Friday, November 02, 2007

Furball: Saturday, November 3rd

The NYC LGBT Community Center holds their Furball dance tomorrow. Come out and get sweaty with 600+ hairy menz dancing on two floors to DJs Man Parrish and Jack Reina. (I'm going, duh!) I went to the last one and had a fantastic time. Their sound system and dance floor is as good as some clubs around town.

Also of note tomorrow at the Center: Deep-Bear Dating, a workshop for date-seeking bears, at 6pm.

UPDATE: Can't resist adding this fun new bear song from Kendall & Bears On The Run. Bears! Very catchy. Hope they play it at the Furball.


Pathetic shilling.

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PhoboQuotable - Mitt Romney

"Even when there's a divorce, you still have a mom and a dad. And even where one member of the partnership may pass away, the memory and the characteristics of that gender, of that partner influence the development of a child. I'm in favor of promoting, as a society, the marriage of men and women and the development of children in that kind of setting." - Mitt Romney.

One dead parent is better than two gay ones. Praise Jeebus.

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Happy Haggardversary!

Yes, it's been one year.

Check out Colorado Confidential's excellent recap of the entire delicious mess.

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Not Gay Enough?

Genre Magazine's new editor, Neal Boulton, says he's the victim of an odd sort of gay-bashing:
"Former Men's Fitness editor Neal Boulton, who sprinted out of the closet this year when he publicly made out with Jann Wenner outside the Time Warner Center, is being harassed - for acting too straight. 'Some p - - - ed-off gay-activist types bombarded me over the weekend as I walked hand in hand with my children. One threatened to call Page Six to 'out me' as a straight fraud,' Boulton, who now edits gay-lifestyle magazine Genre, told us. 'The other guy barked that I had no right editing a gay magazine because of all the women I slept with. I would have clocked them had my kids not been in tow. Yeah, I did spend the weekend at [my wife] Claire's, but I do that all the time. I try to get as much time in with the kids and Claire . . . [Bleep], she's the mother of my children.' Boulton assures us he is quite gay, and we're inclined to believe him. He recently asked gay-porn king Michael Lucas for a bit part in an XXX video."
I met Boulton recently at the HX party and he seemed gay as a goose to ME.

(Via - Towleroad.)

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Soldier Found Guilty In HIV Case

At Fort Bragg, North Carolina, Pfc. Johnny Lamar Dalton, 25, has been sentenced to 40 months in military prison for having unprotected sex with an 18 year-old male he met online. Dalton had tested positive last year and was ordered by his superiors not to have unprotected sex. After the teenager tested positive, his mother notified the military. Dalton was convicted of violating a direct order, committing an "indecent act", and possessing marijuana. After his sentence is completed, Dalton will be dishonorably discharged.

When Dalton first tested positive, he was spared being deployed to Iraq, but was not challenged on his possible gayness. North Carolina law stipulates that HIV positive people may not have sex without a condom and not without first notifying their partner of their condition. Homosexual acts remain a violation of the military code of conduct. It remains unknown if the teenager's serostatus can be directly traced to Dalton.

When I first blogged about Dalton's arrest back in July, there seemed to be a consensus here that an 18 year-old should be responsible for his own sexual protection. It's interesting that Dalton was convicted for violating a direct order and committing an indecent act, rather than for the HIV aspect of his act. Perhaps military law superseded the NC law? Anybody know?

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Dog, The Racist Hunter

By now you've no doubt heard about Duane "Dog" Chapman, star of A&E's Dog, The Bounty Hunter, whose racist phone tirade about his son's black girlfriend was leaked to the press. The transcript:
Duane "Dog" Chapman: I'm not taking the chance on some motherf**ker. I don't care if she's a Mexican, a whore, whatever...it's not because she's black. It’s because we use he word n***er sometimes here.

I'm not going to take a chance ever in life for losing everything I've worked for for 30 years because some f**king n**er heard us say n***er and turned us into the Enquirer magazine. Our career is over. I'm not taking that chance at all, never in life. Never. Never.

If Lyssa [his daughter] was dating a n***er we would all say F*ck You. . .and you know that. If Lyssa brought a black guy home ya da da...it's not that they're black, it's none of that. It's that we use the word n***er. We don't mean you fucking scum n***er without a soul. We don't mean that shit. But America would think we mean that. And we're not taking a chance on losing everything we got over a racial slur because our son goes with a girl like that. I can't do that Tucker. You can't expect Gary, Bonnie, Cecily, all them young kids to [garbled] because 'I'm in love for 7 months' - fuck that! So, I'll help you get another job but you can not work here unless you break up with her and she's out of your life. I can't handle that shit. I got 'em in the parking lot trying to record us. I got that girl saying she's gonna wear a recorder...

Tucker Chapman: I don't even know what to say.
A&E has canceled production of Chapman's show. And now Chapman is asking Rev. Al Sharpton to meet with him, in the hopes of mitigating the damage. Too late, Dog. Predictably, Sharpton is "considering" meeting with Chapman, because hey, THERE WILL BE CAMERAS THERE.

Sickening, all around.
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Gays Volunteer In California Fire Crisis

Veteran gay reporter Rex Wockner, a San Diego resident, has filed a heartwarming report about the amazing response of the gay community to the fires that have ravaged Southern California. An excerpt:
None of San Diego's gayest areas was hit by the massive wildfires that roared around the county and the city last week, but GLBT people stepped up in large numbers as volunteers and donors, community leaders said.

"We don't know enough yet to fully assess who among all the affected people happen to be GLBT," said Delores Jacobs, chief executive director of The San Diego LGBT Community Center. "Based on our own staff and other folks' staffs, clearly there were GLBT folks in the affected areas. But I don't think their first thought is, 'My house is burning, I'm gay,' I think their first thought is, 'My house is burning!'"

