Thursday, September 30, 2010
We've Moved Our Blog -- Kind Of
Hi Faithful FriendsDipstick and I have been pretty lax this summer blogging--our apologies. We've been busy enjoying the sunshine and good friends. We have some exciting news, though. Our blog is moving over to Curve Magazine's website. We will be posting over there now most of the time. You can follow us here: http://www.curvemag.com/See the arrow for direction.(You'll also notice Dipstick's purdy mug on there, too, so be sure to watch that video of her from the Olivia cruise on their home page.)We will continue posting important events and information here, so don't delete us off your RSS or your favorites page.Our first blog on Curve's page will be up today or tomorrow.We heart you.
(68) EAT ME
Due to the high volume of requests we’ve posted this recent material that didn’t turn into a show, so here are some lazy laying around the house�recordings�from the portable. March was our 3rd anniversary, thank you very much to those who have donated, and/or purchased apparel, and for tuning in and hanging out with us. [...]
NJ student secretly taped having sex kills himself - AP
Rutgers University student Tyler Clementi jumped from the George Washington Bridge last week, said his family's attorney, Paul Mainardi.
Business Spotlight: San Diego Natural History Museum
1788 El Prado
San Diego, CA 92101
619-232-3821
www.sdnhm.org
Since adolescence to full adulthood, museums have the power to create astonishment and boggle the mind with their assortment of exhibits and unique information. San Diego plays host to one of the most famous and oldest museums in the country, the San Diego Natural History Museum.
As a center that prides itself on research and education, the San Diego Natural History Museum has become synonymous with other great San Diego based educational research institutes such as the San Diego Zoo and Wild Animal Park.
Founded in 1874, the San Diego Society of Natural History was founded by local naturalists who were interested in the flora and fauna of Southern and Baja California. Today, the San Diego…
Read More
San Diego, CA 92101
619-232-3821
www.sdnhm.org
Since adolescence to full adulthood, museums have the power to create astonishment and boggle the mind with their assortment of exhibits and unique information. San Diego plays host to one of the most famous and oldest museums in the country, the San Diego Natural History Museum.
As a center that prides itself on research and education, the San Diego Natural History Museum has become synonymous with other great San Diego based educational research institutes such as the San Diego Zoo and Wild Animal Park.
Founded in 1874, the San Diego Society of Natural History was founded by local naturalists who were interested in the flora and fauna of Southern and Baja California. Today, the San Diego…
Read More
Hall of Fame holds auction
Supporters and friends of the Chicago Gay and Lesbian Hall of Fame opened their pocketbooks at Sidetrack Sept. 21 to bid on a fabulous array of silent and live auction items. Beth Kelly, chair of The Chicago Commission on Human Relations' Advisory Council on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Issues CCHRACLGBTI , advisory council director /community liaison Bill Greaves and volunteers were on hand to make sure the fundraiser went smoothly.
San Diego LGBT Pride donates $10,000 to Stepping Stone by Staff Reporter
San Diego LGBT Pride donated $10,000 last week to Stepping Stone of San Diego, Inc., which for 10 years has provided the GLBT community with alcohol and drug rehabilitation support through a variety of residential and non-residential treatment programs. The check was presented to Stepping Stone representatives at San Diego Pride’s board of directors meeting on Sept. 15.
“This type of community support mandates that we continue solving the financial issues that have been with us for some years now,” said Stepping Stone’s Board Chair Tom Reise. “On behalf of our entire board and staff, and especially our clients, we express deep gratitude and appreciation for this gift.”
To date, San Diego LGBT Pride has given more than $1…
Read More
“This type of community support mandates that we continue solving the financial issues that have been with us for some years now,” said Stepping Stone’s Board Chair Tom Reise. “On behalf of our entire board and staff, and especially our clients, we express deep gratitude and appreciation for this gift.”
To date, San Diego LGBT Pride has given more than $1…
Read More
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
WCT 25: Sports and the LGBT community back in the '80s
Chicago's LGBT sports community has grown into, arguably, the biggest, best and most organized in the nation, if not the world.
Tastes Like Chicken
Depending on your diet your vagina could have many textures in discharges and different tastes. Ph balance and natural acids are found in vaginal discharge to help prevent bacteria growth and certain infections. Glands that are located in your cervix produce fluid that flows through the vagina. All women at some point have vaginal discharge, [...]
Minnesota Catholic Church Disciplines Artist for Supporting Gay Rights
Lucinda Naylor is a Minnesota artist who believes that all people should be able to experience love. Because of that, she's been suspended by her church, where she served as a well respected artist in residence for 15 years.
The Basilica of St. Mary is a monumental church in downtown Minneapolis. Part of their mission? To "preach justice," and to "contribute to the celebration of the sacred arts" in the Minneapolis community. Yet despite this core identity, the Basilica of St. Mary has decided to discipline Naylor because she supports marriage equality. Art it seems, at least within the confines of the Basilica of St. Mary, is now only suitable if the artist making it believes that homosexuality is icky.
At the center of this story is the decision by the Catholic bishops of Minnesota to send out hundreds of thousands of DVDs to families in the state. Those DVDs, which include a cameo from the National Organization for Marriage's Maggie Gallagher, tell Minnesotans that gay people are a threat to families.
For Naylor, it repulsed her that Catholic bishops would spend so much money on these DVDs and invest mega resources in criticizing LGBT people. So she came up with a plan. She asked Minnesotans to send her their copy of the anti-gay DVD, and she pledged to create a piece of art from them that would honor the principle of equality and acceptance for all.
But those are principles that apparently get you the boot, at least if you're the Basilica of St. Mary.
Naylor took to her blog after receiving word that she was suspended, noting that the Catholic Church once also disciplined Galileo for his work.
"I must note that I am both startled and humbled to find that I join the ranks of people before me who been silenced or ousted one by one for disagreeing with the church. �Maybe in 500 years, I, like Galileo, will get my suspension lifted," Naylor wrote. And then she noted that the leaders of the Church, who spend so much time trying to demonize LGBT people, do a huge disservice to Catholicism and Christianity.
"All are welcome at the table is not just an Episcopalian saying. If Jesus was physically here today he wouldn?t be dining with tax collectors, he?d be dining with drag queens."
Awesome. And you can say that again, Naylor. Had the technology been available thousands of years ago, you can bet Jesus wouldn't be sending out DVDs blasting people for loving one another. He'd instead take the money used to produce such a thing, and give it back to those who are hungry, those without shelter, and those without a job.
And then he'd go drinking with folks who really know how to love beyond measure.
The bishops in Minnesota show no sign of stopping in their quest to blast same-sex marriage. But their DVDs, or their suspending of gay-friendly artists, or their working to elect anti-gay politicians won't give them the last word on this issue. All it takes is an alternative voice, urging the Church to get its priorities turned around. That's what Naylor provides. And that's what hundreds upon hundreds of others have been displaying, too, by sending a message to Minnesota's bishops that their intense focus on preventing same-sex marriage is both misguided and offensive.
Photo credit: blmurch
The Basilica of St. Mary is a monumental church in downtown Minneapolis. Part of their mission? To "preach justice," and to "contribute to the celebration of the sacred arts" in the Minneapolis community. Yet despite this core identity, the Basilica of St. Mary has decided to discipline Naylor because she supports marriage equality. Art it seems, at least within the confines of the Basilica of St. Mary, is now only suitable if the artist making it believes that homosexuality is icky.
At the center of this story is the decision by the Catholic bishops of Minnesota to send out hundreds of thousands of DVDs to families in the state. Those DVDs, which include a cameo from the National Organization for Marriage's Maggie Gallagher, tell Minnesotans that gay people are a threat to families.
For Naylor, it repulsed her that Catholic bishops would spend so much money on these DVDs and invest mega resources in criticizing LGBT people. So she came up with a plan. She asked Minnesotans to send her their copy of the anti-gay DVD, and she pledged to create a piece of art from them that would honor the principle of equality and acceptance for all.
But those are principles that apparently get you the boot, at least if you're the Basilica of St. Mary.
Naylor took to her blog after receiving word that she was suspended, noting that the Catholic Church once also disciplined Galileo for his work.
"I must note that I am both startled and humbled to find that I join the ranks of people before me who been silenced or ousted one by one for disagreeing with the church. �Maybe in 500 years, I, like Galileo, will get my suspension lifted," Naylor wrote. And then she noted that the leaders of the Church, who spend so much time trying to demonize LGBT people, do a huge disservice to Catholicism and Christianity.
"All are welcome at the table is not just an Episcopalian saying. If Jesus was physically here today he wouldn?t be dining with tax collectors, he?d be dining with drag queens."
Awesome. And you can say that again, Naylor. Had the technology been available thousands of years ago, you can bet Jesus wouldn't be sending out DVDs blasting people for loving one another. He'd instead take the money used to produce such a thing, and give it back to those who are hungry, those without shelter, and those without a job.
And then he'd go drinking with folks who really know how to love beyond measure.
The bishops in Minnesota show no sign of stopping in their quest to blast same-sex marriage. But their DVDs, or their suspending of gay-friendly artists, or their working to elect anti-gay politicians won't give them the last word on this issue. All it takes is an alternative voice, urging the Church to get its priorities turned around. That's what Naylor provides. And that's what hundreds upon hundreds of others have been displaying, too, by sending a message to Minnesota's bishops that their intense focus on preventing same-sex marriage is both misguided and offensive.
Photo credit: blmurch
Spanish, Class: Gala Hispanic's El Caballero de Olmedo is a modern take on a classic piece of Spanish theater
Stage:GALA Hispanic Theatre is launching its 35th anniversary season with a production that will not only make you want to be certain the company has another 35 years ahead of it, but serves as a strong reminder that the history of classical theater does not begin and end with a certain English-speaking William Shakespeare. In fact, we ignore the art's global history at our own peril. Okay. Perhaps ''peril'' is too strong a word. How about, we risk of missing ...more
3M: The Latest Company to Backtrack on Equality
In Cabaret, it's said that money makes the world go 'round. In Minnesota, it can be said that money makes pro-LGBT businesses throw their LGBT employees and customers under a speeding bus.
Doesn't make for as catchy a song lyric, but it does spell out how three prominent Minnesota corporations have contributed six figures each to support an anti-gay political candidate, Tom Emmer, running for Governor. Those corporations include Target, Best Buy, and now 3M, all companies with great LGBT-friendly policies, but all companies who want Minnesota's next governor to be against gay marriage, against funding HIV/AIDS initiatives, against LGBT people as parents.
Target and Best Buy, as has been widely reported since this summer, gave a grand total of $250,000 to a group known as MN Forward, a political action committee working to elect Emmer. Both companies received a boatload of flak, including tens of thousands of people committed to boycotting the brands. Now 3M has joined their club, giving $100,000 to MN Forward and in support of Emmer's candidacy.
In 3M's case (and this is the case for Target and Best Buy, too), the donation defies their corporate policies. 3M has excellent ratings on the Human Rights Campaign's (HRC) Corporate Equality Index and Buying for Equality guide, meaning that the company treats its LGBT employees pretty darn well. So why is it that within the offices of 3M, LGBT people are valued, but out in the world, the company is working to elect politicians with deeply troubling anti-gay records?
A number of folks argue that business is just business, and that corporations shouldn't be held responsible for the social positions of the candidates they endorse. But in a post Citizens United world, where corporations are able to give scads of resources to influence elections, is that answer good enough?
What makes 3M's donation particularly troubling (and again, Target's and Best Buy's, too), is that marriage equality may hang in the balance with Minnesota's gubernatorial election. 3M's candidate, Tom Emmer, will not sign a bill allowing same-sex marriage. Full stop. End of discussion. Shut the front door. Moreover, groups that have consistently demonized the LGBT community, including the National Organization for Marriage, have been actively supporting Tom Emmer's candidacy. Does it honestly make any LGBT consumer feel good to see Target, Best Buy, and now 3M all on the same political side as the National Organization for Marriage?
Hardly.
Emmer may have tax policies that make the executives at 3M, Target, and Best Buy all jump for joy. But if Minnesota sees a Gov. Emmer (and polls are all over the place, suggesting that the race is close), it's not just his tax policies that will shape the state. It's Emmer's anti-gay politics, too.
And for that reason, it's worth sending 3M a message that their money shouldn't go to support politicians who want to limit the civil rights of LGBT Americans. If they wouldn't do it within their own offices, why should 3M support such a move to do so beyond their walls?
Photo credit: TerryJohnston
Doesn't make for as catchy a song lyric, but it does spell out how three prominent Minnesota corporations have contributed six figures each to support an anti-gay political candidate, Tom Emmer, running for Governor. Those corporations include Target, Best Buy, and now 3M, all companies with great LGBT-friendly policies, but all companies who want Minnesota's next governor to be against gay marriage, against funding HIV/AIDS initiatives, against LGBT people as parents.
Target and Best Buy, as has been widely reported since this summer, gave a grand total of $250,000 to a group known as MN Forward, a political action committee working to elect Emmer. Both companies received a boatload of flak, including tens of thousands of people committed to boycotting the brands. Now 3M has joined their club, giving $100,000 to MN Forward and in support of Emmer's candidacy.
In 3M's case (and this is the case for Target and Best Buy, too), the donation defies their corporate policies. 3M has excellent ratings on the Human Rights Campaign's (HRC) Corporate Equality Index and Buying for Equality guide, meaning that the company treats its LGBT employees pretty darn well. So why is it that within the offices of 3M, LGBT people are valued, but out in the world, the company is working to elect politicians with deeply troubling anti-gay records?
