder gay.az, a website for LGBT people in Azerbaijan:

Q: What is the purpose of your website?

A: This informative-entertainment resource is for LGBT community of the capital, Baku.

After news about the site appeared on the local news outlets, I started to receive SMS messages from supporters but also from people with negative views about this site. I often receive e-mails and calls with threats. Channel One and Euronews also sent me message and asked to give interviews.

Then I received similar message from Euronews where BBC and CNN were mentioned. I think, this interest is associated with the victory on Eurovision 2011 and with the calls from LGBT communities worldwide to boycott the show in Baku in 2012.

As far as I can remember, an organization, official representatives of LGBT community in Azerbaijan, exists from 2006 - 2007 [this was 'Azeri Gay Community']. During its existence it has done nothing to solve problems of sexual minorities. What to talk about, if even the site lgbt.az, which is the site of the organization, doesn't work anymore.

[Continued here]

• Gay Azerbaijan

"Go forth and sin some more."



Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence [Wikipedia]

The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence (SPI), also called Order of Perpetual Indulgence (OPI) in Australia and elsewhere, is a charity, protest, and street performance organization that uses drag and Catholic imagery to call attention to sexual intolerance and satirize issues of gender and morality. At their inception in 1979, a small group of gay men in San Francisco began wearing the attire of nuns in visible situations using high camp to draw attention to social conflicts and problems in the Castro District.

The Sisters have grown throughout the U.S. and are currently organized as an international network of orders, which are mostly non-profit charity organizations that raise money for AIDS, LGBT-related causes, and mainstream community service organizations, while promoting safer sex and educating others about the harmful effects of drug use and other risky behaviors. In San Francisco alone where they continue to be the most active, between 1979 and 2007 the Sisters are credited with raising over $1 million for various causes.

Early members of the group, while not hiding their masculine features or facial hair, are characterized by San Francisco gay community historian Susan Stryker as the embodiment of "genderfuck".[2] Their appearance has changed over the years; the nun motif remains the same, but it has been joined with garish drag make-up that accentuates the rebellion against gender roles and religion. The Sisters have attracted controversy both within and outside the LGBT communities, but have received the harshest criticism for obvious parodies of Catholic icons and policies.

[Continued here]

• the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence [Official website]
• Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence [in the Life]
• Queering Easter: The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence Redefine Sainthood [Religion Dispatches, April 2, 2010]

One of my favorite memories of gay and lesbian life was the one time I went to a Gay Pride march in San Francisco, now multiple decades ago. Among the memorable wonders was a small group who called themselves the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence. On and off over the decades, I have thought of those drag nuns, rollerskating along the Castro, throwing flowers into the crowd (and kisses) and hooting and hollering with the best of them.

• Hunky Jesus Contest: Easter Festivities In San Francisco Bring Out The Usual Eccentrics [HuffPo, April 9, 2012]

San Francisco knows how to celebrate holidays properly, and Easter would simply not be the same if it did not include a blasphemous contest to find the "hunkiest" Jesus and a dangerous downhill race to the finish line on plastic tricycles.

Hosted by the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence and Bring Your Own Big Wheel, the events brought huge crowds to the city this past Easter Sunday.

Every year the Sisters, an order of queer nuns, host an event in Dolores Park that includes a Kiddies' Easter Egg Hunt followed by an Easter Bonnet Contest, live music and, yes, the infamous Hunky Jesus Contest.

Jesuses of all sorts come out in costume, complete with cross and crown of thorns, to win the prestigious title of "Hunkiest Jesus" and celebrate the more erotic side of the resurrection.

The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence are devoted members of San Francisco's community, promoting human rights, respect for diversity and spiritual enlightenment, especially among those on the fringe of society.

Chris Hughes, Facebook co-founder, takes over New Republic magazine (1983— )
[Washington Post, March 9, 2012]

The Washington-based magazine, a leading exponent of liberal thought since its founding in 1914, introduced Hughes as its new owner with a self-written column today.

"In the next era of The New Republic, we will aggressively adapt to the newest information technologies without sacrificing our commitment to serious journalism," wrote Hughes, 28. "We will look to tell the most important stories in politics and the arts and provide the type of rigorous analysis that The New Republic has been known for."

The magazine offered no detail on the terms of the purchase. The news of Hughes's new role is disclosed only at the bottom of Hughes's column, in which he is identified as "publisher & editor in chief, the New Republic."

[Continued here]

• A Letter to TNR Readers from Chris Hughes [The New Republic, March 9, 2012]

Nearly 100 years ago, the founding editors of The New Republic wrote these words to introduce their inaugural issue:

        The New Republic is frankly an experiment. It is an attempt to find national audience for a journal of interpretation and opinion. Many people believe that such a journal is out of place in America; that if a periodical is to be popular, it must first of all be entertaining, or that if it is to be serious, it must be detached and select.

        Yet when the plan of The New Republic was being discussed it received spontaneous welcome from people in all parts of the country. They differed in theories and programmes; but they agreed that if The New Republic could bring sufficient enlightenment to the problems of the nation and sufficient sympathy to its complexities, it would service all those who feel the challenge of our time.

A century later, people are once again skeptical that quality journalism can flourish. Technology's disruption of traditional forms of media has led many to believe that independent, thoughtful media institutions are on the decline and that there are not enough readers to support serious reporting and analysis.

• Chris Hughes [Wikipedia]

Hughes was the coordinator of online organizing for Barack Obama's 2008 presidential campaign on My.BarackObama.com, the campaign's online social networking website. He was the subject of an April 2009 cover story in Fast Company magazine under the headline, "The Kid Who Made Obama President; How Facebook Cofounder Chris Hughes Unleashed Barack's Base - and Changed Politics and Marketing Forever."

In March 2009, Hughes was named Entrepreneur in Residence at General Catalyst Partners, a Cambridge, Massachusetts, venture-capital firm.

He is the Executive Director of Jumo, which he founded in 2010. Jumo is a non-profit social network organization which "aims to help people find ways to help the world." In July 2010, UNAIDS (Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS) appointed him to a 17-member "High Level Commission" of renowned politicians, business leaders, human rights activists, and scientists tasked with spearheading a "social and political action campaign over the coming year aimed at galvanizing support for effective HIV prevention programmes."

He is also an invitee of the Bilderberg Group and attended the Swiss 2011 Bilderberg conference at the Suvretta House in St. Moritz, Switzerland.

In March 2012, he purchased a majority stake in The New Republic Magazine. He plans to become publisher and the editor in chief of the magazine, while Richard Just will remain as editor.

Documentary captures story of Steven Cozza, who at age 12 took on the Boy
Scouts' anti-gay policy [San Francisco Chronicle, June 18, 2001]

When Steven Cozza was 12, a seventh-grader at Petaluma Junior High, he did a very brave thing. While other kids were playing soccer and looking for ways to fit in crowd, Steven started a petition drive to pressure the Boy Scouts of America into dropping its anti-gay policy.

Outside the Lucky supermarket in Petaluma, he gathered signatures, never expecting that he was laying the seeds for a grassroots national movement. In a matter of weeks, Scouting for All, formed by Steven; his dad, Scott; and former scoutmaster Dave Rice, had taken off.

"It just went banzai," says Steven, who's now 16.. What's remarkable isn't merely the fact that Steven stood up for gay rights at age 12 -- but the fact that he's not gay himself.

Steven's story is captured in "Scout's Honor," a terrific documentary by San Francisco filmmaker Tom Shepard that airs at 10 p.m. tomorrow on Channel 9 when PBS launches its annual P.O.V. documentary series. Winner of the Grand Jury Prize and the Freedom of Expression Award at the Sundance Film Festival, the film will be screened simultaneously tomorrow at the Castro Theatre.

[Continued here]

John A. Harnick: "As I stated in a letter to Trinity Anglican Church in Simcoe,
Ontario a very long time ago, 'Let the dead bury the dead.' "



Chris Ambidge: Anglican church of Canada General Synod 2001 Presentation
[Integrity Canada, 2001]

Your Grace, members of Synod:

My name is Chris Ambidge, I'm a cradle Anglican, and I've been a gay man for just about as long - certainly from before my ability to make conscious choices. I no more selected my orientation than I selected blue eyes, or right-handedness.

God created in me - just as in you - an ability to love and a need to be loved. I know in the depths of my soul that for me, intimate love will be for another man. I cannot believe in a god so cruel and spiteful to create those abilities and needs in me, and then say "no-no, you can't use them!"

As things stand, heterosexuals are called on by the church to be celibate outside marriage, and sexually active only within it. Homosexuals do not have any choice. We are told that we may not establish any committed, intimate relationships. The playing field is not level at all.

However, all of us in this church have been baptized - we are all members, one another, in Christ, and every single baptism is as good as the next. There should be no such thing as a second-class Christian, but that is the message that lesbian and gay Anglicans receive. We love this church, because it is a place where we meet Jesus, and because it is home. Many of us are staying. However, many leave, and over the years there has been a huge, albeit silent, leakage: not just of lesbigays, but also our families and friends, leaving because of the way the church treats gays and lesbians, and that is a pastoral problem.

One message I would bring from lesbigay Anglicans is that we do read the Bible, and do govern our lives by the Gospel imperatives. It's our bible too, it's our baptism too - and it's our church too, but some of us have had to leave.

[Continued here]

• Stuart Laidlaw: Anglicans balk at gay blessings [Toronto Star, May 2, 2007]

Canada's Anglican bishops are rejecting same-sex marriage blessings in this country, leaving the U.S. church alone in a fight that has pushed the international communion to the verge of schism.

The surprise move came in the form of a pastoral letter issued early yesterday by the church on behalf of its bishops.

The church had no one available to comment yesterday. The office of Edmonton Bishop Victoria Matthews, one of the architects of the letter, for instance, said she is out of town for a few days and could not be reached for comment. Matthews is a top candidate to be the next primate of the church.

Chris Ambidge, a spokesperson for the gay Anglican group Integrity Canada, said yesterday the situation is incredibly frustrating and reveals a lack of leadership among the bishops.

"My patience has expired," he told the Star.

John A. Harnick: "A 'righteous gentile', for a certainty."



Gay bishop Gene Robinson announces plan to retire early [The Guardian, November 7, 2010]

An openly gay bishop whose appointment split the Anglican church is to step down, saying the last seven years had "taken their toll" on him, his family and his flock.

The Rt Rev Gene Robinson, of New Hampshire, revealed his plans yesterday, at an annual diocesan meeting. He will be 65 when he steps down, seven years below the retirement age.

He told the convention that being in the eye of the storm had proved too much. He said: "Death threats, and the now-worldwide controversy surrounding your election of me as bishop, have been a constant strain, not just on me, but on my beloved husband, Mark, who has faithfully stood with me every minute of the last seven years, and in some ways, you.

"While I believe that these attitudes, mostly outside the diocese, have not distracted me from my service to you, I would be less than honest if I didn't say that they have certainly added a burden and certain anxiety to my episcopate."

Robinson said he would continue his work with the "unchurched" and "dechurched" on college campuses and public forums, showing no intention of retiring from public life.

[Continued here]

• First Openly Gay Episcopal Bishop to Retire [New York Times, November 6, 2010]

The news took some by surprise because Bishop Robinson is an energetic 63-year-old, and mandatory retirement age for Episcopal bishops is 72. He has led a relatively stable and healthy diocese, despite predictions by some that his election would undermine the Episcopal Church in New Hampshire. ...

Bishop Robinson is no longer the only openly gay bishop in the Episcopal Church. Bishop Mary D. Glasspool was consecrated in Los Angeles earlier this year.

• Bishop Gene Robinson index [New York Times]
• Bishop Gene Robinson index [Huffington Post]
• Gay bishop Gene Robinson 'must be sacked' to save church from schism [Telegraph, July 22, 2008]
• Barack Obama asked gay bishop Gene Robinson what it was like to be 'first' [Sunday Times, November 6, 2008]
• First Openly Gay Episcopal Bishop Gene Robinson on the Divisions Within the Anglican Church, Coming Out and Leading the Invocation at Obama's Inaugural Celebration [Democracy Now, September 8, 2009]
• Desmond Tutu: All Are God's Children: On Including Gays and Lesbians in the Church and Society [Huffington Post, June 11, 2011]

Archbishop Tutu dissents from the official policies of most of the world's Anglican churches, which hold that gays and lesbians should be celibate; and in the years since his retirement as archbishop of Cape Town he has become one of the world's most prominent figures pleading for a change in the attitudes of religious institutions toward human sexuality.

• Bishop Gene Robinson: Employees Should Be Judged on Performance, Not Sexual Orientation or Gender Identity [Huffington Post, July 7, 2011]

Indeed, we know that people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender, or LGBT, face widespread discrimination and harassment in the workplace. Studies show that anywhere from 15 percent to 43 percent of LGB people experience some form of discrimination and harassment on the job. Further, 8 percent to 17 percent of LGB workers report being passed over for a job or fired because of their sexual orientation or gender identity. Ten percent to 28 percent received a negative performance evaluation or were passed over for a promotion because they were LGB. And 7 percent to 41 percent of LGB workers encountered harassment, abuse, or anti-LGB vandalism on the job.

Rates of discrimination and harassment are much higher for transgender individuals. An astonishing 90 percent of transgender people report some form of harassment or mistreatment on the job. Nearly half of transgender people also report an adverse job outcome because of their gender identity. This includes being passed over for a job (44 percent), getting fired (26 percent), and being denied a promotion (23 percent). ...

The scriptures of the Old and New Testaments are filled with admonitions that we will be judged by the way we treat our most vulnerable members. For Christians and Jews, God is described as having a special concern for the poor, the marginalized, and the vulnerable. We are morally bound to take special care to protect those who are so marginalized. I believe that in our time, it is gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people who are the marginalized deserving of civil protections. Surely, in this great nation, we can at least do that much.

• Openly gay bishop in Louisville urges Christians to 'show more love' [Courrier-Journal, July 17, 2011]

Sharing his views on gays and lesbians in the church, the role of religion in public policy and whether non-Christians can go to heaven, Gene Robinson, the Episcopal Church's first openly gay bishop, conducted an adult faith forum Sunday at Episcopal Church of the Advent in Louisville.

"I know Jesus to be the son of God," he told a group of about 50 people, "but what a small, limited God we would have if that was the only manifestation. I think Christians should stay away from spiritual arrogance and show more love, mercy and zeal for justice."

He called on audience members to present an alternative to the activism of the religious right, saying, "I believe that there's a positive role for religion in the world, and we've already seen what not to do."

• Bishop Gene Robinson: God celebrates gay people [Pink News, August 17, 2011]

His election in 2003 as bishop of New Hampshire for the Episcopal Church threw the Anglican Communion into turmoil. The Christian right talked of fracture. Eight years on however, the Communion remains intact and Gene Robinson continues to be a beacon of hope for the LGBT community. Laurence Watts travelled to New England to talk faith, service and retirement with The Right Reverend Gene Robinson, Bishop of New Hampshire. ...

"I'm also interested in the intersection between religion and public policy. The religious right in this country has shown us how not to mix religion and politics, but I believe there's a right way it can be done and I'll spend at least some of my time working on that."

• Bishop Gene Robinson: What Have We Learned in the 10 Years Since 9/11? [Huffington Post, September 11, 2011]

On Sunday, our nation will commemorate the tragic terrorist attacks on our nation. In some ways, the now infamous "9/11" seems like yesterday. I flew into New York that morning and called my husband Mark to tell him that the "small commuter plane" that had hit the World Trade Center was not MY plane. I assured him that I was fine and on my way into the city. Just before entering the Midtown Tunnel into Manhattan, my taxi pulled onto the breakdown lane to let pass the emergency vehicles already headed to the site. I could see into the hole the first plane made, now engulfed in billowing flames. And while sitting there, with my naked eye, I watched the second plane hit and explode.

• Rev. Walter Righter Dead: Episcopal Bishop Who Won Heresy Trial Dies At 87 [Huffington Post, September 13, 2011]

The Rt. Rev. Walter C. Righter, an Episcopal bishop whose victory at a 1996 heresy trial played a key role in the push for gay rights in the church, died on Sunday (Sept. 11) at the age of 87.

"I look around the Episcopal Church today where there are no impediments to the ordination of gay or lesbian members ... none of that would have happened without Bishop Righter's leadership," said the Rev. Susan Russell of All Saints Church in Pasadena, Calif., former president of the pro-gay group Integrity USA.

Righter was bishop of Iowa from 1972 to 1988, during which time he ordained the first female deacon in Iowa. From 1989 to 1991, he served as assistant bishop in the Diocese of Newark.

Righter ordained Barry Lee Stopfel, a noncelibate gay man, as a deacon in 1990. Ten bishops brought charges against Righter, alleging that he violated both the doctrine of the church and his ordination vows by ordaining Stopfel.

In a verdict issued on May 15, 1996, a church court stated that the Episcopal Church "has no doctrine prohibiting the ordination of homosexuals," and that Bishop Righter did not contradict any "core doctrine" of the church.

A member of the court, Bishop Cabell Tennis, told The New York Times that the verdict offered neither an opinion "on the morality of same-gender relationships" nor guidance on whether a bishop "should or should not" ordain sexually active gays and lesbians.

When asked after the trial to speculate on the future of homosexuality in the church, Righter told The Times, "I think we're making too much out of the bedroom."

The Episcopal Church now has two openly gay bishops and allows for the ordination of gays and lesbians in most dioceses, and will likely debate formalized rites for same-sex unions at its General Convention next year.

• New Documentary Chronicles Life of Gay Bishop [Edge Boston, February 15, 2012]

It was a sultry late June afternoon in 2009 when New Hampshire Bishop V. Gene Robinson walked along Manhattan's Fifth Avenue and handed cups of water to those who were marching in New York City's annual Pride parade. He stressed the Biblical importance of giving water to the poor during a sermon he delivered at the First Presbyterian Church of New York's annual Pride service a couple of hours earlier. While the congregation traditionally hands out water to Pride marchers each year, Robinson's participation in this annual tradition that coincided with the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall riots made this simple act even more symbolic.

"This is the oppressor offering a cup of water to those we have oppressed," said Robinson, referring to religious-based homophobia. "There's power in that and there is repentance in that so I was trying to get the congregation to understand what an important symbol it was and how important it was that they do it."

This scene is one of several contained within "Love Free or Die" that chronicles three years of Robinson's life as the Episcopal Church's first openly gay bishop. Directed by Mackey Alston and produced by Sandra Itkoff, the documentary premiered at the Sundance Film Festival last month where it won a Special Jury Prize.

• New Hampshire Episcopalians may elect a second gay bishop [Pink News, April 30, 2012]

Bishop Robinson was the first openly gay bishop to be elected by the New Hampshire Episcopalians, which resulted in a rift in the worldwide Anglican Communion, rifts which have threatened to split the alliance into two factions.

Now, the Rev William W. Rich, a senior associate rector at Trinity Church in Boston has been nominated by the Diocese, and his sexuality, and the fact that he is married to his partner, will be considered irrelevant at best, according to insiders familiar with the matter.

"Flipping Out"'s Jeff Lewis (1970— ) [Wikipedia]

Flipping Out is a reality television series that debuted on July 31, 2007 on Bravo in the United States and HGTV in Canada. Subsequently, it debuted on cable network Arena in Australia on September 4, 2009. For the first season it also re-aired on sister network CNBC. The show is centered on designer Jeff Lewis in Los Angeles, California, his entourage that consists of his project manager Jenni, housekeeper Zoila, business manager and boyfriend Gage and his other assistant(s) and helper(s). For the first season the show revolved around Lewis' flip projects as he renovated homes and re-sold them for a profit. As the housing bubble popped in 2007, Lewis started to focus more on his home design consulting business and less on flipping houses, though in season four he considered moving back into flipping small projects on the side. After achieving record ratings for its fourth season, the show was picked up by Bravo for a fifth season as announced on the show's official Facebook page on January 13, 2011. Season 5 premiered Wednesday, July 6, 2011.

[Continued here]

[Note: I felt a hugh sense of relief, and pleasure, when Jeff announced his relationship with Gage. I know what it's like to be alone and to have no one. Good on you both.]

John L'Ecuyer (1966— ) [Wikipedia]

John L'Ecuyer... is a Canadian film and television director. He is the younger brother of Gerald L'Ecuyer, a noted Canadian film and television director. L'Ecuyer studied at Ryerson University in Toronto, where his classmates included screenwriter Brad Abraham.

His first feature, Curtis's Charm (1995), was an adaptation of a Jim Carroll story. The film received a special jury citation as Best Canadian Feature Film at the 1995 Toronto International Film Festival. L'Ecuyer's short film Use Once and Destroy (1995) also received a special jury citation at the festival, as Best Canadian Short Film.

[Continued here]

[Note: I remember meeting John L'Ecuyer when he was a volunteer at the AIDS hospice in Ottawa, aka Bruce House. A young man of genuine compassion. We spent several long evenings together discussing the arts in general and film in particular. A very intelligent, thoughtful guy.]

Marc Hall (1984— ) [Wikipedia]

Marc Hall v. Durham Catholic School Board began when Oshawa, Ontario's Monsignor John Pereyma Catholic Secondary School asked students attending the prom to submit the names of the guests they intended to bring. Hall, who is gay, submitted the name of his 21-year-old boyfriend, Jean-Paul Dumond, and was denied on the grounds that homosexuality is incompatible with Roman Catholic teaching.

Supported by his family and a wide variety of community organizations, Hall thus took the school board to court in a two-day hearing that began on May 6, 2002. Hall's lawyer, David Corbett, argued that the denial of his request violated the Ontario Education Act, which requires school boards in the province not to discriminate. The school board, on the other hand, argued that court interference in its decision would amount to denying its religious freedom. ...

On May 10, Justice Robert McKinnon granted an interlocutory injunction ordering that Hall be allowed to attend the prom with Dumond. The justice also ordered that the school would not cancel the prom. He did not decide on the larger issues raised by the case, leaving those to be heard at a later trial. Hall attended the Prom with Dumond that evening.

[Continued here]

• Prom feeding frenzy: Egos bruised in lobby for Durham teen [XTRA, April 4, 2002]

When Marc Hall was told that he couldn't bring his boyfriend to his prom, he had no idea that he would set off a media and political firestorm that would turn him into a poster child for gay rights.

Politicos are stepping over each other to form a buffer around him that seems to grow bigger by the day. ...

"I was going to get my jacket at lunch one day when a bunch of my friends told me that I might not want to go outside unless I wanted, like, 80 cameras in my face," says Hall, 17. He goes to Monsignor John Pereyman Catholic Secondary School in Oshawa.

"I was more shocked than anything - TV crews, reporters, everything in front of the school. It was crazy! I looked outside and there were news vans from CTV, Rogers, Global and a bunch of others," says Hall.

CBC called that night for a live interview. So did Canada AM, PrideVision, CityTV and just about every major radio station around. ...

Toronto Centre-Rosedale MPP George Smitherman stepped in and helped organize the Coalition To Support Marc Hall, which includes the national lobby group Egale Canada, the support group Parents, Families And Friends Of Lesbians And Gays (PFLAG), the 519 Church Street Community Centre, the Coalition For Lesbian And Gay Rights In Ontario and Toronto City Councillors Kyle Rae and Olivia Chow. Liberal leader Dalton McGuinty wrote a letter to the Durham Catholic District School Board advocating for Hall.

Belgium's Elio Di Rupo (1951— ) [BBC, December 2, 2011]

On one level, this son of Italian immigrants is living the Belgian dream, rising from poverty to play a crucial, unifying role in his country's political future.

On another, he is very definitely a Walloon, as Belgium's French-speakers are known, who struggles to speak Dutch but is passionate in his determination to unite Walloons and Flemings alike.

Another view is that he is simply the man of the moment, the latest in a line of "formateurs" - as government brokers in Belgium are known - who happened to be there when the eurozone economic crisis concentrated Belgian minds.

What seems clear, however, is that, at 60, Elio Di Rupo is very much his own man, as distinctive as his trademark red bow ties. ...

Speaking to the author of Elio Di Rupo, A Life, A Vision (French: Elio Di Rupo. Une vie, une vision), he recalled being pursued down the street by a media pack and how one journalist had exclaimed "Yet they say you're a homosexual!"

"I turned around and shot back: 'Yes. So what?' I will never forget that moment... For several seconds there was silence... People were so surprised by my reply they stopped jostling each other. It was a sincere, truthful reply."

His career did not appear to suffer. Three years later, Mr Di Rupo was leader of the Socialist Party and, shortly afterwards, became regional prime minister of Wallonia.

[Continued here]

• Who is Elio Di Rupo? [Flanders News, December 5, 2011]
• 18 Months After Vote, Belgium Has Government [New York Times, December 1, 2011]

Norway Lesbian Couple's Utoya Island Rescue Of 40 Children Goes Unnoticed By Media
[Huffington Post, August 2, 2011]

A Norwegian lesbian couple's rescue of 40 children during the Utoya Island youth camp attacks has been hailed as a heroic act -- but some are calling the muted response from the international media an act of discrimination.

The Finnish newspaper Helsingin Sanomat was the first to carry the story of Hege Dalen and her partner, Toril Hansen, who braved gunfire while making trips to lift frightened youngsters from the water surrounding the island.

The blog Talk About Equality translates the report as follows:

        "We were eating. Then shooting and then the awful screaming. We saw how the young people ran in panic into the lake," says Dalen to HS in an interview. The couple immediately took action and pushed the boat into Lake Tyrifjorden.

        Dalen and Hansen drove the boat to the island, picked up from the water victims in shock in, the young and wounded, and transported them to the opposite shore to the mainland. Between runs they saw that the bullets had hit the right side of the boat. Since there were so many and not all fit at once aboard, they returned to the island four times.

        "We did not sleep last night at all. Today, we have been together and talked about the events," Dalen said.

Some authorities were quick to suggest the week-plus delay in coverage of the rescue was an indirect act of homophobia.

"Have the media ignored a gold-plated tale of bravery and heroism just because they don't like the sexual orientation of the protagonists? I don't know, obviously," writes Tom Chivers, Strategic Events Editor for the Telegraph. "But it's not as though it's just traditionally minded, conservative news organisations, who might be expected to have misgivings about homosexual marriage, which have not reported on Mrs. Hansen and Mrs. Dalen's heroism."

Still, others like Bår Stenvik, an Oslo-based author and journalist, have begged to differ -- and say the most likely explanation for the lack of coverage is that the lesbian couple simply had not spoken publicly about their ordeal. "One of the remarkable aspects of this incident has been that there are so many stories to be told, with so many victims and witnesses," Stenvik told the International Business Times.

[Continued here]

Jonathan David Katz (1958— ) [Wikipedia]

Jonathan David Katz is an American activist, art historian, educator and writer, he is currently the director of the doctoral program in Visual culture studies at State University of New York at Buffalo. He is also the former executive coordinator of the Larry Kramer Initiative for Lesbian and Gay Studies at Yale University. He is a former chair of the Department of Lesbian and Gay studies at the City College of San Francisco, and was the first tenured faculty in gay and lesbian studies in the United States. Katz was an associate professor in the Art History Department at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, where he also taught queer studies. He received his Ph.D. from Northwestern University in 1996.

Katz is the founder of the Harvey Milk Institute, the largest queer studies institute in the world, and the Queer Caucus for Art of the College Art Association.

Katz co-founded Queer Nation San Francisco. He has made scholarly contributions to queer studies the focus of his professional career. He was the first artistic director of the National Queer Arts Festival in San Francisco and has published widely in the United States and Europe.

[Continued here]

• Gallery's pulling of video riles UB art professor [Buffalo News, December 8, 2010]
• Speaking With Jonathan David Katz, Co-Curator of Hide and Seek [Artwrit Quarterly, Spring 2011]

Those of us only recently acquainted with Jonathan David Katz may have missed something important about this cultural firebrand, the co-curator of the controversial Hide and Seek: Difference, Desire, and the Invention of Modern American Portraiture at the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery. Katz has been writing about the queer voice in American art for two decades, using Cold War America as a matrix.

Thomas Roberts (1972— ) [Wikipedia]

Thomas Roberts... is an American journalist who, since April 2010, has served as a news anchor for MSNBC, a cable-news channel. ...

Roberts publicly acknowledged that he is gay while speaking at the annual convention of the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association (NLGJA) in Miami, Florida, which was held on September 8, 2006. His comments were first made public by journalist Johnny Diaz, a staff reporter on The Boston Globe's living/arts section who attended the conference and wrote about it on his blog, Beantown Cuban. Diaz's report quickly was picked up by major gay media outlets Gay.com and the website of the gay-news magazine The Advocate. The report also was cited on Canada.com.

Along with Craig Stevens, a co-anchor of Miami's WSVN Channel 7, and other local gay anchors, Roberts was a member of a panel called "Off Camera: The Challenge of LGBT TV Anchors." He told the audience that the conference was the "biggest step" he had taken to really be out in public and that he had slowly been coming out at CNN over the past several years.

Diaz reported that Roberts, who has been a member of the NLGJA since 2005, said he was proud of his partner, who was apparently unnamed, and that staying in the closet was a difficult thing for a national news anchor. "When you hold something back, that's all everyone wants to know", Diaz quoted Roberts as saying.