Jacobs said The Center (the agency's official short-form name) had "a flood of calls" from GLBT people wanting to volunteer to help victims of the fires.

"We directed a huge volunteer response from our community," she said. "We were flooded with how-can-I-help calls from Monday through Thursday -- really an extraordinarily large amount. Lots of our volunteers volunteered at Qualcomm Stadium and at other shelters as well."
Read the rest.
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Prom Queens

I never win these things.

Although there was that Malcontent thing.
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Morning View - Taxi GPS

This is the new seatback GPS screen that has Gotham cabbies so upset, claiming the device is an invasion of privacy. Dr. Jeff was riding with me and he looked at the screen and said, "If this was Tron, we'd be dead in one block." By the way, that red line isn't only our trip, we'd just gotten in.

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Broadway Friday

-Broadway's lights were dimmed on Wednesday in honor of Grammy and Tony Award winner Robert Goulet, who died on Tuesday of lung disease. In 1968 Goulet won the Tony for Best Actor In A Musical in The Happy Times. He last appeared on Broadway in 2005 in La Cage Aux Folles.

-Maxwell Caulfield and Jeff McCarthy will be the next two actors to play Billy Flynn in Chicago. Caulfield takes over from Brian McKnight on November 19th, McCarthy starts on December 2nd.

-Rosie O'Donnell will serve as national ambassador for the 12th Annual Kids Night On Broadway. The events run in NYC on Feb. 5, 6, 12 and 13, 2008, and nationwide throughout the winter and spring.

-Disney's The Little Mermaid begins previews Saturday at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre.

-Actor Joel Vig is suing the producers of Hairspray for $1.5M for wrongful termination. Vig left the show in 2004 after injuring his knee. The former Mr. Pinky claims he worked injured for six months at the request of the stage manager, but was fired from the show when he took leave for knee surgery. An arbitrator refused to hear the case and Vig's union refused to appeal that decision, prompting his suit.

-Duran Duran's two-week concert run at the Ethyl Barrymore Theatre began yesterday. Even with tickets at $75-$150, the three-act show is only expected to break even. The show is a promotion for the band's 12th album, Red Carpet Massacre, due November 13th. It's been eight years since a rock act staged a concert run on Broadway.

-Bob Saget joined the cast of Drowsy Chaperone earlier this month as Man In Chair. As Little David said to me, that is probably the death knell for the show. Pity.
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Thursday, November 01, 2007

Perfected: The Ann Coulter Song

From Barely Political, the people who brought us I Got A Crush On Obama, comes Perfected, a musical rip on Ann Coulter's recent remarks that Jews need to be "perfected" by becoming Christians.


(Via- Queerty.)

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HomoQuotable - Claudia Contrada

"I am a lesbian, which my mom still does not get. She just says that I am confused. I realized in around eighth grade, but I was in denial for quite some time because I was scared due to my mother constantly saying that homosexuality is wrong. How can it ever be wrong to love though? That’s what I’d like to know." - High school student Claudia Contrada, whose mother is a founder of MassResistance, Massachusett's rabidly anti-gay activism organisation.

When Claudia joined the cast of her high school's production of The Laramie Project, the award-winning play about the murder of Matthew Sheppard, her mother organized protests against the play. Two days ago, Claudia came out. Welcome, brave Claudia.

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Double Fission

Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner was elected president of Argentina a few days ago. She's a Senator and the wife of a still-popular former president. Sounding familiar? Some in Argentina are concerned that Kirchner and her husband plan on alternating presidencies - Argentina has no term-limit law but does not allow consecutive terms. Here in Ammurrica, we only alternate families. With Jeb lurking on the horizon, the run-up to 2020 could be: Bush-Clinton-Bush-Clinton-Bush. But hey, by then Chelsea will be 40 and ready to run. Start the chant now: Clinton 2020!
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Whiskerino 2007 Starts Today

Today is the first day of Whiskerino, the bi-annual beard growing contest. You must begin by being clean-shaven and trimming/sculpting is "highly frowned upon" during the growing season. The contest ends on February 29th, 2008. Here's the Flickr group for the 2005 contest. I'd probably play along, but I haven't been clean-shaven in about 10 years and I don't wanna start. Our man Aaron should do it though, as he puts it, his beard is "luscious".

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Wingnuts Ditching GOP?

A new survey of evangelicals shows that 55% would consider a third-party candidate if Giuliani becomes the Republican nominee.
The finding, in a survey by the nonpartisan Pew Research Center, was the latest reading of discontent among one of the GOP's cornerstone voting blocs. Giuliani, the leading Republican contender in most national polls, is a former New York mayor whose views on abortion, gays and guns are considered too moderate by many conservatives.

According to the poll, 55 percent of white evangelical Republicans said they would consider a conservative who ran as a third-party candidate. Forty-two percent said they would not.

Evangelicals comprise 34 percent of GOP and Republican-leaning voters, according to Pew. They are divided about evenly among Giuliani, Fred Thompson and Sen. John McCain of Arizona.

It is unclear whether a third-party bid would be launched should Giuliani become the GOP nominee. Several dozen conservative Christian leaders met privately in September to discuss that possibility, but top evangelicals said they have reached no consensus.
Is this good news for the Dems? Seems like it. It would be great to have a third-party erode votes from the other side for a change. How many Dems did Perot leech away?

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Little Beach Littler

Tropical Storm Noel is causing waves to crash over Fort Lauderdale's meager little sea wall, covering A1A with sand. There's going to be significant erosion of LaDeDa's already narrow beach. Up in Palm Beach County, beachfront structures are losing their foundations. But in the spring, the sand machines will dredge up some new beach somewhere. Still, it seems like the ocean is a little closer to the road every year.

