Pink News (U.K.), Posted: 3/15/2010, 2:20 PM
QUICK LOOK:Petty Officer Second Class Lewis Breland is waiting to be discharged from the US military after an investigation into his sexuality forced him to come out last year. He confessed his sexual orientation to civilian investigators after rumours began flying around his unit about an alleged sexual partner.
BY LEWIS BRELAND: There is no clearer indication that the United States military is behind in the times, clinging desperately to religious and reactionary nonsense, than in the way we treat our homosexual service members as so much military trash. I've been in the Navy since 2005. In that time, I've been advanced up to Petty Officer Second Class and my record is, to say the least, outstanding. My command is unhappy with having to discharge me, to lose a sailor, and having to tell a hard-working shipmate that they must quit the pursuit of their goals for relentless excellence in the Navy. While deployed on shore last year, an investigation into my sexuality was launched after rumours began going around my unit. When the civilian investigators asked my sexual orientation (which they can do since they are not military members), I was honest. One would imagine that honesty is something the military would value. As a matter of fact, the current Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, made it clear that honesty is what is really at stake by asking service members to lie about their sexuality.
My Fabulous Disease, Posted: 4/7/2010, 5:08 PM
QUICK LOOK:Among the many online condolences to the family of Chad Noel (”Jim and Bonnie, so sorry to hear of the loss of your son…”) are glimpses of the boy this young man was, while growing up in the ironic hometown of Laramie, Wyoming (where Matthew Shepard lived and perished). Noel, 25, died last month, reportedly of AIDS-related complications. “I remember him playing with me in my pretend kitchen and being one of the only boys to not pick on me,” writes Kendra of her gay adolescent friend on the Laramie Boomerang’s online obituary page. “Chad was my Senior Prom date, it was truly one of the funnest nights of my life,” adds Rebecca. Reminiscences of his smile and humor abound in posted comments under his one-sentence death notice. Little did Rebecca know that her date would quickly become gay porn actor Donny Price (why is everyone who does a porn film a STAR?). Very quickly, in fact. He was only 18 years old when he made his first video for a studio specializing in scenes of unprotected sex (known as barebacking). And now, seven years later, the young man is dead of AIDS. How very 1985.
Washington Post, Posted: 4/28/2010, 8:42 PM
QUICK LOOK:BY ELTON JOHN: Twenty years ago this month, you died of AIDS. I would gladly give my fame and fortune if only I could have one more conversation with you, the friend who changed my life as well as the lives of millions living with HIV. Instead, I have written you this letter. Dear Ryan, I remember so well when we first met. A young boy with a terrible disease, you were the epitome of grace. You never blamed anyone for the illness that ravaged your body or the torment and stigma you endured. When students, parents and teachers in your community shunned you, threatened you and expelled you from school, you responded not with words of hate but with understanding beyond your years. You said they were simply afraid of what they did not know. When the media heralded you as an "innocent victim" because you had contracted AIDS through a blood transfusion, you rejected that label and stood in solidarity with thousands of HIV-positive women and men. You reminded America that all victims of AIDS are innocent. When you became a celebrity, you embraced the opportunity to educate the nation about the AIDS epidemic, even though your only wish was to live an ordinary life.
Posted: 3/24/2010, 11:04 AM
QUICK LOOK:Openly gay actress Jane Lynch, who plays cheerleading coach cum evening news commentator Sue Sylvester on "Glee," wants the gays to "swish it up" a bit so she knows who to judge. Don't worry, Adam Lambert, you're close to making the mark. Surely Sue is satisfied with Johnny "Rock the Tassle" Weir...? The promotional video reminds us that "Glee" returns on April 3.