[Continued here]

• Life as an Openly Gay Journalist: CNN's Thomas Roberts [After Elton, September 15, 2006]

Rumors that CNN's Thomas Roberts had come out at the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association conference in Florida last week must have seemed a little puzzling to the Headline News anchor. While Roberts did appear on a panel called "Off Camera: The Challenges for LGBT TV Anchors," it was really only the most recent stage in a seven-year coming out process.

Roberts first came out as a gay journalist to co-workers at NBC affiliate WAVY-TV in Norfolk, VA, in 1999. In an exclusive interview with AfterElton.com, he described those first steps out of the closet: "It's painful to open up and trust people with something I was guarding with everything I had. (but) most of my fears have been put aside because of the kindness of the people I work with."

• Good News! MSNBC Promotes Thomas Roberts to Full-Time Anchor [After Elton, December 20, 2010 ]

Ex-NHLer [Mike] Danton wins academic award (1980— ) [CBC, January 19, 2011]

Former NHL hockey player Mike Danton is on the path to redemption.

One year after enrolling at Saint Mary's University in Halifax, Danton received an Academic All-Canadian Award Tuesday night - based on his A average. ...

In 2004, Danton pleaded guilty in the United States in a failed murder-for-hire plot targeting his former minor hockey coach. He was sentenced to 7½ years in prison and was transferred to a Canadian penitentiary in 2009. ...

Danton, a Brampton, Ont., native born Mike Jefferson who has said in the past that he was raised in squalid conditions and abused, said he's been through a lot in his life, but he's back at the top of his game.

"Going through a lot of trials and tribulations, and battling to come out on top, and now winning a national championship last year and being an Academic All-Canadian, once again I'm up on top," he said Tuesday.

But the real pinnacle will come on Friday, Danton said, when his parole ends.

[Continued here]

• A little truth, a lot of rumours [CBC, November 30, 2005]
• Frost Bite [CBC: the fifth estate]

Ontario judge's showmanship leads to TV series [Globe & Mail, September 7, 2011]

The country's most media-savvy judge is going prime time.

After testing the boundaries of judicial timidity with an Internet talk show and a best-selling book on marital strife, Judge Harvey Brownstone will push the traditional role of the judiciary still further next week with a daring television series on family law.

The Ontario Court judge said he will be sufficiently flamboyant and candid to keep viewers glued to their screens - but not so much that he risks the ire of publicity-shy colleagues.

"That's the tension of the show," Judge Brownstone said in an interview. "I am constantly dancing on that high wire. I think there will be people who think I went too far on some shows. But there will be others who say: 'No, let him show that judges are human.' "

The show will cover topics ranging from sex addiction and domestic violence, to gay parenthood and parental alienation. ...

Grant Gold, a veteran Toronto family lawyer, said the legal profession tends to see Judge Brownstone as an entertaining educator who provides sound advice about legal processes. He said the judge has little to fear provided he stops short of giving legal advice on specific cases.

"To the extent that his goal is to educate the public, I think the TV series will be a big tool," Mr. Gold said. "You're not going to see him operating like a Judge Judy. I don't think he is doing this as a shock talk show for ratings. He's doing it as part of his role as a public educator. I don't think there is anything wrong with demystifying the family-law process."

Judge Brownstone became the country's first openly gay jurist when he was appointed 16 years ago. He has come to see himself as part adjudicator, part educator and part showman.

"I have a theatrical personality," he said. "I like performing. I like communicating with people in a way that is compelling and entertaining. I do it in the courtroom and I reach people on an emotional level. That's my gift. And I'm a good interviewer."

[Continued here]

• Going where no judge has gone before [Queen's University News Centre]

Justice Harvey Brownstone, Law'80, couldn't have made his point more effectively. As I stand waiting for the elevator doors to close in the North York, Ontario, court building where his office is located, two children enter with their mother, tears streaming down their faces. It's sympathy for children - the innocent victims of divorce - that prompted Brownstone to write Tug of War - A Judge's Verdict on Separation, Custody Battles, and the Bitter Realities of Family Court.

What's especially remarkable about the book is that Brownstone has gone where judges never go; he has spoken out publicly on an issue about which he feels strongly - the family law system - and does so in straight-forward, non-nonsense language.

"The judicial culture doesn't encourage judges to speak to the media or give speeches to the public. If we write, it's material for law schools or lawyers. This book is forging new territory," he says.

"A judge needed to write a book telling people how bad litigation and the adversarial system are for children, and for parents, too. By the time judges get a chance to tell people what they need to know if they're going to use the justice system, it's too late. My goal is to give people that information well in advance."

Spongebob: "Living down here is just so gay."



Spongebob Squarepants [Nickelodeon]

In 2005, a promotional video which showed SpongeBob along with other characters from children's shows singing together to promote diversity and tolerance, was attacked by an evangelical group in the United States because they saw the character SpongeBob being used as an advocate for homosexuality. James Dobson of Focus on the Family accused the makers of the video of promoting homosexuality due to a pro-tolerance group sponsoring the video.

The incident led to questions to whether or not SpongeBob is homosexual. In 2002, SpongeBob creator Stephen Hillenburg denied this, despite SpongeBob's popularity with gay men grew. He clarified that he considers the character to be "almost asexual". After Dobson made the comments, Hillenburg repeated this assertion that sexual preference was never considered during the creation of the show. Tom Kenny and other production members were shocked and surprised that such an issue had arisen. ...

Jeffrey P. Dennis, author of the journal article "The Same Thing We Do Every Night: Signifying Same-Sex Desire in Television Cartoons," argued that SpongeBob and Sandy are not romantically in love, while adding that he believed that SpongeBob and Patrick "are paired with arguably erotic intensity." Dennis noted the two are "not consistently coded as romantic partners," since they live in separate residences, and have distinct groups of friends, but claimed that in the series, "the possibility of same-sex desire is never excluded." Martin Goodman of Animation World Magazine described Dennis's comments regarding SpongeBob and Patrick as "interesting."

[Continued here]

• Stephen Colbert Defends the SpongeBob Squarepants Global Warming Conspiracy [Gawker, August 10, 2011]

In case you haven't noticed, it's been a really hot summer. But that didn't stop Rush Limbaugh from declaring the heat index a government-created liberal fallacy, or prevent the esteemed hosts of Fox & Friends from suggesting Nickelodeon is using SpongeBob Squarepants to indoctrinate children to believe in that whole global warming "hoax." And while most people with half a brain laughed at them, Stephen Colbert used tonight's Report to defend his science-hating friends.

• SpongeBob SquarePants Detained by LAPD [Gawker, September 15, 2011]

There have always been a few particularly bad apples amongst the never-ending parade of costumed ne'er-do-wells that loiter outside Hollywood's famed Grauman's Chinese Theatre. Past arrests have included that of a rampaging Chewbacca and a Spider-Man gone berserk. Now to those unseemly ranks we add yet another, for SpongeBob SquarePants was "questioned but not arrested" by LAPD officers on Tuesday after a "brief incident with two females."

The Teletubbies [BBC, February 15, 1999]

The innocent world of the Teletubbies is under attack from America's religious right.

The Reverend Jerry Falwell, a former spokesman for America's Moral Majority, has denounced the BBC TV children's show. He says it does not provide a good role model for children because Tinky Winky is gay.

Cheerful Tinky Winky, the purple character with the triangular aerial on his head, carries a handbag - but apart from that seems much the same as his friends Laa-Laa, Dipsy and Po.

The characters are famous for their use of baby language, including the catchphrases "eh-oh" meaning "hello", and "uh-oh" for "oh dear".

But the Teletubbies have made the Rev Falwell, chancellor of Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia, hot under the collar. He decided to "out" Tinky Winky in the February edition of his National Liberty Journal.

In an article called Parents Alert: Tinky Winky Comes Out of the Closet, he says: "He is purple - the gay-pride colour; and his antenna is shaped like a triangle - the gay-pride symbol."

[Continued here]

Taking notice of Irshad Manji (1968— ) [XTRA, August 10, 2011]

The last time I met up with Irshad Manji, she was on the promotional tour for her 2004 book, The Trouble with Islam Today. And because of the attention that tome was bringing her - including a large number of death threats - that she was accompanied by a husky bodyguard.

But for all the negative feedback, Manji's book certainly brought her a degree of celebrity. Oprah gave her a Chutzpah Award. The New York Times declared Manji "Osama bin Laden's worst nightmare." She penned op ed pieces for The New York Times, The Advocate and The Wall Street Journal. She was invited to teach at Yale, and then, subsequently, has become the inaugural director of the Moral Courage Project at New York University.

Her new book, Allah, Liberty and Love: The Courage to Reconcile Faith and Freedom, is in part an answer to many of her critics, whose angry emails she excerpts. She also steps up her call for an exhaustive reinterpretation of Islam - in particular, she chastises moderate Muslims for not challenging extremists more often and more adamantly.

[Continued here]

• Irshad Manji index [Globe & Mail]
• Muslim author in think tank call [BBC, May 12, 2005]
• Muslim Extremists Threaten Life of Lesbian Author [The Advocate, December 14, 2011]

A discussion in Amsterdam on Islam featuring activist Irshad Manji was interrupted halfway through when about 20 boys and young men burst in, spit at people, threw eggs, and threatened to break Manji's neck.

Manji, the Canadian author of The Trouble With Islam and Allah, Liberty and Love, was joined by gay Dutch MP Tofik Dibi at the Thursday discussion. Both speakers were protected by the audience when the extremists burst in - though neither Manji or Dibi left the dais.

"I never felt afraid," Manji was reported to have said. "Not once. Neither did Tofik. In fact, all of us refused to leave, even when police asked. We wouldn't play on Jihadi terms. Some things are simply more important than fear."

• Irshad Manji to get Muslim Canadian Congress award [XTRA, April 17, 2012]

Lesbian author and activist Irshad Manji will be receiving the inaugural Mansoor Hallaj Freedom of Speech Award from the Muslim Canadian Congress.

According to a media release, Manji will get the award for "her exemplary courage in standing up to repeated threats and challenges by Islamist groups in the US, Canada and Europe."

• Canadian author says Malaysia lost tolerance after difficult launch [Gay Star News, May 20, 2012]

Irshad Manji and her local publisher ZI Publications eventually managed to pulled off the launch for 'Allah, Liberty and Love' (Allah, Kebebasan dan Cinta in Malay) in front of a 50-odd crowd yesterday (19 May), after two other venues pulled out of hosting her.

The 44-year-old New York University (NYU) professor praises on Twitter the 'moral courage' of each participant, tweeting 'FANTASTIC event in KL! Great energy - except 4 cops who told latecomers that event is banned. Didn't stop us. Congrats 2 all.'

Political parties and non-governmental organizations have opposed her visit, claiming the Ugandan-born lesbian writer insults Islam with her writings and attitude.

Jamil Khir Baharom, minister in charge of Islamic affairs, also said Islam officials and the Home Ministry would not allow the author's roadshow upon complaints, citing her ideology and openly gay lifestyle. ...

In an interview with Free Malaysia Today, she says the Muslim-majority country's reputation as 'open, tolerant and pluralistic' is long gone.

She believes it was because the moderate Muslims are in fact not very moderate, saying they are not only 'useless' but that their 'silence and passivity' allow extremists to get away with violence and intimidation.

"For better or worse, I've always tried to march to my own drum and tell it like it
is, while preserving some integrity and style. God, I'm fabulous!"



Michael Musto (1955— ) [Wikipedia]

Musto began his Village Voice column in 1984, after having already written some feature stories for the publication. He is a recurring guest on several nationally broadcast television programs including Countdown with Keith Olbermann and others on the E! channel. He is openly gay and is published regularly in several LGTB publications, including Out Magazine and ShowPeople. He appeared in drag in a blue dress in the all drag queen music video for Cyndi Lauper's single "Hey Now (Girls Just Want To Have Fun)", and as a reporter in the film Garbo Talks. He wrote several articles in the Village Voice regarding the murder of Angel Melendez, bringing national attention to a case that resulted in the trial and conviction of Michael Alig and Robert "Freez" Riggs. On the June 14, 2007 episode of Countdown with Keith Olbermann, Musto coined the word 'celebutard' (combination of the words celebrity, debutante, and retard) to describe celebutantes Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan. He gave a cameo appearance in Erasure's 2010 re-release of A Little Respect (HMI Redux)', the proceeds of the of this release were donated to support students attending the Harvey Milk Institute.

[Continued here]

• the daily Musto [Village Voice]
• Interview: Michael Musto is Gay (and a Proud New Yorker) [The New Gay, April 28, 2011]
• Michael Musto: Press Whores Have Gotten Scarily Out of Control! [Village Voice, June 1, 2011]
• Michael Musto: Why I Hate Being Gay! 62 Reasons! (tongue firmly in cheek, folks) [Village Voice, June 22, 2011]
• Fork On The Left, Knife In The Back and Michael Musto At Heart) [South Florida Gay News, July 19, 2011]

For twenty-seven New York City years (127 elsewhere years), Michael Musto has delivered a reliably sparkling column called La Dolce Musto, the first thing most readers turn to when they open The Village Voice. Musto is fascinated by and in love with New York City, and NYC loves him back and embraces him completely as its Renaissance gay clown prince who knows all the good dirt. Simply, if Musto is preoccupied with someone or something, we should be too. In a city crawling with pouty Carrie Bradshaws, bless their hearts, Musto's entrance at any event is a benediction and a raised baton signaling the overture to greater fun.

• Lauren LaBorde talks to Village Voice columnist Michael Musto, who's coming to New Orleans to sign his new book during Southern Decadence) [Gambit, August 30, 2011]

As with many people hailing from colder climates, longtime Village Voice columnist Michael Musto has an anecdote of being impressed by friendly locals during his first visit to New Orleans.

        "I remember getting picked up, which doesn't happen in New York," he says. He was at Cafe Lafitte in Exile while in the city with a group of friends who stopped in New Orleans while en route to Las Vegas in the early '90s. "Not just because I got laid, but I found (New Orleans) to be very open and friendly. This gentleman just came up to me at Lafitte's and said 'You're handsome' and started chatting me up. I thought, 'This doesn't happen in New York.' People there are still a little full of themselves. Everyone thinks they're a VIP - especially me."

In his nearly 27 years covering gossip and nightlife in his column, Musto has positioned himself as being both a keen observer of those VIPs - whether they be club kids, reality TV stars, bona fide celebrities, drag divas or porn stars - and a bit of one himself. Musto is no mere fly-on-the-wall observer of events; in his columns he's another character in the pop culture circus he's reporting. He's a star in the LGBT community, and his frequent chiding of celebrities living in the "glass closet" (he coined that term in a 2007 feature for Out, in which he wrote about stars who are living as gay people but aren't officially "out" to the public) has earned him praise from some and ire from the closeted celebs he criticizes (a then-closeted Rosie O'Donnell once called him a "gay Nazi"). Generally, he's either loved or loathed.

Appropriately, his newest book Fork on the Left, Knife in the Back (Vantage Point Books) is dedicated to "to everyone who is still speaking to me." His second compilation of writings - mostly consisting of columns from the Voice and from his blog for the paper, with a few original essays thrown in - is a grab bag that spans the '80s to the present. He'll be back in New Orleans during Southern Decadence for a book-release party at the Country Club. Local drag bombshell Bianca Del Rio will host the party along with New York club promoter Daniel Nardicio ("He's been called the Willy Wonka of the East Village," Musto says).

• Michael Musto: Dish Warmed Over [The Advocate, September 7, 2011]

Since 1984, shrewd and self-deprecating humorist Michael Musto has written his "La Dolce Musto" column for New York's The Village Voice, tirelessly chronicling nightlife and celebrity culture both highbrow and low rent. As he celebrates the release of his new bookFork on the Left, Knife in the Back, his second collection of classic columns, the bridge-burning blogger and baron of blind items blabs about his hard-earned position as both historian and spokesman for the gay community.

• Michael Musto: My Most Embarrassing Moment Number 5284 [Village Voice, September 28, 2011]

Sometime in the 1990s, I was brought over to meet Shelley Winters at a publicity party.

She was the onetime bombshell who'd method-acted her way into two Oscars as she turned into a first-rate character actress adept at blowsy supporting roles.

I was introduced, naturally, as being from The Village Voice.

With that, Shelley started going for her third Oscar.

"The Village Voice?" she whinnied. "Someone from that paper trashed my last book!"

• Michael Musto: Dreamy Photo Of Me In Absolut Book [Village Voice, November 29, 2011]

A new book details Absolut's history as the cool, artsy vodka for the nightlife crowd, complete with devilish recipes.

And in it, there's the above photo of me looking surprisingly creamy and dreamy, maybe because even then I only drank in massive moderation.

• Michael Musto: What Do This Year's Acclaimed Movies Have In Common? [Village Voice, December 30, 2011]

They're all set in the past!

And my theory is that in a bad economy, people long to lose themselves in previous eras.

Even if it means exploring dark periods -- at least it's not now!

Zach Stark Speaks: Forced into Ex-Gay Boot Camp in 2005 (1989— )
[Truth Wins Out, May 6, 2008]

Zach Stark, who endured more than a month of involuntary detention in Exodus International's costly live-in ex-gayification program Love In Action, appears briefly in the upcoming ex-gay documentary This Is What Love In Action Looks Like, which is planned for release later this year.

Zach was 16 years old when he learned that he would be forced to live at Exodus International's "Love In Action" ex-gay boot camp in 2005.

He wrote the following to close friends via MySpace. He was known then only as a semi-anonymous youth named "Zach":

        Somewhat recently, as many of you know, I told my parents I was gay. This didn't go over very well, and it ended with my dad crying, my mom tearing and me not knowing what I'd done - or what to do.

        It kind of . went away for about a week or two I think. . Well today, my mother, father and I had a very long "talk' in my room where they let me know I am to apply for a fundamentalist Christian program for gays. They tell me that there is something psychologically wrong with me, and they "raised me wrong.' I'm a big screw up to them, who isn't on the path God wants me to be on. So I'm sitting here in tears."

His parents had bought into the parent-bashing of Exodus, Focus on the Family, NARTH, and thousands of misguided churches that buy into the ex-gay industry without reading the fine print.

[Continued here]

• 'This Is What Love In Action Looks Like' Takes Top Honors at Indie Memphis Film Festival (2011) [Truth Wins Out]

Filmmaker Morgan Jon Fox has been touring the nation this fall, premiering his six-years-in-the-making documentary This Is What Love In Action Looks Like. The film was inspired by the protests that began when a sixteen year-old named Zach posted a plea for help, after learning that his parents were forcing him into a now defunct "ex-gay" program called Refuge, run by Love in Action in Memphis, Tennessee. The sold-out hometown premiere in Memphis was Friday night, as part of the Indie Memphis film festival, and let's just say the film did well.

Lawrence Poirier: The First Gay Character in A Syndicated Comic (1993)
[Lynn Johnston: For Better or for Worse]

A sampling    +    +    +

Lawrence has been Michael Patterson's close friend and neighbour for many years. He has always been "the kid next door." For the longest time, he appeared consistently with Michael and his friends - but a few years ago, I began to find it harder and harder to bring Lawrence into the picture. Somehow, his life had taken a different turn and I couldn't quite understand why he wasn't still part of the gang. I began to concentrate on him, see his room, his things, his life.

I know all of these people so well. I know where their houses are, what their furniture's like, where they work. I know their voices, their mannerisms, their thoughts are open to me...and yet, I couldn't connect with Lawrence.

After "being" with him for some time, I realized the reason he was having so much trouble communicating with Michael and his friends was because Lawrence, now in his late teens, was different. Lawrence was gay.

[Continued here]

• For Better or For Worse's Lynn Johns[t]on: Gay character was inspired by a murdered friend [After Elton, August 27, 2007]

When asked about the inspiration for Lawrence's coming out, Johns[t]on explains:

        For me Lawrence had always been particularly [long pause] I don't know: gentle, unique, sensitive. It just seemed right - he just always appeared that way to me. Plus, I've had a number of friends who were gay, and what made me decide to do this story was that one of them [Michael Boncoeur] was murdered. Michael was a wonderful comedy writer for the CBC, and I had known him since we were in about Grade 8, and when Michael was murdered the authorities in Toronto reacted to it in a very cavalier manner - like "Well, that's one more of them off the streets." In the end, the young man who took a knife to him [following a scuffle over his bicycle] was ultimately seen as the victim.

"We have got to get the money back in public education so that they don't have to go with the
begging bowl to the local religious groups to find the walls for a school hall."



Michael Kirby (1939— ) [Wikipedia]

Michael Donald Kirby AC, CMG,... is an Australian retired judge, jurist, and academic who is a former Justice of the High Court of Australia, serving from 1996 to 2009. ...

Michael Kirby has been open about being gay since 1999, when he came out in Who's Who in Australia by naming Johan van Vloten as his long-term partner. Van Vloten, who migrated to Australia in 1963, has lived with Kirby since 1969. Kirby has often spoken publicly in support of gay rights. While President of the International Commission of Jurists he encouraged that organisation to give more consideration to human sexuality as an aspect of human rights, and as an Anglican he has expressed disappointment at his church's stance on gay rights. In 2002, at the Sydney Gay Games VI, Kirby was the keynote speaker at the opening ceremony. "The movement for equality is unstoppable. Its message will eventually reach the four corners of the world," he told a crowd of 35,000. In 2006, he attended the International Conference on LGBT Human Rights in Montreal, presiding over the Asia-Pacific Plenary.

In November 2007, Kirby accused the Anglican and Catholic archbishops of Sydney, Peter Jensen and George Pell respectively, of hindering the acceptance of gay people in Australian society, stating that homophobia was "reinforced even to this day by religious instruction, and it has to be said, religious instruction from the two archbishops of Sydney." Kirby also expressed disappointment in his "minority of one" status among his High Court of Australia colleagues, and indicated that "some of the justices perhaps have less liberal views than I have".

In both 2009 and 2010, Kirby was selected by readers of samesame.com.au as one of the 25 most influential gay Australians.

[Continued here]

• Michael Kirby: Paradoxes/Principles [The Age, April 23, 2011]

This is an important book about the intersection of law and politics in Australia in the postwar years. It is certainly favourable to Kirby overall, although the author is not frightened to confront some of the difficult aspects of the complex and driven personality that has led to such an extraordinary career in public life.

• The Hon Michael Kirby wins international justice prize [University of Sydney, June 17, 2010]
• Michael Kirby warns public schools not to rely on religious donations [The Australian, October 13, 2011]

"Any facilities that are necessary for teaching requirements of the school should be provided from public funds, they should not be provided from outsiders."

Religious incursions into public education "must be resisted" because public education "is very important for our democracy", he added.

"I have been in rooms, in classes, where children have said the worst kind of things, the
kinds of things that helped derive me to a suicide attempt when I was only nine
years old. These are things that hurt a lot."



Gay Teen Graeme Taylor Speaks Out For Suspended Michigan Teacher
[Huffington Post, November 15, 2010]

In honor of Anti-Bullying Day, Howell High School teacher Jay McDowell donned a purple shirt to show his solidarity with struggling gay teens after a spade of recent suicides nationwide.

According to a WJBK report, an inquisitive student asked McDowell why he had asked a fellow student to remove their Confederate flag belt buckle. The question prompted a discussion -- over the difference between Confederate symbols and gay rights symbols -- which ended in McDowell suspending two students who said they refused to accept their homosexual peers.

McDowell was reprimanded by school officials and suspended for a day without pay, according to the AP.

Fourteen-year-old Graeme Taylor, an openly gay student, came to McDowell's defense at a recent school board meeting.

[Continued here]

• Young Gay Student Stands Up for Teacher [Edge Boston, November 15, 2010]

The teacher, Jay McDowell, teaches economics at Howell High School, in Howell, Mich. A Nov. 9 MSNBC article recounted that on Oct. 20, a day when supporters nationwide wore purple to commemorate gay teens who had killed themselves after being subjected to anti-gay bullying, McDowell asked a student to remove a Confederate flag belt buckle. Although the student complied without protest, another student, Daniel Glowacki, 16, interjected and asked why the student with the belt buckle should be required to take off the Confederate flag buckle when other students were allowed to wear purple shirts.

According to media accounts, a heated exchange ensued, which Glowacki stating that he was a Christian and did not support the gay "lifestyle." McDowell told Glowacki to leave the classroom. But administrators subjected McDowell to punitive measures, sparking a controversy over whether McDowell followed school district policy regarding the disciplining of students and whether he trampled Glowacki's First Amendment rights.

"It was a teachable moment and there could have been a dialogue rather than ejecting two students from class," Ron Wilson, the school superintendent, told MSNBC, noting that Glowacki had voiced his objection respectfully and without resorting to anti-gay epithets.

• Alvin McEwen: Situation in Michigan Exposes the Religious Right's Greatest Fear — Strong LGBT Youth [Huffington Post, November 16, 2010]

When I was 14, I can't remember anyone of my age standing up boldly and declaring that they are gay or lesbian. Nor do I remember a teacher being put into a situation where he or she had to be defended for standing up for an LGBT student.

And I have to ask the simple question: Does this child look indoctrinated to you?

Does he bear the hazy glaze of someone who has been brainwashed and manipulated?

Does he sound coerced?

Certainly if we are to believe the words of the religious right when they spin the lies of how LGBTs supposedly "market our lifestyle" to children, he should be.

But he doesn't. Taylor is an intelligent child who speaks in a clear and concise manner that is neither forced or coached.

Tim Gill (1953— ) [Wikipedia]

Tim Gill (born October 18, 1953) is an American computer software entrepreneur and LGBT rights activist. ...

The passage of Colorado Amendment 2, designed to prevent laws banning discrimination against gays, in 1992 prompted Gill to become involved in LGBT political action and he is now the foremost leading funder in that movement. Based in Denver and Colorado Springs, his foundation is the Gill Foundation, formed in 1994,[4] and one of its projects, the Gay & Lesbian Fund for Colorado.[2] His political endeavors, which are separate from his charitable foundation, are directed through the Gill Action Fund.

[Continued here]

• The Gay Mogul Changing U.S. Politics [TIME, April 4, 2007]

Gill is a 53-year-old snowboarder, retired computer programmer and multimillionaire. He made his fortune (estimated at $425 million by Forbes magazine) by founding Quark, the pioneering desktop publishing software company. After selling the firm, he started the Gill Foundation, which has invested $110 million nationwide in gay causes over the past decade. The Gill Action Fund threw $15 million into a dozen states during the 2006 midterm elections, targeting 70 politicians regarded as unhelpful to gay causes: 50 went down. And the fund is helping transform the political face of Colorado.

George Soros is a long-time friend of the gay community and a generous patron



George Soros (1930— ) [Wikipedia]

George Soros... is a Hungarian-American financier, businessman and notable philanthropist focused on supporting liberal ideals and causes. He became known as "the Man Who Broke the Bank of England" after he made a reported $1 billion during the 1992 Black Wednesday UK currency crises. Soros correctly speculated that the British government would have to devalue the pound sterling. ...

Soros has been active as a philanthropist since the 1970s, when he began providing funds to help black students attend the University of Cape Town in apartheid South Africa, and began funding dissident movements behind the iron curtain.

Soros' philanthropic funding includes efforts to promote non-violent democratization in the post-Soviet states. These efforts, mostly in Central and Eastern Europe, occur primarily through the Open Society Institute (OSI) and national Soros Foundations, which sometimes go under other names (such as the Stefan Batory Foundation in Poland). As of 2003, PBS estimated that he had given away a total of $4 billion. The OSI says it has spent about $500 million annually in recent years.

Time magazine in 2007 cited two specific projects - $100 million toward Internet infrastructure for regional Russian universities; and $50 million for the Millennium Promise to eradicate extreme poverty in Africa - while noting that Soros has given $742 million to projects in the U.S., and given away a total of more than $7 billion.

[Continued here]

"Just by itself, the type of prolonged solitary confinement to which [Bradley] Manning has
been subjected for many months is widely viewed around the world as highly injurious,
inhumane, punitive, and arguably even a form of torture."



Glenn Greenwald (1967— ) [Wikipedia]

Glenn Greenwald... is an American lawyer, columnist, blogger, and author. Greenwald worked as a constitutional and civil rights litigator prior to becoming a contributor (columnist and blogger) to Salon.com, where he focuses on political and legal topics. He has also contributed to other newspapers and political news magazines, including The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The American Conservative, The National Interest, and In These Times. ...

In the same entry, Greenwald observes that he has been openly gay for 20 years and that, while he has lived in the United States all his life, he divides his time between New York City and Rio de Janeiro, the hometown of his partner:

        Revealingly, American law prevents the recognition of our relationship as a ground for him to live in the United States, while Brazilian law recognizes same-sex relationships for visa and immigration purposes. As a result, for the past year [2006], I have spent substantial time in Brazil while also having a residence in New York. Spending substantial time in another country does not make one an 'expatriate.' And even those American citizens who do give up American residence and live abroad retain full rights of citizenship, including voting rights. But I have not done so.

