The men have been charged in San Francisco with a hate crime and assault for allegedly firing a BB rifle Feb. 26 at the face of a man they believed was gay. The man, who was walking on 16th Street near Guerrero Street, was not badly hurt and later identified the three suspects. The three were freed on $50,000 bail soon after their arrest. But on Friday, Mohammad Habibzada, Shafiq Hashemi and Sayed Bassam, all 24, appeared in court and were immediately rearrested. They were all being held late Friday on $450,000 bail. They were returned to custody after prosecutors viewed a video that police found in the three men's car when they were arrested. Brian Buckelew, spokesman for District Attorney Kamala Harris, said the video showed the 16th Street attack and BB rifle shootings aimed at 11 other men. Police say the video depicts the suspects laughing as they fire. Investigators say they have been unable to find any of the additional alleged victims. Still, Buckelew said prosecutors may file additional charges against each of the three defendants.
The three men are cousins. Police believe they drove around the Castro and other gay neighborhoods looking for men that appeared to be gay.
Andres Duque at Blabbeando provides the transcript for this debate on NYC Spanish television. Monserrate complains about the "wealthy homosexuals" such as activist Tim Gill who are funding Peralta's campaign, calling Peralta a "marionette" of the gay community.
NYC Teacher Sued For Threatening To Out A Nine Year-Old Boy
A NYC charter school teacher is being sued by the parents of a 9 year-old boy, who say the teacher forced him to write a note to a female crush, falsely "confessing" that he is gay.
According to court papers filed this week, the teacher, Jared Alessandroni, 29, threatened to "out" a straight 9-year-old boy, James Pastrana, to his class at the South Bronx Charter School for International Cultures and the Arts, unless James told his crush he was gay. "I was so humiliated," said Pastrana, who reluctantly scribbled the false confession in a note to the girl. "It started to spread around the whole class and then everyone wanted to call me gay." A second lawsuit alleges that Alessandroni twisted an 8-year-old boy's arm in a school stairwell in 2008 because he didn't like the way the boy was walking. "The teacher's conduct was reprehensible," said Patrick Mullaney, the lawyer for both boys. Alessandroni, who left the school last year, said the allegations were probed by the Department of Education and no wrongdoing was found.
Also named in the suit is the school's administrator, who is slated to plead guilty this week in separate case charging him with embezzling funds from a city non-profit.
According to the Catholic Church's top exorcist, Satan himself lives in the Vatican. Father Gabriel Amorth has conducted 70,000 exorcisms in the last 50 years and says he needs to do a few inside the palace as well.
In the last few months, the Catholic Church have been rocked by a series of sex scandals in Ireland, Holland and, most recently, Germany. Even the Pope's brother, Father Georg Ratzinger, has admitted he hit choir boys. Italian priest Fr Amorth said: "His Holiness fully believes in casting out evil. "The Devil lives in the Vatican. Naturally it's difficult to find proof but the true consequences are visible. "We have cardinals who don't believe in Christ, bishops connected with demons. "Then we have these stories of paedophilia. You can see the rot when we speak of Satan's smoke in the holy rooms of the Vatican." Fr Amorth was speaking yesterday during the launch of Memoirs Of An Exorcist, written by Italian journalist Marco Tosatti. Fr Amorth, the basis for the priest in hit horror movie The Exorcist, said he had "six or seven assistants" to help him hold down possessed people while carrying out exorcisms.
As noted in the story, Palpatine's brother has admitted that he used to beat the members of the boys choir he once headed. We're betting there is a LOT more coming out about that.
The NYC Taxi & Limousine Commission has uncovered a massive scam on the part of the city's taxi drivers, many of whom are are charging out-of-borough rates to unsuspecting riders.
The drivers’ scheme, the commission said, involved 1.8 million rides and cost passengers an average of $4 to $5 extra per trip. The drivers, officials said, flipped switches on their meters that kicked in the higher rates, costing New York City riders a total of $8.3 million. The 1.8 million fares represent a tiny fraction of a total 360 million trips over the 26-month period in question. Agency officials said, however, that they were alarmed enough that they immediately ordered the companies that manufacture the meters to create a system to alert riders when the higher rates are being charged. That is likely to be done through the digital screens facing the back seats of the cabs. The commission said it began an inquiry after investigators, responding to a rider’s complaint, determined that a cab driver from Brooklyn, Wasim Khalid Cheema, had overcharged 574 passengers in just one month last year. Mr. Cheema’s license has been revoked. He could not be reached for comment. The commission then used GPS data, collected in every cab, to review millions of trips in New York City and found a huge number in which the out-of-city rates had improperly been charged, officials said.
Drivers are claiming that the overcharges are accidental due to how close together the meter buttons are. I've noticed that my rides from the UES to the West Village can vary from $13-$19, but I've always chalked that up to traffic. But I'll be watching that the far right number on the meter (above) is always a 1, not a 4, which is the out-of-city rate.
Mississippi teen Constance McMillen's daddy is not only ridiculously hot, he supports his gay daughter. This national outpouring of support for Constance is, in my reckoning, unprecedented. Major national LGBT organizations could work all year and never create such a perfect storm of media attention focused on an attractive, well-spoken, sympathetic figure. Please strike while the issue is hot and tell your Congressperson to support Rep. Jared Polis' Student Non-Discrimination Act, which would federally mandate that the nation's public schools treat ALL students equally.
This is about more than Constance, this is about more than just the bigots on the Itawamba County school board. This is about vulnerable LGBT high school and middle school all over the country. While more and more LGBT students enjoy the support of their families and friends, LGBT students still face harassment from their peers and hostility from school administrators. And the harassment doesn't just impact the lives of openly gay students. Closeted students witness discrimination against openly gay students and are made fearful. By coming down on the Itawamba County School system—and by coming down on them hard—we're not just sending a message to the bigots running the schools in a corner of Mississippi. We're sending a message to school boards and superintendents and principals all over the country: you will pay a price if you discriminate against or encourage other students to retaliate against LGBT youth.