A number of folks argue that business is just business, and that corporations shouldn't be held responsible for the social positions of the candidates they endorse. But in a post Citizens United world, where corporations are able to give scads of resources to influence elections, is that answer good enough?
What makes 3M's donation particularly troubling (and again, Target's and Best Buy's, too), is that marriage equality may hang in the balance with Minnesota's gubernatorial election. 3M's candidate, Tom Emmer, will not sign a bill allowing same-sex marriage. Full stop. End of discussion. Shut the front door. Moreover, groups that have consistently demonized the LGBT community, including the National Organization for Marriage, have been actively supporting Tom Emmer's candidacy. Does it honestly make any LGBT consumer feel good to see Target, Best Buy, and now 3M all on the same political side as the National Organization for Marriage?
Hardly.
Emmer may have tax policies that make the executives at 3M, Target, and Best Buy all jump for joy. But if Minnesota sees a Gov. Emmer (and polls are all over the place, suggesting that the race is close), it's not just his tax policies that will shape the state. It's Emmer's anti-gay politics, too.
And for that reason, it's worth sending 3M a message that their money shouldn't go to support politicians who want to limit the civil rights of LGBT Americans. If they wouldn't do it within their own offices, why should 3M support such a move to do so beyond their walls?
Photo credit: TerryJohnston
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
NCs Tom Im heterosexual Fetzer becomes first RNC member to call for MC Steeles head
The head of NC's GOP, Tom Fetzer, has called for MC Steele's head. Iif only I could express something stronger than ROTFLMAO...For the first time since revelations that the RNC had spent some $1,946 at a risque L.A. nightclub, a member of the national body has called on Steele to step aside. In a letter to Steele dated today, NC GOP chair Tom Fetzer asks the chairman to step aside for what he says is the good of the party.Fetzer, you might recall, made national headlines for his interesting response to a radio show host's insinuation that the former mayor of Raleigh was light in the loafers ("NC: Former Raleigh mayor sues radio host over gay allegations; sends outlandish letter to media"). Anyway, here's the missive he sent to MC Steele...it's a hoot.April 8, 2010
Chairman Michael Steele
Republican National Committee
310 First Street, SE
Washington, D. C. 20003
Dear Michael,
I have prayed for you and hurt with you these last few weeks. I thank you for the passion you have brought to the job of leading our party, which is one of the reasons I have been a strong supporter of you during my tenure as Chairman of the North Carolina Republican Party. Some of the criticism directed at you has been deserved, some of it hasn't, but no one could criticize you for lack of effort or enthusiasm. This is not about finding fault or assigning blame. That's beside the point. The point is to deal with the reality of a situation that is becoming increasingly untenable. Without going into a lot of detail about the situation we find ourselves in, I offer my personal opinion that the best way for you to deal with the reality of the situation is to tender your resignation as Chairman of the Republican National Committee. I neither arrived at this conclusion lightly nor derive any pleasure from articulating it to you.
I think it's important for you to understand this is not about you personally. Or me. It's bigger than both of us. It's about providing the kind of leadership that our party and country needs right now. More than ever, America needs the Republican Party to be a force for reform, transparency, and ethics in government. If we are going to be an effective agent for reform in America, we must first reform our party. Leadership requires nothing less, especially the kind of leadership that our country needs right now. Recent events, regardless of who is to blame, have made it difficult if not impossible for you to lead the party in the direction that it needs to go. Sometimes service requires personal sacrifice and leadership always requires putting the interest of the cause we serve ahead of our own.
I believe that the best service you can render to your party at this critical juncture is to graciously step aside and allow the party to move on from this current quagmire. It will best move forward under new leadership.
I believe that we will have some measure of success this fall no matter what the RNC does or does not do. But in order to maximize our opportunities this year, we need a strong, effective RNC that has the full faith and confidence of the conservative activists, volunteers and our donors. I can attest that many grassroots leaders I've talked to in the last few weeks are very aware of the recurring drama that is playing out at the RNC - allegations of fiscal irresponsibility, management and questionable activities - and they are disgruntled and concerned that the RNC, under your direction, is setting a poor example of the kind of leadership voters can expect if Republicans are elected.
Again, this is not a personal indictment of you; rather it is a candid observation of where we are and where we need to go. As Republicans, we must pull together and restore our reputation as the party that stands for important things -- and isn't willing to compromise on those important things. I respectfully disagree with statements attributed to you and others that this is only about winning elections. It is not. It is about demonstrating that we have the ability to govern well when we win. We have a higher responsibility to our party and our fellow Americans than just winning elections. Among other things, that means we must set an example, a noble example, about what government should be about and about how it should go about the business of representing the best interests of all Americans. If, and only if, we do that well, the winning of elections will take care of itself and we will be confident and at peace in the outcome.
I know that many share this view, but are fearful of repercussions if they speak out, and are worried about making matters worse with public in-fighting. It is my view that failing to make this change is the more dangerous course.
Please consider giving the Party you serve the ability to bind its wounds, restore our activists' confidence and enhance the future of our nation.
Respectfully yours,
Tom Fetzer
NCGOP Chairman I think a telling point in the Hotline piece is this:Fetzer joins others, like former Steele consultant Alex Castellanos, who have called for the chairman to step aside. But Fetzer's voice matters to others; he is a member of the 168-person national committee, meaning he will have a vote when Steele comes up for re-election next year (Fetzer was not chairman when Steele was elected last Jan.).
So far, RNC members have been hesitant to call on Steele to step aside. Only Dr. Ada Fisher, NC's national committeewoman, had urged Steele to resign, albeit months ago. Fisher has little following on the committee, and Fetzer, as a new member, may not have much. Still, while veteran RNC members have said there is no appetite within the committee to throw Steele out, consensus is that once a few members began to call for his resignation, the chorus could grow.Why wouldn't they have the appetite? It's a problem of their own making, and Steele has already completed the shot across the bow -- playing the race card. If they make a move on him, he's going to bring the color-aroused party to its PR knees. Even if his claim is bogus (he was picked to be a token for crying out loud), the GOP, which we've seen stand by and not say or do anything to stop the racism bleated during 2008 by officials and followers of the party that has continued to this day.
Chairman Michael Steele
Republican National Committee
310 First Street, SE
Washington, D. C. 20003
Dear Michael,
I have prayed for you and hurt with you these last few weeks. I thank you for the passion you have brought to the job of leading our party, which is one of the reasons I have been a strong supporter of you during my tenure as Chairman of the North Carolina Republican Party. Some of the criticism directed at you has been deserved, some of it hasn't, but no one could criticize you for lack of effort or enthusiasm. This is not about finding fault or assigning blame. That's beside the point. The point is to deal with the reality of a situation that is becoming increasingly untenable. Without going into a lot of detail about the situation we find ourselves in, I offer my personal opinion that the best way for you to deal with the reality of the situation is to tender your resignation as Chairman of the Republican National Committee. I neither arrived at this conclusion lightly nor derive any pleasure from articulating it to you.
I think it's important for you to understand this is not about you personally. Or me. It's bigger than both of us. It's about providing the kind of leadership that our party and country needs right now. More than ever, America needs the Republican Party to be a force for reform, transparency, and ethics in government. If we are going to be an effective agent for reform in America, we must first reform our party. Leadership requires nothing less, especially the kind of leadership that our country needs right now. Recent events, regardless of who is to blame, have made it difficult if not impossible for you to lead the party in the direction that it needs to go. Sometimes service requires personal sacrifice and leadership always requires putting the interest of the cause we serve ahead of our own.
I believe that the best service you can render to your party at this critical juncture is to graciously step aside and allow the party to move on from this current quagmire. It will best move forward under new leadership.
I believe that we will have some measure of success this fall no matter what the RNC does or does not do. But in order to maximize our opportunities this year, we need a strong, effective RNC that has the full faith and confidence of the conservative activists, volunteers and our donors. I can attest that many grassroots leaders I've talked to in the last few weeks are very aware of the recurring drama that is playing out at the RNC - allegations of fiscal irresponsibility, management and questionable activities - and they are disgruntled and concerned that the RNC, under your direction, is setting a poor example of the kind of leadership voters can expect if Republicans are elected.
Again, this is not a personal indictment of you; rather it is a candid observation of where we are and where we need to go. As Republicans, we must pull together and restore our reputation as the party that stands for important things -- and isn't willing to compromise on those important things. I respectfully disagree with statements attributed to you and others that this is only about winning elections. It is not. It is about demonstrating that we have the ability to govern well when we win. We have a higher responsibility to our party and our fellow Americans than just winning elections. Among other things, that means we must set an example, a noble example, about what government should be about and about how it should go about the business of representing the best interests of all Americans. If, and only if, we do that well, the winning of elections will take care of itself and we will be confident and at peace in the outcome.
I know that many share this view, but are fearful of repercussions if they speak out, and are worried about making matters worse with public in-fighting. It is my view that failing to make this change is the more dangerous course.
Please consider giving the Party you serve the ability to bind its wounds, restore our activists' confidence and enhance the future of our nation.
Respectfully yours,
Tom Fetzer
NCGOP Chairman I think a telling point in the Hotline piece is this:Fetzer joins others, like former Steele consultant Alex Castellanos, who have called for the chairman to step aside. But Fetzer's voice matters to others; he is a member of the 168-person national committee, meaning he will have a vote when Steele comes up for re-election next year (Fetzer was not chairman when Steele was elected last Jan.).
So far, RNC members have been hesitant to call on Steele to step aside. Only Dr. Ada Fisher, NC's national committeewoman, had urged Steele to resign, albeit months ago. Fisher has little following on the committee, and Fetzer, as a new member, may not have much. Still, while veteran RNC members have said there is no appetite within the committee to throw Steele out, consensus is that once a few members began to call for his resignation, the chorus could grow.Why wouldn't they have the appetite? It's a problem of their own making, and Steele has already completed the shot across the bow -- playing the race card. If they make a move on him, he's going to bring the color-aroused party to its PR knees. Even if his claim is bogus (he was picked to be a token for crying out loud), the GOP, which we've seen stand by and not say or do anything to stop the racism bleated during 2008 by officials and followers of the party that has continued to this day.
Gay Games comming to London in 2018?
London is bidding to host the tenth Gay Games in 2018. The Gay Games, recently held in Cologne, are one of the largest sporting and cultural events in the world.
London coordinator, Jonathan Harbourne, is the founder of the London Raiders softball team and member of the LGBT Sports Network. In a press release he wrote: "Cologne was so inspiring, they put on an amazing Games. Many Brits came home with medals and the LGBT Sports Network is looking forward to putting on a party to welcome home all the athletes.
"We?ve come back fired-up to bring the Games to London ? taking it to the next level. London is in such a strong position to host the games in 2018. The 2012 Olympics will provide the best facilities in the world . . . this is going to be great for LGBT people, great for sport, and great for London."
The London 2018 Gay Games Bid committee are seeking volunteers to join their team, at all levels, to produce a winning bid. A public meeting is planned for January 2011 to bring together all potentially interested parties.
The website launches at the end of next month.
Image via Wikipedia
Image via Wikipedia
source:http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2010/08/13/london-announces-bid-to-host-tenth-gay-games-in-2018/
View Australian Queer News on the web at Gay News Blog
London coordinator, Jonathan Harbourne, is the founder of the London Raiders softball team and member of the LGBT Sports Network. In a press release he wrote: "Cologne was so inspiring, they put on an amazing Games. Many Brits came home with medals and the LGBT Sports Network is looking forward to putting on a party to welcome home all the athletes.
"We?ve come back fired-up to bring the Games to London ? taking it to the next level. London is in such a strong position to host the games in 2018. The 2012 Olympics will provide the best facilities in the world . . . this is going to be great for LGBT people, great for sport, and great for London."
The London 2018 Gay Games Bid committee are seeking volunteers to join their team, at all levels, to produce a winning bid. A public meeting is planned for January 2011 to bring together all potentially interested parties.
The website launches at the end of next month.
Image via Wikipedia
Image via Wikipedia
source:http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2010/08/13/london-announces-bid-to-host-tenth-gay-games-in-2018/
View Australian Queer News on the web at Gay News Blog
NAACP Leaders Reach Out to LGBT Community
While the NAACP national board has not taken an official stance on marriage between same-sex couples, former chairman Julian Bond and the group?s president Benjamin Jealous are open supporters and are reaching out to the LGBT community. "The NAACP is opposed to discrimination in all its forms,? Jealous said, adding, ?We recognize that many of our members are also members of the LGBT community, and just as the LGBT community counts on us to stand with it for basic civil rights protections, so we count on the LGBT community to stand with us in our unified struggle for the broader civil rights agenda.? Just last evening, Jealous was at the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center encouraging members to attend the One Nation rally for jobs and justice in Washington, D.C., next month along with other gay rights groups. Last year, the NAACP formed a gay rights equality task force to provide research on issues including hate crimes and bullying. Group leaders are still debating on the issue of marriage between same-sex couples. Related Media Coverage:Washington Post - September 23, 2010"NAACP reaches out to gays"http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/22/AR2010092205697.html
Being A Christian Is A Lifestyle Choice. . .Or So Obama Seems To Say
Being Christian is a lifestyle choice. That is what President Barack Obama said, or at least implied, when answered a questioner at a rally in Albuquerque, NM asked him about his faith.
