Tired Old Queen At The Movies #64
1936's San Francisco starring Clark Gable, Jeanette MacDonald and Spencer Tracy.
Labels: movies, Steve Hayes, Tired Old Queen At The Movies
1936's San Francisco starring Clark Gable, Jeanette MacDonald and Spencer Tracy.
Labels: movies, Steve Hayes, Tired Old Queen At The Movies
Catholics and Freepers have launched a petition against this entry in a contest in which the winning ad will be aired during the Super Bowl. Currently, this clip leads in the voting. Wait until Bill Donohue sees it!
Labels: advertising, football, Jeebus, Pepsi
Whoa, even Fox News is mocking Porno Pete!
Labels: AFTAH, Concerned Women Of America, CPAC, Fox News, GOProud, infighting is funny, Peter LaBarbera
But he says can't congratulate Sen. Murkowski because he doesn't have her phone number.
Labels: 2010 elections, Alaska, Joe Miller, teabagggers
Well, it was quite eventful year for this here website thingy. We saw over 15 million hits on just under 8000 posts where all you crazy kids left about one million comments. As a friend of mine likes to say, blogging is like a homework assignment that's never done but always due. But somehow after almost seven years of JMG, I'm having even more fun than ever, thanks largely to hugely participative nature of what we do here and all of your emails, tips, and hard work.
Labels: 2010, gratitude, JMG, JMG community, NYE
As his final day in office winds to a close for Governor David Paterson, LGBT New Yorkers should offer him our thanks for being the most relentlessly and loudly pro-gay governor in state and arguably, national history. Our state movement's two most important pieces of legislation, GENDA and marriage equality, remain unattained, but that, of course, is due to our clown car of a state Senate and is no fault of the governor's.
Labels: David Paterson, GENDA, gratitude, heroes, Kirsten Gillibrand, LGBT rights, marriage equality, New York state
I knew I'd leave something major out of yesterday's year-end top ten list. Argh! This definitely should have been in my top five. Play LOUD.
Labels: 2010, dance music, pop music
"Successful governance is about getting 60 votes for things that move the ball forward. The people who tend to control the 55th through 60th votes on any given issue are not like you and me. They are driven by a baffling combination of raging egomania and crippling terror. They want to be treated like statesmen even as their decisions are based on a paralyzing fear of contested elections, primary challenges, Fox News and party pressure. They have few opinions on what good policy looks like, what opinions they do have on the subject change frequently, and they're not willing to risk very much on them anyway. Taking a pound of flesh from these people -- or even their allies -- would mean never getting their votes. Want to see what we mean? Look at Don't Ask, Don't Tell. In the end, it got done because Murkowski, Brown and Collins let it get done. Alienating them would've been satisfying, but unwise." - Washington Post columnist Ezra Klein, saying that Obama's bipartisan approach to DADT was the right one, even if liberals found it frustrating.
Labels: Barack Obama, DADT, GOP, LGBT rights
GOP lawmakers in Wyoming plan to introduce legislation banning the recognition of same-sex marriages from other states. Such a move failed in 2009, but the plan is to put the issue to voters.
State law defines marriage as a legal union between a man and woman, but Wyoming also recognizes marriages performed in other states. Rep. Owen Petersen of Mountain View says that raises questions about what happens when gay couples from other states move to Wyoming. Petersen and Sen. Curt Meier of LaGrange say they plan to co-sponsor a resolution that would let voters decide whether to amend the state constitution to clarify.
Labels: bigotry, LGBT rights, marriage equality, Wyoming
Under their proposed legislation, Congress would permanently adjourn on the day after election day.
Labels: Congress, dumbassery, GOP
Nearly a billion more people in just ten years and almost twice as many endangered species. Embiggen for a better look.
Labels: 2010, environment, population control, technology
JMG should be in there for some of you, I bet. Also, do the kids today even know about the Bermuda Triangle?