My Fabulous Disease, Posted: 4/20/2010, 2:04 AM
QUICK LOOK:A few weeks ago I spent the day at the Florida AIDS Walk, and it was striking how different it was from the Walks I attended years ago. Smiling faces, racial and ethnic diversity, baby strollers, and most of all a feeling of happiness and celebration. That’s progress, right? But when I speak of the AIDS “crisis mentality” being over for gay men like me, I’m treated like a heretic. I don’t mean to disrespect those who are suffering, or for the devastation that AIDS clearly continues to wreak on much of the world. But please, hear this: I lived through the 1980’s. I went to weekly funerals and lived in daily, mortal fear for my life. Friends stayed in my guest room on their way to hospice care, or simply died before making it that far. That was a crisis state, my friends, and I’m no longer living in it. The crisis, as I have known it, has passed. In this episode of the My Fabulous Disease video series, I chat about this post-crisis mentality with Rep. Barney Frank, arguably the most powerful gay man in America. His measured response may surprise you.
Washington Post, Posted: 6/8/2010, 5:16 PM
QUICK LOOK:BY JOHN PODESTA and ROBERT LEVY: Nearly a century after the 14th Amendment was ratified in 1868, the Supreme Court unanimously affirmed that "marriage is one of the 'basic civil rights of man.' " That 1967 case, Loving v. Virginia, ended bans on interracial marriage in the 16 states that still had such laws. Now, 43 years after Loving, the courts are once again grappling with denial of equal marriage rights -- this time to gay couples. We believe that a society respectful of individual liberty must end this unequal treatment under the law. Toward that goal, we have agreed to co-chair the advisory board of the American Foundation for Equal Rights. The foundation helped launch the case of Perry v. Schwarzenegger, which is currently before a federal district court in California but is likely to be appealed all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. The Perry case -- scheduled for closing arguments next Wednesday -- was brought by two couples whose relationships are marked by the sort of love, commitment and respect that leads naturally to marriage. Kris Perry and Sandy Stier and their four children, and Paul Katami and Jeff Zarrillo, ask for no more, and deserve no less, than the equal rights accorded to every other American family. But they are blocked from obtaining marriage licenses under California's Proposition 8.
Posted: 12/30/2009, 6:54 AM
QUICK LOOK:Ben Barnes and Ben Chaplin lock lips in a preview clip from the forthcoming Oscar Wilde adaptation "Dorian Gray," which tells the story of a young man who sits for a portrait, causing the artist to become infatuated with and inspired by his beauty. Realizing that one day his beauty will
fade, Dorian sells his soul to
ensure the portrait would age rather than himself.
Dorian's wish is fulfilled, plunging him into debauched acts. The
portrait serves as a reminder of the effect each act has upon his soul, with each sin displayed as a disfigurement of his form, or through a sign of aging.
New York Times, Posted: 1/5/2010, 11:33 AM
QUICK LOOK:Uganda’s government, which has a shameful record of discrimination against gay men and lesbians, is now considering legislation that would impose the death sentence for homosexual behavior. The United States and others need to make clear to the Ugandan government that such barbarism is intolerable and will make it an international pariah. The government’s venom is chilling: “Homosexuals can forget about human rights,” James Nsaba Buturo, who holds the cynically titled position of minister of ethics and integrity, said recently. What makes this even worse is that three American evangelical Christians, whose teachings about “curing” gays and lesbians have been widely discredited in the United States, helped feed this hatred. Scott Lively, Caleb Lee Brundidge and Don Schmierer gave a series of talks in Uganda last March to thousands of police officers, teachers and politicians in which, according to participants and audio recordings, they claimed that gays and lesbians are a threat to Bible-based family values.
Blabbeando, Posted: 5/14/2010, 4:35 AM
QUICK LOOK:The Summit International Awards, an international agency based in Portland which recognizes "companies and individuals that produce outstanding marketing, advertising, design and interactive communications" has just announced their 2010 roster of Summit Creative Awards winners and, among them, is two mentions for an HIV prevention campaign developed by the Coordinadora Gai Lesbiana de Catalunya (CGL) from Spain. Dos Manzanas reports that the awards are seen as the Oscars of the advertising world. The advertising agency who designed the print and video campaign is Barcelona's Suigeneris. The video posted below begins with the words: "To you, who has fucked us during so many years, who CRUSH us all, young people, older people, women, men, heterosexuals and homosexuals. To you, ABOMINABLE being... we say..." You probably get the rest...