Diana Ross has just announced a nationwide tour set to begin in May. Miss Ross promises a show heavy on her greatest hits, a live string section, and "breathtaking costumes."
May 15 - Boston, Mass. - Citi Performing Arts Center May 16 - Mashantucket, Conn. - MGM Grand Theater at Foxwoods May 18 - Red Bank, New Jersey - Count Basie Theatre May 19 - New York City - Radio City Music Hall May 21 - Atlantic City, New Jersey - Caesars Atlantic City May 25 - Bethesda, Maryland - Music Center at Strathmore May 27 - Chicago, Ill. - Chicago Theatre May 28 - Cleveland, Ohio - State Theatre May 29 - Detroit, Mich. - Fox Theatre May 31 - Toronto, Ontario - Roy Thomson Hall June 2 - Knoxville, Tenn. - Tennessee Theatre June 4 - Atlanta, Ga. - Chastain Park Ampitheatre June 5 - Memphis, Tenn. - Live At The Garden June 6 - St. Louis, Missouri - Fox Theatre June 9 - Los Angeles - Nokia Theatre June 11 - San Diego, Calif. - Humphrey’s June 12 - Saratoga, Calif. - The Mountain Winery
Somehow, I've never seen her live. I think I'll hit the Radio City show and hope for lots of Diana dragalikes in the audience.
Over on Slate, a Las Vegas bear hooker talks about his workday.
Yes: I'm a Las Vegas call bear. But don't be fooled into assuming that all my clients come from the world of the bears. Far from it. The men who hire me run the gamut from 18-year-olds who want their first male-male experience to be with a man who knows what he's doing to men in their 80s who just want to be held by a lumberjack type for an hour. They might be fat, they might be average, or they might have bodies so perfectly sculpted they should be underwear models. Among my regular clients are Jaime and Luis, 28-year-old Mexican boyfriends who barely speak enough English to make the appointment and spend the whole session crying "Ay! Papi rico!" Two or three times a year I spend a night with Nicholas, a charming Canadian businessman who discovered his homosexuality later in life and wants to get "caught up" on the basics of sex with men before he puts himself out there. And when I go to San Diego I love getting together with Bobby, a black mechanic with a beautifully muscled body and a smile that could put Tom Cruise to shame. He likes me to put on construction boots and stomp on his chest. Lucky for Bobby I earned a first aid merit badge in the Boy Scouts, so I know exactly where not to step to keep from breaking off his sternum and killing him.
Mr. Call Bear says that as much as for his heft, his patrons hire him for his red bush.
AMFAR To Domain Host Go Daddy: Take Down Neil Horsely's Anti-Gay Site
Two days ago infamous Georgia nutcase Neil Horsely was arrested for making death threats to Elton John over his comment that Jesus Christ was gay. Today Jim Burroway at Box Turtle Bulletin reports that Horsely is also responsible for a campaign in Kenya that calls for the death of homosexuals.
Horsley is not only calling for Elton John’s death, but we have learned that he is also the operator of a Kenyan site known as ProjectSEE. That web site is responsible for placing posters written in Swahili in parts of Kenya containing photos and identifying information for LGBT people, and encouraging Kenyans to follow the Levitical law calling for their death. The anonymous blogger GayUganda received an email from an American in Kenya saying that ProjectSEE is placing posters in the Rift Valley area of Kenya:
First, it explicitly encourages the broad public posting of images of individuals, with a Swahili translation that basically advocates their harm through a Swahili Leviticus ‘quote’ that says death is in order. Encouraging these postings in a place like Kenya presents a very real and potentially harmful threat to their targets. Secondly, they have put individual faces and in some cases contact information on the posters, placing some people at potentially immediate risk. Third, this campaign and website appears to be organized and financed by U.S. citizens based on U.S. soil.
This morning I got a call from amFAR's NYC offices and after putting them in touch with Jim Burroway, amFAR has issued the following letter to the CEO of Horsely's internet host Go Daddy, demanding that they take down his vile website.
Dear Mr. Parsons,
I am writing to make a specific complaint regarding the website www.projectsee.com which is in clear violation of GoDaddy.com terms of service. In section 5 under the heading "NO UNLAWFUL CONDUCT OR IMPROPER USE," it states: "Except as set forth below, Go Daddy may also cancel Your use of the Services, after thirty (30) days, if You are using the Services, as determined by Go Daddy in its sole discretion, in association with spam or morally objectionable activities. Morally objectionable activities will include, but not be limited to:
* activities designed to defame, embarrass, harm, abuse, threaten, slander or harass third parties; * activities prohibited by the laws of the United States and/or foreign territories in which You conduct business; * activities designed to encourage unlawful behavior by others, such as hate crimes, terrorism and child pornography; * activities that are tortuous, vulgar, obscene, invasive of the privacy of a third party, racially, ethnically, or otherwise objectionable; * activities designed to impersonate the identity of a third party; * illegal access to other computers or networks (i.e., hacking); * distribution of Internet viruses or similar destructive activities; * activities designed to harm or use unethically minors in any way; and * activities associated with the sale or distribution of prescription medication without a valid prescription.
The website in question clearly shows the names, phone numbers, and emails of individuals whom the authors believe should be targeted in their home country of Kenya. This very personal attack constitutes a direct threat to the safety and well-being of these individuals and is morally reprehensible. Were the individuals Americans, and targeted in the US, this would constitute a clear violation of US law. It is my sincere hope that Go Daddy will take immediate action to remove this website.