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Castro Halloween: DOA

San Francisco's campaign to end the Castro Halloween party was surprisingly effective.
"People are behaving well. We're happy," Neville Gittens, a police spokesman, said late Wednesday evening. "All of the city's planning and notification is paying off."

By midnight, city workers had taken away the metal police barricades that had lined parts of Castro and Market streets and the crowds had dwindled to about 100 people. Even the city streetsweepers had rolled through the neighborhood.

Many of the neighborhood's bars and restaurants closed early in response to the city's efforts to shut down this year's Halloween bash to avoid a repeat of the rowdiness and violence that led to the shootings of nine people last year. Then an estimated 200,000 people had crowded into the area for the annual party that's often described as "the gay Christmas."

Supervisor Bevan Dufty, who represents the Castro district, was one of the leaders of the effort to kill the party. He walked through the area Wednesday night, his only costume a baseball cap pulled low over his forehead.
I'm a bit shocked that it worked, actually.
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Morning View - Daniel Webster

Created by sculptor Thomas Ball, this statue of Daniel Webster stands near the W. 72th Street entrance to Central Park, where it was dedicated in 1876. The original plan was to put the statue on Central Park's Mall, but it was too big. Webster served as a Senator, Congressman, and as U.S. Secretary of State to two presidents.

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Open Thread Thursday

What's your damage?
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Wednesday, October 31, 2007

BREAKING NEWS: Jury Slams
Phelps Clan For $10.9M

The Drudge Report is first with this breaking news:
JURY HATES PHELPS: The father of a fallen Marine awarded $2.9 million by jury that found leaders of a fundamentalist church had invaded the family's privacy when they picketed the Marine's funeral. Developing...
UPDATE: More from the Associated Press.
BALTIMORE (AP) -- A federal jury on Wednesday awarded the father of a fallen Marine $2.9 million in compensatory damages after finding a fundamentalist Kansas church and three of its leaders liable for invasion of privacy and intent to inflict emotional distress for picketing the Marine's funeral in 2006.

The jury was to begin deliberating the size of punitive damages after receiving further instructions, although U.S. District Judge Richard Bennett noted the size of the compensatory award "far exceeds the net worth of the defendents," according to financial statements filed with the court.

Albert Snyder of York, Pa., sued the Westboro Baptist Church for unspecified monetary damages after members staged a demonstration at the March 2006 funeral of his son, Lance Cpl. Matthew Snyder, who was killed in Iraq. Church members routinely picket funerals of military personnel killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, carrying signs such as "Thank God for dead soldiers" and "God hates fags."

A number of states have passed laws regarding funeral protests, and Congress has passed a law prohibiting such protests at federal cemeteries, but the Maryland lawsuit is believed to be the first filed by the family of a fallen serviceman.

Snyder's suit named the church, its founder the Rev. Fred Phelps and his two daughters Shirley Phelps-Roper and Rebecca Phelps-Davis, 46. The jury began deliberating Tuesday after two days of testimony. The York, Pa. man claimed the protests intruded upon what should have been a private ceremony and sullied his memory of the event.

The church members testified they are following their religious beliefs by spreading the message that the deaths of soldiers are due to the nation's tolerance of homosexuality. Their attorneys argued in closing statements Tuesday that the burial was a public event and that even abhorrent points of view are protected by the First Amendment, which guarantees freedom of speech and religion. The judge said the church's financial statements that had been unsealed could be released to the plaintiffs.
Wheeee! And that $2.9M is just the compensatory part of the judgment, the real whopper will come when the punitive number is released. I'm going to put aside my looming concern about the First Amendment for just wee bit, if y'all don't mind.

UPDATE II: The punitive damages award was $8M, bringing the entire judgment to $10.9M. The entire net worth of the Phelps clan is less than $1M.
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Gay Activist Carl Siciliano Wins
Brooke Astor Service Award

Carl Siciliano, Executive Director of the Ali Forney Center, New York City's homeless shelter for LGBT youth, was yesterday awarded the 2007 Brooke Astor Service Award. Siciliano (right) is seen here accepting the award from New York Public Library president Paul LeClerc.
The Brooke Russell Astor Award honors Mrs. Astor's commitment to the role of individuals in improving the quality of life in New York City. The award, which includes a cash prize of $10,000, is given annually and honors an unsung community hero or heroine who is relentless in his or her dedication to the city and who has contributed substantially to its enrichment.

Nominations are solicited from more than 400 individuals and organizations, including cultural groups, universities, foundations, elected officials, community groups and social services agencies.
Congratulations to Carl!
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Rho A Go For DP'd Mo's

The Rhode Island legislature has overridden Gov. Don Carcieri's veto of a bill providing domestic partners of state employees access to state pension and retirement benefits.
The legislation includes all employees with pensions managed through the Employee Retirement System of RI – teachers, judges, and other state and municipal employees. To qualify, partners must have lived together for one year and be financially interdependent.

"With this override, the General Assembly has sent a clear message: all public employees should be treated fairly, and deserve equal benefits for equal work," said Jenn Steinfeld, Director of Marriage Equality Rhode Island. Steinfeld noted, however that the bill falls far short of full marriage equality. "We encourage the General Assembly to demonstrate their concern for Rhode Island families by passing equal marriage legislation," she said.
Another baby step. In September the New York state employees' retirement system began offering benefits to gay couples legally married in other jurisdictions.

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Walker / Don't Walker

I usually only get approached by hookers when I'm in the vicinity of fancy midtown hotels, where well-dressed young women will smile as if you're an old friend and say brightly, "Hey, you havin' a good night?" Maybe they think I look like an expense account-toting bidnizman, but I usually say flatly, "I live here" and they go on their way.

