I haven’t been keeping up with the blog as often as I’d like and will probably be just as absent in the next four weeks. I’m helping lead and building sets for the Mill Mountain Theatre Conservatory Summer camps and classes and I have a job starting soon at an excellent local barbecue restaurant. I also had a wonderful date with a guy in Covington, VA. Here’s a week’s worth of crap I’ve missed with some short commentary.
From The Advocate:
N.Y. D.A. Hopeful Calls for Hate-Crimes Unit: I urge all of my readers in NYC to vote for Cyrus Vance for District Attorney. New York has the most LGBT citizens of any American city (although it’s not even in the top 10 of gays per capita) and is also a highly racially diverse city. The fact that there isn’t a hate crimes unit in the NYPD yet is mind-boggling.
Mullen Tells Obama to Slow-Walk DADT: Almost every serviceman and woman I’ve heard from on the news and online has shown that they don’t believe Don’t Ask Don’t Tell is good for anything, and state that they would work just as well with openly gay personnel as anyone else because when you’re focused on a war, the sexuality of your fellow soldiers is the last thing on your mind. The only people in the military who seem to care about this are the 60-year-old-and-up veterans in the upper echelons of command.
Md. Gov. Would Recognize Gay Marriages: One of the best and most sensible quote I’ve heard in the past decade regarding gay marriage rights: “I think that it’s very difficult to deny equal rights to people when it comes to rights that are disbursed by a government rather than a faith or a church” However, Gov. O’Malley only supports recognising out-of-state marriages at this time. He supports the segregationist opinion that gays should have “civil unions” instead of “marriages,” but it’s still a snazzy quote.
Obama "Wrestling" With Faith and LGBT Issues: Where was this wrestling on the campaign trail, Mr. President? Had I known you would have been so reluctant to support equality, I would have voted for Hillary. When your imaginary beliefs stand in the way of my very real rights, we’re going to have a problem, Mr. President.
Mass. Files Suit Against DOMA: The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is suing the federal government over the anti-gay Defence of Marriage Act… because the act is dumb. That’s about it.
Marriage Equality Reverend Under Fire: Does the name Southern Christian Leadership Conference mean anything to you? That’s probably because you learned in high school that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. founded it as a civil rights organisation in the late 1950s. Well, now it’s trying to fire its Los Angeles chapter president because (GASP!) the president supports civil rights!
From Pink News:
Gay men ejected from Texas restaurant for kissing: This is similar to the more recent story of two gay men who were detained by the Mormon cult after kissing in Salt Lake City, Utah for kissing at Temple Square. Both of these are eerily similar to when restaurants and other private locations in the US could ban blacks and other non-whites. The only difference is it’s harder to tell a gay man from a straight man than it is to tell a black man from a white man… so they just have to wait for a kiss to prove it. My advice to queers in Southern towns that are unfriendly to them is to move. We can use the legislature to make it illegal for people to bar us from their businesses but we can’t make it illegal for them to hate us. We won’t change them. Move. We’ll see how well their “traditional weddings” go without gay decorators, hairdressers, wedding planners, wedding singers, organists, tailors, dressmakers and florists.
Senior Church of England Bishop says gays must "repent and be changed": Once again, the connection between the black civil rights movement and the gay civil rights movement is clear… but this time in an ironic way: Bishop Nazir-Ali is black. He’s a bishop in a religion that used to believe that black people were inherently tainted by the “Mark of Cain” and were inferior to whites. A religion that blessed and perpetuated the slave trade that kidnapped massive amounts of Africans and shipped them around the world to be bought and owned. And now this black Christian is railing against gay people and saying that they (or, as Christians will claim, not gay people just the act of being gay, as if there’s a difference) are inherently sinful and inferior to straights. Keep it classy, bishop.
Colin Powell: ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell should be reviewed’: Colin Powell is a Republican who was a key member of both Bush Administrations and a buddy of Ronald Regan… yet whenever he speaks about civil rights, he gets it right. Often, he’s more correct than Democrats on issues of gay rights. Why can’t more Republicans be like him? If the Republican party was full of Colin Powells and Meghan McCains, I would be an out and proud Republican.
Queen sends message of support to homophobic church movement: Can someone please explain to me why this royal cunt or her Dumbo-eared, alt-med-loving, Islam-appeasing son have any influence whatsoever? Why do you folks across the pond still have a monarchy? Isn’t the idea that one’s accidental lineage gives one an innate ability to lead a bit outdated?
Out-of-state gay marriages become legal in DC: Throw a party, but not a big one. It’s a win, for sure, but a very small win.