The proprietor of this website is one Neal Horsley. Mr. Horsley was arrested on March 10, 2010 in Atlanta, Georgia for making a threat on the life of the entertainer Elton John. The story can be found at this link. It may sound hyperbolic to state, but people's lives in Kenya are in immediate danger. Time is of the essence. Go Daddy must act with expedience if this injustice is to be rectified before it is too late. It is my sincere hope you will see fit to act immediately.
Kevin Robert Frost, CEO, amfAR, The Foundation for AIDS Research
Contact Go Daddy yourself and request that this murderous site be taken down at once.
Nancy Pelosi: No Public Option In House Version Of Health Care Reform Bill
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced today that the final version of the health care reform bill that she is sending to the Senate will not include the public option.
"We're talking about something that is not going to be part of the legislation," Pelosi said, noting "with sadness" that the public insurance option won't be part of legislation. "I'm quite sad that the public option is not in there," she said. Earlier Thursday, a spokesman to Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), the Majority Whip, said Durbin would "aggressively whip" a health care bill that included a public option. Pelosi, however, put the onus back on the Senate, saying that the chamber didn't have the votes needed for it. "I'm not having the Senate, which didn't have a public option in its bill, put any of that on our doorstep," she said. "It did not prevail. What we will have in reconciliation will be something that is agreed upon, House and Senate, that they can pass and we can pass... It isn't in there because they don't have the votes."
Fox News On Catholic School's Expulsion Of Kids With Gay Parents
Fox contributor Father Jonathan Morris defends the expulsion of kids from a Catholic school because their parents are gay. Bill O'Reilly, perhaps surprisingly, attacks Morris for the Catholic Church's selective punishment of "sin." BTW, Morris sets my gaydar ping-diddly-inging.
Utah GOP Leader Hot-Tubbed With Naked 15 Year Old Girl, Paid For Her Silence
Utah GOP House Majority Leader Kevin Garn has admitted that in 1985 he skinny-dipped in a hot tub with a nude 15 year-old girl and has paid her $150,000 since 2002 in return for her silence. The devout Mormon and "family values" advocate was married at the time.
With his wife by his side, Garn yesterday told reporters: "I expect to suffer public humiliation and embarrassment. Some lessons are hard to learn. This is something I should've done back in 2002 but I was scared. I did not want to be publicly judged by one of my life's [worst mistakes]." Maher detailed the incident in an interview with the paper. She said that in 1985, age 15, she was employed by Garn, then 30, at his business, Pegasus Records and KSG Enterprises. Garn, she said, "struck up a relationship" with her, as the paper puts it. One night, he took her to a location in Salt Lake City -- it's unclear where -- where they both got in the hot-tub nude. Garn yesterday told reporters about the incident. "I can unequivocally tell you there was no physical contact, there was no touching, there was no intercourse, there was none of those things. It simply did not occur. I'm not trying to downplay what did occur but I want to make it very plain." Nonetheless, Maher, who now lives in New Hampshire, blames the incident for triggering the subsequent unraveling of her life. She has struggled with drugs and drinking, and has had mental health problems.
Garn has been a supporter of archconservative Utah Gov. Gary Herbert. In January he allowed a statewide LGBT rights bill to die in committee for the second year in a row, saying that "nothing had changed" that warranted the bill's passage.
Seventies disco legend D.C. LaRue writes to let us know that he'll be interviewing dance pioneer Tom Moulton tomorrow night on his internet show on Newtown Radio.
March 13th my special guest will be the legendary record producer/re-mix genius TOM MOULTON. Tom's work ruled the dance floors around the world for many, many years and even now he continues to produce and re-mix important dance recordings...to continued acclaim. We will be chatting about his past, present and just what he is planning for the his future along with choosing his 12 "personal favorite/personal best" recordings that we will be playing and discussing...just for my DISCO JUICE Internet radio show!
A former Ford model, Moulton is credited with having invented the concept of the remix and the 12" single itself. (Merely seeing "A Tom Moulton Mix" on a record meant SOLD to me!) He got his start at Fire Island's legendary Sandpiper in the late 1960s where he used reel to reel tapes. Tomorrow's show runs 6pm-9pm EST. Below is LaRue's 1976 classic Cathedrals and Tom Moulton's 12" mix of Double Exposure's My Love Is Free from the same year.
Prom Denied: Constance McMillen Story Goes Nationwide
Mississippi teen Constance McMillen's story about the cancellation of her prom because she wants to bring a female date has gone national. Virtually every network (except Fox) has sympathetically covered the story and her Facebook support page now has over 66,000 members. This morning she appeared on the CBS Early Show with her ACLU lawyer. Fellow students are telling Constance, "You have ruined my senior year" and there is concern that the actions of her school board have put her in physical danger.
"Uganda's parliament is debating legislation that would make homosexuality punishable by life imprisonment, and more discriminatory legislation has been debated in Rwanda and Burundi. These are terrible backward steps for human rights in Africa. Our lesbian and gay brothers and sisters across Africa are living in fear.
"And they are living in hiding -- away from care, away from the protection the state should offer to every citizen and away from health care in the AIDS era, when all of us, especially Africans, need access to essential HIV services. That this pandering to intolerance is being done by politicians looking for scapegoats for their failures is not surprising. But it is a great wrong. An even larger offense is that it is being done in the name of God. Show me where Christ said "Love thy fellow man, except for the gay ones." Gay people, too, are made in my God's image. I would never worship a homophobic God." - Desmond Tutu, in an editorial published in today's Washington Post.
And what has Pope Palpatine said about Uganda? NOTHING.
Hiram "Slasher" Monserrate Booed At Public Debate With Jose Peralta
Audience members booed and symbolically "slashed" their faces with blood-red lipstick last night as former NY Sen. Hiram Monserrate debated Assemblyman Jose Peralta.