[Continued here]

• Glenn Greenwald index of articles [Salon]
• Glenn Greenwald: The leaked campaign to attack WikiLeaks and its supporters [Salon, February 11, 2011]
• Truthdigger of the Week: Glenn Greenwald [Truth Dig, March 4, 2011]

Andrew Hodges (1949— )

The ultimate success of all forms of oppression is our self-oppression. Self-oppression is achieved when the gay person has adopted and internalised straight people's definition of what is good and bad.

So begins the section on self-oppression contained in the London Gay Liberation Front Manifesto. For us it summarised all that was new and important in Gay Liberation - the realisation that inasmuch as we are agents of our own oppression, so we have power to overcome it.

This booklet aims to explore some of these ideas and to explain how, by oppressing ourselves, we allow homosexual oppression to maintain its overwhelming success. It begins where Psychiatry and the Homosexual left off; again it makes no attempt to identify the causes of homosexual oppression, only the means by which it gains its ends. Written by gays to be read by gays, its choice of subject means that it is critical throughout. But we hope that one thing will gleam through this criticism of our fellow homosexuals: that since self-oppression is the creature of oppression, our criticism is only a pale shadow of the anger we feel towards those who have trapped us into doing their work for them.

[Continued here]

• Andrew Hodges Main Page
• Andrew Hodges [Wikipedia]
• Alan Turing: The Enigma by Andrew Hodges [Paperback Amazon.ca]
• With Downcast Gays: Aspects of Homosexual Self-Oppression by Andrew Hodges and David Hutter

Interview: Isabelle Le Coz, founder of French lesbian publishing company KTM
[eurOut, May 1, 2011]

When I was a teenager, I discovered that there was lesbian literature. It was a revelation to me and totally rocked my world.

The novel that made me realize that I wouldn't be stuck with desperately straight characters was Lesléa Newman's Out of the Closet and Nothing to Wear, which I found by pure coincidence at my local bookstore and read until the book just went to pieces. The publisher was a small company going by the intriguing name of 'KTM'.

As the years went by, I discovered other authors and publishers, but have kept on buying every single title that KTM released. I trusted their editorial line and liked the fact that, contrary to most American lesbian novels that I bought, the books look gorgeous. Thick paper and beautiful covers: lesbian literature was no longer cheap.

[Continued here]

Rick Telfer — Simcoe, Ontario's not-so-accidental gay activist
[XTRA, June 15, 2000]

Rick Telfer is a hardcore homo academic.

"Universities are supposed to be generators of knowledge for society," says Telfer. "They are a place where a new kind of gay and lesbian culture can grow and thrive."

Telfer should know. He's finishing his Master's in sociology at the University Of Western Ontario. Located in London, it has some of Canada's top homo resources, with an established Faculty For Gay And Lesbian Studies, a Pride Library and even a homo alumni chapter.

And it's at Western that Telfer found his own courage to come out. Born and raised in the small town of Simcoe, Telfer says he was so sheltered he didn't know being openly gay was even an option.

"Coming out wasn't something I even knew about," he says.

[Continued here (Scroll down)]

• It gets better, says DDSS grad [Delhi News Record, 2011]
• Video: It Gets Better London [YouTube]
• Follow Rick on Twitter
• Rick's blog

Gay youth vying for vacant school board seat: Ward 17 trustee by-election set for Feb 27
[XTRA, January 5, 2012 ]

If elected on Feb 27, Tyler Johnson, 23, will be the youngest trustee in the history of the Toronto District School Board (TDSB).

As a gay youth, Johnson says he can relate to many of the everyday struggles students experience. Johnson's personal story includes time spent homeless on the streets of Toronto -- he was kicked out after his stepmother found out he is gay.

The former Pride Toronto youth coordinator is one of 12 candidates running in the upcoming Don Valley East by-election.

"I represent a very diverse minority group, and I have experienced a lot of what our students are experiencing, such as single-parent families, homelessness, and I am a queer youth of colour," he says.

Johnson grew up in poverty, moving through 14 different schools from kindergarten to Grade 12.

[Continued here]

Tommy Smythe's Master Vignettes [Apartment Therapy, September 14, 2010]

If you live in Canada and have the slightest interest in design, you know Tommy Smythe. Tommy is the sidekick to Sarah Richardson, one of the most high profile designers and television personalities up north. Besides working together at her eponymous firm, they star together on two of HGTV's most successful programs: Sarah's House and Sarah's Cottage. Tommy regularly appears in print, online and on television offering decorating and style advice. It's a cliche to say that one's space is a reflection of their essence. In Tommy's case, a description of his interior is an apt description of him: engaging, intelligent and urbane.

[Continued here]

• 20 questions with Tommy Smythe [Style At Home]

[Note: IMNSHO Tommy is Toronto's cutest gay guy. :)]

New Jersey Ex-Governor Jim McGreevey finds Niche Mentoring Inmates (1957— )
[Miami Herald, August 9, 2011]

For anyone curious about what Jim McGreevey is up to seven years after coming out of the closet to become the first openly gay governor and resigning over an affair with a male staffer, his simple answer is this: "Having lunch at Hudson County Correctional Center."

But the story of McGreevey's nationally televised fall from grace on Aug. 12, 2004, and subsequent search for a more authentic life is much more nuanced than that. His journey finds him, on weekdays anyway, inside one of New Jersey's largest jails.

McGreevey, 54, is the spiritual counselor to 40 female inmates who have been locked up for crimes ranging from manslaughter and gun possession to drug dealing. Almost all have addiction problems and pasts stained with sexual violence.

The women McGreevey counsels - he affectionately refers to them as "my ladies" - are enrolled in a pilot program aimed at reducing recidivism by addressing the problems that keep them coming back to jail: drug dependence, difficulty finding jobs, lack of decent housing, absence of psychological counseling.

"Prison ministry is something that spoke very deeply to me - allowing women and men to reclaim their lives, to go beyond our personal circumstances," says McGreevey, who was introduced to jailhouse mentoring after enrolling in an Episcopal seminary in 2007. Following the 12-step treatment model made famous by Alcoholic Anonymous, he encourages the women to find and embrace a higher power.

The once high-strung former governor bounces through the jail with ease, a knapsack flung over his right shoulder. On the sixth floor, he greets every woman in the program by name.

[Continued here]

• The Making of a Gay American [New York magazine, September 18, 2006 ]

I've never been much for self-revelation. In two decades of public life, I always approached the limelight with extreme caution. Not that I kept my personal life off-limits; rather, the personal life I put on display was a blend of fact and ?ction. I invented overlapping narratives about who I was, and contrived backstories that played better not just in the ballot box but in my own mind. And then, to the best of my ability, I tried to be the man in those stories.

In this way I'm not at all unique. Inauthenticity is endemic in American politics today. The political backrooms where I spent much of my career were just as benighted as my personal life, equally crowded with shadowy strangers and compromises, truths I hoped to deny. I lived not in one closet but in many.

Ironically, the dividing experience of my sexuality helped me thrive in that environment. As I climbed the electoral ladder-from state assemblyman to mayor of Woodbridge and finally to governor of New Jersey-political compromises came easy to me because I'd learned how to keep a part of myself innocent of them. I kept a steel wall around my moral and sexual instincts-protecting them, I thought, from the threats of the real world. This gave me a tremendous advantage in politics, if not in my soul. The true me, my spiritual core, slipped further and further from reach.

• Jim McGreevey's Priesthood Pursuit Put On Hold Indefinitely [Huffington Post, April 25, 2011]

Former Gov. Jim McGreevey, who abruptly resigned in 2004 after declaring himself "a gay American" and admitting an extramarital affair with a male staffer, has had his pursuit of the Episcopal priesthood put on hold indefinitely.

The New York Post reported Monday that the church has deferred his bid to join the clergy.

The church, which accepts gays and women into the clergy, wants McGreevey to wait so he can put more distance between his possible ordination and the fairly recent turmoil in his life: his coming out in a nationally televised speech, his resignation and a messy divorce from his wife, Dina Matos, in 2008.

The Rev. William Sachs, director of the Center for Interfaith Reconciliation in Richmond, Va., said it's "not unusual" for people to be deferred. Sachs said church officials would be interested in how someone with McGreevey's baggage would handle the ministry.

"How would he apply what he's learned to his ministry? Does he translate from being the person he was in the political realm to being in ordained ministry," Sachs asked. "It doesn't surprise me there would be an instinct to defer."

Neither McGreevey, a Democrat, nor the Episcopal Diocese of Newark would comment on his potential ordination, saying the process is confidential.

Gay Denver college student [Chris Daugherty] charts course to become military chaplain
[OutFront Colorado, December 19, 2011]

Speaking as a civilian, the 28-year-old served in both the Air Force and the Army. He stopped to listen to an Oct. 11 National Coming Out Day event on the Auraria campus where we first heard of his goal to become a military chaplain.

Fellow members of St. John's Episcopal Church in Denver, where Daugherty attends, were at the event and pointed Daugherty out, insisting he tell his story.

Daugherty seemed shy amidst the positive attention. Soft-spoken and modest with short-cropped hair, a polite Southern accent and manner - not to mention his large, thick-rimmed glasses - Daugherty was reminiscent of a simpler, friendlier era.

But palpable excitement built in his voice, then and every time since, when he described his Southern Baptist upbringing in Oklahoma, his journey out of the closet, and most importantly his desire to be a chaplain.

[Continued here]

Martina Navratilova (1956— ) [Wikipedia]

Martina Navratilova (Czech: Martina Navrátilová,... is a Czech American tennis player and a former World No. 1. Billie Jean King said about Navratilova in 2006, "She's the greatest singles, doubles and mixed doubles player who's ever lived."

Navratilova won 18 Grand Slam singles titles, 31 Grand Slam women's doubles titles (an all-time record), and 10 Grand Slam mixed doubles titles. She reached the Wimbledon singles final 12 times, including 9 consecutive years from 1982 through 1990, and won the women's singles title at Wimbledon a record 9 times. She and King each won 20 Wimbledon titles, an all-time record. Navratilova is one of just three women to have accomplished a career Grand Slam in singles, women's doubles, and mixed doubles (called the Grand Slam "boxed set") a record she shares with Margaret Court and Doris Hart. She holds the open era record for most singles titles (167) and doubles titles (177). She recorded the longest winning streak in the open era (74 consecutive matches) and three of the six longest winning streaks in the women's open era. Navratilova, Margaret Court and Maureen Connolly share the record for the most consecutive Grand Slam singles titles (six). Navratilova reached 11 consecutive Grand Slam singles finals, second all-time to Steffi Graf's 13. In women's doubles, Navratilova and Pam Shriver won 109 consecutive matches and won all four Grand Slam titles in 1984. Also the pair set an all time record of 79 titles together and tied Louise Brough Clapp's and Margaret Osborne duPont's record of 20 Grand Slam women's doubles titles as a team. In addition she won the season ending WTA Tour Championships a record 8 times and made the finals a record 14 times and won the doubles title a record 11 times. Navratilova is the only man or woman to have won 8 different tournaments at least 7 times. ...

In 1981, shortly after becoming a United States citizen, Navratilova came out publicly about her sexual orientation. During the early 1980s, she was involved with author Rita Mae Brown. From 1984 to 1991, Navratilova had a long-term relationship with partner Judy Nelson. Their split in 1991 included a much-publicized legal wrangle. Navratilova was featured in a WITA (Women's International Tennis Association) calendar, shot by Jean Renard with her Wimbledon trophies and Nelson's children in the background.

[Continued here]

• Martina Navratilova Tapped to Dance With the Stars: AARP ambassador steps out of her comfort zone [AARP, February 28, 2012]

Same-sex penguin pair fascinates [and disgusts Toronto] zookeepers
[Toronto Star, November 7, 2011]

Are Buddy (20) and Pedro (10), two African penguins at the Toronto Zoo, gay?

Not that there's anything wrong with that, but their keepers have noticed the two are inseparable, and perhaps most telling, they're showing signs of mating behaviours.

There are other cases of gay penguins - zoos in New York, Japan, Germany and Sea World Orlando have seen examples.

As part of an experiment a few years ago, Roy and Silo, two male chinstrap penguins at New York's Central Park zoo, incubated an egg together and raised the chick, named Tango, after she hatched. A children's book about them called And Tango Makes Three was a smash best seller.

But in Toronto, Buddy and Pedro's relationship, however you describe it, is destined to come to an end soon because they have a duty. They have top-notch genes, so the zoo intends to separate them from each other and pair them with females for breeding.

[Continued here]

• Separating gay penguins means survival of the species: zoo keepers [National Post, November 7, 2011]

Splitting up a pair of potentially homosexual African penguins and pairing them with females might sound anti-gay, but keepers at the Toronto Zoo insist they are simply trying to preserve the species. ...

"The two girls have been following them; we just have to get the boys interested in looking at them," said Tom Mason, curator of birds and invertebrates at the Toronto Zoo. ...

Pedro and Buddy's separation will only last as long as they can inseminate their respective female partners. While incubating eggs, the two may well be back "side by side." Once breeding season is up, Pedro and Buddy will "probably" ditch their female partners and reunite, said Bill Rapley, executive director for conservation, education and wildlife at the Toronto Zoo.

[Note: Those making such decisions at the Toronto Zoo have lost their ethical way, as it were.]

• Carlos Maza: O'Reilly Jokes About "Gay" Penguins: "They Wear Tight T-Shirts" [Equality Matters, November 17, 2011]

[And elsewhere in the Penguin-o-sphere]

• China's 'Gay' Penguins Given Baby Chick To Care For [Huffington Post, December 6, 2011]

As Metro is reporting, two "gay" penguins at Harbin Polar Land in northern China have been given a baby chick to care for, in an effort to help a struggling penguin mother who recently hatched twins.

Despite being "gay," the penguin couple -- whose union was even celebrated in a 2009 "wedding" -- will be naturally suited for raising chicks. Male penguins share the duty of incubating unhatched eggs with females in the wild, and this pair has become notorious for trying to steal eggs during the hatching season.

Undoubtedly, the Chinese penguins' case is similar to that of Roy and Silo, the two "gay" penguins at New York's Central Park Zoo who were eventually given a rejected egg after attempting to hatch a rock. Their story was also the basis for the controversial children's book "And Tango Makes Three."

Perhaps Buddy and Pedro, the Canadian male penguin couple, could learn a thing or two from their Chinese and American counterparts when they reunite after mating season.

• New Love Breaks Up a 6-Year Relationship at the Zoo [New York Times, September 24, 2005]

And Silo and Roy looked so happy together.

The two male chinstrap penguins had found each other in the big city. They had remained faithful. They had even raised a child. But then, not too long ago, they lost their home. Silo's eye began to wander, and last spring he forsook his partner of six years at the Central Park Zoo and took up with a female from California named Scrappy. Of late, Roy has been seen alone, in a corner, staring at a wall.

This tale of betrayal, sexual identity and penguin lust set in Manhattan has reverberated around the world. It has "rocked the gay scene," as the popular blogger Andrew Sullivan, who is gay, wrote in The Sunday Times of London this week. ...

Yet things began to fall apart in May 2004 after the two were kicked out of their nest by two aggressive penguins. They drifted apart, Mr. Gramzay said, and early in the mating season this year Silo found Scrappy, an import from SeaWorld who had been lounging around the aquarium since 2002.

[Meanwhile back at the Toronto Zoo]

• Toronto Zoo's celebrity penguin pair splits [Globe & Mail, December 12, 2011]

One of Canada's coolest celebrity couples has broken up. Toronto Zoo curator Tom Mason says same-sex penguins Buddy and Pedro have been separated for mating with females.

• Icy reception to penguin split [Same Same, December 19, 2011]

Buddy has seemingly moved on to female African penguin, Farai, with Pedro expecting to take Thandiwey as a mate in coming weeks.

The two recently got into a fight as they sat across from one another in their respective nests. It was mostly loud bawling, but there could have been serious injuries if not for a mesh between the nests.

The aggression has stunned Toronto zookeepers and people all around the world who believed Buddy and Pedro were in love, despite having viable mates in their enclosure prior to being split up.

[Note: The Toronto Zoo's 'anti-gay penguin' propaganda machine has shifted into over-drive.]

• Are Buddy and Pedro expectant fathers? Toronto Zoo keeping news of penguin eggs under wraps [Toronto Star, February 6, 2012]

Are Buddy and Pedro expectant fathers?

Last week, a senior Toronto Zoo official told the Star that eggs have been laid in the zoo's penguin house, abode to same-sex penguin pals Buddy and Pedro, their mates and a third penguin couple, Puff and Gozi. ...

The Star contacted the zoo's public relations department numerous times asking for more information.

"There are no updates on the penguins right now, but we will let you know when there is," said zoo spokeswoman Katie Gray in an email Monday.

Gray did not return follow-up questions specifically addressing the eggs and which birds they may belong to.

One reporter, at the zoo last week to visit a polar bear cub cast off by its mother, asked about the penguins and received this response: "We're only talking about the polar bears today. We're not talking about any other animals."

Carin Bondar: Ladies Need Not Apply: The Astounding Strength of Homosexual
Bonds in Zebra Finches [Huffington Post, March 2, 2012]

Certain animal species are both sexually and socially monogamous, meaning that strong pair bonds are formed between two individuals, and these bonds withstand the test of time. Among the most faithful pair-bonded species are zebra finches, which have been shown to forge extremely long-lasting and exclusive partnerships that end only with the death of a partner. Partners engage in several behaviours outside those involving direct sexual contact, including mutual preening, nest defense, and foraging. It has been observed that zebra finches are capable of forming both heterosexual partnerships and homosexual ones -- and researchers recently questioned the role of the sex ratio in determining the frequency of such affiliations. Not only were they interested in the frequency of same-sex partnerships in skewed sex-ratio conditions, but they were also interested in the nature of the same-sex partnerships: Are homosexual partnerships as stable as heterosexual ones? Do homosexual partners engage in the same ritualistic behaviors as heterosexual couples? How do homosexual and heterosexual relationships compare when it comes to attentiveness and intensity of interactions? ...

The first set of results was not incredibly surprising: when fewer females were present, males formed partnerships with each other instead. However, what is extremely interesting about this work is the careful observation of the nature of the partnerships. When it came down to measures of relationship strength, selectivity, stability, and attentiveness between partners, no differences were found in these qualities between heterosexual and homosexual partnerships. In other words, the bonds formed between partners appeared to be very similar, regardless of the sex of the partner. Same-sex pairs were found to utilize the same behavioral repetoire as their heterosexual counterparts, including allopreening, nest displays, courtship, and even copulation.

The last result from this work is little short of astounding. Once male-male partnerships had been established, females were reintroduced to the experimental cages in order to assess whether they had the power to "break up" the homosexual couples. It turns out that females could do little to tempt males out of their same-sex partnerships; males remained faithful to their homosexual partners regardless of the presence of extra females!

[Continued here]

Betty DeGeneres (1930— ) [Wikipedia]

Betty DeGeneres... is an LGBT-rights activist from New Orleans, Louisiana. She is the mother of Ellen and Vance DeGeneres, and the first non-gay spokesperson for the Human Rights Campaign's National Coming Out Project and an active member of PFLAG. She first gained notability following her daughter Ellen's highly-publicized coming out in 1997.

She is the author of two books, Love Ellen and Just a Mom. In Love, Ellen: A Mother Daughter Journey she describes her reaction to her daughter coming out as a lesbian, and her path from passive acceptance to becoming a passionate advocate for LGBT rights. She also describes the media scrutiny she received after Ellen came out. Her second book, Just a Mom continues these themes. She also writes a column for the website PlanetOut called "Ask Betty."

DeGeneres appeared as an extra in the television episode, The Puppy Episode, where her daughter Ellen's character comes out.

[Continued here]

• Ellen DeGeneres Helped Mom with Cancer Fight [People, September 27, 2007]

Ellen DeGeneres wants to help keep breast cancer out of the closet.

Recalling what it was like in the 1970s, when her mother, Betty, was undergoing treatment for the disease, the talk show host, 49, tells USA Today, "Everything was a dirty little secret back then."

With October being Breast Cancer Awareness month, DeGeneres adds, "The fact that she had a mastectomy was not spoken of. She tried to shield me from it a little bit, but she needed my help with recovery and physical rehabilitation. It bonded us even more."

• PFLAG National Welcomes Betty DeGeneres as the Keynote Speaker at the 2011 Convention!
[PFLAG, April 21, 2011]

Matthew Weaver wants to turn his gay dad's story into Broadway musical or movie
[New York Daily News, January 9 2012]

Matthew Weaver says that, after much soul-searching, he's ready to tell the story of being raised in the 1970s and '80s by his openly gay father, former Paramount Pictures marketing chief Gordon Weaver.

"It's a little 'Auntie Mame,' a little 'La Cage Aux Folles' and a little 'Kramer vs. Kramer,'" says Matthew, who explains that it was practically "unheard of" for an openly gay man to be raising an 8-year-old boy then. ...

On the ride back to New York, Matthew recalls his father "explained to me what homosexuality is," then told his son that they were headed to Fire Island, where Gordon was judging a drag-queen contest in Cherry Grove.

The producer adds that his father "wore mink coats to my soccer games" and let his son ride in the limo on nights when he went to Studio 54 with friends.

"He would walk down the street holding hands with his boyfriend, and tell me that if I didn't like it, I could walk on the other side of the street," Weaver says.

[Continued here]

• Movie Executive Shares His Experience With Ajijic Festival — 'The Little Engine That Could' [Guadalajara Reporter, July 19 2002]

The former president of worldwide marketing at Paramount Pictures rattles off a slew of reasons why he's so enamored with the Ajijic International Film Festival. First, says seven-year Ajijic resident Gordon Weaver, you don't have to be on an A-list to be invited to one of the festival's parties. Second, there's hardly any pre-screening: nearly every film entered in the festival gets shown. Third, it's a place where young filmmakers can come and meet fellow filmmakers from around the world. And finally, the festival isn't slick; it's inclusive, informal, "comfortable as an old shoe" and everyone is made to feel welcome. ...

Weaver's substantial film business credentials were forged while working his way up the ladder at Paramount during the studio's halcyon days of the 1970 and 80s. The studio picked up Academy Awards year-after-year for films such as "Terms of Endearment," "Reds," "Ordinary People" and the "Godfather" series, in no small part thanks to their impressive marketing campaigns.

Weaver recalls: "We had some magic going at Paramount in those days. With [Barry] Diller, Michael Eisner, Bob Evans and Charlie Bludhorn, we actually started to talk about movie campaigns. It was all very creative and supportive. These guys were willing to take time to talk for three hours about a campaign. Paramount became known for its innovative marketing, and was the first to make filmmakers part of the marketing process."

A match for the ages: Syracuse men to marry today after 52-year relationship
[Syracuse.com, October 14, 2011]

Frederick Marvin keeps a day book for every year. The 91-year-old Syracuse concert pianist has boxes full of the little blacks books where he wrote what he ate, what music he played, where he traveled and who he met.

In his Syracuse house on a recent afternoon, he pulled the book from 1959 out of his basement. He was 39. Marvin flips to April 22. Halfway down the page, amid details about his travels, is this: met Ernst Schuh. It was a meeting that would change his life.

They two men found each other in the Abbey of St. Florian, an Austrian monastery. They both were there to see the grave of composer Anton Bruckner. Marvin was traveling across Europe, playing concerts. Schuh, who survived the battle of Stalingrad in World War II, was an opera critic in Vienna.

[Continued here]

Issac Mizrahi (1961— ) [Wikipedia]

Isaac Mizrahi... is an American TV presenter, fashion designer, and was the creative director of Liz Claiborne. He is best known for his eponymous fashion lines. ...

Mizrahi was born in Brooklyn, New York, to an observant Egyptian Jewish family. His father gave him a sewing machine at the age of ten. At 15, he launched his own label, IS New York, with the help of a family friend. He attended Yeshivah of Flatbush, High School of Performing Arts and the Parsons School of Design. ...

Mizrahi, as of early 2010, could be seen on QVC selling merchandise. The clothes have been criticized for being low quality, "frumpy" and "unappealing.

[Continued here]

• Mizrahi's Red Carpet Routine raises Oscar's Ire [MSNBC]

Was it playfully outrageous, or just plain offensive? Live from the red carpet at the 63rd annual Golden Globes, E! correspondent Isaac Mizrahi groped Scarlett Johansson's breast, looked down Teri Hatcher's dress, asked Eva Longoria about her pubic hair and otherwise caught celebrities off-guard.

The openly gay fashion designer didn't mean to offend anyone, E! Networks President and CEO Ted Harbert told The Associated Press on Friday.

In fact, Mizrahi was just what the network ordered. He's already been assigned to carpet duty at the Academy Awards on March 5.

"I've hired Isaac because I felt the red carpet work on television, not just on E!, had become predictable, staid and frankly boring. What I wanted is someone who would bring surprise," Harbert said.

Sunil Babu Pant (1973— ) [Wikipedia]

Sunil Babu Pant is the first openly gay politician in Nepal. He is one of five members from the CPN(U) in the constituent assembly, and is also head of the Blue Diamond Society, the only gay rights group in Nepal. And at the meeting for The Yogyakarta Principles held in November 2006, he was one of 29 experts.

[Continued here]

• In Conservative Nepal, a Tribune for the 'Third Gender' Speaks Out [New York Times, September 19, 2008]

Sunil Babu Pant likes to take advantage of the frequent delays at Nepal's newly elected Constituent Assembly. As the only openly gay member, he takes every opportunity to work on his homophobic colleagues, trying to convince them that contrary to what they were taught growing up in this very conservative country, homosexuals are just like any other people.

• Interview with Sunil Babu Pant, CA Member [Centre for Constitutional Dialogue, June 24, 2010]
• Nepal's gay MP: 'Gandhi's sexuality doesn't matter' [Pink News, April 8, 2011]
• Nepal Gay Rights Rally Draws Hundreds [Huffington Post, August 14, 2011]

Hundreds of gay, lesbian, transgender people marched with supporters in a southern Nepal town Sunday to demand equal rights under a new constitution the country is in the process of writing.

The estimated 500 demonstrators danced, chanted slogans and marched around Narayanghat, a town about 100 miles (160 kilometers) south of the capital of Katmandu on Sunday, which is also Nepal's traditional festival of Gaijatra honoring the dead.

The gay community has been holding demonstrations on the festival day in the capital, but it was the first time that activists have organized a rally outside the capital.

Gay rights activists and parliament member Sunil Pant said their main aim was to spread their campaign outside the capital city.

Nepal, a traditionally conservative, mostly Hindu nation, has only recently begun accepting homosexuality. The country is also in the process of writing a new constitution which could include provisions to guarantee rights for the sexual minorities.

Pant said the major political parties have agreed to include the rights of the sexual minorities in the new constitution. However, the new constitution that was due to be promulgated last year has been delayed following differences among the political parties on various other issues.

In the town of Narayanghat, the rally was led by two decorated elephants which was followed by musical bands drawing the local people to the streets. Many of them wore saris that were bright red, pink, yellow.

They danced to the music, and holding banners that said: "Sexual rights for all. Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender right are human rights."

"We want spread awareness among the people in the rural areas too. People in the capital mostly accept the idea but we need to spread the awareness," Pant said.

Anee Lama, who had traveled all night on a bus from her hometown in east Nepal with her friends, said it there were positive changes being made in the country but there was still more that needs to be done.

"In the past three years we have seen a lot of changes for people like us. We could not have imagined taking part in a rally like this just few years ago or being accepted by family and friends for who we are," Lama said. "But now we are campaigning for the people in the villages and rural parts to come out and join us."

Until a few years ago, gays and lesbian and transgenders were not able to declare their sexual choice in the open. According to the Blue Diamond Society that advocates for sexual rights in Nepal, transvestites were beaten by both the public and police and were discriminated.

Pant said more people are coming out in the open to declare their sexual preference in the urban areas, but people in rural villages are still afraid.

• Nepal's First Lesbian / Gay Film Ever 'Snow Flower' Dubbed 'Brokeback Everest' [She Wired, November 16, 2011]

A tragic romance between a lesbian couple will be the first gay feature film in the 60-year history of Nepalese cinema. It also is the first time a French cinematographer, Sarah Cornu, has worked in a Nepali movie.

The movie, Snow Flowers, is directed by Parisian film-maker Subarna Thapa, and stars well known Nepalese actresses, Dia Maskey and Nisha Adhikari (R-L, below), in a story of two women in love but unable to come out and be together. ...

The complex issue same-sex couples face will be on the big screen for the first time. For Sunil Pant, the country's only openly gay parliamentarian, the film could be a breakthrough for society as well as the small local cinema industry, according to AFP.

"Nepal has always been tolerant and we are now really ready to treat each other equally," he said. "It's also about freedom of expression and our right to be able to watch films about our lives and issues. I am excited and can't wait to see the film released in Nepal."

• Interview: Jenni Chang and Lisa Dazols: Nepal's Sunil Pant Keeps His Country At The Forefront Of LGBT Rights [HuffPo, April 20, 2012]

Pant continues to push the envelope. This fall Nepal will be hosting Asia's first Gay Olympics. This will be Asia's first-ever multi-sport games for the LGBT community. Additionally, last month Pant launched a campaign to request Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg to create a third-gender category on user profiles.