Anti-Gay Yuri Luzhkov Ousted As Moscow Mayor
Russian President Dmitri A. Medvedev initiated a huge political shake-up by firing Moscow's malignantly anti-gay mayor, Yuri Luzhkov yesterday. The sackings comes after Luzhkov, who has been Moscow's mayor for two decades, became increasingly vocal in his criticism of Medvedev and, attempted to create a rift between the President and Vladimir Putin, the former President and current Prime Minister whom many say still controls the country.Luzhkov, whose family has deeply entrenched business interests in Moscow and whose position was the equivalent of a regional governor, did not release a statement, but President Medvedev did: ?It is difficult to imagine a situation under which a governor and a president of Russia, as the chief executive, can continue to work together when the president has lost confidence in the leader of a region."Deputy Mayor Vladimir Resin will fill in as acting mayor. Let's hope the city's next permanent leader doesn't think, as Luzhkov does, that gay people are "satanic."
Megachurch pastor keeps mum on sex allegations
(Atlanta) On Sunday mornings, accused megachurch Bishop Eddie Long is usually draped in regal robes and dripping with diamonds and platinum - the kind of material rewards he often says are in God's plan for those listening.
His message expected this Sunday will be the first in public since three young men accused him in lawsuits of having sexual relationships with them, which he has vehemently denied only through his lawyer and a Twitter posting.
Long built his congregation into a megachurch empire, telling his followers God wanted them to be wealthy and delivering fiery sermons with a secular swagger. He hangs with celebrities like rapper T.I. and donates money to charities and candidates. Even the county sheriff is among his followers.
Long spent more than 20 years building all that up, but his empire hangs in the balance. And his 25,000 followers aren't about to let it all come tumbling down after the three men's claims that the bishop abused his spiritual authority.
"I've always thought he was a very powerful man of God," said Anshay Tull, a 27-year-old attendee of Long's church, New Birth Missionary Baptist Church. "I'm just praying, trying to stay hopeful that it's not true. If it is true, he has to take that up with God. But that can't take away from the Word that he gives. I think he's very gifted."
He's preached against gay marriage, and his church has counseled gay members to become straight - even though the men claim in their lawsuits that Long used money, cars, international trips, jewelry and other objects to lure them into sexual relationships when they were 17 or 18 years old.
Long came to New Birth in 1987, when it had just a few hundred members. He had a flock of 8,000 just four years later and moved the church into a $2 million building. By 1995, the church's weekly television broadcast was airing in more than 170 countries. By Long's 10th anniversary, New Birth paid off its debts and for 240 acres of land to build a multi-million dollar church complex.
The church grew alongside its home of DeKalb County, now the second-largest in the state. It has one of the most affluent populations of African-Americans in the country, many of whom attend New Birth. Long's message of prosperity has dovetailed with their goals and dreams, as is evidenced by the many luxury cars in the parking lot on Sundays.
Long himself is a product of his message. His home was bought for $1.1 million in 2005.
"He has a kind of celebrity status, given his megachurch leadership," said Emory University religion professor Theophus H. Smith. "And Bishop Long has been especially noteworthy in terms of making a place for men's spirituality and black male manhood in the church."
Despite the church's economic and political power, though, it faces a somewhat uncertain future.
"People who are members at that church probably felt better about themselves because they are members," said Lester Spence, a professor at Johns Hopkins University. "Now, there are a whole bunch of people trying to figure out what their place is, what's going to happen to the church and what's going to happen to them."
Today, New Birth operates more than 40 ministries. The centerpiece of its campus is the $50-million New Birth Cathedral, which opened in 2001 and seats 10,000. Membership stands at more than 25,000, and New Birth flags flying from car windows are a common sight around metro Atlanta.
Long is married to Vanessa - referred to as "The First Lady" of New Birth - and the couple has three sons and a daughter.
There are those turned off by the church's size and its message, including former member Zack Hosley, 31, who criticized Long's rich lifestyle.
"If you see (Long) out and about in Atlanta, he rubs elbows with celebrities and I just wouldn't think a man of God would be hanging out with T.I," he said, referring to the Atlanta-based rapper who served time on federal weapons charges and recently was arrested on drug charges.
He is beloved by his congregation, though, which has dismissed the accusations as a test from God. After he canceled both an interview on a popular syndicated radio show and a scheduled news conference, Long is expected to address New Birth members Sunday during church.
His lone remarks have been a statement read by his attorney and a Twitter posting: "Thanks for all the prayers and support! Love you all."
"I wish the bishop would come out and make a comment and speak to us," said Lance Robertson, a longtime church member. "We want to hear from him. I think the world wants to hear from him. Right now, in the court of public opinion, it does not look good."
His message expected this Sunday will be the first in public since three young men accused him in lawsuits of having sexual relationships with them, which he has vehemently denied only through his lawyer and a Twitter posting.
Long built his congregation into a megachurch empire, telling his followers God wanted them to be wealthy and delivering fiery sermons with a secular swagger. He hangs with celebrities like rapper T.I. and donates money to charities and candidates. Even the county sheriff is among his followers.
Long spent more than 20 years building all that up, but his empire hangs in the balance. And his 25,000 followers aren't about to let it all come tumbling down after the three men's claims that the bishop abused his spiritual authority.
"I've always thought he was a very powerful man of God," said Anshay Tull, a 27-year-old attendee of Long's church, New Birth Missionary Baptist Church. "I'm just praying, trying to stay hopeful that it's not true. If it is true, he has to take that up with God. But that can't take away from the Word that he gives. I think he's very gifted."
He's preached against gay marriage, and his church has counseled gay members to become straight - even though the men claim in their lawsuits that Long used money, cars, international trips, jewelry and other objects to lure them into sexual relationships when they were 17 or 18 years old.
Long came to New Birth in 1987, when it had just a few hundred members. He had a flock of 8,000 just four years later and moved the church into a $2 million building. By 1995, the church's weekly television broadcast was airing in more than 170 countries. By Long's 10th anniversary, New Birth paid off its debts and for 240 acres of land to build a multi-million dollar church complex.
The church grew alongside its home of DeKalb County, now the second-largest in the state. It has one of the most affluent populations of African-Americans in the country, many of whom attend New Birth. Long's message of prosperity has dovetailed with their goals and dreams, as is evidenced by the many luxury cars in the parking lot on Sundays.
Long himself is a product of his message. His home was bought for $1.1 million in 2005.
"He has a kind of celebrity status, given his megachurch leadership," said Emory University religion professor Theophus H. Smith. "And Bishop Long has been especially noteworthy in terms of making a place for men's spirituality and black male manhood in the church."
Despite the church's economic and political power, though, it faces a somewhat uncertain future.
"People who are members at that church probably felt better about themselves because they are members," said Lester Spence, a professor at Johns Hopkins University. "Now, there are a whole bunch of people trying to figure out what their place is, what's going to happen to the church and what's going to happen to them."
Today, New Birth operates more than 40 ministries. The centerpiece of its campus is the $50-million New Birth Cathedral, which opened in 2001 and seats 10,000. Membership stands at more than 25,000, and New Birth flags flying from car windows are a common sight around metro Atlanta.
Long is married to Vanessa - referred to as "The First Lady" of New Birth - and the couple has three sons and a daughter.
There are those turned off by the church's size and its message, including former member Zack Hosley, 31, who criticized Long's rich lifestyle.
"If you see (Long) out and about in Atlanta, he rubs elbows with celebrities and I just wouldn't think a man of God would be hanging out with T.I," he said, referring to the Atlanta-based rapper who served time on federal weapons charges and recently was arrested on drug charges.
He is beloved by his congregation, though, which has dismissed the accusations as a test from God. After he canceled both an interview on a popular syndicated radio show and a scheduled news conference, Long is expected to address New Birth members Sunday during church.
His lone remarks have been a statement read by his attorney and a Twitter posting: "Thanks for all the prayers and support! Love you all."
"I wish the bishop would come out and make a comment and speak to us," said Lance Robertson, a longtime church member. "We want to hear from him. I think the world wants to hear from him. Right now, in the court of public opinion, it does not look good."
LGBT Suicide - It Gets Better Project with Dan Savage
Chicago-born Savage Love columnist and author Dan Savage and his husband Terry Miller have a message for all the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender youth out there: Whatever you're experiencing now, be it family rejection, bullying and harassment in schools or even thoughts of suicide, it gets better.
Yesterday, Savage and Miller launched a campaign called the It Gets Better Project with an eight-minute YouTube video (embedded below) discussing their experiences as gay youth, segueing into a glimpse into their lives today including how they first met - introduced by a mutual drag queen buddy at a bar - and their decision to adopt a son, DJ, and start a family together.
In Minnesota and Indiana, a pair of 15-year-old boys have in recent months taken their own lives as the result of anti-gay bullying and harassment. Upon reading that news, Savage has borrowed a page from pioneering LGBT activist Harvey Milk, who famously said, "You gotta give 'em hope." He hopes others will also create videos for the project, sharing messages of optimism about their own adult lives as open, proud queer people.
"Today we have the power to give these kids hope. We have the tools to reach out to them and tell our stories and let them know that it does get better," Savage wrote of the project. "[M]any LGBT youth can't picture what their lives might be like as openly gay adults. They can't imagine a future for themselves. So let's show them what our lives are like, let's show them what the future may hold in store for them."
The Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN)'s latest National School Climate Survey, released earlier this month, reports nearly nine out of 10 LGBT students experience harassment and nearly two-thirds of them felt unsafe in school. Only 11 states - Illinois included - currently specify LGBT students as a protected class in anti-bullying and harassment legislation.
It Gets Better Project on YouTube
Yesterday, Savage and Miller launched a campaign called the It Gets Better Project with an eight-minute YouTube video (embedded below) discussing their experiences as gay youth, segueing into a glimpse into their lives today including how they first met - introduced by a mutual drag queen buddy at a bar - and their decision to adopt a son, DJ, and start a family together.
In Minnesota and Indiana, a pair of 15-year-old boys have in recent months taken their own lives as the result of anti-gay bullying and harassment. Upon reading that news, Savage has borrowed a page from pioneering LGBT activist Harvey Milk, who famously said, "You gotta give 'em hope." He hopes others will also create videos for the project, sharing messages of optimism about their own adult lives as open, proud queer people.
"Today we have the power to give these kids hope. We have the tools to reach out to them and tell our stories and let them know that it does get better," Savage wrote of the project. "[M]any LGBT youth can't picture what their lives might be like as openly gay adults. They can't imagine a future for themselves. So let's show them what our lives are like, let's show them what the future may hold in store for them."
The Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN)'s latest National School Climate Survey, released earlier this month, reports nearly nine out of 10 LGBT students experience harassment and nearly two-thirds of them felt unsafe in school. Only 11 states - Illinois included - currently specify LGBT students as a protected class in anti-bullying and harassment legislation.
It Gets Better Project on YouTube
FAIRIES WITH CHILDREN OPENS TO FIGHT FOR GAY EQUALITY -- (Drag Musical Spoof focuses on the Suburban Conservative as the key to changing hearts and minds of all Americans)
(09-10-10) -- The new musical spoof "Fairies With Children, The Yes On Hate Episode" will open October 22nd at the Meta Theatre 7801 Melrose Avenue for a six week run, Friday and Saturday only at 8pm. The show exposes the anti gay agenda prevalent in the suburbs of California. The gender bending parody is being produced by WideStance Productions (The Golden Gays). A percentage of the proceeds from the show will go to fight for marriage Equality. Tickets will be $30.00 and available on many discount ticket sites as well. More details available at
www.fairieswithchildren.com
www.fairieswithchildren.com
Monday, September 27, 2010
Smash and Dash
Some lesbians make it a point to get with a girl and get the goods, then disappear. Are you one of those girls? Or has that happened to you? Are there signs that a chick gives off that lets you know that they are going to be hitting it and quitting it? For the most [...]
Curve Auction :: Dani Campbell + the Real L Word Ladies
FW: Curve Magazine Auction: Lunch with Dani Campbell ++ EDEN Party with THE REAL L WORLD CAST!Exclusive eBay Curve Auction....
This is a chance of a lifetime!
Hang out with the smoking hot Curve magazine cover girl... lesbian firefighter DANI CAMPBELL from MTV's A Shot at Love with Tila Tequila!
Now's your chance to hang out with Dani Campbell in San Francisco during Pride Weekend (June 26-27, 2010)
If you are the highest bidder, you and a friend will party with Dani Campbell and the Curve magazine editors in San Francisco during Pride Weekend!
Here's what's included:
? Lunch for you and a friend with Dani Campbell (Saturday, June 26th) in San Francisco
? Two (2) ALL-ACCESS general admission passes to EDEN - All Women, All Weekend.
EDEN: The official women's events at San Francisco Pride: with Dani Campbell and cast members from Showtime's new series, The Real L Word.
Include general admission passes to:
EDEN Welcome Party (Thursday, June 24th)
Lesbian Comedy Show (Friday, June 25th)
Tease Dance Party (Friday, June 25th)
EDEN Signature Dance party (Saturday, June 26th)
Good Times after party in Oakland (Sunday, June 27th)
? One (1) autographed copy of Dani's Curve magazine cover
? One (1) official limited edition Curve magazine 20th Anniversary Tee Shirt
? Two (2) Grandstand tickets for at San Francisco?s Pride Parade (Saturday, June 26th)
FW: Curve Magazine Auction: Lunch with Dani Campbell ++ EDEN Party with THE REAL L WORLD CAST!