Monserrate, who's fighting to win back the state Senate seat he was booted from earlier this year, was booed as he introduced himself during the debate against Democratic Assemblyman Jose Peralta. Also participating in the debate was Robert Beltrani, a Republican parole judge. A school safety officer even had to quiet one outspoken person interrupting Monserrate, who's running as an independent on the 'Yes We Can' ticket, as he touted his legislative achievements. Then several others drew lipstick slash marks on their cheeks, a reference to Monserrate's misdemeanor conviction for cutting his girlfriend's face with a broken glass in December 2008. "I consider myself an advocate for the community," he declared at Intermediate School 145 in Jackson Heights, adding, "one incident does not negate 25 years of service."
The special election is this Tuesday. Visit Fight Back New York for information on how to help in rally voters in Queens and to donate to their campaign to defeat our state's anti-gay legislators.
Ugh. Another gay trend piece, this one from the New York Observer. Apparently, some people don't know when somebody is gay! And some gay guys deliberately dress butch! Fascinating!
In his own job as a bartender at Lavish Lounge, a gay bar in Queens, Tom Karl, 25, routinely gets mistaken as straight even though he could not be more entrenched in gay life. Known on the gay circuit as "Tommy Hottpants," he lives in Hell's Kitchen and throws a debauched weekly party at Beauty Bar on East 14th Street. His ex-boyfriend, the singer Rufus Wainwright, wrote the song "Between My Legs" for Mr. Karl during the latter's bout as a stripping go-go boy. "People talk about respecting who you are because who wouldn't," he said. "But how much do people really believe that? People have a hard time swallowing that life is less polarized than they think." He added: "That queeny stuff is old. People have been queens forever. So now I think you're seeing the drag go from feminine to masculine." Of course, even that can be its own kind of costume. There are not really that many slutty lifeguards or toned members of the Abercrombie & Fitch swim team roaming Chelsea, just as there aren't really that many sex-crazed schoolgirls or MILFs prowling the meatpacking district. The clinical name for the bromosexual shift is enantiodromia, a Jungian kind of law of physics: Too much of anything makes its opposite grow in popularity. Hippies become yuppies, private-school alpha brats become slacker trustafarians, housewives become cougars.
Masculine drag is something new? OK. The term "bromosexual," I guess, is some kind of frat boy neologism. Bro, you homo? Ew.
JMG reader Sean Chapin has launched a YouTube news channel called Homophobic Watch. His first report is about lesbian Mississippi high schooler Constance McMillen. Watch this.
Four gay couples legally married at Mexico City's Municipal Palace yesterday in the first such event in their nation's history. ¡Felicidades!
The mayor was there. So were the protesters. Judith Vazquez wore an ivory wedding dress. So did her bride. Vazquez and Lol Kin Castaneda on Thursday became the first gay couple to marry in Mexico under a new law that allows same-sex couples to wed and to adopt children. The law was passed by the Mexico City legislature in December and applies only to the capital. It is the most far-reaching gay-rights law in Latin America and one of several measures that have put the city and its leaders at odds with the more conservative country. "This is a historic day," presiding judge Hegel Cortes said shortly after pronouncing Vazquez and Castaneda "legitimately united in matrimony." Three other same-sex couples also tied the knot.
Mexico's federal government is challenging the law.
The Parents and Friends of "Ex-Gays" (PFOX) have lost their attempt to be included under Disney's employee protections rules. Via the American Family Association:
The Walt Disney Company has declined a motion to add former homosexuals to its sexual orientation and non-discrimination policy and diversity training, a measure that would have meant protections for those who have left that lifestyle. Greg Quinlan, director of Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays and Gays (PFOX), presented the resolution at the recent annual shareholders meeting in San Antonio. But he explains that Disney board chairman John E. Pepper "responded in saying that the current policies were very inclusive and were very broad and that they could not lift every possible nuance to come."
But, since the days of Michael Eisner as CEO, several so-called "nuances" have been added "where they included transsexuals, transvestites, as well as gay, lesbian and bisexual," Quinlan adds. "Transexual, transvestite is...still considered a mental health disorder," he notes. That is also in accordance with the diagnostic manual used by most mental health professionals. But those who have left the homosexual lifestyle are, in effect, placed in a closet, says Quinlan. "Well, they don't want to recognize anyone's right of self-determination -- and that was the point," the PFOX director notes.
Quinlan vows to try again at the next shareholders meeting.
Olympian Johnny Weir has not been asked to join the Star On Ice tour because organizers don't find him "family friendly."
GLAAD has learned from a source that wishes to remain anonymous that sponsors of the Stars on Ice Tour, which include Smuckers and IMG Entertainment, have refused to allow 3-time US National Champion and 2-time Olympian Johnny Weir to participate because they claim that he is “not family friendly.” To say that Weir is “not family friendly” would be a clear jab at his perceived sexual orientation. Weir is extremely involved with his family. He is putting his younger brother through college, and supports the family financially because his father’s disability prohibits him from working. Weir’s dedication to his family can be clearly documented in the Sundance series, Be Good Johnny Weir, which follows him and his family and friends through his life and career as a championship skater.
GLAAD's petition to Stars On Ice sponsors Smuckers and IMG is here.
Three of the gay men arrested during the police raid of the Atlanta Eagle have been found not guilty. The judge then threw out the charges against the other five defendants when detectives could not identify them.
Municipal Judge Crystal Gaines said city police failed to produce evidence proving that men danced naked without permits or that the bar operators were running an unlicensed adult establishment. The decision comes as defendants and others involved with the Ponce de Leon Avenue bar are countering with a lawsuit in federal court against the city and Atlanta police officers. "We always thought from the beginning that we were charged for no reason," bar co-owner Richard Ramey, who was not a defendant, said after the decision. "They had no right to be there," he said of the police. The case stems from a Sept. 10 raid. Late that night, a swarm of officers detained and searched about five dozen Eagle customers, making some lie handcuffed and face down on the club's floor. Some customers said they were not allowed to move for an hour and that they endured anti-gay slurs from the officers.