A Few Best Men director [Stephan Elliott] comes out at AACTAs
[ABC Sydney, February 1, 2012]

His emotional statement never made the television broadcast but it was one of the most dramatic elements of the ceremony. ...

"Basically it was because I was scared of who I was. I basically was scared that I was gay. Even after Priscilla I stayed offshore basically because I was frightened of my family. And tonight I'm coming out."

The news was greeted by loud, supportive applause and looks of shock from his peers.

[Continued here]

David Mixner: Interview With Nathan Manske of "I['m] From Driftwood" Tour
[WGLB, January 24, 2011]

Inspired by the movie "Milk," young Nathan Manske, Marquise Lee and Nick Manske started a four month odyssey across America. The trio videotaped members of the LGBT community in all fifty states and complied them on a site called "I['m] From Driftwood" (the home town of the Manske brothers!) Recently they returned to home base in New York and are in the process of editing and putting the remaining stories on their site. In the process they have created a remarkable library of inspiration and powerful stories from LGBT Americans. Click here to go to their site for the videos, stories, to order their book and get a real look at LGBT Amercia.

Upon his return, Nathan Manske had lunch with me and answered a few questions about their experiences and journey.

1. What was the most hopeful place you visited? The most difficult place?

Alamogordo, New Mexico, was the most hopeful. It's a tiny town that made it feel like we were transported to the 1980's. There is a missile testing site nearby and a military base. A Republican headquarters is on their main street. It's where they tested the first nuclear bomb. It's also known for their many thrift stores, which seem to be on every block. It's hopeful, though, because the LGBT people we met--a devout Catholic mother who threatened to disown her lesbian daughter while hurling dishes at her but is now accepting and part of PFLAG, and a gay man who's the owner of a thrift store who's had customers swear to never come back after realizing he's gay--have no interest or desire in leaving their small town. It's a great feeling knowing there are people like that out there, all over the country, who are making a difference in even the smallest of towns.

The most difficult place was Morgantown, West Virginia, but only for story-related reasons; we had a very difficult time finding one. It was the week of Christmas and the town was pretty much deserted. We ended up reverting to finding someone on Grindr who agreed to share his story but was a little...eccentric. Long story short, we tried to met him outside of a bar, but he insisted we follow him to his house to film his story. That's where we met his friend, who was a 65-year-old woman who bragged about her concealed handgun license and the fact she was an ex-military sniper. After entering his dark apartment, and declining a drink, we ended up leaving immediately after finishing his story. I left a few details out but it was pretty scary. What I won't do for a story, I suppose... To be fair, though, he ended up being quite nice towards the end and gave us a blanket and scarf for the cold months ahead.

[Continued here]

• im from driftwood

George Smitherman (1964— ) [Wikipedia]

George Smitherman... is a Canadian politician and broadcaster. He represented the provincial riding of Toronto Centre in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1999 to 2010, when he resigned to contest the mayoralty of Toronto in the 2010 municipal election. Smitherman is the first openly gay Member of Provincial Parliament (MPP) elected in Ontario, and the province's first openly gay cabinet minister. In January 2011, he joined talk radio station CFRB as a contributor and fill-in host on the 'Live Drive with John Tory' show.

[Continued here]

• Smitherman set to say `I do' [Toronto Star, February 12, 2007]

Smitherman, deputy premier and health minister who turns 43 today, told the Star the nuptials will take place Aug. 5 at a wilderness resort west of Sudbury. He and his long-time partner, Christopher Peloso, a 33-year-old manager of retail operations for chocolate company Lindt Canada, were quietly engaged on Christmas Day.

• George Smitherman: A big bully the city needs? [Toronto Star, November 14, 2009]
• The Star's choices for Toronto mayor: George Smitherman [Toronto Star, October 17, 2010]

Smitherman's sometimes pugilistic nature is often deplored by his opponents, who have nicknamed him "Furious George." But there is another side to that coin: he can be tough-minded when he has to be. While rebuilding the health-care system in the wake of the Harris years, he also leaned hard on hospitals to balance their budgets. Today the hospitals salute Smitherman for being tough but fair.

[Note: Oddly Premier Dalton McGuinty didn't attend his "friend" George Smitherman's wedding. 'Some of my best friends are gay, but I wouldn't want someone I know to marry one' in action? Just wondering. Definitely odd.]

Open Secret: Conservative cabinet minister John Baird outed (1969— )
[XTRA, February 2, 2010]

In a live interview that aired Feb 2 on Metro Morning, a Toronto CBC-radio program, Pamela Taylor was put on the hot seat, asked to name any openly gay Conservative MPs or Ontario MPPs. The trick is, none are openly gay. She named John Baird, a Conservative cabinet minister who has always refused to discuss his sexuality in the media.

Baird is a familiar face in gay social circles in Ottawa. He regularly chats up queer bureaucrats at Public Service Pride social events. He's a friend of gay former Ottawa city councillor Alex Munter. He's attended Ottawa's Pride parties, including the 2009 parade.

In the media, he's often portrayed as a workaholic bachelor and is the frequent (though non-sexual) date of Laureen Harper.

Taylor is running in a Toronto-Centre provincial by-election to replace openly gay former deputy premier George Smitherman. That election is Feb 4.

Baird, 40, was first elected in 1995 as a provincial Progressive Conservative. In 1999, he became a cabinet minister under then-premier Mike Harris. Baird was responsible for the contentious welfare-to-work file during that time.

[Continued here]

• Rob Salerno: Open letter to Stephen Harper [concerning his party's It Gets Better video] [XTRA, October 21, 2011]

Then there's John Baird. Gee, this is awkward. Because at the end, Baird tells kids who see other kids being bullied that they should "be an ally, be a friend. Don't stay silent. Help them." Baird's actually been one of your most queer-friendly MPs, and we're really grateful for that. But then, you see, there's this whole thing... Yeah? Having Baird in the video is almost like saying, "It gets better as long as you never, ever, tell anyone you're gay."

Glen Murray (1957— ) [Wikipedia]

Glen Murray... is a Canadian politician and urban issues advocate. He served as the 41st Mayor of Winnipeg, Manitoba from 1998 to 2004, and was the first openly gay mayor of a large North American city. He subsequently moved to Toronto, Ontario, and was elected to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario as Member of Provincial Parliament (MPP) for Toronto Centre in 2010. In August 2010, he was appointed to the provincial cabinet as Minister of Research and Innovation.

[Continued here]

• Orientation no issue, gay mayor says [CBC, November 13, 1998]
• Glen Murray eyes Toronto mayor's chair [CBC, September 28, 2009]
• A queer's-eye view of Glen Murray [XTRA, December 4, 2009]

Take it from a Winnipegger: The man who wants to replace George Smitherman as MPP for Toronto-Centre, the riding that includes the country's biggest gay village, is a charismatic, commitment-phobic, power-hungry, eager-to-please crybaby who can't be trusted.

• Ontario MPP says no reason for gay politicians to stay in closet: Glen Murray had parent problems but has found success in running for office [Canada.com, November 5, 2011]

When Glen Murray told his mother he was gay, she collapsed on the living room floor of their Montreal home in a flood of tears and begged him not to tell his father. It was the 1970s, and homophobia was commonplace.

Murray knew his father - who once told him that he used to beat up gay people - wouldn't react well to the news, but the then-17-year-old said he never expected to be disowned.

"He didn't speak to me for almost three years," said Murray. "I was very young and frightened, and I was still dependent on my parents for financial support for school. There was a lot on the table. I felt terrible."

Today, Murray is a Liberal member of the Ontario legislature for the riding of Toronto Centre and a former mayor of Winnipeg and, since starting his political career in 1989, has been openly gay. He is, some would say, an exception.

Scott Brison (1967— ) [Wikipedia]

Scott A. Brison, PC, MP... is a Canadian politician from Nova Scotia, Canada. Brison has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for the riding of Kings-Hants since the 1997 federal election. Brison was originally elected as a Progressive Conservative but crossed the floor to join the Liberal Party in 2003. He served as the Minister of Public Works and Government Services from 2004 until 2006 in the Paul Martin government.

Brison has served as the Liberal Party's Finance Critic since September 2010. He is also a member of the Trilateral Commission and has been named by the World Economic Forum (WEF) of Davos, Switzerland, as one of its "Young Global Leaders." ...

When the 2000 election was called in October, Clark stood for election in a Calgary, Alberta riding. Brison returned as the PC candidate in Kings-Hants, and was returned to Parliament. In 2001, he served as the party's Finance and Industry critic, and was vice-chairman of the House of Commons Finance committee. Brison came out as gay in 2002, saying that he is "not a gay politician, but a politician who happens to be gay." He became the fourth sitting Member of Parliament to do so after Svend Robinson, Réal Ménard and Libby Davies. As well, he was the first openly gay MP to sit as a member of the Progressive Conservative Party.

[Continued here]

• MP Scott Brison marries same-sex partner [CTV News, August 18, 2007]

Former New Brunswick premier Frank McKenna saw significance in the wedding.

"Everyone involved felt like they were part of a history-making event," said McKenna. "It seemed like a validation of a long process."

Former prime ministers Joe Clark and Paul Martin -- whose government passed same-sex marriage legislation -- and former Liberal cabinet minister Bill Graham were among the other political notables in attendance.

• MP champions human rights in Colombia: Scott Brison says Canadian companies should combine aid and trade [XTRA, January 4, 2012]

Jeremy Dias creates scholarship with rights settlement [XTRA, June 16, 2005]

Turning homophobia into gold. That's Jeremy Dias' Midas touch. He's at the end of a struggle with Sault Ste Marie's Sir James Dunn Collegiate And Vocational School and the Algoma District School Board. And the University Of Ottawa student is turning his experience with schoolyard homophobia into something good - a scholarship fund for students who want to improve the world for queers.

Dias filed a complaint with the Ontario Human Rights Commission in November, 2002, alleging that Sir James Dunn staff members would not allow him to start school clubs to encourage a more positive environment for non-heterosexual students.

Dias came to Sir James Dunn in Grade 10, having recently moved from a suburb outside of Edmonton, Alberta. He'd come out young.

"I tried to establish a gay and lesbian program, gay social group, awareness, as well as education," he explains. "However, the administration kept on opposing it."

Dias approached the high school principal, the board's director of education and superintendent, and wrote then-provincial Minister Of Education Elizabeth Witmer. The superintendent, Carole McPhee, encouraged Dias to send her brochures and pamphlets about sexual diversity, but wrote him that "the board does not permit the posting of material advocating any specific lifestyle in classrooms or hallways."

[Continued here]

• Jer's Vision and the Day of Pink [XTRA]

Mario Silva (1966— ) [Wikipedia]

Mario Silva... is a Canadian politician and a former Canadian Member of Parliament. Silva is a former a Toronto City Councillor (1994-2003) and acting mayor. He moved to federal politics, being elected for the Liberal Party of Canada in the 2004 election in the Toronto riding of Davenport. He served as the Official Opposition Critic for Foreign Affairs (Americas) after having served as Critic for the Treasury Board and Liberal Critic for Labour Issues. In 2007, the President of the French Republic bestowed him the title of Knight of the Order of the Legion of Honour (Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur).

Silva holds a B.A. in Political Science from the University of Toronto, a "Certificat de Langue Francaise" from Paris-Sorbonne University, and a Master's degree in International Human Rights Law from University of Oxford in the United Kingdom.[1] Silva is currently a Ph.D. student in the Faculty of Law at the National University of Ireland, Galway, and is writing a thesis entitled "Restoration of Failed States: Addressing Competency Gaps." ...

Shortly after the election, Silva came out as gay in a Toronto Star profile.

[Continued here]

• Gay MP Mario Silva works to combat anti-Semitism [XTRA, June 2, 2009]

John A. Harnick: "Actually I've always resented Svend's great head of hair. It's really not fair."



Stressed MP Svend Robinson steps aside (1952— ) [CTV News, April 16, 2004]

Admitting he helped himself to a piece of jewelry at a recent public sale, veteran NDP MP Svend Robinson has announced that he's taking a leave of absence from his political duties.

Struggling to choke back sob at a Vancouver news conference, Robinson, 52, told reporters he has been suffering from "severe stress and emotional pain" since a near-fatal hiking accident in late 1997.

His personal problems culminated last Friday, he said, when he engaged "in an act that was totally inexplicable."

"I pocketed a piece of expensive jewelry," he admitted. "Something just snapped in this moment of total, utter irrationality."

Robinson said that, after a "weekend of great anguish," he has gone to police with his account of the event. The RCMP is investigating and will decided?whether to charge the MP.

"I will not seek to, in any way, avoid full responsibility for my actions should charges be laid in these circumstances," Robinson said, his partner Max at his side.

In the meantime, he said he "must devote my full energy and time to recovery and healing."

[Continued here]

• Indepth: Svend Robinson [CBC, October 21, 2005]
• NDP MP Svend Robinson charged with theft [CTV News, June 22, 2004]

The longstanding NDP MP who admitted "pocketing" a pricey diamond ring has been charged with theft. Svend Robinson is charged with one count of theft over $5,000 and is due in a B.C. court next month.

In a stunning news conference last April, Robinson was joined by his partner Max Riveron as he confessed pocketing the $50,000 ring at a public auction.

Describing "an act that was totally inexplicable," Robinson sobbed as he told reporters, "I pocketed a piece of expensive jewelry."

"Something just snapped in this moment of total, utter irrationality."

He reported the incident to police four days after the incident.

Gay journalist Johann Hari faces more plagiarism claims [Pink News, September 27, 2011]

Earlier this month, the Independent columnist published a lengthy apology for plagiarising numerous interviews but said he stood by the articles which won him the Orwell Prize.

He said he was handing back the award as an "act of contrition" for other mistakes.

Today, the prize committee said he would have been stripped of the honour, had he not handed it back before they could announce their decision.

The committee added that an article which won him the prize had been found to contain "substantial" stolen material.

[Continued here]

• Johann Hari leaves the Independent after plagiarism storm [The Guardian, January 20, 2012]

Hari had been undergoing retraining in the United States and was expected to return to the Independent next month but said on his personal website that he did not want to see colleagues taking the blame for his mistakes.

Prince Manvendra Singh Gohil (1965— ) [Wikipedia]

Manvendra's homosexuality was revealed to his family by doctors in 2002 following his hospitalisation for a nervous breakdown. However, it was when he talked publicly about his sexual orientation in 2006 that his family took action and accused him of bringing dishonour to the clan. The disowning, however, is likely to remain a symbolic act rather than legally enforceable disinheritance, given India's modern inheritance laws. He has been reunited with his father.

On 14 March 2006, the story of Manvendra's coming out made headlines in India and around the world. His effigies were burnt in Rajpipla, where the traditional society was shocked.

[Continued here]

• Young, single, gay prince seeks love [The Guardian, January 22, 2009]
• Gay prince finds true love, may get married in Nepal [DNA India, October 29, 2009]

The gay prince of Rajpipla, Manvendra Singh Gohil, is thinking of getting married, as he has finally found the love of his life. His boyfriend is 29-year-old Prajwal Miskin with whom he has been living for the last nine months. The gay couple say they are in a serious relationship and want to get married.

• Popular Articles About Manvendra Singh Gohil [Times of India]
• Indian Prince on Being Gay, a Royal and an Activist [Edge Boston, May 25, 2011 ]
• 'Undercover Princes' & 'Undercover Princesses' Premiering On TLC [Huffington Post, January 18, 2012]

Move over, Will and Kate. A new crop of royalty is looking for love and TLC will be capturing their romantic efforts on "Undercover Princes" and "Undercover Princesses," which premiere on Tues., Jan. 31 and Tues., Feb. 28 respectively.

Each series follows three single princes and three single princesses from around the world who go undercover in the UK in pursuit of true love, according to a TLC press release. They hit up bars and clubs and try online dating sites and even speed dating in search of their perfect match to take back to their respective kingdoms.

• Jenni Chang and Lisa Dazols: India's Royal Supergay: Prince Manvendra Singh Gohil [Huffington Post, February 6, 2012]

Michael Derry's "Troy" [Troy Comics]

First Look at Archie Comics' "Kevin Keller" Issue #1 [After Elton, June 7, 2011]

I was a big fan of Archie Comics' introduction of the longtime comic's first out regular gay character, Kevin Keller, who first appeared in Veronica 202 last fall (to big headlines and huge success). I thought it was a pivotal moment in pop history, which I said the strip's author, Dan Parent, handled just right.

Now Parent, and Keller, are back with a special four-issue series, Kevin Keller, wholly devoted to the character. And I think it's even better than Kevin's introduction.

[Continued here]

• Archie Comics' Gay Character Gets Full Series [Gawker, July 19, 2011 ]

Citing the popularity of the character, Archie has decided to throw more penis around and give Kevin his own monthly series. So big gay Kevin is following in the footsteps of Jughead, Betty, Veronica, and all the other Pals 'n' Gals before him who got their own shot at stardom. Kevin's plotlines will deal with his military dad and his own desire to join the military, and probably also with eating hamburgers at Pop's and doing silly things to avoid getting in trouble with Miss Grundy.

• Being Gay in Riverdale: Creator of 'Archie' Character Gives the Backstory [New York Times, July 22, 2011]

Q.    How did the creation of Kevin Keller come about? Have you been surprised about the reaction? What's been the best and worst experience you've had related to his creation?

A.    The whole Kevin thing came up pretty organically. I had an idea in the back of my head about Veronica chasing the "unobtainable" guy. In her case, a gay guy. And the humor would stem in everybody knowing it except Veronica. At the same time, our fearless leader, Jon Goldwater was looking to bring more diversity to Riverdale, so things just seemed to meld together.

• Archie Comics' Gay Character Kevin Keller To Wed In January [Comics Alliance, September 14, 2011]
• Kevin Keller, Gay Archie Character, Gets Married In January Issue [Huffington Post, November 25, 2011]

The January issue's cover illustration shows Kevin Keller, Riverdale's first openly gay character who is also an active U.S. military officer, tying the knot with his African-American partner, Clay Walker. ComicsAlliance reported in October that the story of the couple's meeting, said to take place in a military hospital, "obviously deals with ['Don't Ask, Don't Tell'] but it doesn't spell it out for the reader," and may be revealed in flashback, according to Archie Comics CEO Jon Goldwater.

• American Family Association Targets Toys R Us over Gay Couple in Archie Comics [Right Wing Watch, February 28, 2012]

After failing to convince JC Penney to fire Ellen DeGeneres as their spokesperson because she is openly gay, now the American Family Association's group One Million Moms is putting Toys R Us in its crosshairs for selling an Archie comic book that features a same-sex marriage. The group demands that Toys R Us "remove all the same-sex 'Just Married - Archie' comic books immediately from your shelves" before children are "exposed to same-sex marriage." ...

• Bryan Young: An Interview With the CEO of Archie About the Boycott and Politics in Riverdale [HuffPo, March 8, 2012]

In the past two years, Archie comics has grown from what was viewed as an anachronisim to the most supportive and all-inclusive universe in comicdom. From bringing Barack Obama and Sarah Palin together to discuss their differences over a milkshake to promote civility, to having a same-sex wedding in a critically acclaimed issue of Life With Archie. ...

BY: How did the decision to have Kevin get married come about?

JG: It really stemmed from the fact that Kevin had become such a key part of Archie and Riverdale. People kept asking about Kevin. "What's Kevin doing in the future?" We wanted to give the story we started with Kevin's early appearances a happy, loving and new chapter. We wanted to show that things worked out for Kevin - and, in a way, that things can work out for people who find themselves in a similar position to him. Things get better. Not everyone can live in a place like Riverdale - where you're not judged or treated harshly because of who you are - but we're going to continue to show the potential and hope that a place like Riverdale provides.

So, I sat down with our Editor in Chief Victor Gorelick, President Mike Pellerito, Kevin Keller's writer/artist Dan Parent and Life With Archie writer Paul Kupperberg and we hashed it out. We knew we wanted Kevin's appearance to not only bring the two timelines together, but we also wanted it to be a natural progression for him. Once the idea of him getting married - and allowing us to speak out on not only gay marriage but gays in the military and everything else Kevin's own series had been working toward - was thrown out, we were sold and pushed forward with it. It's really been an organic and story-based initiative. We always want to stay true to Kevin and show him living his life like any other character in our books, because that's what he is: a normal kid growing up and, eventually, finding love and happiness. It's what we'd wish for all our characters.

(Click on image to enlarge)

Meet the Hams: Two Arizona gay men who have adopted 12 children [Daily Mail, May 6, 2011]

For many couples, one child is enough. For others, two or three is ideal.

But Roger and Steven Ham say that after adopting 12 children, they finally feel their family is complete.

[Continued here]

It was their FIRST KISS: Gay marines [Sargent Brandon Morgan and Dalan Wells] in homecoming clinch reveal they fell in love online while one of them was serving in Afghanistan
[Daily Mail, February 29, 2012]

The gay marine whose homecoming kiss with his boyfriend went viral yesterday has revealed that their passionate embrace was the couple's first ever.

Sgt Brandon Morgan, of Oakdale, California, told Khon2.com how a four year friendship with Windward Oahu artist Dalan Wells turned to long-distance love while he was serving with the US Marines in Afghanistan.

He said: 'We couldn't talk, I can barely talk now, his hands went numb, my legs were shaking, our first kiss after just knowing how we felt about each other'

The iconic image of Sgt Morgan leaping into the arms of boyfriend Dalan Wells was taken by friend Dave Lewis and posted onto Facebook.

Since going live on Saturday the photo has received thousands of comments and tens of thousands of 'likes' or shares.

Morgan added: 'Most of the responses have been like oh my god I can't believe you're in love, congratulations. My mom's happy that I'm finally happy, my parents are ecstatic.' ...

Morgan and Wells follow in the footsteps of Petty Officer 2nd Class Marissa Gaeta of California and Petty Officer 3rd Class Citlalic Snell of Los Angeles who in December became the first lesbian couple to share the traditional home coming first kiss.

[Continued here]

Letter to Newt Gingrich: "I must say, after years of watching you build your career by
stirring up the fears and prejudices of the far right, I feel compelled to use the
words of your idol, Ronald Reagan, 'There you go, again.' "



Candace Gingrich (1966— ) [Wikipedia]

Candace Gingrich-Jones... is an American LGBT rights activist at the Human Rights Campaign. She is the half-sister of former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, who is more than 20 years her senior. (She pronounces her name "Gingrick").

She served as the Human Rights Campaign's National Coming Out Project Spokesperson for 1995 and was named one of Esquire's "Women We Love" and Ms. magazine's "Women of the Year." She is currently the Human Rights Campaign's Youth & Campus Outreach Senior Manager. She is the author of an autobiography, Accidental Activist: A Personal and Political Memoir. ...

She lives with her wife, Rebecca Gingrich-Jones, in Hyattsville, MD, where she plays rugby with the Washington Furies. Occasionally she returns home to Harrisburg to visit her favorite niece, Emily.

[Continued here]

• Candace Gingrich: A Letter to My Brother Newt Gingrich [Huffington Post, April 10, 2008]

Dear Newt,

I recently had the displeasure of watching you bash the protestors of the Prop 8 marriage ban to Bill O'Reilly on FOX News. I must say, after years of watching you build your career by stirring up the fears and prejudices of the far right, I feel compelled to use the words of your idol, Ronald Reagan, "There you go, again."

However, I realize that you may have been a little preoccupied lately with planning your resurrection as the savior of your party, so I thought I would fill you in on a few important developments you might have overlooked.

• Ten Money Questions for Candace Gingrich [Queer Cents, November 22, 2008]
• Rachel Maddow Interviews Candace Gingrich [The Advocate, December 8, 2011]

Candace Gingrich-Jones, the lesbian half-sister to Newt Gingrich, said she wouldn't be surprised if he used LGBT issues to get ahead politically.

"I wouldn't put it past any of the GOP presidential candidates," she told Rachel Maddow tonight on MSNBC. "It's historically been one of the things - a tactic - that's used."

"I'm used to being in the minority. I'm a left-handed gay Jew. I've never felt,
automatically, a member of any majority."



Barney Frank to Quit House After 30 Years (1940— ) [New York Times, November 28, 2011]

Representative Barney Frank, the tart-tongued liberal who has served in the House of Representatives for 30 years, said Monday that he had decided to retire in 2012 after his Massachusetts district was recently redrawn and it became clear that he would have to fight harder than he wanted for re-election.

Mr. Frank, 71, said he had intended to serve one more term but after seeing his, redrawn district, which would give him more than 300,000 new constituents and would not include New Bedford, one of his mainstays, he changed his mind.

In a rambling news conference at city hall in Newton, his home base, Mr. Frank also said a potentially tough re-election battle would have distracted him from his policy priorities, like pushing for federal deficit reduction to include cuts in military spending and continuing to advocate for changes in the financial industry.

"The need to campaign in a district that is almost half new conflicts with that," he said. "If I were to run again, I would be engaged full-fledged in a campaign, which is entirely appropriate. Nobody ought to expect to get elected without a contest. But the fact that it is so new makes it harder in terms of learning about new areas, introducing myself to new people. And I have other obligations; one is to continue to serve the people I currently serve."

Mr. Frank's Fourth District currently falls mostly in southern Massachusetts but includes the famously liberal Boston suburbs of Brookline and Newton. Under the new redistricting plan that Gov. Deval Patrick signed into law last week, the district will gain some conservative towns, though it will still have a strong Democratic voter presence.

[Continued here]

• Barney Frank's War of Words With Wall Street [New York Times, November 28, 2011]

Here's are some of his greatest hits.

On Wall Street's response to the harsh rhetoric circling the industry:

        "I hate to say this, but the impression I get most is that their feelings are hurt. Mostly what I get is, 'Oh, you were rude to us. You said we were fat cats'.Get over it. I'm in the kind of business where people say rude things about us all the time." - as told to DealBook

• Barney Frank leaves his mark on economic policy, gay rights movement [Washington Post, November 28, 2011]

On the left Frank was a hero both for his effort to rein in the nation's largest banks and for his role in promoting gay rights, having been the first member of Congress to declare his sexual orientation while in office. On the right, Frank became a stand-in, alongside Pelosi and Kennedy, for attack lines designed to gin up conservative activists.

• Rebecca Juro: Thank You, Barney Frank [Huffington Post, December 2, 2011]
• Michelangelo Signorile: Barney Frank Sounds Off On Retirement, His Sex Scandal With A Hustler, Anthony Weiner, Mitt Romney And More [Huffington Post, December 3, 2011]
• Barney Frank To Marry Long-Time Partner [Jim Ready] In Massachusetts [Think Progress, January 25, 2012]

Keith Boykin (1965— ) [Wikipedia]

Keith Boykin... is an American broadcaster, author and commentator. He is editor of The Daily Voice, a CNBC contributor, and a co-host of the BET TV talk show My Two Cents. ...

A former White House aide to President Bill Clinton, Boykin was raised in St. Louis, Missouri, and attended Countryside High School in Clearwater, Florida, before graduating from Dartmouth College.

After leaving Dartmouth in 1987, Boykin spent a year and a half working for Michael Dukakis' presidential campaign and then entered Harvard Law School, where he was a leader in the campus diversity movement and general editor of the Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review. He received his J.D. from Harvard in 1992 and then joined the Clinton/Gore Campaign in Little Rock, Arkansas. After Clinton's election, Boykin became a Special Assistant to the President and Director of Specialty Media. Once the highest-ranking openly gay person in the Clinton White House, Boykin helped organize and participated in the nation's first meeting between gay and lesbian leaders and a U.S. President.

[Continued here]

• Author Keith Boykin's new book: For Colored Boys Who Have Considered Suicide When The Rainbow Is Still Not Enough [Daily Voice, May 19, 2011]
• for colored boys who have considered s-curls when the hot comb was enuf [SF Weekly, May 23 2001]

Spanning the time period from African roots to American slavery to snap divas, Marvin K. White's for colored boys may be an "homage" to Ntozake Shange's classic choreo-poem "for colored girls who have considered suicide when the rainbow is enuf," but the title alone telegraphs that this ain't no show about Black Women's Pain. No, honey, this is all about the African-American gay male experience.

The Brant Brothers [Peter and Harry]: The World's Luckiest Teenage Homosexuals
[Gawker, January 31, 2012]

It's official, I am completely obsessed with openly gay socialite Peter Brant II and his (potentially gay) younger brother Harry. Screw Glee's Kurt Hummell, every gay teen on earth pretty much wishes they were either of these kids. They're just spectacularly amazing.

I want to write a young adult novel series based on these two called Gossip Gays about them being young and attractive and rich and just downright awesome as they flutter from St. Bart's to New York to Paris, attending all the best parties and sneaking champagne on the sly. (All lit agents out there, that is a serious pitch.) The pair are the progeny of billionaire Peter Brant Sr and supermodel Stephanie Seymour. They will one day potentially be worth worth billions on their own-if they don't spend all their money on clothes first.