Labels: employment, Facebook, Gmail, Twitter
Even though he holds a slim chance of reelection, NOM included current RNC chair Michael Steele in their vettings of all the candidates for the position he now occupies. Steele says that should the courts ultimately strike down Prop 8, he'd support a renewed push for the Federal Marriage Amendment. Transcript by Towleroad:
Without hesitation or doubt. In fact we would partner with our leadership in the House and our governors and leadership in the state legislatures to create a very very strong front line if you will, on that issue. I can't again stress how important that is for how we will lead as a people, and how we will see ourselves as a nation. And again, that is not to the exclusion of anyone, it's not anti- anyone, or any group. It's just so fundamental and foundational, I think it needs to be protected."
Labels: bigotry, marriage equality, Michael Steele, NOM, religion, RNC
- Spider-Man lead Natalie Mendoza is permanently leaving the accident-plagued show, citing continuing dizziness from a concussion suffered during the first preview. In other incidents, one actor broke both his wrists, another broke both his ankles. Mendoza's replacement has not been announced. The show continues in previews towards a February 7th official opening.
Labels: Broadway, Broadway Friday, Spider-Man
"The politically correct attitude not only insists that heterosexual and homosexual relationships are equivalent, but also erases differences between relationships between two women and relationships between two men. If men and women are profoundly different-and both science and common sense tell us they are- then an all-female couple is even more different from an all-male couple than either homosexual bond differs from a heterosexual union.
Labels: dumbassery, liars, mental illness, religion
Porno Pete wants to remind you that you only have one day left to donate to his tax-exempt and therefore government-sponsored anti-gay hate organization.
Labels: AFTAH, bigotry, closet cases, douchenozzles, hate groups, Peter LaBarbera, religion, tax law
The second attempt to get Apple to accept a retweaked version of the anti-gay Manhattan Declaration iPhone app has failed. And the Christianists are so not happy.
"Inasmuch as the Manhattan Declaration simply reaffirms the moral teachings of our Christian faith on the sanctity of human life, marriage and sexual morality, and religious freedom and the rights of conscience, Apple's statement amounts to the charge that our faith is 'potentially harmful to others,'" a statement at ManhattanDeclaration.org reads. "It is difficult to see how this is anything other than a statement of animus by a major American corporation against the beliefs of millions of Protestant, Catholic and Orthodox citizens. The statement adds, "It is our sincere hope that Apple will draw back from this divisive and deeply offensive position. The corporation's leaders must be made to understand that they do the country no good service in capitulating to efforts to stigmatize, marginalize or defame people on one side or the other in important moral debates."The Manhattan Declaration asks its signees to vow to civilly disobey any law that grants LGBT rights. Its authors say they will make a third run at Apple in the new year. Oh, and they'll need you to send them LOTS OF MONEY for that.
Labels: Apple, bigotry, douchenozzles, iPhone, LGBT rights, Manhattan Declaration, religion
Yesterday the below Russian-language clip appeared on YouTube directing Christian youth to send off for anti-gay stickers to be plastered anywhere it may be legal to do so. The linked site was registered in Ukraine in 2009 and doesn't appear to have been recently updated, but includes numerous testimonials that reference Exodus International's "ex-gay" conventions. Since we haven't heard about this sticker campaign before, it seems that Exodus may have abandoned this effort in the United States. Anybody have more information?
Labels: "ex-gay", bigotry, Exodus International, Focus On The Family, religion, still totally gay
Yesterday the BBC ended a story about the birth of Elton John's son with an "opposing view" from the head of a Christianist hate group that has endorsed Uganda's plan to execute homosexuals. Today Pink News reports that even in face of widespread condemnation, the BBC sees nothing wrong with their action. Here's their terse statement.
The practice of surrogacy is a sensitive subject and remains controversial in some quarters. Our short news bulletin featured Elton John talking about wanting to have a child and an opposing viewpoint. All sides of the debate on surrogacy have been widely reported in the news media and our coverage has reflected this.Pink News isn't having it.