Peter Tatchell: ‘Bruno will make both bigots and gays squirm’: I saw Brüno and definitely did a lot of squirming… out of laughter. It’s immediately obvious that Brüno is a caricature of the most extremely flamboyant gay men, so I didn’t see Sacha Baron Cohen’s prancing as an insult to the gay mainstream but more as a tool to use the maximum flamboyancy to coax the maximum of homophobia from people. The only parts of the movie that seriously offended me were the parts where ex-gay ministers were allowed to speak. Brüno is not a realistic representative of the gay community but the reactions coaxed out of people were very real and very frightening.
Mother of gay son berates Irish minister over civil partnerships: A passionate letter from the mother of a gay son. I wish my mother was half as supportive. Kudos to the mum! (Also, her last name is Doody. He he he!)
Massachusetts senator reveals he’s gay: I’m not sure how many gay Representatives there are, but this news makes Senator Rosenberg the only openly gay Senator… and he wasn’t open about it when he was elected. So now 1% of the Senate is openly gay and, what, 10-15% of the US is openly LGBT? What a great representation of the American people, folks! And I just got a mental image of this guy doin’ the do with Barney Frank. Excuse me while I vomit.
Gay support group told: ‘Gay men are confident enough already’: Umm… no. Gay teenagers have one of the highest rates of suicide. Gay people in general often are only open about their sexuality with a few close friends and will lie or pretend to be straight if the topic comes up. As a public health issue, the government of the UK (and the US) should most definitely fund any project or group that aims to improve confidence and self-esteem in the gay community. When teenagers are cutting themselves and killing themselves, it’s not time to play games with their self esteem.
Just because the Church of Jesus Christ (LDS) believes that God intended for us to consumate marriages between a man and a woman doesn’t mean you should call that church a “cult”.
http://MormonsAreChristian.blogspot.com
Comment by Bot — 13 July 2009 @ 4:17 pm
I’m not calling your belief system a cult because it hates gays. It’s a cult because it was recently founded by a known shyster under extremely untrustworthy means, it is governed by a secretive administration and it is absolutely fucking ridiculous at every level you look at it, like a Mandelbrot fractal of absurdity.
“Cult,” “Religion,” or whatever you want to call it (I’ll call it a cult, thanks, and you can’t tell me what to call it.) it’s still divisive, hateful and utterly nonsensical. Have you actually read the Book of Mormon? “And it came to pass, and it came to pass, and it came to pass, and it came to pass…” The thing is unreadable and ridiculous… and you base your political ideologies with very real consequences on this obviously fake piece of overblown fiction.
Comment by Rev. J. Reed Braden — 13 July 2009 @ 4:32 pm
Oh dear. Oh dear, oh dear. Not a very good show from Her Maj. I would like to believe that this is just naivete on her part; I’d at least consider that possibility.
I mean, read the article: she only commented on the “future” of that little Church group and expressed concerns for that. It is entirely likely she was only referring to the potential schisms that are going to happen. As the spokesperson put it, “She writes to a lot of organisations”.
Ergo, it’s likkely she wasn’t aware of the homophobia. The fact that she’s refusing to comment suggests to me that she realised her mistake.
Could be wrong, but it’s worth considering, eh? Oh, and she doesn’t represent the majority of Limeys, as we know (note the class difference!).
I’ve just read that article about NAZIr, and it should be a wake-up call for anybody who supports the C of E. And for liberals in general. As you’re no doubt aware, Reed, there are many liberals who have a soft spot for the Anglican Church, because it comes across as liberal too. These are the same people, by the way, who want to bring religion into the classroom and cooperate with far-right Islamic groups.
Archbish Williams and Co. might espouse liberalism, but happily bend over backwards to accommodate any ideal set, especially those from the far-right. They are hypocrites, but not deilberately; it is out of cowardice and the desire to please everyone. They want to cover their own ass. Sound familiar? That’s because it’s exactly what Obama’s doing. You might notice he’s identified himself as a “liberal Christian”. As do many C of E bishops.
My point? Liberals need to be careful not to deify someone just because they promise what you want — if said person is a “liberal Christian”, they’re a fucking hypocrite and will not deliver.
Sorry about the length. How’ve you been, anyway?
Comment by Tom — 13 July 2009 @ 8:35 pm
Just a small point for correction. The Massachusetts senator who came out was a state senator, not a US senator. Sorry. Massachusetts’ senators are currently Ted Kennedy and John Kerry.
Comment by Bryan — 13 July 2009 @ 10:08 pm
Goddammit! I do that a lot! I used to have all of the names of the US Senators memorized but in the past few Senatorial elections, they’ve fucked it up for me. Grr. Correcting now.
Comment by Rev. J. Reed Braden — 14 July 2009 @ 12:44 am