We met Peter Brant II (he's way too luxe to be a "Jr") last year when pictures of him getting close to his mother on the beach surfaced. We instantly fell in love with him after he told everyone in the media they were "gross" for insinuating that he had an inappropriate relationship with his mother. At the time he described himself on his Facebook page as a "Designer, Art Collector, Socialite, and Model." He's a graduate of Greenwich High School where, I assume, his brother attends now.

[Continued here]

• Teen Fashion Plate Harry Brant On Miu Miu's FNO Party and Being a Shopaholic [Paper Mag, September, 2011]

PM Do you love Fashion's Night Out or is it too overwhelming?

HB I love Fashion's Night Out! I think its so much fun to go around New York at night perusing all the shops. It's like the fashion world is having a block party. What's not to love?

Missing Teen With Autism Found In A West Hollywood [Gay] Bar
[Huffington Post, October 20, 2011]

The search for a 14 year-old boy who went missing in Burbank ended after he was spotted at a popular gay bar in West Hollywood.

Smith went missing Wednesday morning from Bob Hope Airport in Burbank after his parents dropped him off and watched him board a SkyWest Airlines flight to Salt Lake City, Utah. The teen, who has autism, attends a specialized school in Salt Lake City, according to The Burbank Leader.

His commuter flight had returned to the gate after boarding due to undisclosed mechanical issues, at which point the passengers deplaned. Smith's parents were unaware of this, and since they did not pay an unaccompanied minor fee, lied about his age and did not reveal that Smith suffered from autism, no one on the flight crew was assigned to monitor him, reports ABC News.

Once Smith had exited the airport, KTLA reports that he borrowed money from strangers to take an MTA bus to Hollywood.

The teen was later found outside of Pizza Rustica on the 8900 block of Santa Monica Boulevard in West Hollywood, after being spotted at The Abbey by someone who recognized him from news reports. The teen was trying to order a vodka and orange juice from manager Nick Lambert, who then reported his location to the authorities, reports KTLA.

Originally thought to be unintentional, it turns out Smith was attempting to run away. "He did not want to go back to the school he was at, and this was an opportunity for him," Burbank police Sgt. Darin Ryburn told KTLA.

Cameron James Smith was in "good condition" when located and "was being transported back to Burbank," reports the Associated Press.

[Continued here]

• Autistic boy reported missing from Bob Hope Airport [Burbank Leader, October 19, 2011]
• Autistic Teen, Cameron James Smith, Found After Wandering From Burbank Airport [ABC, October 19, 2011]
• Autistic Teen Runs Away from Burbank Airport, Found in WeHo Bar [KTLA, October 19, 2011]

"I just finally got to a place in my life where I was able to put my needs above
everybody else's and learn how to really take care of myself first."



Chaz Bono (1969— ) [Wikipedia]

Chaz Salvatore Bono (born Chastity Sun Bono...) is an American transgender advocate, writer, actor, and musician. Bono is the only child that American entertainers Sonny and Cher begot together, though each begot other children.] Bono is a female-to-male transgender man.

[Continued here]

• 'Becoming Chaz' tells the complicated, touching story of Chaz Bono's sex change [Los Angeles Times, January 24, 2011]
• From Chastity to Chaz: Sonny and Cher's Child On His Sex-Change Operation [Time, May 9, 2011]
• How Chaz Bono, Cher's son, became a man - and possibly a transgender icon? [Los Angeles Times, May 6, 2011]
• Chaz Bono Talks Becoming Chaz and Apologizes to Michael Chiklis [New York magazine, May 10, 2011]
• Cher "traumatised" by Chaz Bono's sex change [Digital Spy, May 11, 2011]
• The Reluctant Transgender Role Model [New York Times May 8, 2011]
• Trans Framing, or why Chaz Bono doesn't speak for me [Daily Kos, May 14, 2011]
• Chaz Bono Through the Years [Life magazine]
• Chaz Bono Joining 'Dancing With The Stars' (confirmed) [Huffington Post, August 27, 2011]
• Dancing With the Stars Boss on Chaz Bono Controversy: Give Him a Chance [E! Online, September 1, 2011]

His mother Cher has defended him. His Dancing With the Stars partner Lacey Schwimmer has defended him. Now, it's Chaz Bono's executive producer's turn to defend his right to put on his dancin' shoes.

We just spoke with DWTS EP Conrad Green about the backlash, the decision to cast Chaz and what the atmosphere is currently like on-set. He also has a message for fans thinking about sitting this season out: You're really going to be missing out.

"We've always invited a really broad range of people onto the show," Green explained of the show's casting process. "We've had people from every sort of edge of the political spectrum; we've had people from all types of professions within show business."

Of the decision to bring Chaz onto the show, Green said, "We thought Chaz's story was pretty compelling. He comes from Hollywood royalty and obviously the personal changes in his life have been quite profound. He's a remarkably strong character because of it. We think he's about as interesting a person to have on the show. While there's quite a bit of fuss now, I think once the show's underway, people will either root for Chaz because of his dancing or not."

• Chaz Bono's 'Dancing' Turn Assailed [Edge Boston, September 2, 2011]

Anti-gay groups are already assailing Chaz Bono's inclusion on the upcoming season of "Dancing With the Stars."

Bono's inclusion in the reality program's 13th season was announced on Aug. 29. Foes of GLBT equality were quick to attack the decision. The simple inclusion of Bono was seen by some as a political statement, and vilification followed.

"OneMillionMoms.com, which says its goal is to 'stop the exploitation of our children, especially by the entertainment media,' says Dancing with the Stars has 'gone too far' by casting Bono and the openly gay Carson Kressley," ABC News reported on Sept. 1. "The organization is asking people who visit the site to email ABC and 'let them know that we will not tolerate' lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender issues 'being forced into our homes.' "

OneMillionMoms.com also announced a faith-based boycott of the program, declaring Bono's presence on the small screen "completely unacceptable and Christians should not watch the show, no excuses!"

"We will not be able to watch the show with Chaz on there," the group's leader, Monica Cole, said during an appearance on the Aug. 31 episode of "Inside Edition." ...

Those who feared that the program might no longer be "safe" for their children need not worry, Bragman said.

"Watching Chaz Bono dance is not going to make your kid transgender," Bragman told "Good Morning America" host George Stephanopoulos. "But what it can do is possibly save your kid's life because young transgender kids, kids with gender identity issues, have a huge suicide rate and if they see one positive influence, one positive role model, this can save lives and that's why Chaz is here."

"It's made me realize I'm really glad I'm doing this, because America really needs to see this," Bono said. He has been partnered with Lacey Schwimmer for the show's dance performances.

• Chaz Bono to Be Honored at L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center's 40th Anniversary Gala [Market Watch, October 10, 2011]
• Paulina Porizkova: Chaz Bono Has 'Dancing With The Stars' Sympathy Vote [Huffington Post, October 19, 2011]

So what does she think about Chaz Bono?

"He's got a good sympathy vote, that's for sure!" says Paulina. "In order to be the best, you have to be mediocre. You have to have a little bit of this, a little bit of that, and meet in the middle."

• Backstage at DWTS: Chaz Bono "Upset" With Judges' Comments While Mom Cher "Could Cut a Bitch!" [E! Online, October 25, 2011]

Looks like Maksim Chmerkovskiy isn't the only dancer on Dancing With the Stars to feel frustration with the judges this season.

Chaz Bono and Lacey Schwimmer still had a few choice words of their own to share with us after the show, and you won't believe what message Chaz's mom, Cher, had for the judges...

We were upset, not with the scores but with the comments toward me personally," Chaz told us after he got eliminated tonight, referring to Bruno Tonioli's likening Chaz to a cute, fluffy penguin. "We thought we did a good job [last night]."

"The judges always have a favorite or two," Lacey lamented. "We are just not that couple this season."

[Note: You did good, bro, but it WAS time for you to go. Past time, really. Just because your heart's in the right place doesn't mean that your feet are too. Says he with two left feet. :)]

• Chaz Gracefully Exists 'Dancing With The Stars' [LGBT|POV, October 26, 2011]

Talk about grace and integrity. At Tuesday night's elimination on ABC's "Dancing With The Stars," transgender star Chaz Bono was not only cool under pressure, but dedicated his entire performance to "people out there like me." He said:

        I came on this show because I wanted to show America a different kind of man. I know that if there was somebody like me on TV when I was growing up, my whole life would have been different. So I dedicate everything I did to all the people out there like me, and especially the kids and teens who are struggling. You know you can have a wonderful, great life and be successful and happy.

• Naughty But Nice Rob: Chaz Bono Talks 'Dancing With The Stars,' 'Being Chaz,' Co-Star Crush [Huffington Post, November 16, 2011]

"My mom was really into it," Chaz said. "When you grow up with Cher as your mother -- she's the performer in the family. My relatives laughed and asked, 'do you dance.' I had tremendous support from her. She got me through it, especially when I hurt my knee."

But Chaz was quick to admit that it wasn't an easy life growing up with Cher as a mother, saying that anyone who gets to where she is in her career has to make showbiz their priority -- but Chaz said he holds no ill will.

Bruno Tonioli (1955— ) [Wikipedia]

Bruno Tonioli... is an Italian choreographer and TV personality who appears as a judge on the television dance competition Strictly Come Dancing for BBC TV in the UK, and its American adaptation Dancing with the Stars on ABC TV in the US, Tonioli co-created and appeared on the BBC talent show DanceX and its American adaptation, Dance War: Bruno vs. Carrie Ann.

Tonioli is gay, and has spoken of the homophobic bullying he suffered in his youth.

[Continued here]

Sam Adams, gay mayor of Portland, Oregon, says he won't run for reelection
[Miami Herald, July 30, 2011]

Portland Mayor Sam Adams, whose 2008 election victory made Portland the largest city with an openly gay mayor at the time, announced Friday he won't run for a second term.

Adams said in an interview in his office that he decided not to seek re-election because he'd have to campaign and fundraise full time. He also said he wouldn't be able to work on his agenda if he had to start campaigning now.

The announcement comes more than two years after he admitted that he lied during his last campaign about a sexual relationship with a teenager. The 47-year-old mayor then survived calls for his immediate resignation, but the scandal reverberated through his tenure. He blamed personal financial difficulties on the legal bills he ran up as he missed mortgage payments on his home and rental properties.

Adams, who would have faced at least two prominent challengers in a re-election bid, said the prospect of a difficult campaign helped him make a decision.

"To run for mayor would be a tough race," Adams said. "It would require that I spend a lot less time on the issues and challenges Portland is facing, and I'm not just willing to phone it in as mayor."

When asked whether an easier race would have changed his mind, Adams responded, "It might have, but I've got to deal with the situation at hand."

[Continued here]

• Mayor Sam Adams-Beau Breedlove scandal shakes up Portland [KGW, August 15, 2009]

Portland Mayor Sam Adams said he would not resign his post, depite admitting he lied during his mayoral campaign about having a sexual relationship with an 18-year-old legislative intern.

In a video statement released Sunday, Mayor Adams insisted he would remain on the job, saying that the city faced some of its "toughest times" in history and that he would work harder than ever for Portlanders.

"I go back to work as your mayor. I know I have let you down and made mistakes. I ask your forgiveness. I believe I have a lot to offer the city I love during this time of important challenges," the statement said.

• Mayor's Affair: Beau Breedlove speaks out [365Gay, February 6, 2009]

We've heard the openly gay mayor of Portland, Oregon, Sam Adams, apologize for his affair with a teenage intern, and confess he lied about it while running for office. But for the first time, the young man at the center of the City Hall scandal is speaking out, and only to 365gay News.

Beau Breedlove sat down with Ross Palombo of CBS News to tell his side of the story.

Breedlove says their relationship began when he was 17, working as a legislative intern. Adams was 42 and a commissioner for the city of Portland.

"What attracted you to him?" Palombo asked.

"Our friendship, his personality." Breedlove said. "I thought he was very handsome, I thought he was very charismatic."

The second time they met, the subject of Breedlove's age came up.

Breedlove says Adams was surprised to learn he was 17.

"He was worried about the perception of our relationship at that time," Breedlove told Palombo.

But not worried enough to stop their first kiss, Breedlove says, a kiss goodbye at the train station.

"It was a kiss, it caught me off guard, but it was mutual," Breedlove said.

Salam Pax, the Baghdad Blogger: "I want Baghdad to feel like home again"
[The Guardian, January 15, 2009]

I have arrived in Baghdad on a magic carpet! Honestly, I have. There was never a more aptly named airline: Magic Carpet Airlines. And it flies daily flights to the Iraqi capital from Beirut, where I've been living for the last three months. As the pilot announced our descent in to Baghdad airport, I prepared myself for the 15-minute stomach-turning downward spiral flights have to make to keep within the secured airspace above the airport. But instead we went for an unhurried, gradual landing: the first and very welcome sign that things have changed.

I have been out of Iraq for almost two years now. The Baghdad I left in 2007 was not the city I had grown up in and loved. She had become so different, so violent, so not herself that I didn't feel I was abandoning her.

I remember the moment when it felt as if leaving wasn't a choice, but a very clear necessity. I was sitting in my pyjamas on the ground in our front garden; my father, mother and aunt crouched beside me, also in their pyjamas. Two American soldiers pointed these absurdly large rifles at us and an unnecessarily aggressive Iraqi translator hissed: "We know you have explosives in this house. It's better for you to tell us where they are than us going through the whole place and finding them."

[Continued here]

• Salam Pax Is Real [Slate, June 2, 2003]

Baghdad was hectic when two blogging friends e-mailed me to suggest that I track down "Salam Pax." I had no idea who or what they were talking about. I could have handed over the job of sorting out this Salam Pax thing to my interpreter-he was a clever and funny Iraqi who never failed to provide what I needed, whether it was interviews or pizza-but I let it pass. I thought I had better things to do.

"Salam Pax" was the nom de blog of someone, apparently an Iraqi, who was writing from Baghdad before, during, and after the American invasion. His lively and acerbic blog was far better than the stuff pumped out by the army of foreign correspondents in the country. It became so popular that servers hosting it were overwhelmed. The vitality and fearlessness of Salam Pax's writing, as well as the mystery of who he was-Iraqi? CIA? Mukhabarat? Jayson Blair?-led to stories by CNN, The New Yorker, and the Village Voice, among others, as well as a virtual felled forest of postings on war blogs and other sites: Instapundit mentioned him on two dozen occasions. Salam Pax was the Anne Frank of the war-I borrow that phrase from Nick Denton-and its Elvis.

While I was in Iraq, I was unaware of this. My slow-speed satellite phone all but precluded Web browsing, which meant the only non-Arabic media I was exposed to, from mid-March until just a few days ago, consisted of snatches of the BBC. The fascination and controversy over Salam Pax-when he stopped posting for a brief period, his Web fans worried he might have been arrested or gone into hiding-completely escaped me.

• Salam's story [The Guardian, May 30, 2003]

No one in Baghdad knew who he was or the risks he was taking. Apart from a select group of trusted friends, they still don't. The telephones and the internet haven't worked here since the collapse of the regime, so the Iraqis never had a chance to read the diaries of the Baghdad Blogger. Outside the country, many didn't even believe that the man who wrote only under the sobriquet Salam Pax truly existed. It was the great irony of the war. While the world's leading newspapers and television networks poured millions of pounds into their coverage of the war in Iraq, it was the internet musings of a witty young Iraqi living in a two-storey house in a Baghdad suburb that scooped them all to deliver the most compelling description of life during the war.

• 'I became the profane pervert Arab blogger' [The Guardian, September 9, 2003]

My name is Salam Pax and I am addicted to blogs. Some people watch daytime soaps, I follow blogs. I follow the hyperlinks on the blogs I read. I travel through the web guided by bloggers. I get wrapped up in the plots narrated by them. I was reading so many blogs I had to assign weekdays for each bunch, plus the ones I was reading daily. It is slightly voyeuristic, especially those really personal blogs: day-to-day, mundane stuff which is actually fascinating; glimpses of lives so different, and so much amazing writing. No politics, just people's lives. How they deal with pain or grief, how they share their happy moments with anybody who cares to read.

And I cared. We had no access to satellite TV, and magazines had to be smuggled into the country. Through blogs I could take a peek at a different world. Satellite TV and the web were on Saddam's list of things that will corrupt you. Having a satellite dish was punishable with jail and a hefty fine because these channels would twist our minds and make us do bad things. They spread immoral values. Of course he and his buddies were incorruptible so they could watch all the satellite TV they wanted.

• Baghdad blogger: 'Elections our only hope' [BBC, October 12, 2004]

Salam Pax told the BBC's Newsnight programme: "Maybe, just maybe, once we have elections and we have a group of people who truly represent us all, this could be our ticket out of the mess we're in now."

He also warned the coalition against a hasty withdrawal from the region before a credible government took control in Iraq, fearing flawed elections would mean any new leadership being seen as "another American puppet."

Anthony Weiner Wanted Threesome With Another Man, According To Mistress (1964— )
[Radar Online, December 28, 2011]

In old conversation excerpts obtained by RadarOnline.com from mistress Traci Nobles' proposal for a tell-all book, the former politician brings up the topic of "3 ways" and reveals that the idea of being with another man is a turn on.

"I'm not really talking about other chicks... How about with another guy?" Weiner asked Nobles.

"Hmmmm, haven't done it before," Nobles said.

"It can be hot," Weiner replies.

"Are you turned on by other guys?" Nobles asked.

"Well it depends on the guy, but generally yes," Weiner divulges.

[Continued here]

• Anthony Weiner Twitter Scandal: New Photos Emerge [Huffington Post, June 6, 2011]

The controversy surrounding the lewd photograph sent from Rep. Anthony Weiner's (D-N.Y.) Twitter account took a new turn Monday. Andrew Breitbart's website BigGovernment.com claims that a new woman has come forward with photos, chats, and emails sent to her by the congressman that suggest the two were involved in "an online, consensual relationship involving the mutual exchange of intimate photographs."

Father Malcolm Boyd (1923— ) [Wikipedia]

Malcolm Boyd... is an American Episcopal Priest and author.

In the 1960s Boyd became known as "The Espresso Priest" for his religiously-themed poetry-reading sessions at the "Hungry i" nightclub in San Francisco. Boyd went on to become a prominent white clergyman in the American Civil Rights Movement. In 1977 Boyd came out of the closet becoming the most prominent Gay clergy person to come out. He is the author of over 30 books [including his coming out book Are You Running with Me, Jesus?].

He lives in Los Angeles, California with his long-time partner, the gay activist and author Mark Thompson.

[Continued here]

• 'Happy Birthday — Your Life Is Running Out!' [Huffington Post, October 5, 2011]

Cultivate simplicity. Laugh at your own complexity, share and analyze it with others. When you use words, have them say what you mean. If there is a key to your mystery, let people have it so they can understand you.

Act in fresh, spontaneous, freeing ways. Speak to someone who appears forbidding. Make a telephone call you've been afraid of. Break a heavy silence. Write a letter that has long been written in your mind. Help someone to smile or laugh.

In your imagination walk up a mysterious street you have long wondered or dreamed about. Study its detail. Make it real.

Don't worry about what other people think. Most of them are thinking about themselves. Laugh uproariously if you feel like it. Go to a park and ride a swing. When you look at a picture, a bird or an ocean -- when you hear a poem, the wind or a cello -- cry if you are moved and want to.

Find a quiet place (at least within you), sit down, take a deep breath, exhale slowly, quiet the mind. Anxiety is a notorious foe of life, peace and love. If you're at ease with yourself, others can be at ease with you too.

Since no one is an island, quit acting like one. Reach out for help, ask for it, and humbly admit your need. And when you perceive need in someone else, offer help without feeling superior. Survival means banding together; justice requires it.

Life is brief, measured by a few decades. Do you realize this? Has this absolute reality permeated your consciousness? What can you do?

Strip and dive into the water. Drop the other shoe. Say, "Yes."

• Rev. Malcolm Boyd: Which Martin Luther King? [Huffington Post, January 19, 2012]

There are so many different images of Martin Luther King Jr. One is the classic view of him in the '60s addressing thousands of people in the Washington, D.C. national mall. Probably that sums up his popular image throughout the world. Now we've just observed his birthday once again in a national holiday. He is enshrined in our popular imaginatio. If there were acknowledged saints in the world, he would be one.

But do we know him? I did, and feel that we are missing a huge chunk of his purpose and meaning. In my view the celebrity side largely misses the point of his life. He stood among us as a real person. Let's count the ways. He was a disciplined schola who worked his way up through the educational process. He clearly had a poetic side in a world that stands in considerable awe of poetry as an institution but is uncomfortable with its ebb and flow. He was an ordained Christian pastor with a built-in sense of service to others and stewardship of gifts. He was shockingly courageous in civil rights, he antiwar movement and an open embrace of nonviolence in public and personal lives.

Francisco Rodríguez Cruz: A Tireless Defender of Gay Rights in Cuba
[Global Voices, September 29, 2011]

Francisco Rodríguez Cruz is a Cuban journalist and activist who for over a year has maintained a controversial blog [es] committed to advancing the rights of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community in Cuba. This is a community that has experienced a difficult history of discrimination on the island.

Paquito, as he is commonly known on the web, does not only address issues of sexual diversity and gay rights in his blog. He has also been writing of his own personal experience, for the past five years, of battling HIV and non-Hodgkin lymphoma, a type of blood cancer.

"Those who have the privilege to access Internet from Cuba should aim always at improving something in the country, not only deal with external hostilities. Perhaps then we would develop much faster," he says.

In a previous interview last year, with Tele Sur, Paquito was asked about his blog and said, "At first, some people said it was impossible for someone with my characteristics to exist in Cuba: HIV-positive, communist, gay, father, journalist." But Paquito, with all his multiple dimensions and complexity, really does exist.

[Continued here]

"I'm sorry Harvey Milk got killed for being gay. . . . I've been meaning to say this. . . . I'm gay."



Jose Antonio Vargas: My Life as an Undocumented Immigrant [New York Times, June 22, 2011]

My mother wanted to give me a better life, so she sent me thousands of miles away to live with her parents in America - my grandfather (Lolo in Tagalog) and grandmother (Lola). After I arrived in Mountain View, Calif., in the San Francisco Bay Area, I entered sixth grade and quickly grew to love my new home, family and culture. I discovered a passion for language, though it was hard to learn the difference between formal English and American slang. One of my early memories is of a freckled kid in middle school asking me, "What's up?" I replied, "The sky," and he and a couple of other kids laughed. I won the eighth-grade spelling bee by memorizing words I couldn't properly pronounce. (The winning word was "indefatigable.")

One day when I was 16, I rode my bike to the nearby D.M.V. office to get my driver's permit. Some of my friends already had their licenses, so I figured it was time. But when I handed the clerk my green card as proof of U.S. residency, she flipped it around, examining it. "This is fake," she whispered. "Don't come back here again." ...

Later that school year, my history class watched a documentary on Harvey Milk, the openly gay San Francisco city official who was assassinated. This was 1999, just six months after Matthew Shepard's body was found tied to a fence in Wyoming. During the discussion, I raised my hand and said something like: "I'm sorry Harvey Milk got killed for being gay. . . . I've been meaning to say this. . . . I'm gay."

I hadn't planned on coming out that morning, though I had known that I was gay for several years. With that announcement, I became the only openly gay student at school, and it caused turmoil with my grandparents. Lolo kicked me out of the house for a few weeks. Though we eventually reconciled, I had disappointed him on two fronts. First, as a Catholic, he considered homosexuality a sin and was embarrassed about having "ang apo na bakla" ("a grandson who is gay"). Even worse, I was making matters more difficult for myself, he said. I needed to marry an American woman in order to gain a green card.

Tough as it was, coming out about being gay seemed less daunting than coming out about my legal status. I kept my other secret mostly hidden.

[Continued here]

• Jose [Antonio] Vargas story turned down by Washington Post [Politico, June 22, 2011]

Rarely does a story hit with the impact of former Washington Post reporter Jose Antonio Vargas's revelation in the New York Times magazine Wednesday that he is an undocumented immigrant.

Within minutes of it appearing on the Times' website, it burned across Twitter like wildfire, pushed along each time with passionate endorsements from influential journalists. Meanwhile, ABC News blasted excerpts from its exclusive interview with Vargas, which will air on "World News" and "Nightline" tomorrow and "Good Morning America" on Friday.

The Post, the paper that hired Vargas as an intern, put him on a team that won a Pulitzer and was the intended home for Vargas's revelation, could have been at the center of all the buzz. But last week, for reasons that no one at the paper is owning up to, it got cold feet.

"Jose did come to us with the idea for this piece," said Carlos Lozada, editor of the Post's Outlook section. "I worked on it with him for a few weeks, with the intention of running it in Outlook. Ultimately the decision was made here not to move forward on it."

He declined to discuss the "internal deliberations" that led to that decision, as did executive editor Marcus Brauchli.

• Why Jose Antonio Vargas Is an American Hero [AlterNet, June 22, 2011]

Vargas then surprised me by proceeding to castigate his employer as completely behind the curve and mired in a rapidly fading past glory. "These guys don't understand," Vargas complained. "They should fire most of the editors and hire a bunch of graphic designers and online journalists," he announced with the impatience and brashness of youth.

I realized immediately that Vargas, whose Pulitzer participation came about when he cleverly used social media like Facebook to break news about the Virginia Tech campus massacre, was exactly the sort of young, hip and connected reporter places like the Post desperately needed in order to make the transition to a new digital form of journalism. I also realized that Vargas probably was not long for that world.

In short order he did walk away - from what, in an earlier era, would have been seen as the opportunity of a lifetime - in order to join the online upstart Huffington Post. He was among the first, in what soon became a wave, and then a tsunami of journalists, who were abandoning major media platforms like the Post, the New York Times and national television networks to work in a new form of journalism online.

• Jose Antonio Vargas index [Huffington Post]
• Jose Antonio Vargas: my secret life as an undocumented US immigrant [The Guardian, July 26, 2011]

"I'm talking about something that people might shun me for, ostracize me for."



Don Lemon (1966— ) [Wikipedia]

Don Lemon... is a reporter for CNN and news anchor on the prime-time weekend version of CNN Newsroom, based in Atlanta. ...

Lemon won an Emmy Award for a special report on the real estate market in Chicago. He received an Edward R. Murrow Award for his coverage of the capture of the D.C. area sniper, and a number of other awards for reports on Hurricane Katrina, and the AIDS epidemic in Africa.

[Continued here]

• Don Lemon Comes Out: CNN Anchor Reveals He's Gay In New Book [Huffington Post, May 16, 2011]
• Gay CNN Anchor Sees Risk in Book [New York Times, May 15, 2011]
• Don Lemon Talks About New Role, Responsibilities As Gay Public Figure (Video) [Huffington Post, August 30, 2011]

The new role is one that Lemon seems to have embraced. He said, "I think it's important for me to have a presence there and for me to actually walk in and own it and for all those journalists who are there, to say to them, like, not only that it's okay, but thank you for your support."

He also dismissed observers who have questioned whether he should cover LGBT issues in the news. When asked if his coming out has affected how the public or sources relate to him, Lemon responded, "I think it gives me a knowledge about those issues that many people don't have, so if someone says something that's bogus or inaccurate, then I can call them out and I can say, listen, that's not quite accurate."

Dan Kloeffler: To Boldly Go... (a. 1977— ) [ABC News, October, 17, 2011]

Kind of a big moment for me while filling in on World News Now, which is by far the most fun you can legally have at 3:00 in the morning! Yunji de Nies and I were talking about celebrity headlines, when I read the story about Zachary Quinto, who played Spock in "Star Trek," coming out as gay in a magazine interview. Because WNN is a show where you can offer some personality, I had a little fun with the story saying that I would drop my rule against dating actors.

I've never shared that I'm gay on-air, even though I've been out to my family, friends and co-workers for years. In fact, an old boyfriend - now best friend - has always given me a hard time about not doing so. But for the same reason that Zach decided to come out, I too, no longer wanted to hide this part of my life.

There have been too many tragic endings and too many cases of bullying because of intolerance. As a kid I wanted someone to look up to, someone that could relate to the feelings I was having. Most of all, I wanted to know that it would get better.

And it did.

As a journalist, I don't want to be the story, but as a gay man I don't want to stand silent if I can offer some inspiration or encouragement to kids that might be struggling with who they are.

[Continued here]

Anderson Cooper (1967— ) [Wikipedia]

Anderson Hays Cooper... is an American journalist, author, and television personality. As of 2011 he is the primary anchor of the CNN news show Anderson Cooper 360°. The program is normally broadcast live from a New York City studio; Cooper, however, often broadcasts live on location for breaking news stories. ...

When asked about his sexuality, he stated, "I understand why people might be interested. But I just don't talk about my personal life. It's a decision I made a long time ago, before I ever even knew anyone would be interested in my personal life. The whole thing about being a reporter is that you're supposed to be an observer and to be able to adapt with any group you're in, and I don't want to do anything that threatens that."

[Continued here]

• Anderson Cooper Is a Giant Homosexual and Everyone Knows It [Gawker.com, Oct 29, 2009]

Page Six today has a not-very-thinly-veiled item about Anderson Cooper going on a very gay vacation with his very gay boyfriend who owns a very gay bar. Enough: Anderson Cooper is very gay. It's time he said it.