The decision to include an interview with Stephen Green was hurtful not just to the millions of LGBT license fee payers but also to millions of Christians who do not hold or subscribe to the extremist views of Christian Voice. Most Christians would not support the abhorrent views of Mr Green and his small band of supporters who simply smear the name of the Christian faith. As many on Twitter, Facebook and PinkNews.co.uk comment pages have pointed out, the BBC’s logic would suggest that a racist be asked to comment on a mixed race couple having a surrogate child in order to reflect ‘debate’ in the country. Indeed the membership of Christian Voice is considerably smaller than that of many ‘racist’ organisations.Here's how to complain to the BBC.
Labels: BBC, Elton John, hate groups, journalism
A website has sprung up with instructions for Democrats on how to vote for Sarah Palin in states that will hold open primaries in 2012. From the site's FAQ page:
Our purpose is to have Democrats and Independents help to nominate Sarah Palin as the Republican candidate for president in state primaries. In numerous head-to-head polls, Palin is the only likely Republican candidate who would soundly lose to Obama in the general election. All other likely Republican candidates either beat Obama or are statistically tied with Obama. If Palin is nominated, Obama’s chances for reelection are greatly improved.I gotta say, I love it.
Labels: 2012 elections, Democrats, Sarah Palin
Bobby Farrell, the male member of Germany's legendary 70's disco act Boney M, has died in Russia at the age of 61. While most of Boney M's many hits were led by its female chorus, it was Farrell's flamboyant dancing and stage antics that drew the most attention. Years after the band's peak, it was revealed that Farrell had contributed little vocally to the group's recordings and was lip-syncing producer Frank Farian's vocals in the act's videos, although he did sing live in concert. (You may recall Farian as the creator of Milli Vanilli, which suffered a similar scandal.) Boney M remains one of the greatest selling acts in the history of the world, with their 140 million albums topping even Fleetwood Mac, the Bee Gees, and the Eagles. Not even the Beatles have two singles in Britain's all-time top ten, as does Boney M.
Labels: dance music, disco, obituary
"Recent headlines that heralded taking medication as a means of preventing transmission of HIV among gay men were applauded by many AIDS experts. The news came in a study of nearly 2,500 men in six countries that found that an average man taking the medication was 44 percent less likely to become infected than a control group taking a placebo.
Labels: AHF, HIV/AIDS, PrEP, science
From an editorial in today's Los Angeles Times:
We can't peer into President Obama's soul, but his statement last week that he is "struggling" with whether to endorse same-sex marriage is open to an unedifying interpretation. Given the president's support of gay rights in other contexts, his opposition to marriage equality raises the question of whether the struggle Obama referred to is between politics and principle. If so, we hope principle will prevail. [snip] When he ran for the presidency in 2008, it was the conventional wisdom that supporting gay marriage would be politically fatal. With shifts in public attitudes, that probably will not be the case in 2012. According to the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, 42% of adults now favor same-sex marriage, compared to 37% in 2009. The trend seems clear. We'd prefer to think that such considerations wouldn't be uppermost in Obama's mind. What should determine his position is logic and the fact that same-sex couples across America, not just those in his circle, yearn for recognition of their relationships. Enough agonizing, Mr. President. Support marriage equality.
Labels: Barack Obama, Los Angeles Times, marriage equality
"I can’t help feeling that his decision to become a father is another grotesque act of selfishness from Sir Elton, and that the child is a little Christmas bauble he and his partner have awarded themselves. How telling it is that he was born on Christmas Day. [snip] He [Sir Elton] is also an aging, pampered, self-indulgent millionaire — look at the absurd names he and Furnish have given the poor child, for heaven’s sake! And it is the nagging suspicion that Elton — a man who is by nature an obsessive — has simply acquired a son to satisfy his latest fixation that I find repellent." - Andrew Pierce, editor of the UK's Daily Mail, who was adopted from a Catholic orphanage at the age of two.
