Combined Gay News Headlines (T5T-1)

Who Will Mark His Spot?

Incoming! Newly on the scene model Mark DaSilva, repped by Nous, operates somewhere in between "I could walk right by him on the street and not notice" to "I would corner this guy at a club and not let go till he took me home." CONTINUED » CONTINUED » Permalink | 8 comments | Add to del.icio.us Tagged: gratuitous [...]

HEADLINES: Why Are Log Cabin Republicans In Such Despair?

• WOOD ROT Why are Log Cabin Republicans in such dire straits? One theory: "Its credibility was shot." [Gay Patriot] • SCHOOL A 14-year-old Chicago area student will be allowed to wear a rainbow wristband with the words "Rainbows are gay." It took the ACLU to get Parkridge Elementary School to let eighth (?) grader Chris [...]

Sweden's Naked Talented 4some

Britain's Got Talent may have Susan Boyle, but Sweden's version of the show has this quartet of dancing nudists performing a homoerotic routine with some very carefully placed discs. CONTINUED » Permalink | 13 comments | Add to del.icio.us Tagged: Entertainment, Sweden, Television, Video

Pink Tuesdays, tomorrow!

Don’t forget, boys and girls, it’s almost Pink Tuesday! Everyone needs a little cocktail to get themselves through the week, so come have one with us! The appetizers are amazing (hello, last week’s mac and cheese?!), the drinks are fabulous and affordable, and it looks like the weather will allow for us to finally have [...]

Car Wash Fundraiser for Angel Moreno Tomorrow

The Fresno gay community lost one of it’s own last week in a tragic car accident. Angel Moreno was only 29.  Friends of Angel’s have organized a car wash to help with the cost of the funeral services.  The car wash will be at the Express parking lot on Tuesday, April 21 from 9-6pm. Please [...]

Something funny happened on the way to the Town Hall…

What do you call 50 queers gathering in a lecture hall to discuss various matters relating to the GLBTQ+ community? Apparently it’s a Town Hall Meeting. Which is exactly what happened Thursday night at the Health Science building on Fresno City College’s campus. Equality California put it on, which was interesting for several reasons. If you’re not [...]

Salon's 'Ask a Wingnut' takes on the marriage equality question

This is a new feature at Salon where a pseudonymous columnist, Glenallen Walken, takes questions from readers about winger issues. In this edition of Ask a Wingnut, he's asked:

Do conservatives really believe that giving gay people the right to marry will completely dissolve the country's social structure?  That people will start wanting to marry animals and slippery slope and all that?

It seems so implausible to me -- but I am gay and monogamous and am raising kids with my partner of five years, so my perspective is skewed.  It would just really help me out to be able to get married.  I'm not thinking about ruining the game for anyone else.  I just want to join.  

And the answer from the intrepid conservative? Well, it's quite familiar and unconvincing.

Over two millennia society has concluded that the best way to do that is a sanctioned relationship between a man and a woman. And conservatives, as a general rule, have an interest in conserving those traditions.

And over that two millenia, traditional marriage endorsed polygamy, society at points along the way prevented blacks from marrying each other -- or someone of another race, and women were little more than property. I suppose "Glenallen Walken" doesn't remember those little facts in wingnut fantasyland.

And of course, the tired old inappropriate saw of religion and faith are cited, and ludicrously floats the idea promoted by the bible-beaters that they will be forced to perform same-sex marriages.

Religious conservatives also have another fear, one that I think is legitimate. They're afraid that a change in the civil code will force a change in religious institutions. What happens if gay marriage becomes legal, and a particular creed or denomination, because of its own precepts, wants to opt out of performing gay marriages? (And I refer here specifically to actually performing the marriage, not whether or not the religious organization "endorses" or condemns gay marriage.) The legal recognition of gay marriage could threaten the independence and self-determination of those religious institutions that refuse to perform same-sex marriage ceremonies within their walls.

Where is this happening in any state or country that has marriage equality? Jesus, you'd think "Walken" could present better ar guments than this.

Perhaps the most feeble reason in the column is that conservatives are unhinged because of those "activist judges" in Massachusetts who made the homo-marriage snowball and pushed it down the hill.

Their objections to gay marriage center on the way the debate has unfolded. While agnostic on the idea of whether it is a good or bad thing, they take exception to the fact that a few unelected judges in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts took it upon themselves to make this an issue that every American had to deal with.

To back up this weak position, the fact that neither major political party has endorsed marriage equality and that whenever it's put on the ballot, the people choose bigotry is cited as proof the current definition of marriage must not change.

Surf over and have at it.

Thanks for the Ridicule

Displaying the nuanced understanding of media which made her such an effective propagandist for the Bush Administration, Maggie Gallagher and her anti-marriage cohorts at the National Organization for Marriage (NOM) have released a letter thanking Stephen Colbert for publically skewering their new ad campaign "The Gathering Storm."

