The phone hacking that resulted in a bunch of celebrity nudes is a crime. But we all need to remember this diagram (in regards to pictures, bank accounts, etc):
Because homosexuality is not a voluntary condition and homosexuals are among the most stigmatized, misunderstood, and discriminated-against minorities in the history of the world, the disparagement of their sexual orientation, implicit in the denial of marriage rights to same-sex couples, is a source of continuing pain to the homosexual community.
The Good Men Project also takes a look at empathy. Which the more I think about it, is what we’re missing the most of in today’s world and would solve most of our problems. But how do you teach people to be empathetic? I can’t figure that part out.
That’s it for now, but I’ll be back with more soon!
Fairly quick update, let’s see what we have today. First up, appropriate for Independence Day:
While I think people should be honest, especially about their flaws, before getting married, I think this new “shadow wedding” trend is a bit much. But hey, if it gets people into nature, maybe it’s a good thing.
Now that a bunch of countries have pulled their foreign aid for Uganda due to their draconian anti-gay laws, their president now says accepting foreign aid is ‘sinful.’
Ten lifehacks to know for summer:
Um, how stupid can a (Republican) politician be about climate change? That’s a serious question, because I think he just gave me an aneurysm reading his absolutely moronic comments.
The final book of “The Magicians” trilogy hits shelves on August 5, and I can’t wait (I’m rereading the books in anticipation). The trailer, featuring and fans and some really, really big names in literature, just dropped. Check it out.
Today marks the 45th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, which launched the LGBT-rights movement.
If you’re not familiar with the riots, here’s what happened:
People ask why we celebrate pride. NoFo writes it much more eloquently than I ever could, here is an excerpt:
We’re proud because despite relentless persecution everywhere we turn—when organized religion viciously attacks and censures and vilifies us in the name of selective morality, when our families disown us, when our elected officials bargain away our equality for hate votes, when entire states codify our families into second-class citizenship, when our employers fire us, when our landlords evict us, when our police harass us, when our neighbors and colleagues and fellow citizens openly insult and condemn and mock and berate and even beat and kill us—we continue to survive. … We’re proud because—thanks to the incredible bravery shown by gay people who lived their lives openly in the decades before us—we can live our lives more and more openly at home, at work, with our families, on our blogs … and even on national television. … We’re proud because after all we’ve been through, the world is starting to notice and respect us and emulate the often fabulous culture we’ve assembled from the common struggles and glorious diversity of our disparate lives.
We’re proud because this weekend we’ll celebrate with drag queens, leather queens, muscle queens, attitude queens and you’d-never-know-they-were-queens queens, and together we can see through the “pride” in our parade and enjoy the underlying Pride in our parade.
Quite simply, we’re proud that we have so much to be proud of.
We can take some time, and even in the face of hatred, bigotry and discrimination, we can carve a place in this world, claim it our own and celebrate.
Because even if Pride doesn’t change many minds in the outside world, it’s our PARTY, darlings. It’s our Christmas, our New Year’s, our Carnival. It’s the one day of the year that all the crazy contingents of the gay world actually come face to face on the street and blow each other air kisses. And wish each other “Happy Pride!” Saying “Happy Pride!” is really just a shorter, easier way of saying “Congratulations on not being driven completely batshit insane! Well done, being YOURSELF!”
We can celebrate the community that we have, the radical acceptance that we embody and the fact that we’ve survived. We have a chance to come together, remind ourselves we belong to a larger community, have some fun and take back our city; just for a little bit, even when it’s still dangerous to be perceived as gay, even in places like The Village:
This is my home. I’ve walked by that corner hundreds of times while holding Tony’s hand. And now, holding his hand again, I felt sick to my stomach. I felt sick because of the injustice. Because of the loss of life. Because my home had been violated. Because I thought we had moved beyond this. Because I felt vulnerable.
We know that hatred will continue, but still we march forward. We have pride because it helps those coming after us. In the words of Harvey Milk, it gives the next generation hope:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWo8BKJCxYQ
And this is a chance to celebrate the fact that I’ve survived. A chance to celebrate the fact that I’m a proud gay man. And even that act, powerful unto itself, has hopefully made a difference.
The most important and powerful action a person can make is to come out to those around them. Then the LGBT community isn’t a scary abstract anymore, it has a face. If you know someone who is openly LGBT, you see their humanity. You can understand that we’re not asking for anything special, just the same rights everyone else is guaranteed by the constitution. A chance to be happy. A chance to live the life we want, surrounded by those we love.
“Many of us want to, and will: when a gay, lesbian or transgendered kid isn’t at special risk of being brutalized or committing suicide. … “When a gay person’s central-casting earnestness and eloquence aren’t noted with excitement and relief, because his or her sexual orientation needn’t be accompanied by a litany of virtues and accomplishments in order for bigotry to be toppled and a negative reaction to be overcome.”
We will stop talking about coming out when it’s not news anymore, when the last barriers have finally been broken down. We’ll stop screaming for our rights when we’re finally treated as equals by our government. We’ll only stop telling our stories when they don’t matter.
This is a bit heavy handed (the original that this parodies was also over the top), but Crew Magazine put this together, and it rings true:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCuw-cIoWa0
So we keep fighting for progress, wherever we can. We celebrate our advances and keep chipping away at our obstacles: and this month we can celebrate both, as well as the individuals that make up our amazing community.
We’re proud of how far we’ve come. We’re proud to keep fighting. We’re proud.