Labels: Elton John, gay adoption, gay parenting, HomoQuotable, UK
Character actor R. Lee Ermey, currently starring in that loathsome "Namby-Pamby Land" commercial from Geico, appeared before thousands of Marines at a Toys For Tots event to call on them to "rise up" against the president's plan to "impose socialism" on the country. Ermey's one-note career first came to notice in 1987's Full Metal Jacket when his abusive drill sergeant character pushed a Marine recruit into suicide.
Labels: advertising, assholery, Barack Obama, USMC
What were your favorite pop singles for 2010? I think it was actually a pretty good year for pop music as the charts returned to being dominated by catchy pop/dance numbers, the scourge of auto-tune notwithstanding.
Labels: 2010, Adele, dance music, Goldfrapp, Kylie Minogue, pop music, Scissor Sisters
"GOProud describes marriage equality as a 'states rights issue' which is what interracial marriage once was. GOProud isn't a pro-gay rights organization, they are an organization of gay Quislings and useful idiots that help to window-dress the Republican Party, which is really still rabidly anti-gay to its core." - Dan Savage, speaking on Countdown tonight. Savage goes on to slam Peter LaBarbera, who was instantly on Twitter to respond.
Labels: AFTAH, CPAC, DADT, Dan Savage, Family Reseach Council, GOP, GOProud, kapos, Peter LaBarbera, Quislings
Florida police have captured a man driving the stolen vehicle of the Wilton Manors gay couple they suspect he murdered on Christmas weekend.
Peter Serge Avsenew, 26, was captured near Dundee, Fl., miles away from where police said he murdered Kevin Mark Powell and Stephen Adams on Sunday. The couple was found dead in their home by police. Avsenew, who is from Hollywood, was spotted by cops in Powell's black 2003 Saturn Vue.Police have not yet revealed how the victims died and have not speculated publicly on what relationship the suspect may have had with them. The victims had been together for 29 years.
According to Avsenew's Facebook page, he has a newborn son. Below a recent posting of the boy's photo, a woman with the same last name (probably the suspect's mother) warns: "Peter, Look at these pictures does this baby deserve anything but the best? then think before you do anything stupid."Across the state, Avsenew has been taken into custody more than a dozen times since 2003, state records show. He has been convicted of vehicle theft, robbery, grand theft and engaging in fraud through bounced checks. He also has pleaded no contest to marijuana possession, loitering, possession of drug paraphernalia, criminal mischief and resisting an officer without violence. Avsenew also relies on about eight different aliases, including the name Peter Avsenen, according to the state Department of Corrections.
Labels: Florida, Fort Lauderdale, murder, Wilton Manors
Convicted domestic abuser and pop star Chris Brown took to Twitter today for some gay-baiting of a rival rapper, who is responding in kind. Brown follows up with: "I'm not homophobic! He's just disrespectful!!!" Ho hum, nothing to see her, really, although you can bet this exchange makes TMZ etc. We sure didn't expect to see #homothug as a trending topic.
Labels: dumbassery, rap music, Rihanna, tweet of the day, Twitter
In the midst of a campaign to see him nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize, Belgium's revered Father Francois Houtart has confessed to child molestation.
The confession was published in a Belgian newspaper Wednesday and confirmed by the organization the priest founded, deepening a sex-abuse scandal that has rocked the Catholic Church in the country. After a spate of accusations this year, the church in September published the harrowing accounts of more than 100 victims of clerical sex abuse, some as young as 2 when they were assaulted. In October, after supporters of 85-year-old Francois Houtart began working to nominate him for the Nobel, a woman contacted the nonprofit organization he founded and said the priest had abused her brother 40 years ago, according to its director, Bernard Duterme.The committee to nominate Houtart for his anti-globalization work has disbanded.