My Fabulous Disease, Posted: 4/14/2010, 10:54 PM
QUICK LOOK:WATCH: In 1987, when nurses would still flip coins to see which would enter the room of an AIDS patient and politicians debated sending those with HIV to an isolated island, something truly remarkable happened. And the passing Friday of the great Dixie Carter, 70, is a fine opportunity to revisit the courage and integrity displayed during those dark times. A television sitcom in 1987 (!) had the guts to confront the topic of AIDS, gay men, hatred, ignorance and compassion. Very little was left unsaid when “Designing Women” aired an episode in which the girls plan a memorial for a gay friend. Dixie Carter’s character Julia is allowed her moment of righteous indignation and no one does it better (her “Designing Women” clip of “the night the lights went out in Georgia” is a classic for the ages). But Carter’s involvement with what may be the first time a sitcom mentioned AIDS is something about which she was very proud.
Philadelphia Inquirer, Posted: 4/19/2010, 5:03 PM
QUICK LOOK:Justice John Paul Stevens is stepping down, and conventional wisdom is that President Obama should try to select someone Senate Republicans will not dare to filibuster - a moderate, middle-aged white man like Judge Merrick Garland of the D.C. Circuit, or a thoroughly vetted appeals judge with lots of conservative friends from the University of Chicago like Judge Diane Wood. That would fit the Jimmy Carter version of Obama, which predominated until his health-care triumph shifted the comparisons over to the Lyndon Johnson column. Obama would do well to remember another of Johnson's victories - appointing famed NAACP litigator Thurgood Marshall to the Supreme Court. Johnson himself remembered it as one of his proudest moments. He did better than he knew. Even after the great triumphs of the civil rights movement were over, Marshall "represented" the human reality of African Americans in the hallowed chambers of the Supreme Court. And he did it in the most profoundly human way: through stories. Marshall's way, which came to light only after his death, was to call up experiences from his life to drive home a point during discussions on cases. In her legendary eulogy, Republican appointee Sandra Day O'Connor told her readers of how Marshall's description of life under Jim Crow affected the courts. Marshall biographer Mark Tushnet even credits the crucial support of Justice Harry Blackmun to salvage some version of affirmative action in the landmark Bakke decision to Marshall's storytelling. It is not 1967 anymore, but there is a movement of people long marginalized and demonized in society: America's gay and lesbian men and women.
Irish Times, Posted: 1/30/2010, 8:15 AM
QUICK LOOK:Recent efforts to introduce anti-gay legislation in Uganda, and the Malawi government’s decision to try a male couple for publicly celebrating their engagement, has brought the risks of being openly homosexual in Africa sharply into focus. If the draft Anti-Homosexual Bill proposed by Ugandan MP David Bahati, a member of the ruling party, is adopted by parliament without amendment, gay and lesbian people in the east African country can be put to death for engaging in same-sex intercourse, if they are serial offenders. Malawi’s government also came under the spotlight earlier this month for its decision to put on trial a gay couple for gross indecency and committing unnatural acts, crimes punishable by up to 14 years in jail if they are convicted. The two men, Steven Monjeza and Tiwonge Chimbalanga, did nothing more than hold a party, which drew a crowd of onlookers, to celebrate their engagement. They have been in jail since December 27th last and will face their accusers, the state, in their country’s high court next month.
America Blog, Posted: 2/16/2010, 9:55 AM
QUICK LOOK:AMERICAblog joins today with a coalition of gay and straight bloggers in asking our readers to contact the Human Rights Campaign on behalf of the repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." OUR MESSAGE TO HRC IS SIMPLE: Publicly demand that President Obama take the lead in getting DADT repealed this year. (1) That means the President needs to state publicly that he wants Congress to repeal DADT this year; and (2) The President needs to take the lead in working with Congress to make sure the repeal happens. HRC Front Desk: (202) 628-4160; TTY: (202) 216-1572; Toll-Free: (800) 777-4723. Some may say that there is little the President can do, or that this is
up to Congress now. That is simply untrue. The President can send a
powerful signal that he wants the repeal done this year. He can include
the repeal of DADT in the Defense Budget he sends to Congress in the
next few months. If the President is serious about keeping his promises
to our community, now is his chance to prove it.