*** NOTE: This package does not include hotel, air travel or transportation.
????????
ABOUT EDEN:SIX MONTHS in the making...
Movement Productions and Curve Magazine present in conjunction with Olivia Travel, BoiBlue Events and FullCircle Events
The 1st ANNUAL All Women, All Weekend Pride Event
EDEN is the 1st Annual All Women, All Weekend San Francisco Pride Event co-produced by Movement Productions and Curve Magazine in conjunction with Olivia Travel, BoiBlue Events and FullCircle Events. Welcome to four days of non-stop parties, women and more. For information on ticket prices please click here (http://edensf.eventbrite.com/)
THURSDAY - June 24tn
EDEN Welcome Party
Parc55, SF
7pm-9pm
Only available to ALL ACCESS and ALL ACCESS VIP Ticket Holders
FRIDAY - June 25th
EDEN Comedy Show co-sponsored by Olivia Travel
Parc55, SF
7pm-9pm
Featured Comedians: Dana Goldberg, Sandra Valls, Julie Goldman, Gina Yashere
FRIDAY - June 25th
TEASE
Suite 181
181 Eddy, SF
9pm-3am
Featured DJs: DJ Olga T, DJ C-L.A. DJ Calalo, DJ Campbell, DJ Rockaway
Hosted by: Aysha of Flourish and Miranda of Afterglow
2 Floors
3 Dancefloors
5 DJs
Gorgeous, Hosted VIP areas
Bottle Service (VIP only)
Hot Go-Gos
Hotter Celesbians
SATURDAY - June 26th
EDEN
Taste the Forbidden Fruit
434 Brannan, SF
Inside the historic Olivia Travel Building, 3rd Floor
9pm-3am
Featured DJs: DJ Olga T, DJ Ms. Jackson, DJ Rockaway
Be transported into the Garden of Eden with 180 degree views overlooking the city, Movement Productions and FullCircle Events have created San Francisco's very own Eden inside the historic Olivia Travel building. Come taste of the Forbidden Fruit.
The Flyest Music
Hot Go-Gos
Drink Specials
Meet our Comedians
Special Guest Celesbians from THE REAL L WORD
Hosted VIP section
Hosted Bottle Service
Red Carpet
Valet Parking
SUNDAY - June 27th
GOOD TIMES
The Den, Oakland
7pm-midnight
Featured DJs: DJ Olga T, DJ Rapture, DJ Ryan, DJ Trinity, DJ Jacatac
End your party weekend right at one of the most popular All Women's event in the Bay, GOOD TIMES in the city with the largest lesbian population in the country, Oakland! GOOD TIMES is hosted at one of the most beautifully appointed venues in Oakland, The Den. Right across from the 17th street Bart, it takes less than 20 minutes to Bart over from the city and trust it is well worth the trip!
To bid, go here: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=300434151013&ssPageName=ADME:B:EF:US:1123
This is a chance of a lifetime!
Hang out with the smoking hot Curve magazine cover girl... lesbian firefighter DANI CAMPBELL from MTV's A Shot at Love with Tila Tequila!
Now's your chance to hang out with Dani Campbell in San Francisco during Pride Weekend (June 26-27, 2010)
If you are the highest bidder, you and a friend will party with Dani Campbell and the Curve magazine editors in San Francisco during Pride Weekend!
Here's what's included:
? Lunch for you and a friend with Dani Campbell (Saturday, June 26th) in San Francisco
? Two (2) ALL-ACCESS general admission passes to EDEN - All Women, All Weekend.
EDEN: The official women's events at San Francisco Pride: with Dani Campbell and cast members from Showtime's new series, The Real L Word.
Include general admission passes to:
EDEN Welcome Party (Thursday, June 24th)
Lesbian Comedy Show (Friday, June 25th)
Tease Dance Party (Friday, June 25th)
EDEN Signature Dance party (Saturday, June 26th)
Good Times after party in Oakland (Sunday, June 27th)
? One (1) autographed copy of Dani's Curve magazine cover
? One (1) official limited edition Curve magazine 20th Anniversary Tee Shirt
? Two (2) Grandstand tickets for at San Francisco?s Pride Parade (Saturday, June 26th)
FW: Curve Magazine Auction: Lunch with Dani Campbell ++ EDEN Party with THE REAL L WORLD CAST!
*** NOTE: This package does not include hotel, air travel or transportation.
????????
ABOUT EDEN:SIX MONTHS in the making...
Movement Productions and Curve Magazine present in conjunction with Olivia Travel, BoiBlue Events and FullCircle Events
The 1st ANNUAL All Women, All Weekend Pride Event
EDEN is the 1st Annual All Women, All Weekend San Francisco Pride Event co-produced by Movement Productions and Curve Magazine in conjunction with Olivia Travel, BoiBlue Events and FullCircle Events. Welcome to four days of non-stop parties, women and more. For information on ticket prices please click here (http://edensf.eventbrite.com/)
THURSDAY - June 24tn
EDEN Welcome Party
Parc55, SF
7pm-9pm
Only available to ALL ACCESS and ALL ACCESS VIP Ticket Holders
FRIDAY - June 25th
EDEN Comedy Show co-sponsored by Olivia Travel
Parc55, SF
7pm-9pm
Featured Comedians: Dana Goldberg, Sandra Valls, Julie Goldman, Gina Yashere
FRIDAY - June 25th
TEASE
Suite 181
181 Eddy, SF
9pm-3am
Featured DJs: DJ Olga T, DJ C-L.A. DJ Calalo, DJ Campbell, DJ Rockaway
Hosted by: Aysha of Flourish and Miranda of Afterglow
2 Floors
3 Dancefloors
5 DJs
Gorgeous, Hosted VIP areas
Bottle Service (VIP only)
Hot Go-Gos
Hotter Celesbians
SATURDAY - June 26th
EDEN
Taste the Forbidden Fruit
434 Brannan, SF
Inside the historic Olivia Travel Building, 3rd Floor
9pm-3am
Featured DJs: DJ Olga T, DJ Ms. Jackson, DJ Rockaway
Be transported into the Garden of Eden with 180 degree views overlooking the city, Movement Productions and FullCircle Events have created San Francisco's very own Eden inside the historic Olivia Travel building. Come taste of the Forbidden Fruit.
The Flyest Music
Hot Go-Gos
Drink Specials
Meet our Comedians
Special Guest Celesbians from THE REAL L WORD
Hosted VIP section
Hosted Bottle Service
Red Carpet
Valet Parking
SUNDAY - June 27th
GOOD TIMES
The Den, Oakland
7pm-midnight
Featured DJs: DJ Olga T, DJ Rapture, DJ Ryan, DJ Trinity, DJ Jacatac
End your party weekend right at one of the most popular All Women's event in the Bay, GOOD TIMES in the city with the largest lesbian population in the country, Oakland! GOOD TIMES is hosted at one of the most beautifully appointed venues in Oakland, The Den. Right across from the 17th street Bart, it takes less than 20 minutes to Bart over from the city and trust it is well worth the trip!
To bid, go here: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=300434151013&ssPageName=ADME:B:EF:US:1123
RATIFY WOMEN! Campaign Launches
http://www.now.org/ratifywomen/index.htmlCheck out NOW's new campaign to get CEDAW, the Women's Rights Treaty, ratified at last in the U.S.
Lady Gaga is coming to San Diego
Lady Gaga has added 12 dates to the 2011 North American Monster Ball with new shows from Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, o San Diego!
Tickets for these performances go on sale to the general public as early as Friday, Oct. 1.
See the new dates below and head to the EVENTS on Lady Gaga's website for full details on the 2011 Monster Ball.
Concert dates:
3/1 ? Grand Rapids, MI - Van Andel Arena ? On sale Saturday, Oct. 2
3/4 ? Buffalo, N.Y. - HSBC Arena ? On sale Saturday, Oct. 2
Lady Gaga announces new dates for the 2011 North American Monster Ball, including a March 29 performance in San Diego. Tickets go on sale Friday.
read more
Tickets for these performances go on sale to the general public as early as Friday, Oct. 1.
See the new dates below and head to the EVENTS on Lady Gaga's website for full details on the 2011 Monster Ball.
Concert dates:
3/1 ? Grand Rapids, MI - Van Andel Arena ? On sale Saturday, Oct. 2
3/4 ? Buffalo, N.Y. - HSBC Arena ? On sale Saturday, Oct. 2
Lady Gaga announces new dates for the 2011 North American Monster Ball, including a March 29 performance in San Diego. Tickets go on sale Friday.
read more
Gay Day at Hillwood Museum & Gardens
Want to see treasures from 18th and 19th century Imperial Russia? How about French art? Hillwood Museum & Gardens is a decorative arts museum. It is the former lavish home and garden of Majorie Merriweather Post (1887- 1973), a woman who was--at one time--labeled the richest woman in the United States and owed General Foods, Inc upon her father?s death.
The Situation Loves His Gay Following
The Situation, the abs-flashing breakout star of MTV's reality series Jersey Shore, has had a big gay following for years and is thrilled about it.
Judge rules DADT discharge of Major Margaret Witt unconstitutional - she must be reinstated
AP:
A federal judge says the Air Force violated the constitutional rights of a highly decorated flight nurse when it discharged her for being gay, and ordered that she be given her job back as soon as possible.
U.S. District Judge Ronald Leighton issued his highly anticipated ruling Friday in the case of former Maj. Margaret Witt. She was discharged under the "don't ask, don't tell" policy on gays serving in the military and sued to get her job back.
In 2008, a federal appeals court panel ruled in her case that the military can't discharge people for being gay unless it proves their firing furthered military goals.
After a six-day trial, the judge said testimony proved Witt was an outstanding nurse and her reinstatement would do nothing to hurt unit morale.
A federal judge says the Air Force violated the constitutional rights of a highly decorated flight nurse when it discharged her for being gay, and ordered that she be given her job back as soon as possible.
U.S. District Judge Ronald Leighton issued his highly anticipated ruling Friday in the case of former Maj. Margaret Witt. She was discharged under the "don't ask, don't tell" policy on gays serving in the military and sued to get her job back.
In 2008, a federal appeals court panel ruled in her case that the military can't discharge people for being gay unless it proves their firing furthered military goals.
After a six-day trial, the judge said testimony proved Witt was an outstanding nurse and her reinstatement would do nothing to hurt unit morale.
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Lambda Legal and ACLU File Lawsuit Against Hawai`i Governor Seeking Civil Unions for Same-Sex Couples
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: media@aclu.org
"The political process has failed the thousands of families who need the protections civil unions would have provided."
Honolulu — Lambda Legal and the American Civil Liberties Union of Hawai‘i Foundation (ACLU) today filed suit against the State of Hawai`i three weeks after Governor Linda Lingle's veto of House Bill (HB) 444, a bill that would have allowed unmarried couples to enter civil unions with comprehensive state law rights and responsibilities. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of six same-sex couples, five from O`ahu and one from Hawai`i Island.
"It's tragic that something needed so badly by so many Hawai`i families was derailed with a stroke of the governor's pen," said Jennifer C. Pizer, Lambda Legal Senior Counsel. "We had hoped we'd never have to file this lawsuit but the political process has failed the thousands of families who need the protections civil unions would have provided. Every Hawai`i family should be treated equally under the law, but because the state refuses to do that, we're forced to go to the courts."
The complaint filed today in the Hawai`i First Circuit Court argues that the state violates its own constitution by denying same-sex couples important rights and protections readily available to heterosexual couples through marriage.
Lois Perrin, Legal Director for the ACLU of Hawaii said: "Governor Lingle vetoed HB 444, thereby failing in her sworn duty to do what's best for the state she governs. To add insult to injury, she would now put fundamental rights up for a popular vote. The constitution and the courts exist to prevent the majority – even when spearheaded by the Governor - from denying the rights of the few, which is why we filed this case.
Hawai`i's constitution was amended in 1998 to allow the Legislature to restrict marriage to heterosexual couples, which it has done. The lawsuit does not ask for marriage – only for the state to make available the full range of state law protections and duties to gay and lesbian couples, such as access to the same legal protections regarding parent-child relationships, access to family court, child support and alimony. The current "reciprocal beneficiaries" system not only fails to provide many basic rights but also is confusing in its incompleteness and sends a harmful message that the state views same-sex couples as unworthy of the full range of rights and protections.
Jennifer C. Pizer and Tara Borelli of Lambda Legal's Western Regional Office in Los Angeles, and Lois Perrin, Daniel Gluck and Laurie A. Temple of the ACLU of Hawai`i are co-counsel in the case. Paul Alston, Clyde Wadsworth, and Stephen M.Tannenbaum of the law firm of Alston, Hunt, Floyd & Ing are serving as cooperating attorneys.
Filing documents and more information available at: www.lambdalegal.org/young-v-lingle
CONTACT: media@aclu.org
"The political process has failed the thousands of families who need the protections civil unions would have provided."
Honolulu — Lambda Legal and the American Civil Liberties Union of Hawai‘i Foundation (ACLU) today filed suit against the State of Hawai`i three weeks after Governor Linda Lingle's veto of House Bill (HB) 444, a bill that would have allowed unmarried couples to enter civil unions with comprehensive state law rights and responsibilities. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of six same-sex couples, five from O`ahu and one from Hawai`i Island.