• Andy Cohen Wants Anderson Cooper to Be His Boyfriend [Gawker, July 20, 2011]

I finally pried last week's copy of the National Enquirer from Maureen O'Connor's cold dead hands and found this funny article that says Bravo honcho and America's gayest homosexual Andy Cohen wants to get gay married to Anderson Cooper, America's least eligible gay bachelor. Oh, sweet love! ...

Now saying that a gay man wants Anderson Cooper to be his boyfriend is kind of like saying a contestant on America's Next Top Model isn't there to make friends -- it's just so incredibly obvious. Who doesn't want to marry foxy, wealthy, otherwise wonderful (except for the whole in-the-closet thing) Anderson Cooper? While this is probably just baseless speculation, I'd like to pretend that it's real. It would really make for an excellent love story, and it would give me some amazingly hot slash fiction to write in my head. In fact, The Observer should start revising their media power couple list right now.

• Anderson Cooper's Daytime Disaster [Gawker, October 1, 2011]

It's just three weeks into Anderson Cooper's new daytime adventure, and the show has already devolved into the sort of unscrupulous talk-show tactics that Cooper's prime-time newsman personality would turn up his nose at: A teenager is in a coma after one of Anderson's producers encouraged him to record his reckless behavior for a show on the "teenage mind."

• Is Anderson Cooper Prepping His Coming Out Episode? [Gawker, December 14, 2011]

We heard from a tipster that glass closet aficionado Anderson Cooper was bringing his boyfriend Benjamin Maisani to the holiday party for his daytime talk show Anderson tomorrow evening and alleges it is because the show is prepping Anderson's big coming out episode for February sweeps. Can this be true?

• Kathy Griffin On CNN New Year's: I Want To Get Anderson Cooper Fired [Huffington Post, December 15, 2011]

Griffin appeared on Kimmel's Wednesday show and claimed CNN executives "hate me." (Perhaps it's all of that trouble she keeps causing them?)

Griffin then told Kimmel what she really hoped to get out of her upcoming appearance.

"My first goal is to get Anderson fired," she said. "Literally, before midnight, somebody at CNN says, 'buddy, you're out.'" She also said she wanted to give Cooper a roofie, expose herself and drunk dial Wolf Blitzer. All in a night's work, we suppose.

• The Secret, Spooky Tour of His Super Gay Apartment that Anderson Cooper Doesn't Want You to See [Gawker, March 7, 2012]

Anderson Cooper is gay, but still not quite "out." The blue-blooded newsman's glass closet has been observed, chronicled, assumed, and confirmed many times on this site and elsewhere.

But he keeps his private extremely private, which is why it's surprising that Anderson agreed to let a ghost-channeling psychic into his home-that old, weird firehouse he is believed to share with boyfriend Benjamin Maisani-for a spiritual appraisal. The segment never aired, reportedly because Anderson producers thought it that it was too unsettling for most of Anderson's daytime audience. That it revealed too much about the man unintentionally. That it made him look weird.

The psychic's exuberant descriptions of "masculine" ghosts "jabbing each other" "for fun," "a lot of forwards, backwards, forwards, backwards" probably didn't help, either.

• Anderson Cooper's Chosen Charity For Jeopardy! Power Players Week: The Trevor Project [Queerty, May 11, 2012]

Kathy Griffin (1960— ) [Wikipedia]

Kathleen Mary "Kathy" Griffin... is an American actress, stand-up comedienne, television personality, New York Times best-selling author and an LGBT rights advocate. Griffin first gained recognition for appearances on two episodes of Seinfeld, and then for her supporting role on the NBC sitcom Suddenly Susan. She was the star of the Bravo reality show Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List, for which she won two Emmy Awards as executive producer. She has also worked as a voice artist and red carpet commentator, in addition to several other career pursuits. In 2009, 2010 and 2011 she was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album. In her bid to win a Tony Award, she made her Broadway debut in Kathy Griffin Wants a Tony in March 2011. ...

Griffin hosted CNN's New Year's Eve Broadcast on December 31, 2009, along with Anderson Cooper. As Cooper talked about the Balloon boy hoax, Griffin said the word "fucking" while making fun of the pronunciation of Falcon Heene, the six-year-old boy who was said to have been trapped in the balloon. Although Griffin was rumored to be banned from future CNN broadcasts, she co-hosted the show again with Cooper, on December 31, 2010. ...

Kathy Griffin served as the unofficial guest co-host of The View from May 2007 to September 2007, and was considered to join the panel as a replacement for the recently departed Rosie O'Donnell. However, Whoopi Goldberg was ultimately selected as the permanent replacement. On September 10, 2007, Sherri Shepherd took over the remaining co-host spot that had been vacant since Star Jones's departure. Walters stated that she was worried about hiring another loose cannon after the troubles with O'Donnell.

Griffin divulged in her stand-up that she is now banned from The View after talking about the gig on her televised comedy special, Kathy Griffin: Straight to Hell. While declining to discuss the ban on Access Hollywood, during the filming of an episode for My Life on the D-List with former View co-host/moderator Rosie O'Donnell, Griffin did talk about the ban, specifically targeting View executive producer Bill Geddie. Griffin has also been mentioned as a possible replacement for Walters in the event she departs the show. As of August 2009, Griffin had been un-banned from The View and was a guest on September 18, 2009, and June 15, 2010. However, in an interview on The Talk, Griffin has stated she has been re-banned from The View, due to an argument with View co-host Elisabeth Hasselbeck. ...

Griffin is an outspoken supporter for LGBT rights, including same-sex marriage. She has protested with fellow proponents in West Hollywood, California, and showcased the footage of such protests on her reality show Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List. Her mother Maggie Griffin is also a supporter of LGBT rights and is seen in Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List protesting alongside her daughter. Prior to the Proposition 8 ballot results, Griffin volunteered for the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center's "Vote for Equality" campaign, going door-to-door asking Los Angeles residents for their opinion of LGBT marriage rights.

[Continued here]

• Kathy Griffin Plays a Lesbian on Whitney - Jokes She and Whitney Cummings are an 'Item' [She Wired, January 25, 2012]

Key West New Year's Eve 2011: Shoe drop with drag queen Sushi
[San Francisco Examiner, January 1, 2011]

Gay Key West took center stage again this year to welcome in 2011 in style.

Since 1996, the centerpiece of the city's celebration of New Year's is Sushi, the island's best-known drag queen, descending from a giant high-heel shoe. She is lowered from a balcony of the gay bar, the Bourbon Street Pub, to the cheering crowed on Duval Street below. Since 2004,CNN has covered the event live. This year was no exception. Sushi is a character portrayed by female impersonator Gary Marion.

Like San Francisco, Key West has long been gay welcoming. It was one of the first cities in the world with an openly gay mayor. Richard Heyman served from 1983-85. But Key West's reputation for being a gay great escape began long before then.

In the 1800s, Key West was one of the richest cities in the world because of the shipwrecking industry. By the 1930s, a combination of the better navigation systems and the Great Depression drove the city from riches to rags. By the mid 1970s, in large part to gay tourism, the island was well on its way back to recovery. Now, its real estate prices are comparable to San Francisco's.

[Continued here]

• Key West's ruby shoe is coming down! [CNN, December 30, 2008]

It's one of the few New Year's Eve parties in America where straight guys think twice about kissing a stranger at midnight.

Key West, Florida, the southernmost point in the continental United States, has long been known for its pristine blue ocean, key lime pie, mega bars and margaritas. But it's also known for a female impersonator who rings in the new year in a giant, ruby-red, high-heel shoe live on CNN. The magnificently gowned, stylishly coiffed Sushi is about to enter his eleventh year in the eight-foot shoe. At the stroke of midnight, he'll be lowered from the second-story balcony at the Bourbon Street Pub to ring in 2009 as only he can.

"I never thought growing up that I'd be on television in a giant red heel", said Sushi, whose real name is Gary Marion.

"That's not something that a young kid aspires to, but I'm so thankful that I live in a country that lets us do what we want to do, as long as we don't hurt anybody else." ...

Sushi, or Marion, is the leader of an acclaimed troupe of drag performers, called the 801 Girls, who dance the night away at the 801 Bourbon Street Pub.

The owners of the bar, Jimmy Gilleran and Joey Schroeder, dreamed up the event 11 years ago to get more tourists down to Key West. The first event was thrown together in about two weeks, and the shoe was made of papier-mâché and two-by-fours, and painted red.

"The paint was still wet, and I had a white dress on, and I sat in it," Sushi said. ...

A costume designer by profession, Marion has designed most of the 801 Girls' stage outfits and has created costumes for Keys theatrical productions. But he continues to gain widespread fame as Sushi.

"A lot of feedback from the straight community, who are like, 'that's really cool,' " he said. "I get a lot of people from Montana, and they think the only gay thing is Brokeback Mountain. Now they see me in the shoe."

Rachel Maddow (1973— ) [Wikipedia]

Rachel Anne Maddow... is an American television host and political commentator. Her syndicated talk radio program, The Rachel Maddow Show, aired on Air America Radio. Maddow hosts a nightly television show, The Rachel Maddow Show, on MSNBC. She was a guest host of Countdown with Keith Olbermann and Race for the White House. Maddow is the first openly gay anchor to be hired to host a prime-time news program in the United States.

[Continued here]

• Fresh Face on Cable, Sharp Rise in Ratings [New York Times, October 20, 2008]
• Rachel Maddow's Life and Career [The Nation, July 30, 2008]
• Rachel Maddow [RachelMaddow.com]
• Rachel Maddow index [New York Times]
• Bachmann Ally Bradlee Dean Sues Rachel Maddow For $50 Million [Right Wing Watch, July 26, 2011]
• James Peron: Rachel Maddow's Marriage Mistake [Huffington Post, October 8, 2011]

Maddow is guilty of blinkered thinking. Everything she says may well be true, for people such as she, but it is not true for many other gay couples -- perhaps most other gay couples.

Maddow is not saying she opposes marriage equality, just that she worries about it, because gay culture, which was created in inequality, might lose something. If you think about that, it is rather astounding. Yes, human experiences, even harmful and oppressive ones, shape a people's culture, but that is no reason to keep injustice going. Even mentioning it, in this context, shocks me.

Whether Maddow feels an urgency to get married or not is entirely subjective and personal. There certainly are people who find little reason to marry legally. And there are others who have urgent, legitimate reasons for marriage. People in Maddow's situation don't have urgent reasons to marry legally, but many gay people are not so fortunate.

30 Years Later, Fighting Your Molester [The Advocate, August 25, 2011]

I first met Bill Fox in 1978 when I joined the Boy Scouts. Several months later, I found myself in his bedroom. He convinced my parents that I had to meet with him privately in order to advance rank from scout to tenderfoot. It was on that day he showed me pornography while he described masturbation. I still recall the wood paneling on the walls, the iconic Farrah Fawcett poster above his bed, and the gun on his desk. His attention was unlike any other I had experienced. His voice was tender, the gun was frightening, Farrah Fawcett's smile seemed to mock me. I was 11 years old.

Bill is now a retired police officer, and he pleaded no contest to nine charges, including child sexual abuse, in August. The three victims were all his adopted sons - who maybe could have been spared, had it all stopped with me.

Unlike rape, which is a violent act, child molestation is insidious in nature in that it creates a desire in the child to please his or her victimizer. After school, Bill picked me up and took me on errands. When I complied with his sexual advances, I was rewarded with ice cream and given the honor of sitting in the front seat of his truck. When I disobeyed, I was verbally ridiculed in front of the other boys at scout meetings. Often Bill ordered the older scouts to bully me so that I fell in line. He called us his "army of boys."

After two years of sexual and mental abuse, I told my parents. They reported Bill to the assistant scoutmasters, but they convinced my parents not to press charges. Being devoted Italian Catholics, they obeyed the higher members of an organization sanctioned by our church.

Bill ultimately stepped down as scoutmaster. He was gone, and my life went on as though nothing had happened. I retreated into a world of isolation and depression, convinced that Bill's departure was my fault.

[Continued here]

Canada salutes one of its most prolific designers [Karim Rashid] (1960— )
[Globe & Mail, November 12, 2011]

Saturday's glittering Design Exchange gala, the Toronto-based design museum's annual fundraiser in support of youth programs, promises extra-bright star wattage. Every year, the institution celebrates "exceptional" Canadians who have distinguished themselves in the field of design. Among this year's honorees: homegrown superstar Karim Rashid.

Strangely, the flamboyant, pink-loving Rashid (right) has received few gongs from Canada to date. ...

Based in New York, Rashid has designed thousands of products and interiors for clients including Umbra, Artemide and Veuve Clicquot. He is also the author of such provocatively titled monographs as 2001's I Want to Change the World.

[Continued here]

• Karim Rashid [Wikipedia]

Karim Rashid... (born in Cairo, Egypt...) is an industrial designer. He received a Bachelor in Industrial Design from Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada in 1982 and completed his postgraduate studies in Italy. Rashid has created over 3000 designs, including projects ranging from interiors, fashion, furniture, lighting, art and music to installations. ...

Karim Rashid married Serbian chemical engineer Ivana Puric, on September 1, 2008 in New York City.

Not the marrying kind: Activist Ryan Conrad critiques the gay equality movement
[XTRA, January 13, 2012 ]

As same-sex marriage remains a contentious issue in the US political arena, many progressive Americans marvel that it has been legal in Canada from coast to coast to coast for years now. It all reinforces in the US psyche the lefty-Utopian image of Canada as described in Michael Moore movies.

But Ryan Conrad doesn't join in the celebration of what many see as Canada's great leap forward. The US activist - now working on a PhD at Concordia University in Montreal - is part of the US group Against Equality. It's a collective that takes issue with mainstream concepts of gay and lesbian activism. Conrad is editor of two new anthologies: Against Equality: Don't Ask to Fight Their Wars, and Against Equality: Queer Critiques of Gay Marriage.

[Continued here]

• Saving himself from marriage: Ryan Conrad crusades against the idea of same-sex nuptials [Mirror, January 5, 2012]

Conrad is quick to add, "I don't judge people for getting married if they need access to health care or immigration. They were effectively coerced into the institution." But he also says he's not attend­ing any of his friends' weddings. "My question is, if you're serious about making the world a better place, why are you doing this? Why are you becoming part of the wedding industrial complex?"

"I'm glad that we had the trial," he said. "I think that was the way to
air these issues and get them on the table."



Judge Vaughn Walker (1944— ) [Wikipedia]

On January 11, 2010, Walker began hearing arguments in Perry v. Schwarzenegger. The case was a federal-constitutional challenge to California Proposition 8, a voter initiative constitutional amendment that eliminated the right of same sex couples to marry, a right which had previously been granted after the California Supreme Court found that Proposition 22 was unconstitutional. On August 4, 2010, Walker ruled that Proposition 8 was unconstitutional "under both the Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses" and prohibited its enforcement.

[Continued here]

• Fit to Rule on Same-Sex Marriage [New York Times, May 3, 2011]

After the trial, Judge Walker said he is gay and involved in a long-term relationship. Last week, Proposition 8's lawyers argued that the ruling should be tossed out because he had had a duty to recuse himself, or at least disclose the relationship at the start of the case.

The claim is bogus. It is well established that personal characteristics, like race, sex, ethnicity, religion or sexual orientation, do not by themselves invoke the rule that judges must step aside if their "impartiality might reasonably be questioned."

• Judge Vaughn Walker, Who Struck Down Prop 8, Never Considered Recusing Himself From Case Due To His Own Homosexuality [Huffington Post, April 6, 2011]
• Prop. 8 Ruling: Judge Vaughn Walker's Most Scathing Language [SF Weekly, August 4, 2010]
• Judge Vaughn Walker index [New York Times]
• Too Gay To Judge? [Salon, June 13, 2011]

Today, a court in San Francisco heard arguments about one of the most contemptible legal claims advanced in decades: that Vaughn Walker, the federal judge who voted last spring to strike down California's ban on gay marriage, was too gay to decide the case fairly.

• Gay jurist in Proposition 8 case had no legal obligation to remove himself, judge rules [Los Angeles Times, June 14, 2011]

Frank Bruni Named Times Op-Ed Columnist [New York Times, May 23, 2011]

Frank Bruni, whose writing career at The New York Times has spanned two presidential campaigns, part of a papacy and more than five years as chief restaurant critic, has been named an Op-Ed columnist.

Andrew Rosenthal, editor of the opinion pages, said in an e-mail to the staff on Monday that Mr. Bruni would write a new column in The Times's redesigned Sunday Op-Ed pages. ...

Mr. Bruni, 46, is the first openly gay Op-Ed columnist in The Times's 160-year history.

[Continued here]

• Food Critic Calls Job A Cake Walk [CBS News, Aug 19, 2009]
• Frank Bruni — First Out [Edge Boston, May 27, 2011]

Ellen's Newest Artist: Tom Andrews (1994— ) [ellen.warnerbros.com, September 16, 2010]

Ellen is excited to welcome 17-year-old Tom Andrews from Exmouth, UK to her eleveneleven record label! Tom has shown an unbelievable talent for music. At age 13, he saw an ad for a singing competition and entered on a whim. He had no previous experience, but his natural skill impressed the judge, who asked Tom to perform during the finals. The experience changed his life -- Tom says that was the moment he discovered his passion.

[Continued here]

• Ellen DeGeneres signs Devon teen singer Tom Andrews [The Guardian, September 17, 2010]

Warning! This blog is definitely a hoax! Entertaining but a hoax nonetheless!

"Blogging is, for me, a way of being fearless."



"A Gay Girl in Damascus" bravely blogs and builds online following from Syria (1977— ) [CBS News]

Homosexuality is illegal and taboo in Syria. That, however, didn't stop 34-year old Amina Abdullah from launching her own blog, "A Gay Girl in Damascus."

[Continued here]

• A Gay Girl in Damascus [Blogspot]
• A Gay Girl in Damascus becomes a heroine of the Syrian revolt [The Guardian, May 6, 2011]

Abdullah's blog, A Gay Girl in Damascus, is brutally honest, poking at subjects long considered taboo in Arab culture. "Blogging is, for me, a way of being fearless," she says. "I believe that if I can be 'out' in so many ways, others can take my example and join the movement."

Her blog really took off two weeks ago with a post entitled My Father the Hero, a moving account of how her father faced down two security agents who came to arrest her, accusing her of being a Salafist and a foreign agent.

• Syrian Lesbian Activist Blogs, Courts Persecution [Edge Boston, May 7, 2011]

"It's tough being a lesbian in Syria, but it's certainly easier to be a sexual than a political dissident," the blogger added. "There are a lot more LGBT people here than one might think, even if we are less flamboyant than elsewhere."

• A Gay Girl in Damascus: Lesbian Blogger Becomes Syrian Hero [Time, May 10, 2011]
• Syria: 'Gay Girl in Damascus' Seized [Global Voices, June 6, 2011]
• Syria: Mystery surrounds 'Gay Girl in Damascus' blogger abduction [The Guardian, June 8, 2011]
• A gay girl in Damascus - or a cynical hoax? [The Guardian, June 9, 2011]
• Syrian mystery of Amina Arraf: 'A gay girl in Damascus' [BBC, June 9, 2011]

When someone purporting to be her cousin posted a note on her blog on Monday saying that she had been abducted by suspected government agents in Damascus, Facebook groups sprung up calling for her release.

But the story quickly began to unravel.

Amina Abdallah Arraf al-Omari was not who she seemed to be.

The woman in the pictures was not her. The US embassy in Syria had no record of her - although she claimed to have dual citizenship. No-one could say that they had met her.

• Syria: doubts surround the authenticity of the lesbian Syrian blogger [Telegraph, June 9, 2011]

• 'A Gay Girl in Damascus' Is Actually a Married Guy in Edinburgh [Gawker, June 12, 2011]

Last week, a post appeared on the prominent blog "A Gay Girl in Damascus" claiming that the blogger, an out Syrian lesbian who wrote under the name Amina Arraf, had been kidnapped by Syrian security forces. As it turned out, there was no Amina-just a guy in Scotland named Tom. ...

Apology to readers

I never expected this level of attention. While the narrative voice may have been fictional, the facts on this blog are true and not misleading as to the situation on the ground. I do not believe that I have harmed anyone - I feel that I have created an important voice for issues that I feel strongly about.

• 'A Gay Girl in Damascus' comes clean [Washington Post, June 12, 2011]
• Lesbian Syrian blog a hoax written by a man [The Guardian, June 12, 2011]
• Following the revelation that "Amina" was a hoax two LGBT Syrian Activists speak out [GayMiddleEast.com, June 12, 2011]
• "Gay Girl in Damascus" Author Comes Clean [Slate, June 13, 2011]
• Gay Girl in Damascus hoaxer acted out of 'vanity' [The Guardian, June 13, 2011]

The male American PhD student who confessed to being an internet hoaxer masquerading as a lesbian blogger in Damascus has spoken publicly about the reasons behind his deception, saying he was motivated, in part, by his own "vanity".

Gay activists in Syria and further afield have reacted furiously to the revelation that the blog, A Gay Girl in Damascus, was written not by a 35-year-old woman kidnapped by security forces last week, but by Tom MacMaster, a married, 40-year-old American studying at Edinburgh University.

• The odd world of men pretending to be lesbians [Salon, June 14, 2011]
• While Posing as a Syrian Lesbian, Male Blogger Tried to Get a Book Deal [New York Times, June 22, 2011]
• Gay Girl in Damascus hoaxer accused of defending himself with new persona [The Guardian, June 26, 2011]
• Pinkwashing: Another gay Middle Easterner who isn't on the level? [Christian Science Monitor, June 26, 2011]

Is every gay Middle Easterner on the Internet a fraud? Some days it feels like it.

Hot on the heels of the Gay Girl in Damascus hoax (perpetrated by Thomas MacMaster, a middle-aged American man), comes "Marc" the gay activist of indeterminate nationality who, in his telling, was spurned by the Gaza aid flotilla.

He claims to have sent an e-mail to a group involved with the flotilla (he doesn't say which one) offering to bring an LGBT contingent. He says he was turned away and told that gay involvement would be detrimental to the interests of those involved.

"I was picturing a cross between Che Guevara and Mother Theresa with a kefiyah [a Palestinian scarf, like the one favored by Yasser Arafat]," says "Marc."

• Pink-washed: Gay rights and the Mideast conflict [Salon, July 2, 2011]

But several bloggers investigated and determined that the man in the video is in fact a Tel Aviv actor. The origins of the film are still murky, but there's some evidence that a public-relations guru who has worked for several Israeli government agencies played a role. (And, as it turns out, there are gay activists involved in the flotilla campaign.)

Hoax though it is, the video presents an opportunity to learn more about the messy collision of the politics of gay rights and the Israel-Palestine conflict. For an Israeli perspective, I spoke to Hagai El-Ad, executive director of the Association for Civil Rights in Israel and former head of a LGBT community center in Jerusalem, where he also organized the first annual pride parade in 2002.

Comedian Todd Glass announces he's gay on WTF with Marc Maron
[Laugh Spin, January 16, 2012]

After a relatively short introduction, wherein Maron tells his listeners that Glass, 47, wanted to come on the show to say something important, the announcement was made. "He decided that this was the place to do it," Maron said at the top of the interview. Glass then jokes that he was just there to promote his own podcast. "I thought you were gay," Maron responds.

"I have a very hard time saying that," Glass responds after Maron suggests the comedian actually say it, himself. "And don't get this wrong. I don't want anyone to be ashamed of who they are - especially younger people. I always hated using that term and that's partly why I've always been sympathetic to people who don't [want to be labeled certain things]. I hate that word. But I like it better than the other word - homosexual."

"I'm saying what a lot of people already knew," he explains, adding that it's not going to become his entire act, but at least he can be honest with his friends now and maybe reference the fact he's gay onstage. Later on the show, Glass says he came out to his parents 15 years ago. He also told comedian Louis C.K. a few months ago. Glass also says his best friend, comedian Jimmy Dore has known.

[Continued here]

• Todd Glass: Funny as a heart attack [Philly.com, April 22, 2010]

Man [Robert (Bob) Schisler] accuses cops of assault [XTRA, July 29, 1999]

A gay man's birthday turned into a nightmare after a violent run-in with the cops.

"During the early morning hours of Jul 22, I made the mistake of being in the wrong place at the wrong time," writes Robert Schisler in a letter written the very next day to Toronto Police Services Board chair, Norm Gardner.

Days after his encounter with police, Schisler is covered with nasty bruises and scrapes. He can't work and has difficulties walking, eating and sleeping.

At about 3am on Jul 22, Schisler was spending time in his van with an acquaintance. He was parked in a legal spot on Jarvis St - just north of Carlton St.

After a brief period, the two moved to the back of the van and drew the curtains.

"I started cuddling, snuggling him or whatever," says Schisler.

That's when things started to go horribly wrong.

[Continued here]

• Probe police conduct, gay-bashing victim urges [Toronto Star, December 22, 2006]

A man found by a jury to be a victim of "gay bashing" by Toronto police wants an inquiry into the conduct of the officers he says wrongly arrested him and beat him while making homophobic slurs.

"Accountability, that's what I am looking for," Robert Schisler, 53, told a news conference at his lawyer's downtown office yesterday.

Earlier this week, the Ontario Court of Appeal dismissed the appeal of a $600,000 judgment against several Toronto officers. It is believed to be the largest award against a police service in Canadian history.

"He was falsely accused of crimes by the police when, in fact, they were the ones who were guilty of misdeeds which included the beating and abusing of Robert Schisler, and misdeeds by superior officers, one of whom participated in the beating and another superior officer who wrongfully held him at 52 Division, regardless of his obvious injuries and need for assistance," said Schisler's civil lawyer, Hedy Epstein.

Schisler, who was a successful home renovator, doesn't want to see the officers fired because he said that won't fix the problem.

• Gaybashing inquiry called for as Toronto cops lose appeal [XTRA, January 11, 2007]

The Ontario Court Of Appeal has unanimously upheld a jury ruling against the Toronto police for the false arrest and beating of a self-employed renovator who they gaybashed in the heart of the gay village.

Now there are calls for an inquiry into how 11 officers of the Toronto Police Service saw fit to attack a man, arrest him and attempt to cover their tracks.

On Dec 20 Justice Robert Sharpe found that the original jury and judge made no errors in law in 2004 when they awarded Robert Schisler, 53, $452,000 plus interest & now totalling more than $600,000, likely the largest settlement ever ordered against the police in Canada.

• Cops lose 'gay-bashing' appeal [CNews, December 21, 2006]
• How Toronto police and the gay community kissed and made up [National Post, June 26, 2009]

Belmont parts ways with gay women's soccer coach [WKRN, December 3, 2010]

Belmont University [in Nashville Tennessee] is looking for a new women's soccer coach following Lisa Howe's departure this week.

In a statement released late Friday afternoon, the university said Howe did not resign from her employment nor was she dismissed.

"Rather, there was a mutual agreement that it would be in the best interests of both Coach Howe and the university for her to conclude her employment as coach," the statement read.

Howe's departure from the Christian based university comes after she told school administrators and the team she and her same-sex partner were having a baby.

[Continued here]

• Lesbian Coach's Exit From Belmont U. Has Nashville Talking [New York Times, December 17. 2010]>
• Gay rights a new tune for Nashville [Los Angeles Times, December 21, 2010]

When a lesbian soccer coach appeared to be ousted from her job this month at a Christian university in Nashville, it sparked an outcry from supporters and students who claimed she was a victim of an anti-gay bias they considered to be decidedly un-Christian.

• Belmont changes policy after gay coach protest [USA TODAY, January 26, 2011]

Constance McMillen faces Facebook Backlash as her Classmates Ridicule
her Online (1992— ) [CBS News, April 7, 2010]

Apparently humiliating Constance McMillen, the lesbian teen who wanted to take her girlfriend to the prom, by sending her to a decoy prom while her classmates partied elsewhere, wasn't enough for some of her fellow students. Irate over having their original prom canceled - and blaming Constance - they started a facebook page called "Constance quit yer cryin."

While many of the early posts have been pulled by their authors, a few websites seem to have been able to grab them before they disappeared. The first post reportedly read "Seriously, you've pretty much eff'd up your fellow classmate's best memory of High School."

[Continued here]

• ACLU Sues Mississippi School That Canceled Prom Rather Than Let Lesbian Couple Attend [ACLU, March 11, 2010]
• US schools grapple with gay rights at the school prom [BBC, March 24, 2010]
• Miss. Teen Lesbian Heads to -- and Heads Up -- NYC Pride [Edge Boston, June 22, 2010]
• Fulton, MS Prom Discrimination [ACLU, November 5, 2010]

VICTORY! Constance's school agreed to create a policy protecting students from discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity, pay Constance $35,000, pay her attorneys' fees in the amount of $67,265.50 and $14,400 in expenses, and have the court enter a judgment against the school.