Last night I was waiting to cross the street near Times Square, when two very young girls sidled up to me. One of them said, "Wassup, you lookin' for a date?" I shook my head and turned my attention back to the traffic signal. She tried again. "You wanna party with us?" Without looking at them, I said forcefully, "NO!" Not liking my 'tude, she barked, "Damn. Why you gotta be that?" I said, "Well, for starters, you're underage and you're female." The second one pulled her friend away and said, "Ooh, she just mad cuz she too old for Splash."

Damn. Why they gotta be like that?
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Kucinich At Last Night's Debate

At last night's Democratic candidates debate in Philadelphia, Dennis Kucinich vehemently called for the impeachment of President Bush to a surprisingly silent response from the audience, although this clip cuts off a bit too soon for you to tell. I just don't get their reaction, but I do get Dennis Kucinich. I just wish more people did.

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HomoQuotable - Andrew Sullivan

"McClurkin describes sexual orientation as something that God wants to save me and other gay people from. If one were being generous, one would say this isn't meant as an attack; but it is certainly experienced as an attack. McClurkin, in short, should never have been allowed to speak at this event, because his words are inherently divisive, his record of comments on gay people offensive, and the point of the event was allegedly unifying. It wasn't. To my mind, this isn't ultimately about the difficulty of forging any kind of alliance between gays and African-Americans. It is the inherent danger of mixing religion with politics. That's called Christianism. Some of us have not spent the last few years trying to rescue conservatism from the toxin of theocracy only to support a candidate who wants to do the same thing on the left. I don't think Obama wants to go that far; I still believe that broadly speaking, his is the only major candidacy right now that offers the kind of change we need. But what happened on that stage was inexcusable, stupid, and damaging. I don't blame any gay American for jumping the Obama ship over it." - Andrew Sullivan.

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Ralph Nader Sues Dems

Ralph Nader is suing the Democratic Party, claiming party officials conspired to keep him from taking votes away from John Kerry and worked to keep him off the ballot in the 2004 election.
Nader's lawsuit, filed in District of Columbia Superior Court, also named as co-defendants Kerry's campaign, the Service Employees International Union and several so-called 527 organizations such as America Coming Together, which were created to promote voter turnout on behalf of the Democratic ticket.

The lawsuit also alleges that the Democratic National Committee conspired to force Nader off the ballot in several states.

"The Democratic Party is going after anyone who presents a credible challenge to their monopoly over their perceived voters," Nader said in a statement. "This lawsuit was filed to help advance a free and open electoral process for all candidates and voters. Candidate rights and voter rights nourish each other for more voices, choices, and a more open and competitive democracy."

Among other things, the lawsuit alleges that the DNC tried to bankrupt Nader's campaign by suing to keep him off the ballot in 18 states. It also suggests the DNC sent Kerry supporters to crash a Nader petition drive in Portland, Ore., in June 2004, preventing him from collecting enough signatures to get on the ballot.

The lawsuit seeks "compensatory damages, punitive damages and injunctive relief to enjoin the defendants from ongoing and future violations of the law." It was not clear how much money Nader is seeking.
I'm finding it hard to find sympathy for Nader, considering that Dubya's first term was made possible by him. Still, it will be very interesting to see how this plays out.

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Morning View - The Belleclaire

Now an apartment building, the Hotel Belleclaire on Broadway and 77th Street was built in 1903. Designed by Emery Roth, my beloved Farmboyz advise me that the Belleclaire is an example of his work before he "got all Italianated". They continue: "The building is known for its bay windows which look out on Broadway and continued the exuberant effort of the time to make that street a 'Parisian boulevard'. They recently painted those stacks of bays the matte black that you see in your photo. I think this is an atrocious mistake: pretty girl, cheap dress." Them Farmboyz know their Manhattan architecture. They give great tour.

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It's A GOP Whoregasbord!

Ho-lee CRAP! The scandal unfolding around Washington state Rep. Richard Curtis (R-DUH) is out-Haggarding and out-Craiging anything we've ever seen from fucked up, self-hating, anti-gay, right-wing Republicans. And that, my tender kittens, is rilly, rilly saying something.

Today's Self-Loathing Menu

(Prix Fixe: One Political Career)

We start with a late-season twink porn prostitute appetizer (NSFW), followed by a main course of cross-dressed role-player john en crout with medical device garnish, served with generous side orders (PDF) of cell-phone photos, X-rated videos, bondage, theft, and blackmail.

Dessert: Cru Anal avec DNA crème lourde.

CHECK PLEASE!

From the police report, via Dan Savage:
Curtis stated both he and the male walked into the lobby together. He told the male gain that he would give the male $100 to help him out but he was not paying him to have sex. Curtis and the male went up to Curtis’ room, which was 968. Once in the room Curtis gave the male $100…. Curtis and the male ultimately had anal intercourse on the bed in Curtis’ hotel room. The male performed intercourse on Curtis and the male’s semen and/or DNA would be on the inside of the condom while Curtis’ DNA would be on the exterior. Curtis said he was the person who received the anal sex. [Emphasis Dan's]
The hooker told the cops:
[Castagna] states [Curtis] was a “freak.” [Castagna] said that [Curtis] dressed in women’s lingerie during sex. [Castagna] said he used a condom and performed anal intercourse on [Curtis]…. After the sex act was completed [Curtis] told [Castagna] he wanted to perform “bareback sex” on [Castagna because Curtis] did not like the feel of condoms. [Castagna] told [Curtis] that he did not do that, that he didn’t know [Curtis], and that “bareback sex” was unsafe sex and was dangerous. [Curtis] asked [Castagna] “what would it take for you to do it.”
According to Castagna, he and Curtis settled on a $1000 barebacking fee, but when Curtis fell asleep after completing the act, Castagna took pictures with his cell phone and left with the Honorable Rep's wallet. He then called Curtis and demanded his fee with a threat to expose Curtis to the press and his wife. Police nabbed Castagna when he showed up (and this is priceless) at the "last flowerpot on the Washington Street Bridge", where he'd instructed Curtis to leave his money.