Labels: Belgium, Catholic Church, child abuse, molestation, Nobel, religion, scandal
It's time for our year-end E-Z JMG reminder for your lazy-ass convenience. You can subscribe to JMG via any RSS reader (my feed link is also in the left sidebar) and all posts will appear in full in your reader. (I recommend Google Reader for its simplicity.) New posts are also automatically pinged to my Twitter feed (click "follow") and I'll often post breaking stories to my Facebook fan page. And if you're one of them there iPhone people, you can create a JMG icon for one-touch access to the blog. You can probably do the same for the Android, I assume. Sit down, stay a spell. Nice folks are to the left and right of you. OK, maybe not to the right.
Labels: blogging, JMG, JMG community
Minnesota Vikings quarterback Brett Favre has been fined $50,000 by the NFL for sending his cock shot to a female employee of the New York Jets, for whom Favre played at the time. Favre had faced a suspension by the league, a slight punishment considering he is expected to retire after this weekend. The fine is less than 1% of Favre's 2010 salary, but on a per-inch basis (NSFW), the fine, at least, is a whopper.
Labels: football, NFL, silliness, sports
At the Kennedy Center Honors, the newly-slim Jennifer Hudson paid tribute to honoree Oprah Winfrey with I'm Here from the Oprah-produced The Color Purple. Hudson was joined by the choir from Oprah's alma mater, Tennessee State.
Labels: Broadway, Jennifer Hudson, Oprah Winfrey
"[T]he majority of gay men and lesbians want nothing more than to raise families behind picket fences. There are other signs of increasing conformity in the gay world. Leather is seen by most younger men as more silly than hot. While they may exercise, younger men mostly don’t strive for Adonis physiques. It goes on. (Lesbians are way ahead of the curve on this. They’ve been mating and nesting for years.)
Labels: DADT, Edge, HomoQuotable, LGBT culture
Gothamist calls the above "the world's most confusing map." (Massive version here.) According to the authors, sub-dialects of the eight major regional dialects exist in many places like Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, the Outer Banks, and perhaps most curiously, the Hamptons.
Labels: accents, language, maps
Gawker's Brian Moylan weighs in on the latest headline from the New York Post, which is rightfully famed for its witty headlines. Usually.
It is just a cheap, dull, and unoriginal joke, that it's below the NY Post, which prides itself on having some of the cleverest headlines in the business. Oh, and it's doubly offensive to gay men, not only because it says that anyone who would want to enter into a relationship with another man is womanly, but also because it also pokes fun at the fact that we can't even get married if we want to. Then it reappropriates the word "proud," which gay men associate with Gay Pride and celebrating our liberation. Sorry, Post, but only gays get to make fun of Pride—and god knows we do.And as we pointed out to Us Magazine only yesterday, Elton and his partner are not married, so the "wife" slam doesn't work on any level at all.
Labels: Elton John, homophobia, journalism, NY Post, NYC
Pink News reports that as part of the BBC's story on the birth of Elton John's son, the network took an "opposing view" from a Christianist who has publicly endorsed Uganda's plan to execute homosexuals.
With the introduction “not everyone is pleased to see such a high profile same sex couple start to raise a surrogate child”, Mr Mzimba proceeded to interview Stephen Green, of right-wing group Christian Voice, without any warning that he is someone who has in the past supported the death penalty for gay men. In an interview that was visibly edited together, Mr Green told the BBC: “This isn’t just a designer baby for Sir Elton John, this is a designer accessory… [cut] Now it seems like money can buy him anything, and so he has entered into this peculiar arrangement…[cut] The baby is a product of it. A baby needs a mother and it seems an act of pure selfishness to deprive a baby of a mother.”Amazingly, the BBC even managed to overlook Green's lawsuit against them for their airing of Jerry Springer: The Opera, which Green said was blasphemous for implying that Jesus was gay.
RELATED: Last year the BBC earned international scorn for publishing a web survey that asked "Should Gays Be Executed?" The poll was yanked within hours and was followed with an "oopsie" apology from the network's ombudsman.Given that little more than a year ago, the BBC Trust ruled that the BBC “reinforced homophobic stereotypes”, the broadcast yesterday is all the more shocking. The BBC needs to seriously reconsider not just who it interviews for stories relating to homosexuality but also reconsider its whole approach to how it covers the lives of millions of LGBT people, who themselves have no choice but to pay the television license fee.