• An interview with Constance McMillen [After Ellen, July 22, 2011]

Libby Davies in hot water for anti-Israel comments [Toronto Star, June 15, 2011]

Prime Minister Stephen Harper has joined a chorus of voices calling for MP Libby Davies to resign as NDP deputy leader for casting doubt on Israel's right to exist at a recent Vancouver protest against the Jewish state.

During an interview, Davies (Vancouver East), who is also NDP house leader, suggested that Israel has been occupying Palestinian territories since 1948, the year of its independence, calling it the "longest occupation in the world."

Liberal MP Bob Rae denounced the comments as "truly appalling."

"The logical implication of these comments is that Israel has no right to exist," he said in a statement.

Harper used his response to an unrelated question in the House of Commons from NDP Leader Jack Layton on the release of Afghan prisoner documents to attack Davies' comments.

"This is a fundamental denial of Israel's right to exist. It repeats the kinds of comments that were made by Helen Thomas on which she was forced to resign, and the member of the NDP who said that should be forced to resign as well," said Harper.

Thomas, 89, abruptly retired last week as a columnist for Hearst News Service following remarks she made about Israel that were denounced by the White House and her press corps colleagues.

Even NDP colleagues have torn a strip off Davies.

[Note: The level of racism and anti-semitism in the GLT communities has for decades been truly appalling. Ms. Davies' recent comments reflect this sad reality. Just another example of the oppressed becoming the oppressors.]

[Continued here]

• Listen: Acting Today, Shaping Tomorrow: Libby Davies' first speech as NDP Health Critic [Rabble.ca, June 25, 2011]

James Hormel: Former ambassador reflects on life, activism and philanthropy (1933— )
[Windy City Times, January 4, 2012]

James Hormel, born in 1933 in the heart of the Depression, was mostly sheltered from the economic crisis facing the United States. However, despite being brought up with wealth and privilege in Austin, Minn., Hormel eventually found his way to progressive activism and he has been a strong force for gay rights.

Hormel, an heir to the Hormel Foods fortune ( Spam and other processed meat products ) , is perhaps best known as President Clinton's choice for ambassador to Luxembourg. The title of his new autobiography, Fit to Serve, reflects his long battle to become the nation's first openly gay person to win Senate approval as a presidential appointee. Despite intense lobbying, and subjecting himself to public scrutiny and lies, Hormel never was approved by the Senate. Instead, Clinton made him a recess appointment in 1999. He served until 2001.

[Continued here]

• Ambassador-turned-author visits Philly [Philly Gay News, December, 2011]

Throughout the arduous process, however, Hormel said he never doubted he would be well-received in Luxembourg.

"I didn't have one worry for one instant about that," he said. "That was purely a red herring. [Opponents] were just reacting to something they didn't want to see happen. They had no idea what people in Luxembourg were thinking but I did because in order to make the nomination, the president was first obliged to go to the government of Luxembourg and say, 'I intend to appoint this person' and give them the story on me. Even before the nomination was announced, the Luxembourg government had approved it."

Captivity: 118 Days in Iraq and the Struggle for a World Without War (2011)
by James Loney (1964— ) [Globe & Mail]

Now and then, James Loney opens a box containing old clothes and a handcuff to remind himself that he actually spent 118 days held captive in Iraq.

As a member of Christian Peacemakers Team (a nonviolent peacekeeping group), Loney went to Iraq in 2002 and then led a group of volunteers in 2005, with the intent of documenting the abuse of witnesses and prisoners by U. S. officials. ...

Fox, a retired U.S. military officer, was at the highest risk. If Loney hadn't hidden the fact that he is gay, he also would have been in great danger.

[Continued here]

• James Loney: Canada came to rescue me. Why not Arar, Khadr, Mohamud? [this magazine, November 25, 2009]

In November 2005, I travelled to Iraq in violation of a Foreign Affairs travel advisory. It was my third trip. Four members of an international delegation, including myself, were kidnapped and held by Iraqi insurgents for four months. One member of our group, an American named Tom Fox, was killed two weeks before we were released.

We knew the risks. The organization I belong to, Christian Peacemaker Teams, routinely sends people into dangerous no-go zones. It's what we do: train international teams in the disciplines of non-violent, direct action to work with grassroots communities affected by violence.

• James Loney: Christian forgiveness or the Stockholm Syndrome? [Ottawa Citizen, May 15, 2011]

Toronto peace activist James Loney is a courageous man who deserves respect. That's clear from reading Captivity, Loney's frank and fascinating account of his ordeal at the hands of Iraqi kidnappers.

Yet Loney was so intent on interacting with his captors -finding their common humanity, as he puts it -that this reader was unable to warm up to him.

For four months Loney lived in fear and squalor, worried about what the kidnappers would do if they learned he is gay. But he cheerfully provided back rubs for one of the Iraqis. The massages were his idea.

This is either Christian charity personified or Stockholm Syndrome, full blown.

• Captivity: 118 Days in Iraq and the Struggle for a World Without War by James Loney [Amazon.ca]

"I knew I had a story I wanted to tell ... . It was a story that hadn't been told yet."



Former ND National Guard Member [Bronson Lemer] Shares Experience as
Gay Man Serving in Military [WDAZ, July 3, 2011]

Like a lot of high school seniors, Bronson Lemer didn't know exactly what he wanted to do with his life.

What he did know is he wouldn't find what he wanted in his small hometown of Harvey.

So in the fall of 1997, Lemer joined the North Dakota National Guard.

But Lemer was different from most new recruits. The teenager was gay and heading into a culture that, under "don't ask, don't tell," forbade him to discuss or even acknowledge that part of his identity. The pressure to keep his private life under wraps compounded when he was deployed to Kosovo in 2000 and shipped off to Iraq in 2003, six months shy of fulfilling his Guard contract.

Lemer, now 30 and a former Forum employee, describes his struggles, both physical - coping with Baghdad heat while dressed in combat gear - and emotional - keeping his true identity guarded - in his book "The Last Deployment," which will be released Monday. ...

Knowing he was gay when he signed up, Lemer didn't fully come to grips with what being gay in the military would mean.

"I thought the pros outweighed the cons, and I followed through to deal with it," he says.

[Continued here]

'Don't Ask Don't Tell' Repeal Spares Decorated Air Force Aviator [Victor Fehrenbach] (1970— )
[ABC News, September 20, 2011]

Lt. Col. Victor Fehrenbach had been one of the highest-ranking and most highly decorated U.S. military service members facing discharge because he's gay.

Now, with the final repeal of "don't ask don't tell," the F-15 Strike Eagle weapons officer can complete his two-decade Air Force career with the guarantee of receiving full military retirement benefits when he hangs up his hat at the end of the month.

"When I began this fight, I said it wouldn't be over for me until it was over for everyone," said Fehrenbach, who brought one of the many legal challenges against the ban on openly gay service members. "In a lot of ways, today means more to me than my retirement overall."

The decorated airman, who's flown dozens of missions during six tours in Iraq, Afghanistan and Kosovo, has spent the past three years grounded at a desk in Idaho while military brass have tried to oust him under the "don't ask don't tell" policy.

Fehrenbach challenged the move in court and later won a temporary reprieve in a deal with the Pentagon and Justice departments. But his fate has remained in limbo ever since.

[Continued here]

• Victor Fehrenbach: A Truly Proud Day [Huffington Post, September 21, 2011]

Yesterday morning I woke up with mixed emotions, but the strongest emotion I felt was pride!

I spent two-decades as a service member for the United States Air Force. I dedicated my time and put my life on the line because I am a patriot and believe in what this country stands for. But all the while, I had to keep a secret that could mean the end of a career that I loved. ...

* Victor Fehrenbach is an active duty lieutenant colonel serving in the United States Air Force. A decorated aviator, with three combat tours and 88 combat missions in Iraq and Afganistan, Lt. Col. Fehrenbach, has received nine Air Medals for distinguished service.

Kara Swisher (1962— ) [Wikipedia]

Kara Swisher... is an American technology columnist for the Wall Street Journal and an author and commentator on the Internet. She created and wrote Boom Town, a column which appeared on the front page of the Marketplace section and online, and now appears on All Things Digital, which she founded and currently serves as the co-executive editor of with Walt Mossberg. ...

Swisher is married to Google executive Megan Smith.

[Continued here]

• All Things D

[Tracy] Thorne-Begland rejoins debate over gays in the military (1968— )
[University of Richmond School of Law Alumni Magazine, Summer, 2009]

Honesty may be the best policy but it can be costly. Just ask Tracy Thorne-Begland, L'98. Honesty about his sexual orientation ended his dream career as a Naval aviator.

In February, at the invitation of the Law School chapter of the Equality Alliance, Thorne-Begland was back on campus to talk about his experiences in the Navy and the courts, as the nation, in the midst of war and economic turmoil, again faces the issue of gays in the military.

And while he is ready to stand up again in the fight for gay rights, Thorne-Begland says, "I'm happy to help out but I've never wanted to be a poster child." ...

As much as he loved what he was doing, Thorne-Begland was struggling with the secret of his sexual orientation (though he had "come out" to friends with whom he served). He felt a moral obligation to be honest about himself, though he knew that the military banned homosexuals.

Despite the likely consequences, Thorne-Begland felt two compelling concerns: His parents had instilled in him a strong sense of honesty and integrity. And he was troubled that he was putting his life on the line for his country every day but could not be his true self. (Two of Thorne-Begland's squadron mates had been killed in training accidents.)

After being counseled by a gay and lesbian veterans organization, Thorne-Begland agreed to go on ABC's Nightline on May 19, 1992, where he told Ted Koppel and millions of viewers that he was a gay naval aviator.

[Continued here]

"I want the government to force me to go to jail. I'm not going to let them take the easy way."



Dan Choi (1981— ) [Wikipedia]

Daniel "Dan" Choi... is a former American infantry officer in the United States Army who served in combat in the Iraq war during 2006-2007. He became an LGBT rights activist following his coming out on The Rachel Maddow Show in March 2009 and has been publicly challenging America's Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy, which forbids lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) service members from serving openly.

[Continued here]

• Dan Choi, Fired Gay Arabic-Speaking Linguist, Speaks To Rachel Maddow [Huffington Post, May 7, 2009]
• Lt. Dan Choi Arrested at White House During Gay Rights Rally [CBS News, March 18, 2010]
• Dan Choi Explains 'Why I Cannot Stay Quiet' [ABC News, August 24, 2010]

In a letter to the president, Lt. Dan Choi said the discharge letter, dated April 23, 2009, was "a slap in the face to me. It is a slap in the face to my soldiers, peers and leaders who have demonstrated that an infantry unit can be professional enough to accept diversity, to accept capable leaders, to accept skilled soldiers.

"My subordinates know I'm gay. They don't care," he said. "They are professional.

"As an infantry officer, I am not accustomed to begging. But I beg you today: Do not fire me," Choi wrote.

• Firedoglake Advocates for Dan Choi Before WH Protest Hearing [LGBT|POV, August 10, 2011]

Former Lt. Dan Choi is scheduled to face a hearing in federal court on Aug. 29 for that Nov. 15, 2010 demonstration where he and 12 others chained themselves to the White House fence protesting Don't Ask, Don't Tell.

The 13 were arrested and charged with violating a federal regulation prohibiting "interfering with agency functions," in this case refusing to obey an order from the National Park Service. As Equality Matters reported in March, the judge and a number of media outlets questioned the severity of the charge that could result in a maximum sentence of up to six months in jail. The government prosecutors subsequently offered the protesters a deal to plead guilty to a "failure to move" charge. Only Choi refused to go along.

In June, Firedoglake founder Jane Hamsher wrote about Choi's situation and what FDL calls "the White House's campaign of persecution against Lt. Dan Choi." On Tuesday, FDL upped the ante - launching a petition-drive asking people to "stand with Lt. Dan Choi" against the White House and Defense Department's "vindictive campaign" against Choi. FDL notes that:

        Collection agencies are now demanding Dan pay over $3,000 to the Department of Defense to "make up" for the portion of his enlistment he did not serve after he was thrown out of the Army for disclosing his sexual orientation. That includes seizing his veterans disability checks that he depends on to treat his Post Traumatic Stress Disorder from his service in the Iraq War.

• Dan Choi protest trial set for August 29 [Washington Blade, August 25, 2011]

Former Army Lt. Dan Choi is scheduled to stand trial in federal court in D.C. on Aug. 29 for his November 2010 arrest for handcuffing himself to the White House fence in protest of the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" law.

In a little noticed development, 12 other LGBT activists who were arrested with Choi in that protest accepted a government offer in May to undergo a six-month period of probation after which prosecutors promised to drop the charge against them and expunge their arrest record.

Choi said he rejected the offer and requested a trial, where he said he intends to defend what he calls his First Amendment right to stage a peaceful protest in front of the White House for a "just" cause.

According to Choi, who has emerged as a nationally recognized gay activist, the government offer created tension between him and some of the other protesters. He said prosecutors initially said the offer would only be extended if all 13 people arrested in the Nov. 15, 2010 White House protest accepted it.

"The 12 that were arrested with me are my friends," Choi told the Blade. "So this prosecution tactic tried to rip us apart."

In a last minute decision, prosecutors with the U.S. Attorney's office agreed at a court hearing in May to allow the other 12 arrestees to obtain the probation agreement even though Choi refused the offer.

Choi said he fully understands the decision by the others to accept the government offer, noting that the "harsh" charge brought against all of them could potentially lead to a prison sentence.

• Dan Choi On Trial For 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' White House Protest [Huffington Post, August 29, 2011]

Choi's attorney Robert Feldman said Monday at the start of his trial in federal court in Washington that people arrested for protesting at the White House are usually charged in local court where the penalty for disobeying a police order is a fine of between $100 and $1,000. But Choi was charged in federal court, where he faces both a fine and jail time of up to six months.

"They want him to go away," Feldman said, suggesting that bringing more serious charges is a move to get Choi to be silent. "He is the gay man who is finally attracting the attention."

• Choi Trial Put on Hold After Judge Allows "Vindictive Prosecution" Defense [Metro Weekly, August 31, 2011]

The third day of the U.S. government's trial of former Lt. Dan Choi ended with a 10-day delay for the government to seek an order from a higher court stopping the decision made today by U.S. Magistrate Judge John Facciola to allow Choi's lawyers to argue the government singled out Choi for "vindictive prosecution."

Facciola said this morning that he had found there was prima facie evidence for "vindictive prosecution," meaning enough evidence was presented to allow Choi's lawyers to pursue such a claim. As a result, Choi's lawyers would be able to ask for more documents and evidence from the government in order to investigate if higher-level officials advised their subordinates to try Choi in federal court rather than D.C. court and, if so, why.

The government, represented in court by Assistant U.S. Attorney Angela George, told the court that it would be filing a writ of mandamus (or a writ of prohibition) against the judge -- seeking to stop the pursuit of the "vindictive prosecution" defense.

• Transcript of Dan Choi Trial, Day 3: DoJ Files Writ of Mandamus Against Judge Facciola [Fire Dog Lake, August 31, 2011]
• Department of Justice Files Writ of Mandamus Against Judge in Dan Choi Case [Fire Dog Lake, August 31, 2011]

In a remarkable turn of events, the Department of Justice has elected to file a writ of mandamus to prevent Judge John Facciola from allowing Dan Choi to offer a "selective prosecution" or "vindictive prosecution" defense. The government elected to pursue federal charges against Choi and 12 others for chaining themselves to the White House fence on November 15, 2010 to protest Don't Ask, Don't Tell.

Assistant US Attorney Angela George filed a motion to prevent Choi's attorneys from offering a selective prosecution defense prior to the start of the trial. The Judge refused to rule on it, saying that until they offered a selective prosecution defense, it was like "striking from the game a ball that has not been thrown."

Judge Facciola said that as he listened to Choi's testimony yesterday, it became clear that the government had treated him differently on November 15 when he chained himself to the White House fence, as opposed to how he was treated in March and April when he had done roughly the same thing. But the Judge also found that there was a prima facie case for vindictive prosecution on the part of the government, saying that there was evidence it had been done to Choi because he was a member of a minority group and the government wanted to punish him for the message he was giving. He strongly suggested that the actions of the government had been taken to abridge Choi's first amendment speech in opposing Don't Ask, Don't Tell.

The judge has compared Choi's case to the Supreme Court civil rights case Shuttlesworth v. Birmingham, in which traffic regulations were arbitrarily enforced in order to suppress the free speech of civil rights protesters. The judge was insulted by the prosecutor's decision to bring the writ of mandamus to the Court of Appeals, which is essentially a lawsuit alleging that Judge Facciola abused his discretion in finding a prima facie showing of vindictive or selective prosecution.

He asked her what her legal justification was for denying Choi his constitutionally protected right to offer his own defense. George cited US v. Armstrong and US v. Washington, saying in both instances the court had found that such arguments should be offered in pre-trial rather than at trial.e Facciola abused his discretion in finding a prima facie showing of vindictive or selective prosecution.

The Judge countered that both of those trials had been jury trials, and that since this was a bench trial, no Appellate court would prohibit him from hearing evidence and conducting an investigation. He also sternly warned George against filing a writ of mandamus and then attempting to dismiss the case thereafter in the event the writ was denied. He suggested it would be further evidence that the government was persecuting Choi. ...

Lt. Dan Choi saluted the judge and court was in recess.

• Dan Choi re-enlisting [Politico, September 20, 2011]

"Going back to the military will be a vindication," Choi told POLITICO. [I'm] going back because I fought to go back. The seriousness of our claims was not just political theatre - it was really drawn from our lives. I sacrificed so much so I could go back."

In October 2010, he attempted to rejoin the U.S. Army, but has gone back and forth since then. Choi has scheduled appointment with a military recruiter to talk about joining the Army Reserves later this week. ...

Choi said that he had been unsure about whether he should reenlist but eventually concluded that it was important to show the seriousness of his actions. "Joining the military is never supposed to be a comfortable thing," Choi said.

Choi is not yet sure what his role in the Army will be. His responsibilities will be determined "as they say, by 'the needs of the Army'," he told POLITICO. "No matter what you choose, even if you have a degree in Arabic. You do whatever the military wants you to do on a day-to-day basis."

• Choi slams GOP crowd for booing gay soldier [Salon, September 23, 2011]

Here's a quick update on the case of Stephen Hill, the gay soldier who received a distinctly chilly reception from the GOP presidential field -- and was booed by a handful of members of the audience -- at the debate last night.

Former Army Lt. Dan Choi, who was discharged because he is gay and became a leading opponent of "don't ask, don't tell," tells Salon he was appalled by the response of both the audience and the candidates to Hill's question about whether they would try to reverse the repeal of DADT.

"Any soldier who courageously stands for truth and not comfort should be applauded, supported and respected. Stephen Hill serves our country," Choi said in an email. "Those who boo our honorable soldiers do not support our troops."

None of the GOP candidates, of course, thanked Hill for his service.

• Choi court brief compares Obama to Nixon [Washington Blade, September 29, 2011 ]

A 59-page legal brief filed in defense of gay former Army Lt. Dan Choi cites the Nixon Watergate scandal and suggests that President Obama played a role in a decision to "illegally" prosecute Choi under a harsher than usual federal law following his arrest last November for chaining himself to the White House fence.

The brief filed Sept. 20 by Choi's attorney, Robert Feldman, calls on U.S. District Court Chief Judge Royce Lamberth to deny a Petition for Writ of Mandamus by prosecutors. The petition asks the court to prohibit Choi from arguing in his ongoing trial that the government waged a "selective/vindictive" prosecution against him. The trial was suspended for at least 10 days while Lamberth deliberates over the Writ of Mandamus petition. ...

"Even more damaging, evidence was exposed during Lt. Choi's criminal trial indicating that the paper trail of this government persecution of Lt. Choi led - like the Watergate tapes snaked their way back to President Nixon - directly to President Obama himself, who was/is not only personally opposed to gay equality, but was, as the self-described legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., deeply humiliated by being criticized by Lt. Choi and others for enforcing discriminatory laws (like "Don't Ask, Don't Tell") against gay Americans," Feldman states in his brief.

Feldman has argued that a chain of e-mails between former gay White House aide Brian Bond; the U.S. Park Police, who arrested Choi at the protest; and the Secret Service indicates that the White House may have been involved in orchestrating the prosecution. But no evidence has surfaced to show Obama was aware of the e-mails, and prosecutors say the charging decision was a legitimate, legal action made by Park Police.

• Judge rules against Choi in 'vindictive' prosecution claim [Washington Blade, October 17, 2011]

A federal judge ruled on Oct. 11 that gay former Army Lt. Dan Choi cannot argue in his ongoing trial that he was targeted for "selective" or "vindictive" prosecution following his arrest last year for chaining himself to the White House fence in a protest against "Don't Ask, Don't Tell."

In a 17-page decision, Chief Judge Royce Lamberth of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia overturned an earlier ruling by Magistrate Judge John Facciola that allowed Choi's lawyers to pursue allegations of selective or vindictive prosecution in the trial, which began Aug. 29.

Lamberth's decision, among other things, granted a petition by prosecutors for a Writ of Mandamus, a formal and unusual request challenging a ruling of a trial judge by appealing to a higher court or to another judge with greater authority.

Under Lamberth's decision, Facciola is prohibited from "considering selective or vindictive prosecution as a defense to the merits of the prosecution," prohibited from "allowing evidence as to either claim" and barred from entertaining any motion filed by Choi to dismiss the case based on selective or vindictive prosecution.

• The making of Dan Choi [Global Post, September 20, 2011]

"I told my mom: 'If you won't come to my gay wedding then I won't come to your straight funeral. I'm doing this so you don't die a homophobe.'" He elaborates: "That's how you love someone. I can't forgive someone when I'm not in a position to forgive. They have not acknowledged that they are wrong."

Oral Roberts' gay grandson [Randy Roberts Potts] speaks out [Dallas Voice, July 9, 2010]

Randy Roberts Potts grew up like many in this area. Raised in an evangelical family, he married at 20 and had three children.

But at 30, he came out as gay and moved to Dallas.

Today, few in his family speak to him. But last year he summoned the courage to take his children to visit his grandfather - Tulsa evangelist Oral Roberts.

Roberts, who died last year, had four children: Potts' mother, a Tulsa attorney; her sister, who died in a plane crash with her husband in 1977; Ronnie Roberts, who committed suicide in 1982; and Richard Roberts, who became president of Oral Roberts University in 1993 but resigned in 2007 after being accused of using school funds for personal and political purposes.

Potts identifies most closely with his deceased uncle, Ronnie. They look alike. They were both teachers. They married, had children and divorced at about the same age.

"We married very similar women, too," Potts said.

They were also about the same age when they came out. But there is a major difference between the two.

Ronnie came out as gay to the Rev. Troy Perry, founder of the Metropolitan Community Church, in the early 1980s. Six months later, Ronnie Roberts committed suicide.

Potts, on the other hand, learned to embrace his identity.

Potts said he believes people need to take responsibility for their own lives. If their families aren't supportive, they need to surround themselves with people who are. That is what made the difference for him.

[Continued here]

• Oral Roberts Gay Grandson Brings Gay Agenda To Conservative Town Near You [The New Civil Rights Movement, September 16, 2011]

"The Gay Agenda" is a direct community action designed for mid-?size conservative towns across the U.S. To present a clear image of what gay domesticity looks like, we will set up a "home" in each town inside a borrowed storefront. Two men or two women will inhabit the space as a couple for several days at a time, the occupants performing routine tasks: vacuuming the carpet, making coffee, reading the paper, playing cards with friends, ordering pizza, watching TV, etc.. No intimacy beyond what might be acceptable for any heterosexual couple in public will be presented; ie, it will be limited to casual contact?-?hand-?holding, an arm around each other, a casual kiss hello/?goodbye, etc.

Bruce LaBruce (1964— ) [Wikipedia]

Bruce LaBruce... is a Canadian writer, filmmaker, photographer and underground gay porn director based in Toronto, Ontario.

[Continued here]

• Filmmaker Bruce LaBruce [Toronto.com, February 22. 2012]

Toronto director and photographer Bruce LaBruce has provoked outrage in Madrid with an exhibition of his photographs that depict various Catholic icons in racy, often overtly sexual positions.

The show, which opened last week, is called "Obscenity," and it puts LaBruce, 48, in the not-unfamiliar position of provocateur. But even he's a little taken aback at the intensity of the reaction.

On the first day, it was picketing and chants and loud Christian rock. On the second day, things turned ugly: The gallery window was smashed, and an explosive tossed inside.

It didn't detonate and no-one was hurt, but it left both the gallery owners and LaBruce shaken.

Tablet for Two: The Brothers Mueller, Twin Maestros of the iPad, Will
Make You See Double (1985— ) [Beta Beat, January 4, 2012]

They're the toast of New York media. And yes, boys, they're gay.

Identical twins Kirk and Nate Mueller sat side-by-side in identical leather chairs wearing identical GANT gabardine suits fiddling with identical Le Pen pens. It was chilly December afternoon just before the New Year at the Fort Greene offices of Studio Mercury, a boutique design firm made up entirely of alumni from the Rhode Island School of Design's hyper-exclusive Digital + Media graduate program.

The Muellers' similarities are more than superficial. The twins, who are 27 and stand 5'5?, share the same bank account. They share the same calendar. They share the same curriculum vitae. The same sexual orientation (gay), brownstone (Prospect Heights) and taste in boyfriends ("over 30"). They share the same profession, and the same specialty (interactive design). They even, in a manner of speaking, share an identity. Email the Brothers Mueller at their shared account, and the only way to tell which Mueller is responding is by whose name shows up first in the signature: Nate & Kirk versus Kirk & Nate.

"We have this little notation," said Kirk.

"Some people figured it out," chimed in Nate, who, along with his brother, seems unburdened by matters of selfhood.

[Continued here]

Steve Kornacki: The coming out story I never thought I'd write (1979— )
[Salon, November 16. 2011]

I've read stories from people who say they always knew they were attracted to the same sex, or that they figured it out at a young age. I'm not one of them. I had practically no idea until one night in my sophomore year of high school. I was at a basketball game, and the guys around me started pointing out cheerleaders from the other team they thought were hot. I began to wonder: Why wasn't I looking at the cheerleaders that way? And why was I sometimes noticing the other team's players instead? My heart rate quickened and my mind spun until a thought surfaced: This is what it means to be gay.

Only it couldn't be. I was the All-American kid, or so I told myself - good grades, never in trouble, bright future, well-respected by my peers. My favorite comedian was Bob Newhart. After a trip to Cape Cod with a friend and his family, the kid's mother said her favorite moment was watching "straitlaced Steve" struggling to make sense of all the hedonism around him when we drove out to Provincetown. I remember seeing drag queens and men dressed in skimpy attire and thinking to myself: Get me out of here so I can watch a baseball game.

I just didn't fit the stereotypes of gay men. I was an ESPN addict as far back as elementary school. I'd also had early crushes on girls. So my epiphany at that basketball game was as sudden as it was incompatible with my self-image. I fought it relentlessly.

[Continued here]

• Why Your Coach Votes Republican [Wall Street Journal, September 2, 2009]

[David] Norris withdraws from presidential election race (1944— )
[Irish Times, August 2, 2011]

Senator David Norris has withdrawn from the presidential election campaign following the controversy over letters he wrote to the Israeli authorities seeking clemency for his former partner.

It emerged last weekend that Mr Norris wrote a letter in 1997 to the Israeli authorities pleading on behalf of Ezra Yitzhak Nawi, who had been convicted of the statutory rape of a 15-year-old boy.

Mr Norris's campaign suffered a serious blow last night when three Independent TDs withdrew their pledge to support the Trinity Senator's nomination.

Other members of the Dáil and Seanad who had pledged support for Mr Norris are also considering their position in the light of the disclosure that the Senator wrote a letter pleading for leniency for his former partner.

Mr Norris held a press conference outside his home in Dublin this afternoon to inform supporters he was withdrawing from the race.

"I deeply regret the most recent of all the controversies concerning my former partner of 25 years ago, Ezra Yitzhak Nawi," he said. "The fallout from his disgraceful behaviour has now spread to me and is in danger of contaminating others close to me both in political and personal life.

"It is essential that I act decisively now to halt this negative process. I do not regret supporting and seeking clemency for a friend, but I do regret giving the impression that I did not have sufficient compassion for the victim of Ezra's crime," Mr Norris said.

"I accept that more than a decade and a half later when I have now reviewed the issue, and am not emotionally involved, when I am not afraid that Ezra might take his own life, I see that I was wrong. He served his time and never offended again.

"Yes, his actions were terrible, but my motivation to write the letter was out of love and concern. I was eager to support someone who has been very important and continues to be important in my life.

"It is very sad that in trying to help a person I loved dearly, I made a human error."

[Continued here]

• Norris claims 'paedophilia' storm is a bid to derail his campaign [Independent, May 31 2011]

An emotional David Norris today strongly refuted allegations contained in a ten year old article which were brought to the surface yesterday on Joe Duffy's Liveline programme.

Senator Norris, who is currently seeking a nomination as a Presidential candidate, made it clear in an RTE interview on Pat Kenny that he believes this is an attempt to derail his candidature.

An article published in Magill Magazine, in which he was quoted as saying there was "something to be said" for "classic paedophilia", took his comments out of context, he said and described the renewed controversy over the 2002 interview as a "smear" on his election campaign.