Castagna has a lengthy criminal record:
The Columbian newspaper in southwestern Washington where Rep. Curtis lives confirmed that Castagna has faced multiple charges in juvenile court in Spokane and King County involving assault, theft, burglary and malicious mischief and that in 2001 he pled guilty to a forgery charge as an adult and was sentenced to two months in jail followed by a year in community custody.
But Curtis has been busy elsewhere too:
Curtis, according to a search warrant unsealed Tuesday, went to the Hollywood Erotic Boutique on East Sprague on October 26th at approximately 12:45 a.m. The store clerk, who had talked with Curtis, referred to him as "The Cross-Dresser" and said that during their conversations he confirmed he was gay and was married with children at home. During his visit to the video store Curtis was observed wearing women's lingerie while receiving oral sex from an unidentified man in one of the movie viewing booths inside the store.
Oh, and after providing the police with exacting details of the whole hookerific shebang, Rep. Curtis suddenly claimed that Castagna had drugged him and that he "was so out of it he really didn’t know what happened." It is to laugh. And here's video of the hooker claiming his (relative) innocence.

As this is all going down in his backyard, stay with Dan Savage's SLOG for updates and more deliciously dishy dirty details. I'm quite anxious to hear Rep. Curtis justify voting against every LGBT-friendly bill in the Washington state legislature, all while taking it up the ass from male hookers while wearing ladies panties. He must have been so out of it he really didn't know what he was voting on!

Pam Spaulding says
"I’m living a relatively plain jane lesbian existence simply asking for my civil rights while closet cases like Curtis get all sorts of kinks on while railing against openly LGBT citizens. It makes me sick."

Us too, Pam.

Update via JMG reader Crixi: Cody likes cupcakes.

Update II: Curtis has resigned.
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Good Work Wednesday

DC: The Human Rights Campaign will host a photo exhibit called “Pride / Prejudice: Voices of GLBT Youth,” on Wednesday, November 7th from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. The November 7th event will include a reception with photographer Rachelle Lee Smith. The photo exhibit will remain to the public on Thursday, November 9th from 9:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. The exhibit will be on display at the HRC building at 1640 Rhode Island Ave. NW, Washington, D.C. Reserve tickets here.

SF: The Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund will host a fundraiser for LGBT candidates on Wednesday, November 14th at 54 Palm Avenue. Candidates benefiting: Annise Parker, running for re-election as Houston City Controller, and Oregon State Senator Kate Brown, candidate for Oregon Secretary of State. Tickets $175-$1000. Purchase here.

NYC: The LGBT Community Center will honor Tony-winning actress Cherry Jones and corporate executive Sally Susman at its annual gala dinner, Women’s Event 10, on November 3 at Pier Sixty, Chelsea Piers. Tickets and info here.

SF: On Sunday, November 4th, the Alexander Hamilton Post 448, in conjunction with The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence and SF Defenders is hosting "A Homecoming and Healing Celebration" for veterans of this HIV/AIDS era and those who support them. Room 207, War Memorial Building, 401 Van Ness Avenue. 1:30PM-5PM. Opening ceremonies with a color guard and invocations will be followed by an exercise to recognize our personal everyday heroes. A second exercise recognizing the hero in each of us will be followerd by a final blessing from the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence.

NYC: Gay Men's Health Crisis hosts Fashion Forward With Tim Gunn, tomorrow, November 1st at the Altman Building, 135 W.18th Street. "Join us as we celebrate the fashion industry's commitment to fighting HIV and AIDS and their support of GMHC for over two decades. FASHION FORWARD will present the looks of such celebrated designers as John Bartlett, Andrew Buckler, Heatherette, Perry Ellis, Rag & Bone and Peter Som among others. The evening will feature a cocktail reception, a runway show and a live and silent auction." Purchase tickets here.

LA: The Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian Community Center 36th Annual Gala & Auction takes place on November 17th at the Hyatt Regency Century City. "Singer and Activist Jenifer Lewis and the Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles to be Honored; Chorus to Perform “duet” with the iconic Linda Ronstadt." Tickets: $300 for individuals, $400 for VIP admission which includes preferred seating; $3,000 for a table of 10, and $4,000 for a VIP table of 10. Purchase tickets here.

NYC: The Gay & Lesbian Anti-Violence Project will stage their 2007 Courage Awards at Gotham Hall on November 19th, hosted by B.D. Wong. This year's honorees: New York State Assembly Member Daniel J. O'Donnell, Ms. Verna Eggleston of the Bloomberg Family Foundation, and Sundance Channel.

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Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Married Gay Straight Stud For Same

I hesitated to do yet another post about yet another public sex sting ...
BEDFORD - A sting aimed at men who cruise a rest area off Interstate 684 for gay sex resulted in charges against 20 men in the past month, including a Catholic priest and a registered sex offender. The sting, which also netted a local Rotary Club president and a 72-year-old man, was prompted by a complaint from a man who stopped to use the rest area with his 10-year-old son, said Capt. Robert Meyer, state police commander in Westchester County. Most of the men were charged with either loitering or trespass violations or both. One was charged with forcible touching, a misdemeanor.
But Dan Savage once again makes this critical observation: "Out of the 20 men arrested seeking gay sex in a toilet off I-684, how many do you think were openly gay?"
With the exception of Mead [the priest], all of those charged are married, police said.
Savage: "The correct answer was none! How does the same story get written after every public 'gay sex' sting? 'Hey, all the men arrested are married or priests! What’s up with that!' What’s up with that, of course, is that squalid, anonymous toilet sex isn’t something most openly gay men engage in. It is, for the most part, the preferred mode of sexual expression for closeted gay and bisexual men. Cruisy toilets and parks, while frequented by some openly gay men (none of whom ever seem to get caught, however), are primarily patronized by straight-identified closet cases, married men, losers, and priests—hell, the existence or cruisy toilets and parks make it possible for many of these men to remain closeted."