The Atlanta City Council has issued subpoenas to 18 police officers demanding their testimony about the raid. Only one officer has complied so far. The arrested customers and employees of the Eagle are suing the city and the police department, charging them with constitutional violations.
Georgia Man Jailed For Death Threats Against Elton John Over Jesus Comment
An Atlanta-area man has been jailed for making death threats against Elton John over his recent comment that Jesus Christ had been a gay man.
Neal Horsley was taken into custody Wednesday in Carrollton by members of the Atlanta police fugitive squad and U.S. Marshal's office, according to Carrollton police. Horsley was booked into the Fulton County Jail, charged with terroristic threats, criminal defamation and using the Internet to disseminate threats. During a hearing Thursday morning at the jail, Magistrate Judge James Altman set bond for Horsley at $40,000 on all three charges. As a condition of his bail, Horsley must remain at the home of his son, Nathanael Horsley of Gainesville, Altman said. In addition, there must be a land-line in the home. The younger Horsley is acting as his father's attorney. John, a part-time Atlantan, raised the ire of Horsley last month when he told an interviewer that he believed that Jesus was a homosexual. Horsley, 65, responded with an Internet diatribe on "Why Elton John Must Die."
Horsely is a well-known anti-abortion activist who has been previously charged with making death threats against doctors. He is also a registered 2010 candidate for governor of Georgia. Here's the clip which apparently resulted in his arrest, which is somehow still on YouTube. A few minutes in, Horsley is protesting outside of Elton's apartment building with the above sign.
UPDATE: A reader points out that Horsely has admitted to having had sex with a mule. He also says that he'd kill his own son if that meant Georgia could secede from the United States. Ooh pappa tooney.
The Facebook campaign for Betty White to host Saturday Night Live has been successful.
Joining the Golden Girl for the special Mother's Day episode are six former SNL players, most of whom are moms: Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Molly Shannon, Maya Rudolph, Ana Gasteyer and Rachel Dratch. At 88, White will be the show's oldest host ever, and the gig will also mark her first time as host — a debut that was a long time coming. SNL executive producer Lorne Michaels tells USA Today that he has "always wanted" the beloved comedienne to host, but White turned him down three times. "It's so New York, and I'm not New York at all," she says. "But my agent said he'd divorce me if I didn't do it, and I love my agent."
Openly Gay Balladeer Nhojj Tops MTV's Top 100 Video Chart
At #1 on today's MTV video chart (ahead of Justin Bieber, Kesha, and Taylor Swift) is openly gay Guyana-born/Trinidad-raised crooner Nhojj, with his same-sex ballad Love. That's pretty damn cool!
Madonna and her daughter are launching a line of children's clothing at Macy's.
Madonna and her 13 year-old daughter Lourdes are lending a little star power to Macy's. The two are designing a line called Material Girl that will appear exclusively at the retailer this back-to-school season. The line, described as a "fast-fashion, junior collection," will hit shelves in 200 Macy's locations and be available on the company's Web site in August. Material Girl is a joint venture between Madonna, Lourdes and the Iconix Brand Group's in-house fashion department. In addition to back-to-school apparel, the Material Girl line will include footwear, handbags and jewelry. In 2011, the plan is to expand into Material Girl-branded fragrances as well. The collection will retail for between $12 and $40.
ACLU Sues Mississippi School Board For Canceling Prom Over Lesbian Attendance
The ACLU has filed suit in federal court demanding that a Mississippi school board rescind their decision to cancel a high school prom rather than allow a lesbian student to attend with her female date.
The American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit today against a Mississippi High School that has canceled prom rather than let a lesbian high school student attend the prom with her girlfriend and wear a tuxedo to the event. In papers filed with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Mississippi, the ACLU asks the court to reinstate the prom for all students at the school and charges Itawamba County School District officials are violating Constance McMillen’s First Amendment right to freedom of expression.
“All I wanted was the same chance to enjoy my prom night like any other student. But my school would rather hurt all the students than treat everyone fairly,” said McMillen, an 18-year-old senior at Itawamba Agricultural High School in Fulton, Mississippi. “This isn’t just about me and my rights anymore – now I’m fighting for the right of all the students at my school to have our prom.” Today’s filing comes after Itawamba County School District issued a statement yesterday saying they were canceling prom, following a letter from the ACLU and the Mississippi Safe Schools Coalition demanding that they reverse their decision. McMillen said that before that happened, school officials had told her that she could not arrive at the prom with her girlfriend, also a student at IAHS, and that they might be thrown out if any other students complained about their presence at the April 2 event.
The ACLU is asking for a temporary injunction ordering the school to reinstate the prom, allow the girls to attend, and allow Constance McMillen to wear a tuxedo. Join the Constance McMillen Facebook support group.
UPDATE: You can make a tax-deductible donation to support Constance's ACLU LGBT Project team.
Saudi Arabia: 1000 Lashes And A Year In Jail For Gay YouTube Clip
A man in Saudi Arabia has been sentenced to 1000 lashes and a year in prison for appearing in an internet video in which he dresses as a policeman and appears to be making sexual advances to an unseen male detainee.
A 27-year-old Saudi man from Jeddah has been sentenced to 1,000 lashes, a year in jail and a fine of 5,000 riyals ($1,330) after appearing in an amateur gay video. The film, which lasts 2 minutes and 46 seconds, shows him dressed in a police uniform asking to inspect someone’s driving licence and then flirtatiously demanding “physical comfort” after saying the licence is expired. He later opens his shirt and rubs his chest, removes his cap flaunting his long hair and waves a gun suggestively. That’s as far as it goes. Arab News says: “The video quickly spread online and through SMS… Attempts have been made to block the video from being viewed in Saudi Arabia.” The man has not been officially named but he is named on the internet as Ahmad al-Faqih. He was arrested in January and reportedly tried in a closed court. He was charged with impersonating a police officer, committing a “general security” offence and being homosexual. The man who filmed the video was also arrested but his fate has not been reported.