The Magill article from January 2002, written by Helen Lucy Burke, quoted Norris as saying there was "complete and utter hysteria" on the topic of paedophilia, and "confusion between homosexuality and paedophilia on the one hand, and between paedophilia and pederasty on the other".

Burke's article also said Norris "did not appear to endorse any minimum age or endure any protest that a child was not capable of informed consent", quoting him as saying: "The law in this sphere should take in to account consent rather than age."

Speaking this morning, Norris described the resurfacing of the article as part of a "smear" and said he hoped those who were circulating the "inaccurate, misleading misquotation" were ashamed of themselves.

"I answered all the questions - on radio and in every newspaper ..... and now, Pat, that Magill article is being sent to all the councillors in an attempt to prevent me from getting the nomination."

• Scandal scuppers prospect of Ireland electing first gay president [The Guardian, August 3, 2011]

Norris's fate was sealed on Tuesday night when members of the Irish parliament withdrew their support for his candidacy. Under the Irish constitution, a candidate cannot stand for the presidency unless he or she has the support of 20 TDs or senators, or command the backing of a number of county councils.

• Irish Voters to David Norris: Come Back [The Advocate, September 4, 2011]

The new Sunday Independent/Millward Brown poll shows Norris coming in third, with 18% of the vote, even after quitting the campaign. The race's new leader, Michael Higgins, has only 32% support.

Voters were also asked whether they want Norris to re-enter the race, and 34% said yes. More want Norris back in the race as an option than are sure they'd actually vote for him.

When asked to describe Norris, voters called him "vibrant," "inspiring" and "modern" while rarely saying anything negative, according to the Independent.

If Norris were to change his mind about leaving the race, he has until September 28, the last day on which candidates can be nominated.

• Gay Senator David Norris edges closer to Irish presidency [Pink News, September 27, 2011]

The independent politician, who recently re-entered the race, needs the backing of one more council to become an official candidate.

This morning, he gained his third nomination when Waterford City Council backed a motion supporting him.

Candidates must gain the support of 20 Oireachtas members or four county councils to contest the election. The deadline is midday tomorrow.

• Gay Irish Pol Back in Presidential Contention, Wins Nomination [Edge Boston, September 28, 2011]
• NOM Uses Irish Presidential Candidate To Promote 'Gays Are Pedophiles' Myth [Equality Matters, October 12, 2011]
• Could David Norris become Ireland's first gay president? [The Guardian, October 23, 2011]
• Norris first to admit defeat to 'maverick' rival Higgins [Irish Independent, October 29, 2011]

His campaign was hit by a string of scandals and, as he said himself during the last television debate, there were no skeletons left in his closet by the end of the campaign.

He was leading the opinion polls months ago, but his main problem was how he dealt with the skeletons that came tumbling out in dramatic fashion.

"A Queer and Pleasant Danger": Kate Bornstein, Trans Scientology Survivor (1948— )
[Mother Jones, May. 5, 2012]

What the lengthy title of Bornstein's new memoir, A Queer and Pleasant Danger: The True Story of a Nice Jewish Boy Who Joins the Church of Scientology and Leaves Twelve Years Later to Become the Lovely Lady She Is Today (on sale May 1, 2012) doesn't reveal is how scared she's been to talk about her time in the church, until now. Thanks to the TV show South Park, which satirized Scientology for mainstream audiences, and the hope that this story might someday reach Bornstein's daughter, who's still a member of the church, she's overcome her fear of retribution. Today, Bornstein says pretty much whatever she pleases about sex, gender, and Scientology-with fearless humor and a "fuck of a lot of love."

Mother Jones: I've followed your work for years, but I didn't realize you spent 12 years in the Church of Scientology. You were even on the Sea Org ship with L. Ron Hubbard! Have others been surprised, too?

Kate Bornstein: Yeah. There are Easter eggs in every book I've ever written. I think in the first one I called [Scientology] "Diabology," but I was scared, so I didn't tell many people what it really meant.

[Continued here]

• Michelangelo Signorile: Kate Bornstein, Transgender Writer And Activist, Discusses Life In And Exit From The Church Of Scientology [HuffPo, May 5, 2012]

Brian Paddick: Equality in the police has improved (1958— ) [The Guardian, January 7, 2009]

When I was a police officer, the usual reaction to the publication of the Stonewall workplace equality index from gay and lesbian colleagues was: "How could our force have scored so highly?"

Like me, many had suffered discrimination at worse and been tolerated at best. When I joined the Metropolitan Police in 1976, homophobia was rife and overt. "Only girls and poofs wear gloves!" bawled the drill sergeant on the parade square at Hendon. Ten years later, a close colleague was beaten up by his police officer flatmate, simply for bringing his boyfriend home. In the 1990s, sexual orientation was included in the Met's equal opportunities statement. But at the same time I received a visit from my boss to tell me it was "a shield and not a flag."

Even 30 years later, my experience in the upper echelons of the Met was of networking done, and major decisions made, by the straight white male majority. Much of the business was done in the bars around New Scotland Yard after work, a culture that excluded "others" like me, then the highest-ranking openly gay police officer in the UK, and the then highest-ranking Asian officer, Tarique Ghaffur.

[Continued here]

• Retired openly gay officer Brian Paddick to give talk [BBC, May 14, 2011]

Scotland Yard's former Deputy Assistant Commissioner, then Britain's most senior openly gay officer, will talk at Thames Valley Police's gay association. ...

He said: "I am delighted to be attending this TVGPA event and getting the chance to meet lesbian, gay, bi-sexual and trans (LGBT) officers and staff, and those interested in knowing more about issues facing LGBT people in the workplace.

"Many people working in the police service still have fears about being openly gay at work, and it is good to be able to share my experience and show my support for them."

Sgt Kelly Reed, chair of the TVGPA, said: "This event shows support for all Lesbian, Gay, Bi-sexual and Trans people within the police service, one day there will be true equality but we are not there yet.

• Brian Paddick: Truth, lies and happy pills [The Independent, April 12, 2008]

Brian Paddick is beautifully turned out, as ever: Gucci suit and tie, silver hair cropped and quiffed. He speaks carefully, as if giving evidence in court. So it feels all the more remarkable that he is talking about falling apart. "I became severely depressed as a consequence of the way I was treated," the London mayoral candidate says of his reaction to a row with Sir Ian Blair, his old boss at the Metropolitan Police. "I got myself into a pretty bad way... with appropriate medical support." What does that mean? Anti-depressants? "The works." Prozac? "It wasn't Prozac," he says, "but whatever the modern equivalent is."

Before the shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes, Paddick was best known for being the highest-ranking openly gay cop in the country, and for his relaxed attitude to cannabis. But after the innocent Brazilian was killed by police officers in 2005, there was an inquiry - and Paddick, an assistant deputy commissioner, gave evidence that contradicted statements by Sir Ian about just how soon the head of the Met knew his officers had made a deadly mistake.

"I couldn't get my head round how I was the one who had been completely open and honest about what had happened after the shooting, [yet] I was the one who had been sidelined," says Brian Paddick. Now the Liberal Democrat candidate for mayor, he ought to be laying out his plans for the capital city. Instead, in a basement restaurant in Westminster, he is talking about suffering from severe depression.

• Brian Paddick [Wikipedia]
• Brian Paddick index [The Guardian]
• Brian Paddick picked by Liberal Democrats for London mayoral race [The Guardian, September 2, 2011]

London's mayoral election next year will be a rematch between Boris Johnson, Ken Livingstone and Brian Paddick, after the former Scotland Yard deputy assistant commissioner was selected as the Liberal Democrats' candidate for the second time. ...

Nick Clegg, the Lib Dem leader and deputy prime minister, said Paddick provided Londoners with a "real, credible alternative" to Johnson and Livingstone.

"Brian's experience is exactly what London needs right now. Whether dealing with the aftermath of the riots or phone hacking and corruption in the Metropolitan police, Brian has shown in recent weeks that he has the authority and leadership London needs."The phone hacking scandal that rocked News International, the Metropolitan police and the political establishment is likely to surface in the 2012 contest. Paddick, whose phone was hacked by the now defunct News of the World, is among a group of public figures who have sought permission for a judicial review of the Met's handling of the phone hacking scandal.

• Brian Paddick tells hustings he was 'bullied for being gay' [BBC, April 14, 2012]

Mr Paddick said: "When I was in school I remember being manhandled, about to be thrown into a freezing pool of water fully clothed because I was gay, until a teacher intervened.

"I also remember boys trying to strip me naked and luckily my brother found out and came to rescue me."

Mr Paddick, a former Metropolitan Police officer, said: "There needs to be an absolute culture change in the police. I will put that pressure on to deal with racism and homophobia within the police."

Bob Brown: The most ----------* man in Australia (1944— )
[Sydney Morning Herald, October 17, 2011]

It's the Greens, led by Brown, that are the new political reality in Australia, a seemingly permanent, menacing force for the once cosy two-party system, mauling Labor's left flank and gnawing away at softer morsels of conservative flesh. In 1996 fewer than 350,000 Australians voted Green in the Senate. By the last election, that had grown four-fold to almost 1.7 million votes, compared to 4.5 million for Labor and 4.9 million for the conservatives. The Greens hold the balance of power in the Senate with nine senators and a crucial seat in the lower house. And now each week that parliament sits, Bob Brown gets to plonk his sensible shoes beneath Prime Minister Julia Gillard's desk for a cup of tea and a chat about the direction of the nation.

"I am having a ball," says Brown, 66, as we talk in his Parliament House office. He's a man who often forgets to eat and so his face is all sinew and smile. "I am having too much fun to retire." He flippantly says that Rupert Murdoch - his nemesis - is somewhat of an icon, still going strong at 80.

You might need to get a younger boyfriend, to truly emulate Rupert, I say.

"Ha, ha," he bellows. "Ha. No, I am very happy with the one I've got, thank you very much."

By any reckoning his has been a remarkable life. He was born a twin, the shy son of a country policeman, who went to university to become a doctor. He moved to Tasmania in a mad search for the thylacine. As a 32-year-old doctor in conservative rural Tasmania, way back in 1976, when even Elton John had girlfriends, he publicly declared his homosexuality so others might be spared his "years of misery". He turned his back on a medical career to lead the seven-year campaign to save the Franklin River from being dammed. He was the driving force behind The Wilderness Society. He transformed the Tasmanian Greens, and then the Australian Greens, into an electoral power and has fostered new Green parties around the world. Along the way he has been bashed with a tyre lever, shot at and jailed. In 1990, he won a $50,000 environment prize and donated the money to save a patch of Tasmanian forest from loggers, and Bush Heritage Australia was born. The organisation has since raised more than $100 million to buy almost one million hectares of high-conservation-value private land in Australia.

[Continued here]

Thailand's Transgender Flight Attendants: PC Air Takes On Groundbreaking Cabin Crew
[Huffington Post, December 15, 2011]

With its team of transgender flight attendants, a new Thai airline is offering a groundbreaking, alternative take on the friendly skies.

As the Daily Mail is reporting, PC Air, a charter airline with routes across Asia, originally set out to hire only male and female flight attendants, but eventually changed its mind after receiving more than 100 job applications from transgender candidates.

A total of four transgender applicants were chosen for the cabin crew, in addition to 19 female and seven male members, according to Reuters. Believed to be the world's first, the transgender flight attendants are 24-year-olds Chayathisa Nakmai, Dissanai Chitpraphachin and Phuntakarn Sringern, and Ms. Nathatai Sukkaset, who is 26.

"I'm a pioneer, and I'm sure there will be [other] organizations following my idea," PC Air president Peter Chan is quoted by Reuters as saying.

[Continued here]

• Come fly with he/she! Thai carrier PC Air takes to the skies with 'ladyboy' flight attendants [Daily Mail, December 16, 2011]

The new face of the Tories: Lesbian kickboxer [Ruth Davidson], 32, elected as Scottish leader
[Daily Mail, November 5, 2011]

A young Tory newcomer who was inspired by David Cameron to enter frontline politics has been elected leader of the party in Scotland.

Openly gay Ruth Davidson, 32, only took a seat at the Scottish Parliament at the Holyrood election in May, but has already become the first overall leader in a shake-up of the party north of the border.

She was immediately congratulated by Prime Minister David Cameron.

He said: 'I am delighted to congratulate Ruth on winning this leadership election and look forward to working with her to strengthen the Union and build a better future for Scotland.'

Ms Davidson, a kick-boxer and former Territorial Army member, was elected in a closely fought campaign against three other candidates.

[Continued here]

• Support group for gay people in politics launched [The Herald, December 20, 2010]

The ParliOut initiative was established with the help of the gay rights charity Stonewall. Conservative MP Nigel Evans, who declared his homosexuality at the weekend, will become its vice-president.

Mr Evans, a deputy speaker in the Commons, said he hoped his decision to publicly declare his sexual orientation would help others.

He said a Labour MP had threatened to "out" him. The MP for Ribble Valley would not name the MP but said he wanted to help end such "nastiness".

It comes as Ruth Davidson, the Scottish Conservative hopeful who last week narrowly failed in her bid to stand for Glasgow Kelvin in May's Scottish Parliamentary elections, tells The Herald that being gay is no hurdle to success in politics north of the Border.

In a frank exclusive interview published today, Ms Davidson, 32, the only openly gay Scottish Tory candidate, speaks of her love for partner Saskia Halcrow and the support she has from party leader Annabel Goldie, for whom she works as a personal assistant. ...

"I've never encountered any impediment within the party for being gay," she says. "There's a misconception that the Scottish Tories are anti-gay. It's a stick we get beaten with and it's unfair.

"A lot of the people surrounding John Major, Iain Duncan Smith and William Hague are gay, so it exists at the very highest levels. In fact, the Tories have more gay MPs than Labour or the LibDems put together."

Openly gay Republican Fred Karger announces 2012 presidential run
[CBS News, March 23, 2011]

Barely hours after filing his intent with the FEC to run for the 2012 Republican nomination for president, Fred Karger stopped by Washington Unplugged to formally announce his decision.

Speaking with CBS News congressional correspondent Nancy Cordes Karger said, "I've filed to run for President of the United States."

Explaining what brought him to this moment Karger said, "It was the culmination of a lifetime of political work. It was a very exciting moment."

This is the first time Karger has run for political office, but he has been a behind-the-scenes player for 35 years -- serving as an advisor to Presidents Ford, Reagan and George H. W. Bush.

Karger says he's an "outsider" but has "political experience."

He is also the first openly gay presidential candidate. Cordes asked when so many of his fellow Republicans are opposed to gay rights and same-sex marriage why he would chose to run as a candidate of that same party.

[Continued here]

• Fred Karger index [Huffington Post]
• Fred Karger, gay Republican, for president [Salon, March 23, 2011]
• Why Fred Karger Isn't Just Tilting at Windmills [Bilerico Project, January 24, 2012]

Reading his email dispatches as he traveled to Iowa, New Hampshire and now Michigan for his Republican presidential campaign, it's easy to think of Fred Karger as a modern-day Don Quixote. Surely, like the fictional Man from La Mancha, Karger is tilting at windmills as he dreams the impossible dream of an openly gay man becoming president of the United States.

But the Los Angeles-based candidate says he has role models and mentors who instilled in him the dream and the experience to make it happen. Before Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama competed for the Democratic nomination in 2008, there was Shirley Chisholm, the first black woman elected to Congress. Karger reminded Frontiers during a long lunch interview in West Hollywood on Jan. 18, that on Jan. 25, 1972, Chisholm became the first major-party black candidate for president and the first woman to run for the Democratic presidential nomination. Margaret Chase Smith, the first woman to serve in both houses of Congress, was the first woman to run for the Republican presidential nomination.

Apple's Tim Cook isn't the only gay person in the IT village (1960— )
[The Guardian, August 29, 2011]

Tim Cook's appointment as head of Apple hangs the official "Gay people welcome!" sign above the tech-industry door - but the truth is that they have never been unwelcome here. They love us! Well, actually, they're totally ambivalent to us. Because, in the geek world, the normal rules of society have never applied, for the simple reason that they don't make sense.

Geeks love rules, particularly the kinds of programming geeks (such as me) that are taking over the world one line of code at a time. But we like the rules to be based on logic, or at least some sort of pragmatic interpretation of concrete outcomes based on real-world experiments (known in the non-geek world as common sense). There is no logical rule connecting sexuality to the ability to model the world as equations or untangle a sequence of user actions. Thus it is a non-factor. Noise. Safely ignored.

For many geeks this is largely how the world breaks down: things that matter and things that can be ignored. We have less interest than your classic non-geek in attributing value to non-correlated factors. The things that are important are really important. For me: prime numbers, correct use of statistics and apostrophes, the direction the content moves when you scroll, whether you always change batteries as a complete set, not verbing your nouns, and not making statements that are illogical or can't be substantiated (ever). I care deeply about working with smart people who combine flexibility and creativity with rigorous thinking and attention to detail. I don't care who they want to sleep with.

And yet my little company is three-for-three on the queer counter. One lesbian (me), one gay man and one asexual woman. It seems that gay men and women are over-represented in our industry in a way that can't simply be down to not being rejected; we're quietly, actively welcomed because the tech world is full of people who have first-hand experience of being socially excluded.

[Continued here]

Blake Ross (1985— ) [Wikipedia]

Blake Aaron Ross... is an American software developer who is known for his work on the Mozilla web browser; in particular, he started the Mozilla Firefox project with Dave Hyatt, as well as the Spread Firefox project with Asa Dotzler while working as a contractor at the Mozilla Foundation. In 2005, he was nominated for Wired magazine's top Rave Award, Renegade of the Year, opposite Larry Page, Sergey Brin and Jon Stewart. He was also a part of Rolling Stone magazine's 2005 hot list. He currently works for Facebook as Director of Product.

[Continued here]

"As long as politicians like Michele Bachmann continue to profit off of a harmful and
discredited 'therapy,' you can expect people to continue to find smart, creative,
and fun actions to hold them accountable for their repulsive behavior."



From Glitter to Gay Hordes: Equality Activist Nick Espinosa [Edge Boston, August 29, 2011]

Nick Espinosa has just turned 25 years old, but he's made a political impression at a national level -- and he's done it with glitter.

Espinosa, who works full time in the field of equal rights advocacy, shot to national fame when he doused anti-gay politician Newt Gingrich with glitter at a book signing last spring while shouting, "Feel the rainbow, Newt! Stop the hate! Stop anti-gay politics!"

The May 17 glittering of Newt resulted in a story from the Associated Press, which dubbed the young activist a "prankster." But while Espinosa appreciates the value of putting a fun, and eye-catching, spin on his message, he's not simply fooling around. He's serious about the work of securing legal and civil equality for minorities, including GLBTs, and their families.

Espinosa found validation from the very same source when the AP followed up with an article calling so-called glitter bombing a "trendy new tactic," and referring to those who resorted to it as "glitterati." Pies in the face might suddenly seem passe, and sticks and stones the airborne missiles of choice for none but the hopelessly drab.

Glitter is spectacularly flashy, but it also has the benefit of being completely harmless. It's hard to imagine assault charges stemming from a good glittering, and to be sure, to date, no such charges have been filed. That, Epsinosa suggested to the AP, is as much due to the targets' own media savvy as anything. "They don't want to talk about it -- it's embarrassing to them," the young equality leader said. "If they were to press charges, it would make them look bad."

[Continued here]

• Glittering Rage [New York Times, August 27, 2011]

Less confrontational than spattering fur coats with red paint to promote animal rights, or throwing pies at opponents, glitter bombing generally doesn't yield dry cleaning bills. But glitter bombs have staying power. Weeks after the incident, the victim will probably still be brushing off pesky, iridescent pieces of the stuff, a tangible reminder of an issue that won't go away.

Steven Fales: A Gay Mormon Boy Grows Up
[HuffPo, April 21, 2012]

Actor/playwright Steven Fales first came to my attention with his groundbreaking solo play, Confessions of a Mormon Boy, which was a hit off-Broadway and in cities around the world. The play chronicles Fales' heartbreaking journey from being a devoted, sixth-generation Mormon and father of two to coming out as gay and being excommunicated from his church. Along the way, he also details his painful divorce, a long-fought battle with drugs and alcohol, a stint in prostitution, and finally coming out the other side as an out and proud gay dad.

Intrigued by his story, I asked him to perform his play at Church of the Foothills, the progressive church I attend in the middle of conservative Orange County, Calif. Getting to know Steven and his life story, it became clear that no one play could accurately communicate his entire life's journey, so I wasn't surprised to learn of his creation of two new solo plays, Missionary Position and Prodigal Dad, which complement his first.

Missionary Position was based on Fales' journals and follows his Mormon mission to Portugal, while Prodigal Dad explores the link between parent and child, and how tenuous, yet intrinsic, that bond can be. My partner Russ and I had the pleasure of having Fales read us an early draft of Prodigal Dad in our living room, and I can't wait to see it fully realized on stage.

[Continued here]

Charges dropped after Darcelle arrest [NWCN, August 12, 2011]

Charges were dropped against Portland celebrity and entertainment icon Darcelle after an arrest Thursday evening for allegedly assaulting two Oregon Liquor Control Commission officers in the Darcelle XV nightclub.

The issue of serving a minor is under investigation by the OLCC.

Darcelle -- also known as Walter Cole -- was booked into the Multnomah County jail on two accusations of Class B harassment and was released on his own recognizance. Two counts of harassment were dropped in court Friday afternoon.

"Mr. Cole was agressively grabbing that inspectors arms and trying to shove him to get him to leave," OLCC Metro enforcement unit manager Carl Lewis said. "They did have their badge and identification ready to identify themselves to the door person, but there was no one there and did that immediately there after being confronted by Mr. Cole."

Darcelle, 80, who has had the nightclub for decades and is a fixture at civic and philanthropic events, was expected to be in court Friday. Darcelle was Grand Marshal this year of the Rose Festival Starlight Parade.

He and Darcelle XV co-owner Roxy Neuhardt reportedly pushed the two OLCC officers, who were there following up on a previous citation for serving alcohol to a minor, according to Portland Police Bureau spokesman Lt. Robert King.

[Continued here]

• Darcelle uncovered: Q&A with Walter Cole [Oregon Live, April 1, 2010]

Early on in "Just Call Me Darcelle," Walter Cole, the man behind Portland's bawdy and beloved female impersonator, recalls staring at himself in a mirror the first time he'd ever donned drag in public.

He was 37. The dress was a flamenco-style number. The wig was high and black.

"Walter," he says, "what have you done?"

High-Profile Poker Player [Jason Somerville] Comes Out (1988— )
[The Advocate, February 15, 2012]

The Stony Brook, N.Y.-based player wrote that poker is welcoming to different races and genders, but yet there is not one high-profile gay male player. Somerville decided he would become the first.

"I always knew I wasn't straight, but I never spoke a word of it for twenty two years, and nobody really ever knew otherwise," Somerville writes." I dated women exclusively through my teens and early 20s, doing my best to convince myself that it wasn't something I had to pursue, that maybe I'd grow out of it, that I'd be happier with women anyway, that I just should focus on other things. After a lot of struggling and a lot of anxiety, I eventually came out to one of my close friends when I was 22. That same year, the second and third people I came out to were my parents (probably the hardest thing I've ever done), from which I basically received the not-exactly-what-I-needed reaction of 'keep it to yourself, don't tell anyone.' I told very few people from then until I was 24 (by the way, my parents are way better now)."

Somerville says he decided to begin putting his happiness his first and making money second (he won nearly half a million dollars at the 2011 World Series of Poker, playing No-Limit, Hold 'Em).

[Continued here]

Jenna Talackova, Miss Universe Canada Contestant, Makes History As Pageant's First-Ever Transgender Beauty HuffPo, May 17, 2012]

Jenna Talackova is set to make history as the first-ever transgender contestant to compete at the Miss Universe Canada pageant.

The Vancouver beauty, who was born a man but underwent sex-change surgery four years ago, is among 62 contenders vying for the crown.

It all starts Thursday night with a swimwear and evening gown contest in front of a panel of 15 judges and a live audience in downtown Toronto. ...

She's taken the scrutiny in stride, even lobbing a jab at pageant owner Donald Trump when asked how she feels about his involvement.

"Well, he has great pageant hair already," she quipped during a visit to a Toronto school earlier this week.

The tall, slim blond created an international splash when organizers disqualified her because she isn't a naturally-born female.

[Continued here]

• Transgendered contestant Jenna Talackova cracks top 12 at Miss Universe Canada pageant [Toronto Star, May 19, 2012]

Jenna Talackova stole the show at the Miss Universe Canada competition.

The transgendered contestant strutted her way into beauty pageant history Saturday - and the top 12 - wearing sparkling high heels and a white bikini in front of a fawning 850-person audience. She did not advance to the top five after the evening gown segment. ...

Talackova's time in the spotlight has been positive for the trans community, said Susan Gapka, chair of Toronto's Trans Lobby Group, who attended the event to support her. Even though Gapka was skeptical of the beauty pageant at first, she believes the publicity has educated many people who otherwise wouldn't have thought about the issue.

"Jenna has broken down a barrier for social inclusion in the beauty pageant," she said. "She's a winner in our eyes as a woman, a trans, an activist and a beauty queen."

John is quite reserved, and happy to have a quiet conversation, while Poppycock of course
isn't satisfied till he's center stage wearing something fabulous and putting on a show!



Prince Poppycock talks fame, Zachary Quinto, homophobia, and cock! (1977— )
[XTRA, November 5, 2011]

Prince Poppycock [aka John Andrew Quale], the unlikely star of America's Got Talent, is coming to Vancouver November 19 to perform at Guilty Pleasures. I say the unlikely star of AGT because Prince steps out of the box as a performance artist, and continuously defies, and helps expand, America's comfort zone. He's a self-proclaimed "roguish operatic dandy" whose talent is even bigger than his wig, fake eyelashes, and theatrics....

Blitz & Shitz: The United States is a country very conflicted when it comes to gay-rights. Why do you think you were able to break through fears and be embraced by the country on America's Got Talent?

Prince Poppycock: I believe that I got as far as I did because of a great team that I had around me, several years of paying my dues in the mines of Showbiz, and an insane amount of luck. As far as the politics of my performances, I think that Poppycock is a practically asexual being, he is only attracted to his own image in the mirror. So in my work I don't dwell too much on sexuality outside of the swagger that Poppycock comports himself with. I don't feel like my work as Poppycock is a threat to the general public. With every act I do I think about my niece and nephews seeing it. For this reason I feel like it's appealed to so many people from a wide variety of demographics.

[Continued here]

• Prince Poppycock [Wikipedia]

Audition Video: Daniel Joseph Baker (Season 6) [AGT News, June 10, 2011]

Could he be this season's Prince Poppycock? The 19 year-old singer-keyboardist Daniel Joseph Baker from Katy, TX was oozing with personality as he auditioned in Houston (broadcast date: June 7, 2011) with an acoustic version of Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance". "You are a strange one, Piers Morgan said. "You have got a good voice. You are a natural showman. I quite liked you!"

[Continued here]

• America's Got Talent -- Daniel Joseph Baker "Bad Romance" [YouTube]
• Daniel Joseph Baker Shows Softer Side, Top 48 Revealed on 'America's Got Talent' (VIDEO) [AOLTv, July 7, 2011]

When we first met Daniel Joseph Baker on 'America's Got Talent' (Wed., 8PM ET on FOX) he gave an impressive and over-the-top rendition of Lady Gaga's 'Bad Romance.' In Vegas Week, though, he replaced sass with raw emotion in the opening lines of Gaga's 'Speechless,' though he turned up the showmanship with a bizarre foot drop onto the piano keys toward the end.

• The end of the road for Katy's Daniel Joseph Baker [Houston Chronicle, August 25, 2011]

I'm not going to sugarcoat it, you guys. It was a bad night for our local singer, Daniel Joseph Baker. He came thisclose to moving on to the next round. But, in the end, his performance of an Adele song, rather than another Gaga song, it just wasn't enough to convince the judges to send him on to the top ten. ...

Finally, Daniel Joseph Baker, West Springfield Dance Team and Beth Ann Robinson are brought to the stage for the final spot. Beth Ann Robinson is sent home so as to practice for the So You Think You Can Dance auditions in 2014. Between the two remaining acts, Howie chooses West Springfield. And then Piers chooses West Springfield Dance Team, unfortunately eliminating Katy's Daniel Joseph Baker much, much too early.

• Daniel Joseph Baker Talks About His Shocking Elimination [AGT News, August 25, 2011]

Daniel Joseph Baker - the flamboyant college student from Houston that many people (including us) considered a shoo-in for the finals - was shockingly eliminated Wednesday night from season six of "America's Got Talent".

Daniel, 20, had become a fan favorite with his sparkling costumes and inspired covers of Lady Gaga songs since his first audition.

But when he was put head to head with West Springfield Dance Team, judges Piers Morgan and Howie Mandel, decided it was time for the "fierce" singer to head home.

"I think we all felt it was a very, very hard decision," judge Piers Morgan told us immediately after the live broadcast.