I'd add that probably the biggest draw for the few openly gay men that do cruise these locations is their fetishization of the "straight" men who comprise the bulk of the cruisers. You know, because straight men are, by default, hotter than queers.

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Obama Spins McClurkin


Notice at the 0:55 mark how Obama refers to the McClurkin controversy as happening "a while back." Uh, yeah. Waaaay back on Sunday. Spin, spin, spin.

Also from the same forum, but not in the clip:
Appearing at the Cedar Rapids Public Library, Abbi Swanson whose son is gay, asked what he would do to give him the same rights as opposite-sex couples. "You want the word marriage and I believe that the issue of marriage has become so entangled - the word marriage has become so entangled with religion - that it makes more sense for me as president, with that authority, to talk about the civil rights that are conferred [with civil unions]" he told her.

Both Swanson and Lamb later told the Des Moines Register they were not satisfied with Obama's position. "I'm not completely satisfied that he's not for gay marriage ... but I'm happy he does believe in equal rights for gay citizens," Lamb said.
Swanson told the paper, "There isn't an electable candidate out there that has given me the answer I want, which is everything."
We're not going to get "everything", but we should at least demand that candidates who purport to support most gay issues not hand the microphone over to the "ex-gays". When the McClurkin issue first reared up, I was perplexed, then disappointed. Now I'm just pissed.

The t-shirt now on sale at AmericaBlog:

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The Dwindling Gayborhood

Springboarding off tomorrow's closure of the Castro for Halloween (thanks to violence spawned by the annual invasion of het-thugs), today the New York Times riffs on the topic of gayborhoods, asking if "gay enclaves" around the nation are not only doomed, but even necessary in today's increasingly accepting world. (The post below this one to the contrary.)
These are wrenching times for San Francisco’s historic gay village, with population shifts, booming development, and a waning sense of belonging that is also being felt in gay enclaves across the nation, from Key West, Fla., to West Hollywood, as they struggle to maintain cultural relevance in the face of gentrification.

There has been a notable shift of gravity from the Castro, with young gay men and lesbians fanning out into less-expensive neighborhoods like Mission Dolores and the Outer Sunset, and farther away to Marin and Alameda Counties, “mirroring national trends where you are seeing same-sex couples becoming less urban, even as the population become slightly more urban,” said Gary J. Gates, a demographer and senior research fellow at the University of California, Los Angeles.

At the same time, cities not widely considered gay meccas have seen a sharp increase in same-sex couples. Among them: Fort Worth; El Paso; Albuquerque; Louisville, Ky.; and Virginia Beach, according to census figures and extrapolations by Dr. Gates for The New York Times. “Twenty years ago, if you were gay and lived in rural Kansas, you went to San Francisco or New York,” he said. “Now you can just go to Kansas City.”
I've blogged on this topic many times. Call me an insulated ghetto queen if you will, but I have always had a special burst of pride in my people when I visit our gayborhoods around the country. They are typically vibrant, exciting places where the conflux of art, activism and yes, action create a singular, safe refuge. A friend of mine once memorably compared stepping into the Castro to walking through the Stargate. One is transported and transformed, if only for a few blocks.

I'm delighted in the explosion of mini-gayborhoods in smaller cities around the country, even if they come at the expense of more established places. Still, I long for that palpable sense of belonging, of place, that I once felt in South Beach, in Dupont Circle, and increasingly, even in the West Village. I miss enjoying the self-delusion that, at least as far as the eye could see, the world was, pardon the cliche', fabulous.
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Value Voters: Lock Up Queers,
Death To Blasphemers


Huffington Post's Max Blumenthal reports from last week's Value Voters Summit where he lets the cameras roll as the Christianists elabocrazy on quarantining sodomites and other Jeebus-filled topics. Watch the video all the way through, if you've got the stomach for it. From his post:
Recently, there has been a lot of mainstream media noise about a new, more socially conscious evangelical movement rising from the angry ashes of the Christian right. Pastors like Rick Warren and "evangelical feminist" Bill Hybels are supposedly bringing issues like the environment and poverty to the forefront of the movement's social agenda, while pushing anti-abortion and anti-gay activism to the wayside. Yet no one told those evangelicals gathered at the Value Voters Summit about this friendly new initiative.

If anything, the movement seemed more extreme and paranoid than it did four years ago. Rev. Lou Sheldon, dubbed "Lucky Louie" by his former paymaster Jack Abramoff, told me that homosexuality is a "pathological disorder" and "a groove" that is difficult to escape from. He proceeded to passionately defend his friend, Senator Larry Craig, from allegations of homosexuality.
The "friendly new initiative" that Blumenthal refers to is discussed at great length in David Kirkpatrick's excellent New York Times Magazine article from this weekend, The Evangelical Crackup. Also highly recommended.

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Parenticide

14th Street & 8th Avenue, Monday, 7PM

Two gay boys are looking at a movie poster featuring Jake Gyllenhaal.

Gay Boy 1: I would totally murder my parents to be his boyfriend.

Gay Boy 2: Oh, totally.
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The Republican & The Rent Boy, Chapter 3

And the hits keep coming. Washington state Rep. Richard Curtis (R-La Center), whose voting record includes voting against gay domestic partners legislation and against a bill protecting gays from job discrimination, is the subject of a police investigation involving a male prostitute who is accused of attempting to blackmail the right-wing pol.