Labels: BBC, Christianists, Elton John, hate speech, journalism, UK
Pop In Stereo directs us to the new single from Claudia Brücken, which is "co-written with and produced by Stephen Hague (New Order, Blur, Pet Shop Boys)." The single is from the forthcoming career retrospective Combined, which is due on February 7th and includes three Propaganda tracks. (But not the classic version of P-Machinery, for some reason.)
Labels: dance music, Germany, pop music
"Purge is not a bad word. It simply means, according to the dictionary definition, 'to rid of whatever is impure or undesirable; cleanse; purify.' Conservatives need to purge from their movement anything that is not conservative. They shouldn't be attempting to broaden the definition of 'conservative.' They shouldn't be trying to build a bigger tent in the failed model of the Republican Party. They shouldn't be revising or lowering their standards. And they absolutely shouldn't be embracing enemies of the moral values that have defined the movement from the beginning.
Labels: GOProud, Joseph Farah, religion, Tea Party, teabaggers, World Net Daily
The Brussel Sprouts Whopper, now on sale at Burger King in the UK. Surprisingly, it's not going over too well.
Labels: Burger King, fast food, gross, UK
Good As You tips us to the latest musical entry from one of God's Gentle People™ who uses images from Porno Pete's site to illustrate his tune about "Filthy Faggots" who are all going to die from bleeding rectums. Or something. (Hey, yours truly is Filthy Faggot #1! Whee!) Wanna bet Porno Pete doesn't disavow this usage of his material?
Labels: AFTAH, bigotry, hate speech, Peter LaBarbera, religion
On Sunday's edition of This Week In Holy Crimes, we learned about the Dallas pastor caught breaking into a congregant's home to steal her fur coats. The interwebs has been having a field day about it and that will only ramp up with Pastor Sandy McGriff's explanation that she was only taking the coats so that the other burglars she saw wouldn't get them.
Labels: Dallas, dumbassery, liars, religion, Texas
Palm Springs Police Chief David Dominquez has apologized for an anti-gay slur made during a sting in which gay men were arrested for public sex. Dominquez reportedly told cops on the scene: "What a bunch of filthy motherfuckers. You guys should get paid extra for this."
The comment “did not display the utmost professional conduct expected from the Chief of Police and I sincerely apologize to the community at large,” Dominguez said in a statement. It’s the first time Dominguez has admitted to making expletives during the lewd-conduct sting, which has sparked controversy across the valley over how it was carried out, the severe charges those arrested face, and the gay slurs police made during surveillance. The comment “did not display the utmost professional conduct expected from the Chief of Police and I sincerely apologize to the community at large,” Dominguez said in a statement.The 19 men arrested face charges that may require them to register as sex offenders for the rest of their lives.
It’s the first time Dominguez has admitted to making expletives during the lewd-conduct sting, which has sparked controversy across the valley over how it was carried out, the severe charges those arrested face, and the gay slurs police made during surveillance. Dominguez previously declined to comment on the complaint. His apology came about an hour after City Manager David Ready released a memo to the Palm Springs City Council, outlining Ready's conclusions – and regrets – about how the controversial sting to curb public gay sex in the area played out. “Portions of the operation were not conducted according to the professional standards that are expected of our Police Department,” Ready stated. “As a result, appropriate disciplinary and correction action has already been taken.”
Labels: California, hate speech, Palm Springs, sex stings
The Log Cabin Republicans have announced a new campaign to create the "gay GOP leaders of tomorrow." Via press release:
Log Cabin Republicans of New York today announced the Starting at 1 initiative: beginning on January 1, 2011 (1/1/11) and continuing throughout the coming year, Log Cabin Republicans of New York members will regularly receive information designed to inspire a more involved, engaged and knowledgeable gay Republican electorate.