Washington Post, Posted: 2/16/2010, 10:26 PM
QUICK LOOK:BY KATHLEEN PARKER: In a time of constant calamity and crisis fatigue, proposed legislation in Uganda to execute gays passes through the American consciousness with the impact of a weather report. Corrupt politicians count on the brevity of the American attention span, but certain items demand a tap of the pause button. How exactly does the idea of executing gays evolve in a majority-Christian nation? Interesting question. Gays in Uganda already face imprisonment for up to 14 years. Under a bill proposed last October by David Bahati, the government could execute HIV-positive men and jail people who don't report homosexual activities. We are officially appalled, of course. Even evangelical mega-pastor Rick Warren made an impassioned Christmas video plea to Ugandan pastors, declaring the measure "unjust," "extreme" and "un-Christian." Warren's message wasn't prompted by outrage at the treatment of gays, however, but by accusations that he had helped create the bill.
The Womanist, Posted: 3/2/2010, 5:04 PM
QUICK LOOK:“Spartacus Blood and Sand” is a historical fiction based on a Roman gladiator that started a slave uprising. It has the right amount of blood, gore, sex and beautiful bodies to be somewhat compelling. Ancient Rome allows an uncomplicated view of human sexuality. It is not uncommon to see women objectify men and in a world in which femininity is often more object than subject, this is definitely a gender reversal. In the early episodes we are introduced to a gay relationship between Barka the beast of Carthage and his lover Petrus. We are first introduced to the pair in a brief camera glimpse as they engage in sex. Slowly, it is revealed that more exists between the two – love. In moments both sweet and tender we see affection shared between Barka and Petrus, as they begin to dream of a life together free of slavery and violence. There is no moral dilemma regarding the relationship , unlike many media representations of gay romance, that are not specifically targeted at a GLBT audience. Their love is not sanitized and is depicted as graphically as the heterosexual relationships on the show. Their relationship is even more unique because it displays love between men of colour. Often the face of the LGBT community in the media is white and affluent. Though it is problematic that people of colour are once again reduced to the status of slaves, when we consider the time period in which the show is set, this is a fair characterization.
Washington Post, Posted: 3/3/2010, 7:32 AM
QUICK LOOK:Do not underestimate the significance of this day. The District of Columbia is now the sixth jurisdiction in the United States -- the first below the Mason- Dixon Line -- to legalize same-sex marriage. It is a day of celebration for the gays and lesbians who have pushed for recognition of their relationships. Here as throughout the country, same-sex marriage remains controversial. We don't belittle the strong feelings of those who believe, for religious reasons or otherwise, that marriage can take place only between a man and a woman. But we believe that the tide of history is moving the other way -- toward a recognition that gays and lesbians, no less than heterosexuals, are entitled to sanctify their love in marriage, and that society will be better off when that right is universally extended. Those seeking to exercise that right in the District are expected to overwhelm the system Wednesday. The media will tell and retell their stories. Over time, though, it is our hope and expectation that gays and lesbians marrying the one they love will be unremarkable as a spectacle and normal as a rite.
Huffington Post, Posted: 3/9/2010, 10:40 AM
QUICK LOOK:BY EVAN WOLFSON: Today, surrounded by friends and family, the first same-sex couples in Washington D.C. to receive marriage licenses are celebrating their legal marriages. D.C. now officially joins the five states and eight countries that have ended exclusion from marriage. Marriage in our nation's capital marks a significant victory not only for D.C. couples who no longer need to leave home to secure the protections and responsibilities of marriage, but also for the national movement to win the freedom to marry. Local advocates spent years doing the critical work of educating lawmakers, engaging with District residents about gay people and marriage, telling personal stories, and building relationships with key allies. That work has resulted in same-sex couples being better able to care for their families - and took nothing away from any other family. Our victory in D.C. brings us one step closer to winning marriage for all committed couples - and other victories are within reach. A key component of the Freedom to Marry roadmap to winning marriage nationwide is to grow the number of states where same-sex couples share in the freedom to marry. The more states that end the denial of marriage, the more Americans get to see with their own eyes families helped and no one hurt. The more states we win, the closer America comes to the climate that will enable a federal victory in Congress or the Supreme Court, bringing national resolution.