Yesterday Curtis denied that he is gay, adding, "I committed no crime. I did not solicit sex. I was trying to help somebody out." However, a Spokane television station reported that the two men had a sexual relationship and had been seen together "at various spots around town." Openly gay Rep. Jim Moeller, (D-Vancouver) says he's never heard rumors about Curtis' sexual orientation. "Richard appears to be a happily married man to me," said Moeller.

I really should make it easy on myself and just create a template for these posts. I could just drop in the Republican, city, gay scandal and hit "publish." Also, I find it curious that news reports make no mention of Curtis' outrageous hairpiece.

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New AIDS Timeline Revealed

According to a new study, AIDS arrived in the United States via Haiti around 1969.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The AIDS virus invaded the United States in about 1969 from Haiti, carried most likely by a single infected immigrant who set the stage for it to sweep the world in a tragic epidemic, scientists said on Monday.

Michael Worobey, a University of Arizona evolutionary biologist, said the 1969 U.S. entry date is earlier than some experts had believed. The timeline laid out in the study led by Worobey indicates that HIV infections were occurring in the United States for roughly 12 years before AIDS was first recognized by scientists as a disease in 1981. Many people had died by that point.

"It is somehow chilling to know it was probably circulating for so long under our noses," Worobey said in a telephone interview. The researchers conducted a genetic analysis of stored blood samples from early AIDS patients to determine when the human immunodeficiency virus first entered the United States.

They found that HIV was brought to Haiti by an infected person from central Africa in about 1966, which matches earlier estimates, and then came to the United States in about 1969. The researchers think an unknown single infected Haitian immigrant arrived in a large city like Miami or New York, and the virus circulated for years -- first in the U.S. population and then to other nations.

[SNIP]

The researchers analyzed samples from five of these Haitian immigrants dating from 1982 and 1983. They also looked at genetic data from 117 more early AIDS patients from around the world. This genetic analysis allowed the scientists to calibrate the molecular clock of the strain of HIV that has spread most widely, and calculated when it arrived first in Haiti from Africa and then in the United States.

The researchers virtually ruled out the possibility that HIV had come directly to the United States from Africa, setting a 99.8 percent probability that Haiti was the steppingstone. Studies suggest the virus first entered the human population in about 1930 in central Africa, probably when people slaughtered infected chimpanzees for meat.

This study again shoots down the Patient Zero theory that Canadian flight attendant Gaëtan Dugas single-handedly brought AIDS to America, a persistent myth first debunked in 1987 by Dr. Andrew Ross in the American Journal of Epidemiology. Dugas' story was vividly depicted in Randy Shilts' book, And The Band Played On.

So AIDS has been here for at least 38 years, not the 26 years since it was discovered. I'd always imagined that it had been even longer. It's fascinating news, but probably not much use to people living with the disease today.

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Morning View - Mythic Creatures

So on Sunday, when the Ex and I rolled up on the American Museum of Natural History, my first thought upon seeing their banner was "Shouldn't that be Mythical Creatures?" The show is about dragons, unicorns and mermaids and those are imaginary, or mythical. Mythic means "legendary" and while I suppose such creatures could be considered legendary, so could Madonna, who is a totally real creature. It seems like "mythical" would have been the better word. Or not. After the third time I brought it up, the Ex told me I was ruining his museum experience.

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Swag Tuesday

Courtesy of Grand Central Publishing, this week's Swag Tuesday prize is Grace After Midnight, the memoir of controversial actress, rapper and out lesbian Felicia "Snoop" Pearson, star of HBO's The Wire. Written by Pearson and David Ritz, the book is due out November 1st.
While Felicia is a brilliant actor in a truly chilling role, what's most remarkable about "Snoop" is what she has overcome in her life. Snoop was born a three-pound cross-eyed crack baby in East Baltimore. Those streets are among the toughest in the world, but Snoop was tougher. The runt of the ghetto showed an early aptitude for drug slinging and violence and thrived as a baby gangsta until she landed in Jessup state penitentiary after killing a woman in self-defense. There she rebelled violently against the system, and it was only through the cosmic intervention of her mentor, Uncle Loney, that she turned her life around. A couple of years ago, Snoop was discovered in a nightclub by one of The Wire's cast members and quickly recruited to be one of television's most frightening and intriguing villains. While the story of coming up from the hood has been told by Antwone Fisher and Chris Gardner, among others, Snoop's tale goes far deeper into The Life than any previous books. And like Mary Karr's story, Snoop's is a woman's story from a fresh point of view. She defied traditional conventions of gender and sexual preference on the hardest streets in America and she continues to do so in front of millions of viewers on TV.
Earlier this year, author Stephen King called Pearson's Snoop "perhaps the most terrifying female villain to ever appear in a television series." Her baby butch vibe and homo-thug swagger have both attracted and repelled viewers of The Wire, a hit show known for its gritty authenticity.

This won't be the lightest read in Swag Tuesday history, but it may be the most fascinating. I have three copies to give away. Enter to win by commenting on this post. Please comment only once and remember to leave your email address. Publicists: if you'd like to take part in Swag Tuesday on JMG, please email me.

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Monday, October 29, 2007

Manhattan Monday

-After their dismal showing this season, the Yankees have replaced manager Joe Torre with the infinitely hotter former catcher Joe Girardi. Makes me want to care about the American League again. Almost. The Yankees won three World Series with Girardi behind the plate.

-The 34th Annual Greenwich Village Halloween Parade starts at 7pm on Wednesday. In honor of the day, the Empire State Building, normally darkened at midnight, will be illuminated in orange until dawn.

-Diplomats from the the Democratic Republic of Congo bought dozens of handguns at a Chinatown gun shop. No explanation of how they side-stepped New York's stringent license requirements.

-The former site of CBGB's is being turned into a boutique for fashion designer John Varvatos, whose work is a favorite of many rockers such as Slash and Alice Cooper. All in all, not a terribly bad use of a legendary space. But, still.