“Right now we have a politically savvy membership, and it’s time to take things to the next level,” Log Cabin Republicans of New York State Chairman Gregory T. Angelo stated. “Starting at 1 is designed to take the enthusiasm we’ve seen from our members for everything from joining their local Community Board to becoming more involved in the Republican County Committee and even running for office. With the momentum from the 2010 Midterm Elections driving us forward and the mounting excitement for the 2012 Presidential Election ahead, 2011 is the perfect time to begin building the gay GOP leaders of tomorrow, and Starting at 1 seeks to give individuals the tools to do just that.”
Labels: homocons, Log Cabin Republicans, politics
Here's DJ Earworm's hotly awaited annual mash-up of the year's biggest pop singles.
Labels: 2010, DJ Earworm, Katy Perry, Kesha, Lady Gaga, pop music, Rihanna
"I don't appreciate your bullying words. You can save your 'vapid queens' comment for, well, no one. I can't even imagine speaking this way about other human beings. That you would reduce my existence to someone who is a 'vapid queen' says more about what you don't know about me, along with the kind of person you must be. Is this seriously how a 'senior editor' at a magazine talks about people?" - Reality show cast member Reichen Lehmkuhl, responding to the editor of Next Magazine, who says that each "cringe-worthy" episode of Logo's The A-List "probably canceled out 100 'It Gets Better' videos."
Labels: HomoQuotable, Logo, Next Magazine, reality shows
NOM reports on their blog:
Kerry Duke, who also serves as dean at Tennessee Bible College in Cookeville, said the group purposely avoided a reference to "traditional marriage" in the billboard. "The will of God -- not tradition -- is the basis for saying that marriage should be between people of the opposite sex," Duke said. "Marriage between a man and a woman is not right because it is traditional. It is traditional because it is right." He added, "There are two basic ways of looking at marriage. Either humans invented marriage or God created it. If marriage is a human arrangement, then a society may alter it at will or do away with it altogether. But if marriage is a divine institution, then only God has the right to say what it is and who has the moral right to be in it."
Labels: advertising, bigotry, NOM, religion, Tennessee
An openly gay man has been elected to head North Carolina's Council of Churches. Stan Kimer, 55, is a retired businessman and a lay leader of the Metropolitan Community Church.
Only one other of the country's 33 similar church councils has elected an openly gay leader. Only one other of the country's 33 similar church councils has elected an openly gay leader. In California, a lesbian was elected president in the late 1990s. That makes Kimer's presidency of the N.C. Council - a coalition of 17 Christian denominations and eight individual churches that work on social issues - historic in the South. It also signals an acceptance among member denominations - Episcopalians, Lutherans, Methodists, Presbyterians and Roman Catholics - that even if they have theological differences about homosexuality, they are OK with a gay man at the helm. Or at least, they don't see it as an issue worth fighting. "A lot of our member denominations have internal battles about this," said the Rev. George Reed, the council's executive director. "But the governing board felt the fact that he is a gay man was not a disqualifying factor."A sample reader comment on the above-linked Charlotte Observer story: "Having him over the board of church's is like building a mosck on ground zero. Its obsurd!!!! If he is a true Christian and in fact reads the word of god then he should know how the lord feels about homosexuals. Sir you are an abomination and when you burn your smoke and ashes will ascend up to his nostrils like insence. Read it for yourself!!!"
Labels: MCC, North Carolina, religion
With Michael Steele unlikely to be reelected as chairman of the Republican National Committee, NOM has been interviewing all of the contenders, saying that they will attempt to block any candidate that doesn't toe their anti-gay line. Here they interview former Michigan GOP chair Saul Anuzis, who ran unsuccessfully for the national slot in 2009.
Labels: Maggie Gallagher, Michael Steele, NOM, RNC
South Florida Gay News reports that a gay couple was found murdered in their Wilton Manors home this weekend.