The cringe-worthy ad, which features paid actors feigning concern over the threat of marriage equality against a backdrop of gathering storm clouds, was released following the passage of same-sex marriage legislation in Vermont.

Apparently embracing the idea that any news coverage is good news coverage, Gallagher is (bizarrely) quoted saying, "I've always thought Stephen Colbert was a double-agent, pretending to pretend to be a conservative, to pull one over Hollywood. Now I'm sure." Not to be outdone, NOM Executive Director Brian Brown thanks Colbert for "playing our ad in full on national television-for free. HRC eat your heart out. Plus we all had a great chuckle, too!"

As if there were any questions left about the Right's ability to rationally appraise reality, Gallagher's letter confirms the fact she and other conservatives are no longer interested in sharing the real world with the rest of America. NOM's response highlights the conservative retreat into a delusional world of their own making where FOX broadcasts news, satire is laudatory, fear-mongering is truth-telling, and the LGBT community is upset watching public figures mock its opponents.

Gary Randall Defers the Ultimate Authority in Defining Marriage to the Seattle Times

I thought selected verses in the Bible were supposed to be the ultimate authority, but Gary Randall has just ceded the power to define marriage to that institution he loves to hate, the Seattle Times.  Or rather, to his off-the-rails misreading of them.

More below the fold.
Seattle Times recently ran an op ed saying

PASSAGE of the Domestic Partners Expansion bill moves Washington quietly, purposefully and rightfully down a path toward full recognition of same-sex unions for what they are, marriages. Gov. Chris Gregoire's signature on the legislation, which passed both houses of the Legislature with strong support, is part of a cycle of progress that began in 2007 with the creation of a registry for domestic partners. Last year and this year, lawmakers provided these families with the legal prerogatives granted to spouses...

Marriage is the institution that socializes couples and families into a community. Consider that marriage has at least three elemental features: a loving relationship, a legal definition and societal recognition....

Official recognition of these marriages - these families - is a logical and overdue step.

Seems clear to me that the Times is saying that we are, quite appropriately, heading towards marriage equality, but we're not there yet.  But Gary willfully misreads the op-ed, pretending it "confirms" that the DP Expansion Bill of 2009 "was marriage all along", and takes the opportunity to call Senators Ed Murray and Rodney Tom liars (A bold move for someone who has colluded to lie to entire congregations.).

Here is Gary's blog post about the Times' op-ed.  As you read it and my responses (in green), think about what kind of example Gary is setting for his grandchildren: If you have nothing logical or honest to say, lie like hell.

Seattle Times: "Domestic Partnerships are Marriage, Apply the Word"

The Seattle Times is at full throttle, going straight for homosexual marriage in Friday's edition.

The op-ed was meaningful and significant, but it wasn't "full throttle".  "Full throttle" would have been the Times doing a big front page photo spread of actual domestic partners, showing our faces and letting us tell our stories.

Be assured we are responding with equal passion and conviction in preparation to file our referendum. We, however, are restraining ourselves until the bill is actually signed into law.

No, actually they are restraining themselves until they are certain that Tim Eyman doesn't beat them to the referendum filing punch again.  No one can file for a referendum until after the Governor signs the bill.

Gary, you call filing dozens of mean spirited and sometimes unconstitutional amendments in legislative committee hearings and on the Senate and House floor "restraining ourselves"?  Really now.

The Times loaded their gun by choosing to carry several national columns supporting homosexual marriage. On Thursday they carried Ellen Goodman's piece "Defense of Marriage Act Is Becoming Indefensible," and Friday, Fromma Harrop's syndicated column, "The State by State Evolution of Gay Marriage," along with their own editorial proclamation, "Domestic Partnerships Are Marriage, Apply The Word."

Before Gov. Gregoire can even sign the bill, SB 5688, into law----and she has a quick draw for advancing the homosexual agenda, Washingshington's largest newspaper is saying it was marriage all along,

Here is where Gary flat out chooses to misrepresent the Times op-ed.  But then this is a guy who cherry-picks the Bible, so at least he's keeping in character.confirming exactly what I and others in the faith community have been saying from the day this bill was introduced.

No, what you said was

They have introduced a series of bills under the guise of "rights" and "benefits" that are intended to equalize the status of traditional marriage with that of homosexual couples. The bills...are intended to create "marriage" without the name.

And that is exactly what we're getting.  If there is any place in the DP bill that allows DP'd couples to use the word "marriage" or get a civil marriage from a Justice of the Peace or sympathetic clergy, I wish he would point it out.  Maybe Gary can loan me his secret decoder ring.