"It's tragic that something needed so badly by so many Hawai`i families was derailed with a stroke of the governor's pen," said Jennifer C. Pizer, Lambda Legal Senior Counsel. "We had hoped we'd never have to file this lawsuit but the political process has failed the thousands of families who need the protections civil unions would have provided. Every Hawai`i family should be treated equally under the law, but because the state refuses to do that, we're forced to go to the courts."
The complaint filed today in the Hawai`i First Circuit Court argues that the state violates its own constitution by denying same-sex couples important rights and protections readily available to heterosexual couples through marriage.
Lois Perrin, Legal Director for the ACLU of Hawaii said: "Governor Lingle vetoed HB 444, thereby failing in her sworn duty to do what's best for the state she governs. To add insult to injury, she would now put fundamental rights up for a popular vote. The constitution and the courts exist to prevent the majority – even when spearheaded by the Governor - from denying the rights of the few, which is why we filed this case.
Hawai`i's constitution was amended in 1998 to allow the Legislature to restrict marriage to heterosexual couples, which it has done. The lawsuit does not ask for marriage – only for the state to make available the full range of state law protections and duties to gay and lesbian couples, such as access to the same legal protections regarding parent-child relationships, access to family court, child support and alimony. The current "reciprocal beneficiaries" system not only fails to provide many basic rights but also is confusing in its incompleteness and sends a harmful message that the state views same-sex couples as unworthy of the full range of rights and protections.
Jennifer C. Pizer and Tara Borelli of Lambda Legal's Western Regional Office in Los Angeles, and Lois Perrin, Daniel Gluck and Laurie A. Temple of the ACLU of Hawai`i are co-counsel in the case. Paul Alston, Clyde Wadsworth, and Stephen M.Tannenbaum of the law firm of Alston, Hunt, Floyd & Ing are serving as cooperating attorneys.
Filing documents and more information available at: www.lambdalegal.org/young-v-lingle
?Different families, same love? exhibition now in Slovakia
Inspired by the successful poster campaign with the same name, ILGA-Europe presents a travelling exhibition that is now touring through Europe.
The main point of the ‘Different families, same love’ exhibition is equal family rights no matter a person’s sexual orientation and gender identity. The portraits in the exhibition show twelve different families, that have one thing in common: love!
After being in Poland for a while, the second stop of the exhibition is now Bratislava, Slovakia. From the ILGA-Europe website:
The 12 images of the exhibition summarise the challenges LGBT families face in Europe due to the lack of legal recognition and highlight the positive development in the continent. In Slovakia LGBT families and their children are not legally recognised and do not have any protections of the law. And neither joint nor second parent adoption is available to same-sex couples in Slovakia. The aim of the exhibition is to expose the type of discrimination that these families face, and by doing this challenge the social acceptance of the situation.
ILGA-Europe together with the Slovakian member organisation, Iniciatíva Inakos?, is organising the exhibition in Bratislava during the local LGBT film festival, Filmový festival inakosti. The film festival will be held from 29 September to 5 October 2010 in the Slovak capital Bratislava and several festival screenings will take place in two other cities, Košice and Vrútky. It is also organised by Iniciatíva Inakos? together with a team of dedicated volunteers.
The exhibition will be displayed in the lobby of the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Bratislava (Právnická fakulta UK Bratislava, Šafárikovo námestie 6) from the 22nd of September to the 15th of October. You can also check out the exhibition images on ILGA-Europe’s website.
The main point of the ‘Different families, same love’ exhibition is equal family rights no matter a person’s sexual orientation and gender identity. The portraits in the exhibition show twelve different families, that have one thing in common: love!
After being in Poland for a while, the second stop of the exhibition is now Bratislava, Slovakia. From the ILGA-Europe website:
The 12 images of the exhibition summarise the challenges LGBT families face in Europe due to the lack of legal recognition and highlight the positive development in the continent. In Slovakia LGBT families and their children are not legally recognised and do not have any protections of the law. And neither joint nor second parent adoption is available to same-sex couples in Slovakia. The aim of the exhibition is to expose the type of discrimination that these families face, and by doing this challenge the social acceptance of the situation.
ILGA-Europe together with the Slovakian member organisation, Iniciatíva Inakos?, is organising the exhibition in Bratislava during the local LGBT film festival, Filmový festival inakosti. The film festival will be held from 29 September to 5 October 2010 in the Slovak capital Bratislava and several festival screenings will take place in two other cities, Košice and Vrútky. It is also organised by Iniciatíva Inakos? together with a team of dedicated volunteers.
The exhibition will be displayed in the lobby of the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Bratislava (Právnická fakulta UK Bratislava, Šafárikovo námestie 6) from the 22nd of September to the 15th of October. You can also check out the exhibition images on ILGA-Europe’s website.
POSITIVELY AWARE Magazine Announces ?A Day with HIV in America? Photo Essay
To commemorate World AIDS Day, POSITIVELY AWARE magazine is compiling a photo essay entitled ?A Day with HIV in America.? On September 21, people from all across the country, both HIV-positive and negative, care providers, lawmakers, advocates, families, and friends will take a snapshot of a moment from their everyday life.
The photo essay hopes to present a portrait of our world and to put a face on HIV/AIDS in the U.S., in an effort to de-stigmatize life with HIV. Selected photos will appear in a special section of the November/December issue of POSITIVELY AWARE. Additional photo submissions will be available for viewing at A Day with HIV . Social media users can join others who are involved in the project on the Facebook group ?A Day with HIV in America,? and also take part in the conversation on Twitter .
Using a digital camera or cell phone, the photos will capture a scene: Getting ready for work. Hanging out with friends. Spending a quiet moment alone. Caring for someone with HIV. The idea is to come up with the person?s own response to the question, ?What does it mean to live with HIV??
Photos are to be submitted by September 23 to��� artdirector @ positivelyaware.com. Submissions must include the person?s name (and the names of anyone else in the photo), phone number (of all participants), HIV status (optional), and a caption describing the scene, giving the location and time of day the picture was taken. Signed release forms will also be required for submissions to be considered.
Photos can be in JPEG, TIF, or RAW file format, and must have a minimum resolution of 300 dpi at 4 x 5 inches. Photos can be color or black and white. Cell phone camera photos are acceptable, provided that they meet resolution requirements.
POSITIVELY AWARE is an internationally known and respected magazine devoted to HIV treatment and wellness. It has a circulation of over 85,000, and is published bi-monthly by Test Positive Aware Network (TPAN) in Chicago, the only publication of its kind to be produced by a non-profit AIDS agency. Founded in 1987, TPAN is Chicago?s oldest peer-led AIDS service organization and specializes in treatment information, support services, and prevention.
To order copies of the magazine, call (773) 989-9400 or email distribution @ tpan.com. For more information about TPAN and POSITIVELY AWARE magazine visit�TPAN� and Positively Aware .
Best Gay News
Best Gay Chicago
The photo essay hopes to present a portrait of our world and to put a face on HIV/AIDS in the U.S., in an effort to de-stigmatize life with HIV. Selected photos will appear in a special section of the November/December issue of POSITIVELY AWARE. Additional photo submissions will be available for viewing at A Day with HIV . Social media users can join others who are involved in the project on the Facebook group ?A Day with HIV in America,? and also take part in the conversation on Twitter .
Using a digital camera or cell phone, the photos will capture a scene: Getting ready for work. Hanging out with friends. Spending a quiet moment alone. Caring for someone with HIV. The idea is to come up with the person?s own response to the question, ?What does it mean to live with HIV??
Photos are to be submitted by September 23 to��� artdirector @ positivelyaware.com. Submissions must include the person?s name (and the names of anyone else in the photo), phone number (of all participants), HIV status (optional), and a caption describing the scene, giving the location and time of day the picture was taken. Signed release forms will also be required for submissions to be considered.
Photos can be in JPEG, TIF, or RAW file format, and must have a minimum resolution of 300 dpi at 4 x 5 inches. Photos can be color or black and white. Cell phone camera photos are acceptable, provided that they meet resolution requirements.
POSITIVELY AWARE is an internationally known and respected magazine devoted to HIV treatment and wellness. It has a circulation of over 85,000, and is published bi-monthly by Test Positive Aware Network (TPAN) in Chicago, the only publication of its kind to be produced by a non-profit AIDS agency. Founded in 1987, TPAN is Chicago?s oldest peer-led AIDS service organization and specializes in treatment information, support services, and prevention.
To order copies of the magazine, call (773) 989-9400 or email distribution @ tpan.com. For more information about TPAN and POSITIVELY AWARE magazine visit�TPAN� and Positively Aware .
Best Gay News
Best Gay Chicago
Community News
FilmOut San Diego
San Diego’s LGBT Film Festival
FilmOut San Diego is the only GLBT film festival and 2010 Nicky Award Winner for Outstanding Community Event. Recently they announced Kaleb James as their newly appointed Festival Director. James has been FilmOut’s Volunteer Coordinator since 2004. Through his endless dedication to FilmOut, as well as his professional business and organizational skills, he is proven to be a worthy successor in the position.
Additionally, current Board Member Rick Goldenstein has taken on the position of Festival Board President. Michael McQuiggan is the Festival’s Programmer. Ron Oster & Frank Lechner will all remain on as Board Members. FilmOut San Diego’s monthly screening series will continu…
Read More
San Diego’s LGBT Film Festival
FilmOut San Diego is the only GLBT film festival and 2010 Nicky Award Winner for Outstanding Community Event. Recently they announced Kaleb James as their newly appointed Festival Director. James has been FilmOut’s Volunteer Coordinator since 2004. Through his endless dedication to FilmOut, as well as his professional business and organizational skills, he is proven to be a worthy successor in the position.
Additionally, current Board Member Rick Goldenstein has taken on the position of Festival Board President. Michael McQuiggan is the Festival’s Programmer. Ron Oster & Frank Lechner will all remain on as Board Members. FilmOut San Diego’s monthly screening series will continu…
Read More
4th man sues Ga. megachurch pastor
A fourth young male member of Bishop Eddie Long's megachurch is claiming Long coerced him into a sexual relationship.
Stars Attend Howl Premiere
Howl had its New York premiere last night at the IFC Center. The flm's stars James Franco, Aaron Tveit, and Jon Prescott joined directors Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman for the event.
Saturday, September 25, 2010
MT tea party removes leader after anti-gay post
HELENA (AP) - The Big Sky Tea Party Association’s board of directors has removed the organization’s president for an exchange on his Facebook page that appeared to condone violence against homosexuals.
Board member Roger Nummerdor says Tim Ravndal also has been kicked out of the Montana organization.
The board’s vote Sunday came after members learned of the online conversation that began with a comment about an American Civil Liberties Union lawsuit over rights for same-sex couples.
The conversation between Ravndal and another man appears to reference the 1998 death of University of Wyoming student Matthew Shepard, who was beaten and tied to a fence post. Police said Shepard was attacked because he was gay.
Ravndal apologized for the Ju…
Read More
Board member Roger Nummerdor says Tim Ravndal also has been kicked out of the Montana organization.
The board’s vote Sunday came after members learned of the online conversation that began with a comment about an American Civil Liberties Union lawsuit over rights for same-sex couples.
The conversation between Ravndal and another man appears to reference the 1998 death of University of Wyoming student Matthew Shepard, who was beaten and tied to a fence post. Police said Shepard was attacked because he was gay.
Ravndal apologized for the Ju…
Read More
Lindsay?s out of jail and on to rehab, where she will...
Lindsay?s out of jail and on to rehab, where she will hopefully start to get her shit together. Wonder if she can Tweet from there? Hmm..
A Baby Shower Cake
. I love Lamebook.com! It takes the best of Facebook that is submitted by Facebook users and posted for everyone to enjoy. This is an actual photo of a baby shower cake. Wow! I love the chocolate nipples - very nice touch.
Governor Brewer won?t recant
During the debate over Arizona’s immigration bill Governor Jan Brewer made the claim that there had been several headless bodies found across Arizona. Fortunately subsequent journalistic follow up found that claim to be false. However, strangely, in this week’s gubernatorial … Continue reading →
And Now Some Good News
A state court in Florida ruled on Wednesday that a 30-year-old law that bans gays and lesbians from adopting children is unconstitutional. The Florida Third District Court ruled in favor of Martin Gill, a gay man, who wanted to adopt the children that he had been a foster parent to for five years. The court said there was "no rational basis" to deny gays and lesbians from adopting children when it allows them to be foster parents. Governor Charlie Crist was happy with the decision and said "It's a very good day for Florida; it's a great day for children. Children deserve a loving home to be in." He said they would immediately stop enforcing the ban on gay parents adopting children. The state has 30 days to appeal the decision....Read Full Post
More Photos, Accusers for Rev. Long
More allegations and photos have surfaced in the case of the pastor accused of sexually abusing three young male church followers as he attempts to clear his name of any wrongdoing.
(14) Halloween Swinging! (1hr)
Questionable prank; Alix Olson?s, ?Cute For a Girl;? Lale complains about the prank, Some talk about swingers, Brit catches one of Tila Tequila’s TV suitors out at the local Halloween party, Loa sings ABBA and inhales second hand maryjane, Shelzy apparently wears too much costume at her local Halloween party
Florida Court Rules Adoption Ban Unconstitutional
In a major victory for lesbian and gay Floridians, the State?s intermediate Court of Appeals ruled in Florida Dept. of Children and Families v. In re: Matter of Adoption of X.X.G. and N.R.G. that Florida?s statute excluding homosexuals from adopting was unconstitutional under the Florida Constitution.