Concerned Women Sign The Anti-Gay Manhattan Declaration
After a few weeks of relative quiet, the Manhattan Declaration, whose signers vow to disobey LGBT rights laws, is getting renewed attention. "We are following a long line of Christians who obey God over man."
Oklahoma Senate Votes To Exempt State From Federal Hate Crimes Law
Oklahoma state Sen. Steve Russell's bill to exempt his state from complying with the federal hate crimes law has passed overwhelmingly.
Under the new provisions of Senate Bill 1965, reports that were collected during investigations of possible hate crime that did not end in a conviction would be destroyed or kept by the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation. Russell said the bill is meant to prevent the federal law enforcement officials from taking over a case and applying different standards when local law enforcement has already investigated a case. Only a few senators questioned Russell about the contents of his proposed amendment. The measure passed 39-6 and now heads to the House for consideration. Russell said his bill is meant to protect speech of all kinds. "We just don’t want the pendulum to swing too far the other way,” he said. "This protects people to do or say whatever they want, as long as it complies with local ordinances.” Russell said hate crimes should be prosecuted by local officials and not the federal government.
Under Russell's bill, Oklahoma law enforcement can ignore or sweep under the carpet any hate-motivated murder or assault on LGBT persons. And the feds won't be able to step in because the case records will have been destroyed or withheld. His bill is yet another example of the Tenther campaign to refuse to abide by federal laws.
RELATED: Russell's opposition to the Matthew Shepard Act first came to our attention when he claimed that it would protect his state's corpse-fuckers from prosecution. Corpse-fucking, while frowned upon by many, has long been a favorite hobby for many of Oklahoma's home-schoolers.
SF LGBT Center Denies $1M Bailout Request From The City
The San Francisco LGBT Center has issued a statement denying yesterday's SF Chronicle story claiming that they'd requested a $1M mortgage bailout from the city. Via their PDF:
We do have $3.2 million in outstanding debt related to the construction of the building, which has been carried in a loan with First Republic Bank. After almost a year of very difficult bargaining, we have achieved a loan modification that financially benefits the Center. This includes a reduction our interest rate, which will save $200,000 over the next five years, and a modification of principle payments to help cash flow. The bank is requiring that we create a reserve account, with a balance of $157,500 – reserves which we do not have. The City have been involved in the discussions from the beginning and Supervisors Bevan Dufty and David Campos are sponsoring legislation to provide a loan from the City to the Center. This is a loan and not a grant. It is also $157,500 – not over $1 million as is reported in some sources.
Responding to the initial report, today SF Mayor Gavin Newsom said that numerous non-profits are in the same situation as the LGBT Center and a $1M bailout is out of the question with the city facing its own $522M budget shortfall.
Don't click on the comments if your tired buttocks haven't gotten around to Monday's episode. If you have, let's dish the elimination and the challenge winner.
Prop 8 Attorneys Ted Olson & David Boies Speak At The New York Times
Last night Perry Vs. Schwarzenegger lead attorneys Ted Olson and David Boies spoke before about 150 journalists at the New York Times headquarters in Manhattan in an event called "Unlikely Allies." In attendance among the print journalists were uber-blogger Andy Towle, activists Corey Johnson and Brendan Fay, former Clinton advisor David Mixner, and former GLAAD director Neil Giuliano.
Olson and Boies spoke eloquently and optimistically about the potential outcome for the case and fielded sharp questions from the audience about the possible ramifications should they lose, the campaign to put cameras in the courtroom, and the pitiful defense put on by Protect Marriage. The event was moderated by NYT Supreme Court reporter Adam Liptak, who opened with an impassioned statement of his paper's support for LGBT rights. Paul Schindler at Gay City News:
It is no exaggeration to conclude that Boies and Olson are confident about their chances before Judge Walker, from whom they expect a ruling no later than June. The next step, they predicted, would be “expedited review” by the Ninth Circuit, perhaps in an “en banc” hearing that includes all of its appellate judges.
Victory at the appellate level –– which would legalize marriage for same-sex couples either in California or possibly in all nine states in the Ninth Circuit –– would speed Supreme Court review, since that victory would certainly be stayed, the attorneys said, until the high court ruled.
Boies and Olson were cagiest on how broad they think a potential district court victory might be. The court could find –– in somewhat analogous fashion to a 1996 Supreme Court case in which an anti-gay Colorado amendment was thrown out –– that voters in California had acted to deny gay and lesbian couples the equal protection of the law, in this case guaranteed by the state rather than the federal Constitution.
Or, Walker could rule that Boies and Olson succeeded in doing what they say they will fight to the end to demonstrate –– that the fundamental right to marry and the equal protection of the laws of the United States are violated when same-sex couples are denied access to civil marriage.
That, of course, would be the ultimate game-changer. Olson, perhaps the nation’s preeminent Supreme Court litigator, and Boies are clearly banking on their ability to win that argument on the merits at the high court, whatever the conventional wisdom about the current justices’ biases.
When asked afterward whether his confidence at the district court level is about winning the general argument or more narrowly restoring the right to marry in California, Boies said he was uncertain, acknowledging that Walker might well reach a decision fashioned to survive review by the Ninth Circuit and the Supreme Court. Even at this first stage, then, politics are not absent from the judicial equation.
Read Paul Schindler's complete article. Below is my short slideshow from the evening, followed by Towleroad's Corey Johnson's pre-event interview with Olson and Boies. I came away even more impressed with the pair, if that's possible. And it struck me that if someone had told me ten years ago that one day I'd be gushingly shaking the hand of the lead attorney in Bush Vs. Gore, I'd have told him that he was full of the crazy. Ted Olson left us with his prediction that Prop 8 would be before the Supreme Court by October 2011. It's almost unimaginable that in just 18 months, this decades-long battle could be over.