But wait! Didn't Sen. Ed Murray stand tearfully, with quivering voice on the floor of the Senate and say, "I wish this bill was marriage, I sincerely wish this bill was marriage, but it is not"? Yes, he did. I just reviewed the video. And didn't Senator Rodney Tom from the 48th District around Bellevue and Redmond send out a letter assuring his constitutes that this was not gay marriage? He sure did, I just reread it.

Why did they lie?

The question is, Gary, how you can read truthful statements and call them lies.  Again, there is nothing in the DP bill that allows DP's couples to use the word "marriage", or to get a civil marriage like everyone else: from a Justice of the Peace or sympathetic clergy.  Isn't there a term for what Gary is doing here?  Besides libel, I mean.

I guess that was then---this is now. All the homosexual activists who have sworn on a stack of ----something, assuring voters that this was not---I repeat not, gay marriage, are now basking in the afterglow of the deception.

Gary cedes the definition of marriage to a newspaper, but retains the right to define "Christian".

Truth changes when relativism is the compass.

Not only is the Seattle Times calling for the state to go straight to homosexual marriage, their editorial board has even published their own definition of marriage.

The Times says, "Passage of the Domestic Partners Expansion bill moves Washington quietly, purposefully and rightfully down a path toward full recognition of same-sex unions for what they are, marriage."

The "big l ie," that was said to be merely about benefits and fairness---not marriage, has now succeeded, and as the Times now affirms, is marriage.

On the contrary, the Times, not to mention the legislation itself, recognize that same-sex couples are still barred by law from civil marriage.  The legislature passed the defense of marriage law in 1998, and the state supreme court ruled it constitutional.  Gary can set his hair on fire and lie about the current DP bill, but that doesn't change reality.  It just makes him look like a fool.

The Times also admits that the big lie was quietly and purposefully moved forward.

Quietly?  Here I even disagree with the Times.  At each stage, the authors of the bill have publicly announced not only the proximatximate bill, but their ultimate goal of civil marriage equality (clearly, we're not there yet).  Then the multiple public legislative committee hearings, the floor debates in the House and Senate, the press coverage by the Seattle Times and others, the rallies...  There has been nothing quiet about the DP bills. We now better understand what we all knew 4 weeks ago when the news media that regularly covers a half dozen people on any given corner protesting any given idea, would not cover 2400 citizens standing on the Capitol steps in the rain in defense of marriage.

Their silence on SB 5688 has been deafening.

Not any more deafening than the bored silence from non-Seattle papers.  By the way, Gary is a carpetbagger from Oregon, so who is he to criticize Washington newspapers for anything?

The Times now has their own definition of marriage: They say marriage is an institution that socializes couples and families into a community; consists of a loving relationship; has a legal definition and societal recognition.

If Gary thinks marriage is none of those things, then can we expect him soon to renounce his wife before his community, tells her he doesn't love her, and get a divorce?

Ellen Goodman, in her column carried by the Times last Thursday titled, "Defense Of Marriage Act is Indefensible," says DOMA, "Is an out of date law that enforces an identity crises."

Those who honor an institution that has existed for more than 5000 years in every civilization, which honors and elevates the special union between a man and a woman, provides for procreation and the nurturing of the child and is the cornerstone of every successful society in history, are now diminished to people who are in some kind of identity crises.

Mitt Romney says it's 3000 years.  So which is it?  And if God created the Earth only 3000 years ago, then you're saying he set up the institution 2K years before he even created the beings that would use it?  Mysterious ways, indeed!

There is certainly an identity crises, however it exists with those who are helping drive the homosexual agenda who cannot decide from day to day which restroom they want to use.

I think the real crisis lies with people like Gary who see their funding base slipse slipping away, and are so desperate that they throw out random comments in hopes that something will stick.

This deceptive agenda seeks not only societal recognition, but cultural affirmation. They are standing squarely against the historical beliefs of every society in history, every major religion in history and the biblical teachings upon which this country was founded.

Nothing deceptive about it.  Senator Murray was clear from Day 1 that we're putting DPs in place to provide needed legal security for same-sex families while we pursue our ultimate goal of civil marriage equality.  But we haven't reached that goal yet.

Is this enough to awaken us? I think it is.

Gov. Gregoire will almost certainly sign the bill this week.

We are prepared to immediately file a referendum to overturn SB 5688 once she has signed it.

The Faith and Freedom PAC board has been expanded, a coalition of nearly all the faith based organizations in the state have come together and we are committed to work together to defend marriage and overturn this back door deception to achieve homosexual marriage in Washington State.

The organizations have asked me to lead and we will be using the Faith and Freedom PAC, however nearly all the faith based groups will be involved in the campaign and in leading their respective groups of supporters.

Larry Stickney from Washington Values, Senator Dan Swecker, Representatives Matt Shea and Jim McCune have been added to the PAC board and Ron Boehme of YWAM and others will be involved in top leadership.

We must all stand together. No one alone can or should attempt to address this issue. We believe that with God's help and blessing, your support, and a united effort, we can turn this tide. The wind is not at our back at the moment.