In case you missed it, NPH (who won the Tony for this role, along with his co-star, Lena Hall) performed “Sugar Daddy” from the show I went to NYC to see (which won for best musical revival). This was how it was performed at the Belasco, complete with carwash, making out with audience members (this time, his fiance) and lap dances:
A new bit of Papyrus tells that Jesus may have had a wife. I’m sure there will be all kinds of gnashing of teeth and rending of garments, but I really don’t think it makes much difference (except maybe to the Catholics who use that as part of the reason priests can’t marry).
A PA lawmaker will introduce legislation to allow same-sex divorce, which is actually a good thing. Right now, married couples (From other states, obviously), that move to Pa, have no way of ever divorcing, usually without moving back to where they got married for years of residency, which is usually not really an option.
A gay Scoutmaster in Seattle, now has the support of the city council and mayor, which is actually kind of a big deal. He’s continuing to lead the Troop (although he’s on vacation at the moment, with his husband) and their Chartering Partner couldn’t be happier with him, he’s the reason they even have a Troop.
And the BSA “alternative,” Trail Life? Yeah, they’re not only discriminating against gays, but also Jews.
I didn’t talk about the Mozilla flap, because if you noticed, the boycott wasn’t organized by the glitterati (Dan Savage, Andrew Sullivan, Evan Wolfson, Joe Jervis, Andy Towle, Michelangelo Singorelli, Box Turtle Bulletin, etc), but rather by straight supporters. Do I think he should have resigned, probably, especially since the facts that surfaced made so many of his employees distinctly uncomfortable. But just remember, when the gays and our allies call for boycotts, it’s fascism. When the far-right does, it’s good and apple pie and Jesus and America!
The other big story is the discriminatory bill in Mississippi. It’s the same bill as what was defeated in Arizona, we just really didn’t have a chance of winning in Mississippi. Basically, segregation has returned, but this time instead of based on race, it’s based on perceived sexual orientation. I can be denied by any business in Mississippi, and all they have to do is claim it would violate their religion to serve me.
And just as a reminder, although sadly this happened here in Pittsburgh, gay men can’t donate blood, or organs apparently. Because you know, we all have AIDS according to the government, even though everything is tested and anyone can have HIV/AIDS.
A new book is due out about the lives of gay steelworkers, although sadly in Indiana, not Pittsburgh.
Okay, that’s enough for this depressing update. Have a great weekend everyone!
I’m Lebanese, and from most outside perspective, Beirut (the capital city), is a partially-Westernized, big city, in the middle of a volatile part of the world. I was trying to convince my boss of this, and then of course they went and had two car bombs the next week. Stable, it may not be, but from pictures I’ve seen, it’s a beautiful city on the Mediterranean.
Lebanon, also has a large LGBT community, and as far as that part of the world goes, they have more freedoms than most. Recently, the Lebanese court ruled that homosexuality is not a crime:
The court ruled that homosexual relationships do not “contradict the laws of nature” and therefore cannot be considered a crime….The assumption that homosexuality is a result of disturbances in the family dynamic or unbalanced psychological development is based on wrong information.
It’s a step forward, and it’s great to see in Lebanon, of all places, so hopefully it is thinking that will continue throughout all the corners of the world. You can read more about the court ruling at the Good Men Project.
Been a while since I’ve written about the BSA, so I wanted to take a minute and discuss the current state of things.
January 1 the new policy went into affect, allowing openly gay, lesbian and bisexual youth to join (girls are able to join Venturing at age 14). And of course, the sky has not fallen. From all views, it has been a total non-issue, just like we kind of figured it would be.
Now, the policy itself is hypocritical, since it tells youth that it’s okay that they’re gay (or bi), but once they become an adult, ‘we don’t want you anymore.’
And it also creates the problems, that in the above mentioned Venturing program, youth is defined as a member under the age of 21. Meaning a gay Scout can earn his Eagle in a Troop, be forbidden from being an adult volunteer, but could at the same time have three more years in a Crew as a youth member.
And we knew this going into it. My best guess is that national knew it too, and sees it as an easy out. It’s an easy fix, and once enough of the country realizes how crazy and two-faced this policy is, it’s a quick and easy fix. Add to that, the fact that former Defense Secretary Robert Gates is the new President, considering he is man who implemented the repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, I don’t think we’re far out from full equality.
And this is not hypothetical. A youth in Maryland, Pascal Tessier, became the first (known) openly gay Eagle Scout under the new policy in February. And while this was the more important part of the change, it’s still incredibly important to all full equality: otherwise we’re telling LGB youth that they’re broken and they’re not worthy, and we don’t give them role models to look up to. And companies will continue to pull back funding, such as Walt Disney World, which will not donate to the BSA until the policy is fully inclusive.
Scouts for Equality continues their great work, and I’m happy to keep supporting and working with them behind the scenes:
Here in Pittsburgh, I volunteered last year at MountainFest II after enough people begged me to. Even though I was uncomfortable, it was nice to be back at camp, and most of the camp volunteers are freaking awesome and I was happy to see them again.
I’m also working with the Camp Staff Alumni Association, which is a separate non-profit, so while I can’t be a registered member of the BSA, I can still volunteer through the CSAA.
And I know this policy will change, and probably faster than I imagine.
The beginning of the year-end round-ups (I’ll have a special post later, still waiting for one more video to be released), but here are 45 of the most powerful images of the year.