Iowa Pol Seeks To Exclude Married Gays From Domestic Abuse Bill
Yesterday Iowa state Rep. Chris Hagenow attempted to exclude married gay couples from protection under a domestic abuse law.
Senate File 2357 brings federal laws concerning protective orders and conviction of domestic violence with relation to possession of guns into Iowa’s law. Rep. Chris Hagenow, R-Windsor Heights, offered an amendment that would define the term spouse to be a person of marriage that is valid under Iowa law that says marriage is between one man and one woman. The Iowa Supreme Court, last year, ruled the law was unconstitutional, which Rep. Rick Olson, D-Des Moines, pointed out on the House floor. Ultimately the proposal was deemed not germane to the bill. Hagenow’s call to suspend the rules to move forward anyway failed, largely along a party vote.
LGBT rights group OneIowa blasted Hagenow's action as "shameful" and has launched an email campaign to him demanding that he cease his attacks on Iowa's LGBT community.
Overwhelming Internet Polling Reveals: You Can't Pray The Gay Away
Over 90% of the readers of the American Family Association's news site OneNewsNow agree that it is impossible to pray the gay away. At least, that is how the Christianists would spin it, had the result gone the other way. Thanks to everybody who played along in yesterday's freeping, we sent the AFA a little message about the uselessness of internet polls, which they so love to trumpet against us in their press releases. There were only about 1000 votes recorded when we started the freep and late in the afternoon a few Christian sites picked up on our game and linked back here, sending several thousand more votes to their side. But thanks to a LOT of Twitter and Facebook support from you folks, we made our point.
ABC Nightline Covers Uganda's "Kill Gays" Bill And Pastor Martin Ssempa
Last night Nightline delivered an excellent report on the situation in Uganda, interviewing the genocidal Pastor Martin Ssempa and his American evangelical accomplice Scott Lively. Watch this.
Mississippi School Cancels Prom Over Lesbian Student's Date Request
All Constance McMillen wanted was to bring her girlfriend to her high school prom, but a Mississippi school board has canceled the event entirely rather than allow lesbians to attend.
"Due to the distractions to the educational process caused by recent events, the Itawamba County School District has decided to not host a prom at Itawamba Agricultural High School this year," school board members said in a statement. Constance McMillen, an 18-year-old senior at Itawamba, recently challenged a school policy prohibiting her from bringing her girlfriend as her date to the April 2 prom. McMillen, who is a lesbian, and the Mississippi chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union urged school officials to reverse the policy both on McMillen's choice of date and attire. She also wanted to wear a tuxedo to the dance.
ACLU attorney Christine Sun said her organization receives requests for help every year from students facing anti-gay prom policies. The complaints are especially prevalent in the South where attitudes toward sexuality are more conservative, she said. In the announcement, the school board encouraged the community to organize a private prom. "It is our hope that private citizens will organize an event for the juniors and seniors. "We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this causes anyone," the statement concluded. School officials did not respond to calls seeking comment.
Constance McMillen: "Oh, my God. That's really messed up because the message they are sending is that if they have to let gay people go to prom that they are not going to have one. A bunch of kids at school are really going to hate me for this." The school board is encouraging the community to organize a "private prom" that can legally bar McMillen from attending. The ACLU of Mississippi has sent the school board a letter demanding they reverse the decision or face a lawsuit.
VA Gov. Bob McDonnell: I'm Not Making It Illegal, But You Shouldn't Discriminate
After weeks of criticism over his explicit exclusion of LGBT people from an executive order banning discrimination against some groups, today Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell issued a statement ordering state agencies not to discriminate against gays. The statement has no force of law and is effectively useless to any homosexual fired for being gay.
In a strongly worded edict, Gov. Bob McDonnell today instructed state agencies not to discriminate against gay and lesbian workers during the hiring process or in the workplace. His directive comes in the wake of a recent firestorm ignited after Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli wrote to Virginia college and university officials telling them they lack the legal authority to adopt employment policies with protection for gay workers. While McDonnell's missive takes a strong stand on Virginia's non-discrimination posture, it doesn't carry the weight of law, as an executive order does.
His Democratic predecessors, former Govs. Mark Warner and Timothy M. Kaine, both included sexual orientation as a protected category in their anti-discrimination executive orders. McDonnell has said it is up to the General Assembly to change state law; he and then- Gov. Kaine clashed over that point in 2006 when McDonnell was the new attorney general. Efforts to add sexual orientation protections to state law have been rejected by the Republican-controlled House this year. McDonnell's directive is a firm reiteration of what the governor previously has said: He does not support workplace discrimination and hires people based on merit. Per the directive, that policy now is extended to all wings of Virginia government. "I hereby direct that the hiring, promotion, compensation, treatment, discipline and termination of state employees shall be based on an individual's job qualifications, merit and performance," the McDonnell directive reads. "No employee of the Executive branch shall engage in any discriminatory conduct against another employee."
Eric Massa, the gift that keeps on giving. According to shipmates from his days in the Navy, Massa had a well-known habit of hitting on his fellow sailors, information that was supplied to the Congressional ethics committee. Massa resigned the next day.
According to Peter Clarke, a Navy shipmate, Massa was notorious for making unwanted advances toward subordinates. He tells the story of his friend Stuart Borsch, with whom Massa shared a hotel room while on leave during the first Gulf War. "Stuart's at the edge of the bed," Clarke says Borsch told him at the time, "and [Massa] starts massaging him. Massa said, 'You'll have to get one of my special massages.' He called them 'Massa Massages.'" Ron Moss, a Navy shipmate and Borsch's roommate, confirmed that Borsch told him this story at the time. Borsch, now a history professor at Assumption College in Worcester, Massachusetts, didn't addresss that specific incident, but did confirm to me in an email that he was groped by Massa: "In 1990, aboard the U.S.S. Jouett, I was awakened when a senior officer, Lt. Commander Massa, seemed to be groping me. (I was a lieutenant at the time.) I believe he may have been drinking. I shouted at him and he left. I mentioned the incident to several other officers. I did not officially report it."