-New York City grocery stores may be ordered to recycle their plastic bags. Stores would have to provide a place for customers to return empty bags or face a $2000 daily fine. "Honey, can you run out for some milk? Oh, and here, take these 20 bags back with you." Yeah, not gonna happen.

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The Princes Of Tides

In another sign of the tidal change in how young people view gays, two 16 year-old boyfriends in Davis, California have been elected Homecoming "Princes" after a successful write-in campaign.
For what appears to be the first time in school history, the Davis Senior High student body has elected a gay couple into homecoming royalty. With each boasting a white sash declaring his title as "Prince," the two 16-year-olds rode through the city of Davis on a recent Friday afternoon in the school's annual homecoming parade.

They stood in the back of a pickup truck, arm-in-arm, smiling warmly despite the rain. "People were so excited for us," Gatewood said of the couple's victory, announced a few weeks ago. "We were a little surprised, but Davis ..."

"Is a liberal town," interrupts his boyfriend of four months, Raphael. "Go 10 miles in any other direction and you'll get some other feeling." Indeed, the news might surprise few in Davis, a city embraced and, at times, mocked for its liberal leanings. But students and adults cheering on the boys recognized their election as a meaningful milestone.
A sweet story, yes? I've heard of openly gay high-schoolers being voted Homecoming King or Queen, but never a couple. But our ever-reliable Freepers are already on the case:

-"Must they make a mockery of every single tradition that ever was? All this pandering and teaching is nothing less than negligence of the mentally ill."
-"In the early to mid eighties we have a few effeminate boys coming to high school dressed as women. Transvestites. In high school. In a rural, logging town. It only took a couple ass-beatings out on the football field to put an end to that crap."
-"The homosexual political agenda is obsessive and totalitarian, so they are compelled to destroy every tradition."
-"I guarantee that both will be dead or damn close to it, five years from today."
-"Must they make a mockery of every single tradition that ever was? That is their goal. To destroy every aspect of Western Civilization. And don't doubt for a second that some of the "educators" had a hand in this."

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The New Gay Stereotype

Embiggen for a laugh. (Via - Salon.)

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Mouse Tale

6 train, Saturday, 10PM

A trio of frat boys get on the crowded train dressed as the Three Blind Mice (mouse outfits, sunglasses, white canes.)

Mouse 1: Dude, fix my tail.
Mouse 2: I've told you to stop asking me to touch your tail.
Mouse 1: Seriously, fix it. It's hanging wrong. I can't sit down.
(Mouse 1 turns around to present his tail to the seated Mouse 2, who begins to re-bend Mouse 1's tail.)
Mouse 1: AW YEAH! That's it. BEND IT! BEND IT, DUDE! AHHHHHHH!
Mouse 3 (to other passengers): I'm am totally doing Halloween by myself next year.
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Unaffirmed

So much for last week's self-affirmation. According to this scale at the American Natural History Museum, I'd weigh 2.9 trillion pounds on a neutron star. Meh.

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Fort Lauderdale Tops For Gay Tourism

In what a local guesthouse owner labeled "a bit of sweet revenge" for local activists, readers of Out Traveler have named Fort Lauderdale the top resort destination for gay vacationers. Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention & Visitor’s Bureau CEO Nicki Grossman, who was instrumental in the removal of anti-gay Mayor Jim Naugle from Broward County's tourism board, said, "It’s a wonderful crown to wear, The bottom line is he [Naugle] was barking up the wrong tree.”

Grossman added, “He doesn’t know anything about marketing. We’ve repeatedly responded to his complaints about our advertising, and we’ve never scared off one single family from our destination. His words have scared them off, but our advertising has not."

Despite their opposition to Naugle's hate tactics, the Convention Bureau did remove its "Health and Fitness" listings from their gay tourism materials, deleting references to bathhouses.

(Via - Express Gay News.)

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HomoQuotable - Donnie McClurkin

"I'm going to say something that's going to get me in trouble. They accuse me of being anti-gay and a bigot. We don't believe in discrimination. We don't believe in hatred, and if you do you are in the wrong place at the wrong time. That's the whole premise of God. That's the whole premise of Christ is love, love, love.

But there is a side of Christ that deals in judgment, and all sin is against God. Don't call me a bigot or anti-gay, when I have been touched by the same feelings. When I have suffered with the same feelings. Don't call me a homophobe, when I love everybody. Don't tell me that I stand up and I say vile words against the gay community because I don't. I don't speak against the homosexual. I tell you that God delivered me from homosexuality." - Grammy winning gospel singer Donnie McClurkin, received by "raucous applause" at yesterday's Barack Obama fundraising concert in Columbia, South Carolina.

And after the concert, McClurkin went back to his hotel to cruise Craigslist.
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CCA Calls For Potter Ban

The "nation's largest" conservative organization, the Christian Coalition of America, has called for a ban of Harry Potter books and movies after author J.K. Rowling's revelation last week that Hogwarts head wizard Albus Dumbledore is gay. CCA chairman Roberta Combs: "It's not a good example for our children, who really like the books and the movies. I think it encourages homosexuality. I would never allow my own children or grandchildren to read the books or watch the movies, and other parents should do so too."

Claiming 1.2M members, CCA trumpets themselves as the nation's largest conservative group, although others place their active membership at around 30,000. They are currently over $2M in debt and are being sued by numerous creditors. They no longer have any lobbyists in Washington, DC.

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Morning View - Strawberry Fields

Directly across from where he was murdered on the Upper West Side, a 2.5 acre section of Central Park is dedicated to John Lennon. The centerpiece of Strawberry Fields is the Imagine tile mosaic, which is always littered with fresh flowers. The creation of the tribute area was underwritten by Yoko Ono.

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