We fully understand that we are standing against the press and the electronic media in most cases. We further understand that many young people have been indoctrinated by public education to turn away from the historical model of marriage and forsake both societal norm and biblical teaching on homosexuality and marriage.

A curious comment coming from a man who uses "the electronic media" of websites and blogs, as do his compatriots in The Washington Hate Coalition.

Also curious that an evangelist would have a word of criticism about indoctrination, whether real or perceived.  Isn't that what Sunday school is all about?

We also understand that many well meaning people have been misled and deceived into thinking that this is about fairness and benefits, not about homosexual marriage. We feel that the truth will surface and it will be seen in the light of articles such as the Times columns, the Seattle Times editorial board itself and our campaign to educate the public on this issue.

Since Senator Murray has been open and honest from Day 1 that civil marriage equality is our ultimate goal, the only deception taking place is in Gary's libel.

The numbers I'm initially seeing are indicating that Washington voters do not approve of homosexual marriage. More on that later.

Our efforts to overturn SB 5688 will draw national attention and nationwide financial support from homosexual activists to defeat us.

And you will receive no assistance from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, the Roman Catholic Church, Focus on the Family, Eagle Forum or any of the other cash cows anti-LGBT Professional Christians milk?  Uh huh.

Are you prepared to stand with us?

We are alrare already receiving emails from Europe and elsewhere opposing our efforts.

This is the time. And this is the defining issue.

This is an issue in which people of faith and conservatives must prevail. The future of our culture hangs in the balance. The kind of state and community you will hand to your children and grandchildren is attached to this issue.

Please stand with us financially and prayerfully. Donate to Faith and Freedom Foundation.

Please DO click on that link so that you can see that Gary is funneling cash into his organization, not into the PAC set up for the referendum effort.  What a scammer.

Thank you and God bless you.

______________
Gary Randall
President
Faith & Freedom

Sue Hyde: Breaking the Silence Around Bullying

Sue Hyde, of The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, wrote an opinion piece published in this Sunday's f The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, wrote an opinion piece published in this Sunday's Boston Globe.

She discusses the tragic cases of Carl Joseph Walker-Hoover and Eric Mohat, two youth who committed suicide after being the targets of relentless anti-LGBT harassment in their schools. And she cites some sobering numbers:

"Nearly 9 out of 10 LGBT youth (86.2 percent) reported being verbally harassed at school in the past year because of their sexual orientation, nearly half (44.1 percent) reported being physically harassed, and about a quarter (22.1 percent) reported being physically assaulted." [...] "Nearly two-thirds of LGBT students (60.8 percent) who experience harassment or assault never reported the incident to the school. . . . Of those who did report the incident, nearly a third (31.1 percent) said the school staff did nothing in response."

Nothing in response? Nothing to help young people who rise each morning not knowing if school brings another day of hell on earth or something a bit more tolerable? As parents and school leaders, we cannot tolerate this status quo.

Read the full piece here, then write to your state Senator in support of the Oregon Safe Schools Act (HB2599).

Day of Silence & Night of Noise: today!

Today is the 13th annual Day of Silence, in which students across the country will remain silent to draw attention to anti-LGBT bullying and harassment. The Day of Silence is followed by the Night of Noise, aimed at celebrating the day and building community amongst LGBT and allied youth.

Portland’s Night of Noise will benefit the Sexual Minority Youth Resource Center (SMYRC) and will take place at the Jupiter Hotel at 9:00 pm tonight! Click here for a map of the Jupiter's location.

As we’ve discussed previ556">previously on the blog, bullying and harassment remains a major problem for LGBT students, and for students who are perceived to be LGBT. And the effects of school-based harassment reach far beyond middle school and high school.

For more information on the climate for LGBT students on Oregon’s college campuses, read Too Afraid to Learn, the report coauthored by Basic Rights Education Fund and the Oregon Student Equal Rights Alliance. Click here to download the report (PDF).

Victory for trans documentation in California!

A California court ruled Monday that transgender people born in California must be able to change the sex on their birth certificate, even if they currently reside outside the state.

The lawsuit was brought forward by the Transgender Law Center on behalf of Gigi Marie Somers, a 67-year-old Kansas resident seeking to change her documentation. Read the full story at the Advocate’s web site, or read the court’s decision.

Birth certificates are often relied upon as a primary documentation resource, used by employers, creditors and the government to verify individuals’ identities. Without the ability to change their birth certificate, many eir birth certificate, many transpeople are left in legal limbo, and are frequently outed by their documentation, which may not match their gender presentation.

Birth certificate change procedures vary from state to state, and some states don't allow any alteration to the sex listed on this critical document. This increased ease in changing birth certificate will benefit California-born transpeople across the country. Congratulations to the Transgender Law Center on this fantastic victory!