Huffington Post, Posted: 3/11/2010, 6:05 PM
QUICK LOOK:BY JON BARRETT: Rosie O'Donnell and Wanda Sykes were comparing coming-out stories the other day on O'Donnell's satellite radio show when O'Donnell, who came out in 2002, announced that it was another lesbian--a former editor of The Advocate--who pushed the hardest to get her out of the closet. "She'd be at every event I was at and she'd say, 'I really want to talk with you about coming out. When are you going to come out?' It felt like pressure from the gay community, not really anyone else." Sean Hayes, who played the flamboyantly gay Jack on the outrageously successful sitcom Will & Grace, felt similar pressure from yet another former editor of The Advocate. In 2006, after many turned-down requests to interview Hayes, the magazine ran a story titled "Sean Hayes: The Interview He Never Gave." The one-page "Q&A" was a clip job of quotes Hayes had given to other publications through the years that made him look silly for pretending no one knew he was gay. Four years later, Hayes has finally acknowledged that he's gay--on the cover of the current issue of The Advocate. And in doing so, he's expressed a lot of resentment toward folks who prodded him to do so sooner. "I feel like I've contributed monumentally to the success of the gay movement in America," he tells the magazine. "What more do you want me to do? Do you want me to stand on a float? And then what? It's never enough."
Daily Beast, Posted: 3/14/2010, 11:15 AM
QUICK LOOK:BY MEGHAN MCCAIN: There is something so depressing, and at the same time predictably hypocritical, about the recent drunk-driving arrest of California State Senator Roy Ashburn that resulted in his confession that he is gay. The 55-year-old Republican and divorced father of two made the admission on a local radio show after he was arrested for driving under the influence, leaving a gay nightclub in Sacramento with an “unidentified man in the passenger seat of his state-owned vehicle.” Although Ashburn doesn’t plan on running for any public office after his term ends this year, he is not resigning from office. It’s not as if sex scandals—especially gay sex scandals—are new to politics. From Bob Bauman in the 1980s through Mark Foley, Larry Craig, and Jim McGreevey, right up to Ashburn and Rep. Eric Massa’s tickle fights, these episodes clearly aren’t defined by party affiliation either. What is so fascinating about Ashburn is that he seems to think that there is a delineation between the public and private lives of an elected official. First off, it will never cease to disturb me that we live in a culture where being gay seems to be the last frontier for those hoping to enter politics. Being gay seems to determine in some ways whether someone can run and/or get elected in America, which leaves staying in the closet as the only viable route to public service.
Salon, Posted: 6/6/2010, 1:26 PM
QUICK LOOK:BY GLENN GRENWALD: Conservative radio man Rush Limbaugh is taking a fourth stab at marriage with a weekend wedding to Kathryn Rogers, an events coordinator 26 years his junior, according to various reports. Limbaugh, 59, will reportedly marry the 33-year-old Rogers at his Palm Beach compound. . . . So as Newt Gingrich does while standing next to his third wife (who, as was true for Gingrich's second wife, was previously known as his "adulterous mistress"), Rush Limbaugh will now crusade for Traditional Marriage with his fourth wife (and counting) at his side. As is so often the case, the Traditional Marriage movement is led by people who discard their wives and get new, younger replacements the way most people change underwear. That's how so many Americans sit on their sofas next to their second and third spouses, with their step-children and half-siblings surrounding them, and explain -- without any recognition of the irony -- that they're against same-sex marriage because they believe the law should only recognize Traditional Marriages.
Huffington Post, Posted: 1/21/2010, 12:03 PM
QUICK LOOK:The first full trial on gay people's freedom to marry, complete with evidence and cross examination of witnesses, prominent lawyers squaring off over a state's discrimination, experts testifying on the history of marriage and the well-being of children, concerns and debate over timing, and television coverage of the trial spurring national conversations. Perry v. Schwarzenegger, Ted Olson's current challenge to California's discriminatory Prop 8? No, the first was Hawaii's historic Baehr v. Miike, which launched the ongoing national - indeed, international - movement to end exclusion from marriage. The groundbreaking 1996 trial in Honolulu featured weeks of testimony, all covered on Court TV, followed by months of legal argument, briefing, and deliberation, and then the tectonic ruling by the highly respected Judge Kevin Chang, based on the evidence and argument, in favor of the freedom to marry.