Friday, September 24, 2010
Tell Senators NOW: Repeal Don't Ask, Don't Tell Military Policy
http://salsa.wiredforchange.com/o/5996/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=2489Call and email your senators urging them to repeal Don't Ask, Don't Tell, the discriminatory restriction that has pushed more than 14,000 lesbians and gay men out of the military.
Watch: Rachel Maddow Clears the Smoke from the DADT Epic Fail
As you can imagine, Rachel Maddow had plenty to say last night on the DADT debacle.
Maddow nails Biden on a promise he said he made with lawmakers to get the DADT repeal votes, which he didn't get. She also goes after Republicans for obstruction.
In a segment she talks with Lawrence O'Donnell about what happened in the Senate, and in a third segment Nathaniel Frank, author of Unfriendly Fire, discusses the options that we have open to us now.
Watch, AFTER THE JUMP...
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
A discussion with Lawrence O'Donnell about what happened:
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
A discussion with Unfriendly Fire author Nathaniel Frank about the profound leadership failure:
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
Maddow nails Biden on a promise he said he made with lawmakers to get the DADT repeal votes, which he didn't get. She also goes after Republicans for obstruction.
In a segment she talks with Lawrence O'Donnell about what happened in the Senate, and in a third segment Nathaniel Frank, author of Unfriendly Fire, discusses the options that we have open to us now.
Watch, AFTER THE JUMP...
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
A discussion with Lawrence O'Donnell about what happened:
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
A discussion with Unfriendly Fire author Nathaniel Frank about the profound leadership failure:
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
Our Friend Kristin Wants to Be Top Guru
Ever want to quit your job, sell your house and travel? Who hasn?t? Our friend Kristin Flickinger, did just that. Now she?s in the running for a dream job with GayTravel.com. And she needs your help. GayTravel is looking for a North American Gay Travel Guru. Kristin is hot. Don?t believe me? Go check her out. Then vote for her. You must be signed in to vote, so make sure you create a profile and then activate it by checking your email. To vote for Kristin, Click "Guru" in the upper right hand corner, then "VOTE!" on the left side, then look for her bikini and click on her application. Then click "vote for Kristin" at the top and rate her "5" to show the love. Finally, make sure to "share" and "retweet" at the top. All of these things will help make her the GayTravel Guru! Here?s the best part: Vote, and then let Kristin know you did and you're entered to win a "tag along" trip with her if she becomes the Guru. She gets the gig, and someone gets to go along for part of it. Spread the word! Checkout MidLeap.com for details.Thank you all!
Appeals Court Stays Proposition 8 Injunction
Today the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit stayed U.S.
District Judge Vaughn Walker's injunction barring enforcement of
Proposition 8, California's voter-approved gay marriage ban. That
means new gay marriages cannot be legally performed at least until
the 9th Circuit decides the case and possibly until the Supreme
Court has its say (even longer, of course, if Walker's decision is
ultimately overturned).
More on the case here.
District Judge Vaughn Walker's injunction barring enforcement of
Proposition 8, California's voter-approved gay marriage ban. That
means new gay marriages cannot be legally performed at least until
the 9th Circuit decides the case and possibly until the Supreme
Court has its say (even longer, of course, if Walker's decision is
ultimately overturned).
More on the case here.
Look, a Tegan + Hayley WIlliams + Sara sandwich. AKA every teen...
Look, a Tegan + Hayley WIlliams + Sara sandwich. AKA every teen lesbians? dream come true. But with more clothes.�
Go to Spinner.com for part two (and because it?s awesome).�
Go to Spinner.com for part two (and because it?s awesome).�
"Though I?m reluctant to welcome her to the queer-loving family, if Elisabeth Hasselbeck has..."
?Though I?m reluctant to welcome her to the queer-loving family, if Elisabeth Hasselbeck has undergone a personal journey in which she saw the rainbow at the end of the tunnel and now supports every person?s right to love, then good for her.? - AE?s take on bitchface Hasselbeck?s recent claims to be pro gay marriage (and repro rights, whaaat?!). This doesn?t mean we have to hate her less, though.
Welcome in Timonium?
I am one half of a lesbian couple with small children thinking of moving out of Baltimore and out to the suburbs. So far Timonium looks like the best bet. Will we be welcome there? We have located some neighborhoods in Lutherville-Timonium that meet our requirements of nice yards and great public schools, but are unsure about the political climate. We don't need for there to be tons (or even any) other non-traditional families in the immediate area, we just need people to be generally accepting and friendly. I know people in the suburbs tend to be more conservative than in the city, but are they so conservative that they're likely to be hostile to us living next door? Or to not want to babysit? Or to not let their kids come over for dinner? Or to stare rudely as we walk around the block? I'm sure there are some problem individuals anywhere we might go, but we're looking for a decent general climate.
Any insights welcome!
Any insights welcome!
Thursday, September 23, 2010
Oh My Pod! - Episode 444 - Breathplay
Episode 444 - Breathplay
Apple's Annual iPod event was today! Join us as we talk new iPods, Apple TV and iTunes 10.
Guests: None
Recorded: 09/01/2010 via Skype/iChat/�bercaster
Mono | 1:03:10 | 30.4 MB
Call the comment line at 707-OHMYPOD
or
email us at feedback@ohmypod.net
read more
Apple's Annual iPod event was today! Join us as we talk new iPods, Apple TV and iTunes 10.
Guests: None
Recorded: 09/01/2010 via Skype/iChat/�bercaster
Mono | 1:03:10 | 30.4 MB
Call the comment line at 707-OHMYPOD
or
email us at feedback@ohmypod.net
read more
Politics, gay Michigan and Kat von D
Walk this way: The Office of Substance Abuse and Tobacco Control Policies and Programs of the Chicago Health Department will holds its annual "Walk for Recovery" Saturday, Sept. 25, in Washington Park at 10:30 a.m. The walk is approximately two miles long. Call 312-747-2138.
Watch: Rachel Maddow Trashes Log Cabin, Talks DADT Ruling Appeal
Rachel Maddow discusses the honors bestowed on Senators John Cornyn and Pete Sessions by the Log Cabin Republicans, and then speaks with The Advocate's Kerry Eleveld about what's expected in the LCR DADT case from Obama's Justice Department today.
Watch, AFTER THE JUMP...
Also, more on the Cornyn/Sessions honors here.
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
Watch, AFTER THE JUMP...
Also, more on the Cornyn/Sessions honors here.
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
Chely Wright on Oprah (Part 1)
.I have so much respect for her. Melissa & I watched this yesterday and there were so many aspects of her story that we could both relate to...If you can't see the above video, click HERE to watch it on YouTube.
Poisonous Parenting The ?Oh Father? Edition
It’s been a while since I’ve added to this series. There are probably a number of reasons, among them that I’ve found myself blogging more about other issues and less about LGBT issues. There are any nmber of reasons, including that my writing at work tends to bleed over to this blog because I have less time to write these days to my interest in what’s happening on the national political scene. But I’ve been keeping up with the latest chapter of the abuse scandal swirling in the Catholic church in the past weeks. And found myself thinking more and more about this series.
Besides the Catholic church scandal, there’s the news of the Boy Scouts covering up abuse. I find it, if nothing else, noteworthy that two organizations that have gone to some lengrhs to defend their anit-gay policies and that have inveighed against families like mine have the same problems with child sex abuse, and the same penchant for covering it up ? or, rather, keeping it in the closet.
Most recently, the Catholic church went all in against same-sex marriage in D.C. In response to couples like us getting married, and securing better protections for our families ? including our children ? the church changed its health coverage to deny coverage to spouses of new employees or current employees not already enrolled. It effectively abandoned the children in its foster care program, rather than license same-sex couples as foster parents. All of this is in keeping with Ratzinger’s earlier statements on same-sex marriage as well as his predecessor John Paul’s statements.
The Boy Scouts have gone to court to protect their policy of anti-gay discrimination, and won. (The result is that if either of my sons wanted to join the scouts, I would be prohibited from being as involved as my dad was when I was in the scouts.) Now it comes to light that the Scouts have their own problems with abuse and coverups.
With the Vatican in the grips of a pedophilia scandal, the spotlight in America is being turned on US scouting, which is accused of keeping quiet about decades of alleged sexual aggression by its leaders against young boys.
The Boy Scouts of America are being sued by a man who said he was abused five times when he was between 11 and 12 years old by his then-scoutmaster in Portland, Oregon.
The identity of the alleged victim, now 37, is being concealed for fear of reprisals related to the 29-million-dollar sex abuse lawsuit he brought against the Boy Scouts of America and its local Portland branch, the Cascade Pacific Council.
The plaintiff decried what he described as the group’s silence on sexual abuses targeting children and teenagers at the hands of trusted scout leaders.
Other articles say that the Scouts kept extensive “perversion files” chronicling years of sexual abuse by Scout Leaders, but often took no action to prevent abuse.
Both organizations have even attempted to paint themselves as the victims in the midst of their abuse scandals. One German priest went so far as to say that he “wemt too far,” but also felt “the boys did not take it very badly,” and claim that one victim said to him ? the abuser, mind you ? “It is not so bad.” In one remarkably tone deaf response, the Pope’s personal preacher Rev. Raniero Cantalamessa compared the criticism directed at the church in response to abuse reports to the “collective violence” suffered by the Jews due to anti-Semitism.
The Rev Raniero Cantalamessa was speaking at Good Friday prayers in St Peter’s Basilica, attended by the Pope.
In his sermon, he quoted a Jewish friend as saying the accusations reminded him of the “more shameful aspects of anti-Semitism”.
His comments angered Jewish groups and those representing abuse victims.
Father Cantalamessa said Jews throughout history had been the victims of “collective violence” and drew a comparison with recent attacks on the Roman Catholic Church.
(Spoken like a man so insulated from reality by the bubble he and many at the Vatican and in church hierarchy seem to occupy, that he doesn’t know the history of his own faith or his own church regarding antisemitism.)
Not to be outdone, at least one Scout leader has blamed parents for allowing the sleepover where abuse occurred.
The president of the Boy Scouts council for the Portland metro area has testified he believes the parents of some Scouts were negligent and even criminal for allowing sleepovers that led to sex abuse.
Eugene Grant told a jury in a $29 million sex abuse lawsuit against the Boy Scouts of America and its Cascade Pacific Council that parents should not have allowed boys to stay overnight with a single man at his apartment.
During cross-examination by Kelly Clark, an attorney for the victim, Grant said Thursday it was not Boy Scouts policy to allow sleepovers, especially when they were unsupervised.
“His parents should have known better,” Grant said, referring to the parents of the victim. “I think it was criminal.”
But when Clark pressed Grant about whether he knew the Boy Scouts had any formal policy against sleepovers in the early 1980s, Grant replied, “At the time, no.”
Grant later said he believed that, at the very least, the parents were negligent.
What does any of this have to do with me or my family? Well, both organizations have justified discriminating us and families like ours ? and even demanded exemption from laws that prohibiting such discrimination, while expecting to continue getting municipal funding and other benefits themselves.
But the core of their argument was summed up most recently by William Donohue of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights.
Roberts: Bill is good but you cannot link homosexuality to a paedophilia crisis in the Catholic church.
Bill Donohue: It’s not a paedophilia ? most of the victims were post-pubescent ?
Roberts: You know ?
Donohue: You’ve got to get your facts straight. I’m sorry. If I’m the only one that’s going to deal with facts tonight so be it. The vast majority of the victims are post-pubescent. That’s not paedophilia, buddy. That’s homosexuality.
Roberts: Bill, I don’t think as a person of faith that you really know what you’re talking about when it comes to a victim and a survivor. (crosstalk)
Donohue: It’s not of my opinion. Take a look at the social science data. I never said that most homosexuals are that way.
Roberts: No you just said that cut down homosexuals? (crosstalk).
Donohue goes on to attempt to define pedophilia down by moving the goalposts a bit on puberty.
King: You want to get in? Sinead, go ahead quickly.
O?Conner: Can I just ask very quickly if that gentleman, sir I don?t know your name? just, I?m not quite sure what post pubescent means. You mind explaining that to me?
Donohue: Explain what?
O?Conner: What does post pubescent mean?
Thomas: Post pubescent?
O?Conner: What does post pubescent?
Donohue: Post pubescent means beyond puberty, okay? In other words you?re an adolescent and that?s what homosexuals do and most of them the molesters have been homosexuals in the Catholic Church (crosstalk).
Thomas: So the boys deserved it because they were post pubescent?
Donohue: Now if you want to take that conclusion, I think that?s scurrilous. I never said that. Why would you say that about homosexuals?
O?Conner: Sorry Larry, at what age does somebody become, you know, post pubescent in America as a matter of ages?
King: What is the age?
Thomas: Ah? I don?t know. Let?s ask Bill. He seems to be the authority on post pubescency.
Donohue: 12, 13 years of age. Look, all I?m saying (crosstalk).
King: We?re out of time. We?ve just touched the surface. Now we?ve got Anderson Cooper coming on.
There are no hard fast rules, but may begin puberty around 12 or 13, and complete puberty by ages 17 or 18 ? some sooner some later. So, science doesn’t seem to agree with Donohue. Neither does the law in most states. There is no uniform age of consent in the U.S. Most state laws set the age of consent at 16, 16, or 18. Even in most of Europe the age of consent ranges from 14 to 17.