Clarke says that Massa's roommate, Tom Maxfield was also assaulted. "Tom lived on upper bunk," Clarke say. "When you're on ship, you're almost exhausted 24-7. So a lot of times you sleep with your uniform on. Tom and Massa shared a stateroom together. Massa climbed up on the top of his bunk, which is hard to do--you never crawl up on somebody else's bunk. He wakes up to Massa undoing his pants trying to snorkel him." Ron Moss also confirmed hearing this story from Maxfield. Maxfield did return calls and messages left for him--I'll update if he does.
I give it five minutes until the wingnuts use Eric Massa as the prime example of why DADT should not be repealed. Even though DADT certainly didn't stop Eric Massa, a purported STRAIGHT man who wouldn't be affected by the policy.
Here's ten minutes of last night's hilarious battle between Glenn Beck and Eric Massa. Beck closed the hour-long show by apologizing to the viewers for wasting their time.
The dolls are part of a premium-price collectors’ series for adults that Mattel calls the Barbie Fashion Model Collection. Although there have been Barbies and Kens based on other TV series, among them “I Love Lucy” and “The X-Files,” the dolls will be the first licensed line for that collection, Mattel says, with a suggested retail price of $74.95 each. Mattel is licensing rights to the characters from Lionsgate, the studio that produces “Mad Men” for the AMC cable channel. There will be 7,000 to 10,000 copies of each doll, to be sold in specialty stores and on two Web sites, amctv.com and barbiecollector.com. The characters to become dolls are Don Draper, the show’s leading man; his wife, Betty; his colleague at the Sterling Cooper agency, Roger Sterling; and Joan Holloway, the agency’s office manager who was Roger’s mistress.
Cynthia Nixon for Fight Back New York. "We've tried the carrot. Now it's time for the stick. It's time to fight back." Fight Back New York is a new PAC created expressly to defeat anti-gay candidates for the New York Senate. Hit the link. Donate. We've got an uphill battle to get Assemblyman Jose Peralta into Slasher Monserrate's old seat next week.
The Man Behind Hiram Monserrate's Anti-Gay Campaign
Village Voice writer Steven Thrasher has interviewed Rev. Ricardo Reyes, former NY Sen. Hiram Monserrate's "spiritual advisor." Reyes is the man presumably behind Monserrate's new tactic of making his return to the Senate a defacto marriage equality referendum. The interview takes an interesting turn when Reyes pulls in Jorge, a supposedly gay employee to speak. It turns out, people become gay in order to make money.
JORGE: When a person is gay, the only way he can be changed is through Jesus. Because, the people who are gay, are not happy. It is an instrument for them to gain money.
To gain money?
REYES: Yes. Because, when you have a partner, or relationship, everything is for one objective. They live a life that is a lie, but when they are alone, they are truly not happy.
But do you think you can be gay, and Christian -- and happy? And still be gay?
JORGE: I am either a homosexual, or a Christian.
Which are you?
JORGE: I am Christian. I love Jesus, because Jesus changed my life.
And you're no longer gay?
JORGE: No more.
REYES: I work plenty with a lot of gays like that. When they discover they don't have to keep being gay, they choose life, and they're happy. They have Christ's life.
I'm trying to figure out where we should stand on former WWE president Linda McMahon and her run for Chris Dodd's Senate seat. The issues section of McMahon's campaign site makes no mention of LGBT rights or same-sex marriage and a Google search on her name and those issues yields little. Dodd is retiring at the end of his current term and McMahon faces a stiff GOP primary opponent in former U.S. Rep. Rob Simmons. Let us know what you think. McMahon has a show business background, that might mean something.
San Francisco's LGBT Center is asking the city for a $1M "mortage relief" bailout so that it doesn't go under.
Eight years after opening with great fanfare, San Francisco's city-subsidized, $12.3 million Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Community Center is on the verge of foreclosure - and is asking the cash-strapped city for a $1 million line of credit to help bail it out. And from the looks of things, the center will probably get it. The thinking: The city has already spent about $5.7 million on the building at Market and Octavia streets and needs to "make sure it doesn't go under," said Supervisor David Campos, who along with fellow gay Supervisor Bevan Dufty is seeking approval of a $1 million "mortgage relief" fund. Even that, however, might not be enough to save the center. According to a new report by the Board of Supervisors budget analyst, the center could need even more public funds to cover the nearly $3 million that it still owes on its mortgage. "Clearly, it's unprecedented," Campos said of the bailout proposal. "But I do believe there is something unique about the role the LGBT Center plays - not only in the life of the community, but the entire city."
Like many non-profits, the SF LGBT Center has seen a dramatic decline in donations from foundations and individuals.
"Let’s be clear that William & Mary neither discriminates against people nor tolerates discrimination on our campus. Those of us at W&M insist that members of our campus community be people of integrity who have both the capacity to meet their responsibilities to the university and the willingness to engage others with civility and respect.
"We do not insist, however, that members of our community possess any other particular characteristics, whether denominated in race, religion, nationality, sex, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other of the myriad personal characteristics that differentiate human beings. We certainly do not discriminate against people on such grounds, or tolerate discrimination against them. This is the way we live our lives together at William & Mary, because we believe this is the way we should live our lives together. This is not going to change." - William & Mary president Taylor Reveley, stating his disobedience to Virginia AG Ken Cuchinelli's edict that state schools should not protect LGBT employees from job discrimination.