Posted: 3/26/2010, 12:06 PM
QUICK LOOK:It's been one year since Lt. Dan Choi came out of the closet very publicly to challenge the military's Don't Ask Don't Tell policy on gays in the military. An Arab linguist now facing discharge, Choi was back in the headlines last week when he showed up at a Human Rights Campaign rally featuring comedienne Kathy Griffin and, according to some, "hijacked" the event by asking those present to join him for a short two-block walk to the White House, where he handcuffed himself to the fence in a protest of civil disobedience. He spent the night in jail but was back out protesting over the weekend, joining the LGBT contingent in the large immigration rights rally on the National Mall. One year after it all started, Choi went back on Rachel Maddow's MSNBC show to talk about the latest developments in DADT repeal.
Outsports, Posted: 6/8/2010, 7:03 PM
QUICK LOOK:If you’ve been to a pro basketball game, you know the “kiss cam” is a popular feature. It’s rare, and in some places forbidden, that you’ll see the cam focus on a gay or lesbian couple. Even at WNBA games, they often shy away from it. So when the kiss cam at Game 1 of the NBA Finals focused on two men sitting together, it got some attention, particularly because it was actors Jason Bateman and Dustin Hoffman, who didn’t disappoint the crowd. I wonder if they’d do the same with Neil Patrick Harris and his beau, or Cynthia Nixon and her fiancee. My money is on the negative.
Posted: 8/4/2010, 6:13 PM
QUICK LOOK:Excerpts from the federal court ruling striking down Proposition 8, the voter-approved initiative that banned gay marriage in California. Judge Vaughn R. Walker's conclusion, page 135: "Proposition 8 fails to advance any rational basis in singling out gay men and lesbians for denial of a marriage license. Indeed, the evidence shows Proposition 8 does nothing more than enshrine in the California Constitution the notion that opposite sex couples are superior to same-sex couples. Because California has no interest in discriminating against gay men and lesbians, and because Proposition 8 prevents California from fulfilling its constitutional obligation to provide marriages on an equal basis, the court concludes that Proposition 8 is unconstitutional." On the overturning of Proposition 8, page 136: "Plaintiffs have demonstrated by overwhelming evidence that Proposition 8 violates their due process and equal protection rights and that they will continue to suffer these constitutional violations until state officials cease enforcement of Proposition 8. California is able to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, as it has already issued 18,000 marriage licenses to same sex couples and has not suffered any demonstrated harm as a result ... Because Proposition 8 is unconstitutional under both the Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses, the court orders entry of judgment permanently ... prohibiting the official defendants [state of California] from applying or enforcing Proposition 8..."
The New Republic, Posted: 8/23/2010, 12:31 PM
QUICK LOOK:BY RICHARD JUST: The New Republic has assembled a fascinating timeline of Obama’s statements on gay marriage over the past 14 years, stretching from 1996 to earlier this month, when the White House responded to a judge’s ruling on Prop 8 by reiterating that it opposes same-sex marriage. What the timeline shows is a pattern that can only be described as illogical and cynical. Obama argues that he is against gay marriage while also opposing efforts like Prop 8 that would ban it. He justifies this by saying that state constitutions should not be used to reduce rights. (His exact words: "I am not in favor of gay marriage, but when you’re playing around with constitutions, just to prohibit somebody who cares about another person, it just seems to me that that is not what America is about.") Obama appears to be saying that it is fine to prohibit gay people from getting married, as long as the vehicle for doing so is not a constitution. Presumably, then, he supports the numerous states that have banned same-sex marriage through other means, without resorting to a constitutional amendment? If so, he might be the only person in the country to occupy this narrow, and frankly absurd, slice of intellectual terrain. Obama has also said he favors civil unions rather than gay marriage because the question of where and how to apply the label "marriage" is a religious one. This argument makes even less sense than his stance on state constitutions, since marriage, for better or for worse, is very much a government matter.