Instead he comes off as attempting to diminish the crimes in question by fudging the boundaries of puberty enough to say that the victims were not children. That’s not true anywhere in the U.S. or in most of Europe ? where many of the abuse cases occurred. In fact, on either side of the Atlantic, Donohue’s definition only hold true in a couple of places: Spain, which sets the age of consent at 13; and the Vatican State, which places it as low as 12.
Then there is the matter of the full page ad Donohue took out in the New York Times. [H/t Think Progress.]
Science is not on Donohue’s side, either, in what he was trying to infer by equating child molestation with homosexuality ? or associating them more closely with one another. I’ll refer to a previous post with links to sources stating that, among other things most child sexual abuse takes place in situations where the abusers present themselves as heterosexual. Plus, Jim Burroway dealt more thoroughly with the the question of whether “gays are a threat to children” than I could.
Still, I can’t sit quiet when someone like Donohue says that there’s a connection between homosexuality and the sexual abuse of minors.
SANCHEZ: Well, let me just stop you right there, because immediately as you say that, there are people watching this show, and I can hear them saying this, Bill Donohue, shame on you. Are you saying all gays are pedophiles?
DONOHUE: As I said in the ad, which I wrote, most gay priests are not molesters, but most of the molesters have been gay. And I also said, that there?s no such thing as a ? that homosexuality does not cause predatory behavior.
Let me give you a quick example. I?m Irish. Everybody who has half a brain knows that the Irish have a bigger problem with alcoholism than the Italians or the Chinese, for example. Does that mean because you?re an Irishman, therefore, you are driven to become an alcoholic? Of course, not.
What it means, though, if your group is overrepresented in a particular problem area, you ought to explore it. Yes, there?s a connection between Irish and alcoholism, and, yes, there?s a connection between homosexuality and sexual abuse of minors
No, there isn’t. If most of the victims in the scandals involving the church are male, perhaps its because ? as Maureen Dowd writes ? priests have have had unquestioned access to boys.
But I have a question for Donohue ? and while I know that he doest’t speak for the church, his words are essentially the same as what the church has always said.
What was the “connection” when Lou Kennard subjected at least six young girls to years of sexual abuse?
The nonprofit organization he founded is aimed at helping kids in the world’s poorest countries. But six women now say a Heber City man subjected them to years of sexual abuse in their youth.
Lon Harvey Kennard Sr. was charged Tuesday in 4th District Court with 24 counts of aggravated sexual abuse of a child, a first-degree felony; 21 counts of sexual exploitation of a minor, a second-degree felony; one count of forcible sodomy, a second-degree felony; and one count of witness tampering, a third-degree felony.
Kennard, 68, was arrested on March 17 by Wasatch County sheriff’s deputies following nearly two weeks of investigation that began with a phone call from a relative.
On March 6, a female relative of Kennard’s contacted a deputy to ask if Kennard was a suspect in a child sex abuse investigation. The woman told the deputy that Kennard’s son had shown her videos of Kennard engaging in sexual contact with an underage girl.
What was the “connection” when Angela Blackwell sold her 10-year-old granddaughter Johnny Lee Griffin, for some cocaine?
Angela Blackwell, 47, is awaiting her preliminary trial for charges of pandering, also known as pimping, and one count of criminal sexual conduct. Police say Blackwell is accused of selling her granddaughter in exchange for cocaine and other narcotics.
The suspected drug dealer, Johnnie Lee Griffin of Saginaw, is on the Crime Stoppers list of wanted criminals.
“It’s alleged that she traded the granddaughter to this gentleman for narcotics and in exchange he was allowed to sexually assault her,” said Sargent Joseph Dutoi.
Now police are on the lookout for Griffin, who faces multiple criminal charges. [Via Parents Behaving Badly.]
What was the “connection” when Danial Rinehart allegedly began raping his daughter at 13, impregnated her four times, and murdered the offspring?
According to the Cass County Sheriff?s Office, Danial “Danny” M. Rinehart, 47, began molesting his 19-year-old daughter six years ago. During those years, Rinehart impregnated his daughter on at least four separate occasions. The skeletal remains of two of the children were recently found in coolers on a property in Harrisonville. The third child’s skeletal remains are believed to be on an Indian reservation in Oklahoma.
“There have been four pregnancies and four births,” Cass County District Attorney Teresa Hensley said at a Friday afternoon press conference. “One child is still alive. That child is in the custody of Division of Children’s Services. The other three children are deceased. One of those children was born and died in Oklahoma; the other two children, in an investigation through the sheriff’s office, were found in coolers.”
The case first came to light on Oct. 3, 2008. Court documents show that on that day one of Rinehart’s daughters called police and reported that her father had been having sex with her sister. She went on to describe the birth ? the first in 2004 and the last in 2008 ? and death of each of the children and instructed police as to where the remains could be found.
What was the “connection” when Linda Rinehart allegedly knew of the abuse, did nothing to stop it, and participated in at least one birth?
Linda Rinehart is charged with two counts of endangering the welfare of a child and one count of hindering prosecution. Authorities said Rinehart did little to stop her daughter’s sexual abuse.
An automatic not guilty plea was entered on Linda Rinehart’s behalf.
…”If (Linda) would’ve taken the kids away, none of that would have happened,” said Dolores Rinehart, Danial Rinehart’s mother. “I think she needs to be done just as bad as Dan, because she was part of it.”
Court records indicate the abuse happened at a trailer behind Dolores Rinehart’s former home in rural Cass County. Two of the dead babies were buried near the house, police said.
Linda Rinehart told investigators that she knew her husband was molesting her daughter, and she helped with the births, court records show.
What was the “connection” when Tessa Van Vlera and Kenneth Kyle allegedly photographed themselves molesting Vlera’s infant daughter.
A California university professor and a Missouri woman already accused of having sex with the woman?s 13-month-old daughter now face a federal indictment for producing child pornography.
The U.S. Attorney?s office in St. Louis announced the indictment Wednesday against Kenneth Kyle, 46, of San Francisco, and Tessa Van Vlerah, 20, of Ballwin, Mo.
…Kyle, an assistant professor of public affairs and administration at California State University East Bay, also faces child pornography charges in California. Authorities in San Francisco arrested him in March after allegedly finding hundreds of child porn images on a computer in his home and on his laptop computer.
It was information found on his computer that led them to the St. Louis area, where Kyle had visited Van Vlerah four times in the past five months after they met on the Internet, according to St. Louis County police.
The pair allegedly molested the baby at St. Louis area hotels, police said.
What was the “connection” when James Clarence Davis and Sandra Davis traded sex with their 14-year-old daughter for car payments? [Via Parents Behaving Badly.]
A Dodge County mother and father have been accused of trading sex with their 14-year-old daughter in exchange for monthly payments on their minivan.
Dodge sheriff?s investigators say the girl?s parents made her do ?sexual favors? for the manager of Shorty?s Used Cars in Eastman so they wouldn?t have to make the $281 payment on the 1998 Dodge Caravan they bought two years ago.
The allegations surfaced after a months-long investigation into the girl?s welfare that began last summer.
…The teenager?s parents, James Clarence Davis and Sandra Davis, both 36 and Eastman residents, were jailed Friday on child molestation charges. James Davis also has been charged with aggravated child molestation.
The manager of the car lot, 66-year-old Wayne Bearden of Eastman, was, among other charges, locked up on charges of alleged aggravated child molestation and one count of child molestation.
What was the “connection” Father Joseph Pavanivel Jeyapaul sexually abused two teenage girls,
The priest — Father Joseph Pavanivel Jeyapaul of Ootacamund, India — served in a diocese in Crookston, Minnesota, for a little more than a year in 2004 and 2005, according to church documents unearthed in a lawsuit related to the case. Complaint letters from Crookston Bishop Victor Balke to Rome were acknowledged by Vatican officials, but no disciplinary action was taken, the documents show.
Jeyapaul is now the head of a church education commission in Ootacamund, giving him continued access to children, lawyers said.
…Balke wrote that according to an internal investigation, Jeyapaul took a teenage girl to his rectory in the summer of 2005, where “he proceeded to kiss her repeatedly, pulling her on top of him and at one point touching her beneath her clothing.”
Balke also said in the letter that Jeyapaul had misappropriated “a substantial amount of money belonging to the parish and also attempted to give a diocesan vehicle to a third party as payment for an outstanding debt.”
The bishop went on to warn the Vatican that it is “impossible to say that Father Jeyapaul does not at present pose a risk to minors.”
Six months later, “Father” Joseph abused a second girl. Five years later, he is still working in his home diocese in India.
What was the “connection” when Father James Poole raped and impregnated Rachel Mike?
In a 2005 deposition, Rachel testified that she had been molested by Father Poole in 1975, while in Nome for her second suicide attempt, an attempted overdose of alcohol and pills. He’d come sit by her bed, put his hand under the hospital blanket, and fondle her, she said.
She traveled between Stebbins and Nome several times in the late 1970s, spending time in hospitals and receiving homes. By 1977, Rachel testified, Poole had given her gonorrhea, and by 1978 she was pregnant with his child. In an interview with The Stranger, she said Poole encouraged her to get an abortion and tell the doctors she had been raped by her father. She followed his advice. “He brainwashed me,” she said. “He messed up my head, man.”
Rachel Mike’s father died in 2004. A year later, she heard Elsie Boudreau, another survivor of Poole’s abuse, being interviewed on the radio. Listening to Boudreau, Rachel was moved to finally tell the truth.
“He’s gone, and I’ll never have a chance to tell him in person,” she said, talking about her father between heaving sobs. “I was scared. In a way he knew, but?he never even touched me.”
“This man,” says Anchorage-based attorney Ken Roosa, referring to Poole, “has left a trail of carnage behind him.”
Mind you Poole was only one of many predatory priests the church shipped of to Alaska, to prey upon the native population there, in what The Stranger called “The Pedophile’s Paradise.”
Father James Poole’s story is not an isolated case in Alaska. On the morning of January 14 in Seattle, Ken Roosa and a small group Alaska Natives stood on the sidewalk outside Seattle University to announce a new lawsuit against the Jesuits, claiming a widespread conspiracy to dump pedophile priests in isolated Native villages where they could abuse children off the radar.
“They did it because there was no money there, no power, no police,” Roosa said to the assembled cameras and microphones. “It was a pedophile’s paradise.” He described a chain of poor Native villages where priests?many of them serial sex offenders?reigned supreme. “We are going to shine some light on a dark and dirty corner of the Jesuit order.”
…The suit, filed in the superior court of Bethel, Alaska, the day before, accuses several priests of being offenders and conspirators. Among the alleged conspirators is Father Stephen Sundborg, who is the current president of Seattle University and was Provincial of the Oregon Province of Jesuits from 1990 through 1996. (The Oregon Province includes Washington, Oregon, Montana, Idaho, and Alaska; as Provincial, Sundborg was head of the entire province.) The suit alleges that while Sundborg was head of the Northwest Jesuits, he had access to the personnel files of several pedophile priests, including one named Father Henry Hargreaves, whom he allowed to remain in the ministry. “As a direct result of Father Sundborg’s decision,” the suit alleges, “Father Hargreaves was able to continue molesting children, including but not limited to James Doe 94, who was raped by Father Hargreaves in 1992, when James Doe was approximately 6 years old.”
…This concentration of abuses is orders of magnitude greater than Catholic sex-abuse cases in other parts of the United States. Today, Roosa said, there are 17,000 Catholics in the diocese of Fairbanks, though there was a much smaller number during the peak of the abuse. Roosa compared this lawsuit to the famous Los Angeles suits of 2001, which claimed 550 victims of abuse in a Catholic population of 3.4 million.
These abusers in Alaska, Wall said, were specifically sent to Alaska “to get them off the grid, where they could do the least amount of damage” to the church’s public image.
This is an institution that, yet, wants to influence policy. It tried to use health care reform in this country to further restrict women’s access to safe, legal abortion ? a “pro-life” posture and penchant for protecting the “pre-born” perversely at odds with decades-old policies of placing pedophile priests in parishes with plenty potential new victims.
It was so opposed to my family having the protection of legal marriage that it threatened to cease caring for the sick, the hungry and homeless in D.C., while yet protecting priests who prey upon children and inflict immeasurable damage on lives this institution claims to be so concerned about ? at least, in-utero.
As a parent it is my duty to protect my children, and it is one I take very seriously. I would never knowingly put my children in harm’s way. The church, however, has done so as a matter of policy for decades, but assumes it has the moral authority to judge my fitness as a parent and an equal citizen.
It assumes the moral authority to judge me as less fit to be a parent than any of the parents above, solely because I am a gay man in a committed, loving marriage with another man.
The church would deny my fatherhood, yet it protects men who assume the title “father” while raping children ? men much like the parents mentioned above.
Yet it clings to a notion that it still has, and should still have, overwhelming moral authority to which people everywhere should listen.
Instead of listening, we are watching. I am watching. And the difference between the church and the child-rapists above is growing harder and harder to see.
Besides the Catholic church scandal, there’s the news of the Boy Scouts covering up abuse. I find it, if nothing else, noteworthy that two organizations that have gone to some lengrhs to defend their anit-gay policies and that have inveighed against families like mine have the same problems with child sex abuse, and the same penchant for covering it up ? or, rather, keeping it in the closet.