The two men whose bodies were found inside their rented home at 2513 NE 8th Avenue in Wilton Manors were domestic partners Kevin Mark Powell, 47, and Steve Adams, 52, former residents of Hollywood, Florida. Their bodies were discovered by the sister of one of the victims, who had called police when her brother had not arrived to her home for the holidays. Kevin Powell had been very ill with Diabetes and she was doing a wellness check. Powell, whose hobby was arts and crafts, had once been featured on the Home and Garden channel after creating a home for his dogs within his home, including pet sized lighting and furniture.Wilton Manors police are seeking the couple's missing car. JMG readers who may have information about the couple should call detectives at 954-390-2150.
Labels: Florida, Fort Lauderdale, murder, Wilton Manors
Conservative columnist Jonah Goldberg says that the repeal of DADT is yet another example of the rise of the homosexual bourgeoisie, a gay culture that rejects its uniqueness for an integrated heteronormative lifestyle.
Two decades ago, the gay left wanted to smash the bourgeois prisons of monogamy, capitalistic enterprise and patriotic values and bask in the warm sun of bohemian "free love." And avant-garde values. In this, they were simply picking up the torch from the straight left of the 1960s and 1970s, who had sought to throw off the sexual hang-ups of their parents' generation along with their gray flannel suits. [snip]It's always been said that the ultimate goal of the gay rights movement is its own extinction. But Goldberg is correct in predicting that with that extinction will come an inevitable fading of what we now know as gay culture. Some will say that's a good thing. I disagree.
Of course, the lunacy of the bohemian free love shtick should have been obvious from the get-go. When Michael Lerner, a member of the anti- Vietnam War "Seattle Seven," did marry, in 1971, the couple exchanged rings made from the fuselage of a U.S. aircraft downed over Vietnam and cut into a cake inscribed in icing with a Weatherman catchphrase, "Smash Monogamy." The gay experiment with open bohemianism was arguably shorter. Of course, AIDS played an obvious and tragic role in focusing attention on the downside of promiscuity. But even so, the sweeping embrace of bourgeois lifestyles by the gay community has been stunning. [snip]
Many of my conservative friends often act as if there's some grand alternative to both the bohemian or the bourgeois lifestyles. But there isn't. And given that open homosexuality is simply a fact of life, the rise of the HoBos — the homosexual bourgeoisie — strikes me as good news.
Labels: DADT, LGBT culture, LGBT rights, marriage equality
On Christmas night two gay men were attacked outside an Austin, Texas gay bar as dozens of onlookers did nothing. The victims say that responding police seemed indifferent to the attack.
Labels: Austin, crime, gay bashing, Texas
The Family Research Council and Concerned Women for America have joined the growing list of anti-gay hate groups boycotting CPAC 2011 over the planned presence of GOProud, who are listed as a sponsor of next year's event. Right Wing Watch reports:
In November, the far-right American Principles Project instigated the CPAC boycott over GOProud’s involvement back in November, and groups such as American Values, Capital Research Center, the Center for Military Readiness, Liberty Counsel, Liberty University, and the National Organization for Marriage followed the APP’s lead in boycotting the conference. Today, WorldNetDaily, which has provided support for the boycott movement, reports that the Family Research Council and Concerned Women For America have decided to boycott CPAC. FRC and CWA are easily the largest groups to join the boycott movement, and FRC hosts a similar conference that is geared to Religious Right activists, the Values Voter Summit.Porno Pete LaBarbara celebrates: "It is gratifying to see FRC and CWA respond appropriately to CPAC's moral sellout of allowing GOProud as a sponsor. By bringing in GOProud, CPAC was effectively saying moral opposition to homosexuality is no longer welcome in the conservative movement."
Labels: Concerned Women Of America, CPAC, Family Reseach Council, GOProud, hate groups, infighting is funny, Peter LaBarbera
"It is a tragic day for our nation when legitimizing sodomy is preferred over the morale and combat-readiness of America's military. Sadly, those who voted to repeal DADT don’t know that although they won this battle, they have lost the war. The movement to support our Armed Forces is more powerful than ever and will continue to build strength until we win.
Labels: bigotry, DADT, Florida, religion, Senate