Most recently, the Catholic church went all in against same-sex marriage in D.C. In response to couples like us getting married, and securing better protections for our families ? including our children ? the church changed its health coverage to deny coverage to spouses of new employees or current employees not already enrolled. It effectively abandoned the children in its foster care program, rather than license same-sex couples as foster parents. All of this is in keeping with Ratzinger’s earlier statements on same-sex marriage as well as his predecessor John Paul’s statements.
The Boy Scouts have gone to court to protect their policy of anti-gay discrimination, and won. (The result is that if either of my sons wanted to join the scouts, I would be prohibited from being as involved as my dad was when I was in the scouts.) Now it comes to light that the Scouts have their own problems with abuse and coverups.
With the Vatican in the grips of a pedophilia scandal, the spotlight in America is being turned on US scouting, which is accused of keeping quiet about decades of alleged sexual aggression by its leaders against young boys.
The Boy Scouts of America are being sued by a man who said he was abused five times when he was between 11 and 12 years old by his then-scoutmaster in Portland, Oregon.
The identity of the alleged victim, now 37, is being concealed for fear of reprisals related to the 29-million-dollar sex abuse lawsuit he brought against the Boy Scouts of America and its local Portland branch, the Cascade Pacific Council.
The plaintiff decried what he described as the group’s silence on sexual abuses targeting children and teenagers at the hands of trusted scout leaders.
Other articles say that the Scouts kept extensive “perversion files” chronicling years of sexual abuse by Scout Leaders, but often took no action to prevent abuse.
Both organizations have even attempted to paint themselves as the victims in the midst of their abuse scandals. One German priest went so far as to say that he “wemt too far,” but also felt “the boys did not take it very badly,” and claim that one victim said to him ? the abuser, mind you ? “It is not so bad.” In one remarkably tone deaf response, the Pope’s personal preacher Rev. Raniero Cantalamessa compared the criticism directed at the church in response to abuse reports to the “collective violence” suffered by the Jews due to anti-Semitism.
The Rev Raniero Cantalamessa was speaking at Good Friday prayers in St Peter’s Basilica, attended by the Pope.
In his sermon, he quoted a Jewish friend as saying the accusations reminded him of the “more shameful aspects of anti-Semitism”.
His comments angered Jewish groups and those representing abuse victims.
Father Cantalamessa said Jews throughout history had been the victims of “collective violence” and drew a comparison with recent attacks on the Roman Catholic Church.
(Spoken like a man so insulated from reality by the bubble he and many at the Vatican and in church hierarchy seem to occupy, that he doesn’t know the history of his own faith or his own church regarding antisemitism.)
Not to be outdone, at least one Scout leader has blamed parents for allowing the sleepover where abuse occurred.
The president of the Boy Scouts council for the Portland metro area has testified he believes the parents of some Scouts were negligent and even criminal for allowing sleepovers that led to sex abuse.
Eugene Grant told a jury in a $29 million sex abuse lawsuit against the Boy Scouts of America and its Cascade Pacific Council that parents should not have allowed boys to stay overnight with a single man at his apartment.
During cross-examination by Kelly Clark, an attorney for the victim, Grant said Thursday it was not Boy Scouts policy to allow sleepovers, especially when they were unsupervised.
“His parents should have known better,” Grant said, referring to the parents of the victim. “I think it was criminal.”
But when Clark pressed Grant about whether he knew the Boy Scouts had any formal policy against sleepovers in the early 1980s, Grant replied, “At the time, no.”
Grant later said he believed that, at the very least, the parents were negligent.
What does any of this have to do with me or my family? Well, both organizations have justified discriminating us and families like ours ? and even demanded exemption from laws that prohibiting such discrimination, while expecting to continue getting municipal funding and other benefits themselves.
But the core of their argument was summed up most recently by William Donohue of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights.
Roberts: Bill is good but you cannot link homosexuality to a paedophilia crisis in the Catholic church.
Bill Donohue: It’s not a paedophilia ? most of the victims were post-pubescent ?
Roberts: You know ?
Donohue: You’ve got to get your facts straight. I’m sorry. If I’m the only one that’s going to deal with facts tonight so be it. The vast majority of the victims are post-pubescent. That’s not paedophilia, buddy. That’s homosexuality.
Roberts: Bill, I don’t think as a person of faith that you really know what you’re talking about when it comes to a victim and a survivor. (crosstalk)
Donohue: It’s not of my opinion. Take a look at the social science data. I never said that most homosexuals are that way.
Roberts: No you just said that cut down homosexuals? (crosstalk).
Donohue goes on to attempt to define pedophilia down by moving the goalposts a bit on puberty.
King: You want to get in? Sinead, go ahead quickly.
O?Conner: Can I just ask very quickly if that gentleman, sir I don?t know your name? just, I?m not quite sure what post pubescent means. You mind explaining that to me?
Donohue: Explain what?
O?Conner: What does post pubescent mean?
Thomas: Post pubescent?
O?Conner: What does post pubescent?
Donohue: Post pubescent means beyond puberty, okay? In other words you?re an adolescent and that?s what homosexuals do and most of them the molesters have been homosexuals in the Catholic Church (crosstalk).
Thomas: So the boys deserved it because they were post pubescent?
Donohue: Now if you want to take that conclusion, I think that?s scurrilous. I never said that. Why would you say that about homosexuals?
O?Conner: Sorry Larry, at what age does somebody become, you know, post pubescent in America as a matter of ages?
King: What is the age?
Thomas: Ah? I don?t know. Let?s ask Bill. He seems to be the authority on post pubescency.
Donohue: 12, 13 years of age. Look, all I?m saying (crosstalk).
King: We?re out of time. We?ve just touched the surface. Now we?ve got Anderson Cooper coming on.
There are no hard fast rules, but may begin puberty around 12 or 13, and complete puberty by ages 17 or 18 ? some sooner some later. So, science doesn’t seem to agree with Donohue. Neither does the law in most states. There is no uniform age of consent in the U.S. Most state laws set the age of consent at 16, 16, or 18. Even in most of Europe the age of consent ranges from 14 to 17.
Instead he comes off as attempting to diminish the crimes in question by fudging the boundaries of puberty enough to say that the victims were not children. That’s not true anywhere in the U.S. or in most of Europe ? where many of the abuse cases occurred. In fact, on either side of the Atlantic, Donohue’s definition only hold true in a couple of places: Spain, which sets the age of consent at 13; and the Vatican State, which places it as low as 12.
Then there is the matter of the full page ad Donohue took out in the New York Times. [H/t Think Progress.]
Science is not on Donohue’s side, either, in what he was trying to infer by equating child molestation with homosexuality ? or associating them more closely with one another. I’ll refer to a previous post with links to sources stating that, among other things most child sexual abuse takes place in situations where the abusers present themselves as heterosexual. Plus, Jim Burroway dealt more thoroughly with the the question of whether “gays are a threat to children” than I could.
Still, I can’t sit quiet when someone like Donohue says that there’s a connection between homosexuality and the sexual abuse of minors.
SANCHEZ: Well, let me just stop you right there, because immediately as you say that, there are people watching this show, and I can hear them saying this, Bill Donohue, shame on you. Are you saying all gays are pedophiles?
DONOHUE: As I said in the ad, which I wrote, most gay priests are not molesters, but most of the molesters have been gay. And I also said, that there?s no such thing as a ? that homosexuality does not cause predatory behavior.
Let me give you a quick example. I?m Irish. Everybody who has half a brain knows that the Irish have a bigger problem with alcoholism than the Italians or the Chinese, for example. Does that mean because you?re an Irishman, therefore, you are driven to become an alcoholic? Of course, not.
What it means, though, if your group is overrepresented in a particular problem area, you ought to explore it. Yes, there?s a connection between Irish and alcoholism, and, yes, there?s a connection between homosexuality and sexual abuse of minors
No, there isn’t. If most of the victims in the scandals involving the church are male, perhaps its because ? as Maureen Dowd writes ? priests have have had unquestioned access to boys.
But I have a question for Donohue ? and while I know that he doest’t speak for the church, his words are essentially the same as what the church has always said.
What was the “connection” when Lou Kennard subjected at least six young girls to years of sexual abuse?
The nonprofit organization he founded is aimed at helping kids in the world’s poorest countries. But six women now say a Heber City man subjected them to years of sexual abuse in their youth.
Lon Harvey Kennard Sr. was charged Tuesday in 4th District Court with 24 counts of aggravated sexual abuse of a child, a first-degree felony; 21 counts of sexual exploitation of a minor, a second-degree felony; one count of forcible sodomy, a second-degree felony; and one count of witness tampering, a third-degree felony.
Kennard, 68, was arrested on March 17 by Wasatch County sheriff’s deputies following nearly two weeks of investigation that began with a phone call from a relative.
On March 6, a female relative of Kennard’s contacted a deputy to ask if Kennard was a suspect in a child sex abuse investigation. The woman told the deputy that Kennard’s son had shown her videos of Kennard engaging in sexual contact with an underage girl.
What was the “connection” when Angela Blackwell sold her 10-year-old granddaughter Johnny Lee Griffin, for some cocaine?
Angela Blackwell, 47, is awaiting her preliminary trial for charges of pandering, also known as pimping, and one count of criminal sexual conduct. Police say Blackwell is accused of selling her granddaughter in exchange for cocaine and other narcotics.
The suspected drug dealer, Johnnie Lee Griffin of Saginaw, is on the Crime Stoppers list of wanted criminals.
“It’s alleged that she traded the granddaughter to this gentleman for narcotics and in exchange he was allowed to sexually assault her,” said Sargent Joseph Dutoi.
Now police are on the lookout for Griffin, who faces multiple criminal charges. [Via Parents Behaving Badly.]
What was the “connection” when Danial Rinehart allegedly began raping his daughter at 13, impregnated her four times, and murdered the offspring?
According to the Cass County Sheriff?s Office, Danial “Danny” M. Rinehart, 47, began molesting his 19-year-old daughter six years ago. During those years, Rinehart impregnated his daughter on at least four separate occasions. The skeletal remains of two of the children were recently found in coolers on a property in Harrisonville. The third child’s skeletal remains are believed to be on an Indian reservation in Oklahoma.
“There have been four pregnancies and four births,” Cass County District Attorney Teresa Hensley said at a Friday afternoon press conference. “One child is still alive. That child is in the custody of Division of Children’s Services. The other three children are deceased. One of those children was born and died in Oklahoma; the other two children, in an investigation through the sheriff’s office, were found in coolers.”
The case first came to light on Oct. 3, 2008. Court documents show that on that day one of Rinehart’s daughters called police and reported that her father had been having sex with her sister. She went on to describe the birth ? the first in 2004 and the last in 2008 ? and death of each of the children and instructed police as to where the remains could be found.
What was the “connection” when Linda Rinehart allegedly knew of the abuse, did nothing to stop it, and participated in at least one birth?
Linda Rinehart is charged with two counts of endangering the welfare of a child and one count of hindering prosecution. Authorities said Rinehart did little to stop her daughter’s sexual abuse.
An automatic not guilty plea was entered on Linda Rinehart’s behalf.
…”If (Linda) would’ve taken the kids away, none of that would have happened,” said Dolores Rinehart, Danial Rinehart’s mother. “I think she needs to be done just as bad as Dan, because she was part of it.”
Court records indicate the abuse happened at a trailer behind Dolores Rinehart’s former home in rural Cass County. Two of the dead babies were buried near the house, police said.
Linda Rinehart told investigators that she knew her husband was molesting her daughter, and she helped with the births, court records show.
What was the “connection” when Tessa Van Vlera and Kenneth Kyle allegedly photographed themselves molesting Vlera’s infant daughter.
A California university professor and a Missouri woman already accused of having sex with the woman?s 13-month-old daughter now face a federal indictment for producing child pornography.
The U.S. Attorney?s office in St. Louis announced the indictment Wednesday against Kenneth Kyle, 46, of San Francisco, and Tessa Van Vlerah, 20, of Ballwin, Mo.
…Kyle, an assistant professor of public affairs and administration at California State University East Bay, also faces child pornography charges in California. Authorities in San Francisco arrested him in March after allegedly finding hundreds of child porn images on a computer in his home and on his laptop computer.
It was information found on his computer that led them to the St. Louis area, where Kyle had visited Van Vlerah four times in the past five months after they met on the Internet, according to St. Louis County police.
The pair allegedly molested the baby at St. Louis area hotels, police said.
What was the “connection” when James Clarence Davis and Sandra Davis traded sex with their 14-year-old daughter for car payments? [Via Parents Behaving Badly.]
A Dodge County mother and father have been accused of trading sex with their 14-year-old daughter in exchange for monthly payments on their minivan.
Dodge sheriff?s investigators say the girl?s parents made her do ?sexual favors? for the manager of Shorty?s Used Cars in Eastman so they wouldn?t have to make the $281 payment on the 1998 Dodge Caravan they bought two years ago.
The allegations surfaced after a months-long investigation into the girl?s welfare that began last summer.
…The teenager?s parents, James Clarence Davis and Sandra Davis, both 36 and Eastman residents, were jailed Friday on child molestation charges. James Davis also has been charged with aggravated child molestation.
The manager of the car lot, 66-year-old Wayne Bearden of Eastman, was, among other charges, locked up on charges of alleged aggravated child molestation and one count of child molestation.
What was the “connection” Father Joseph Pavanivel Jeyapaul sexually abused two teenage girls,
The priest — Father Joseph Pavanivel Jeyapaul of Ootacamund, India — served in a diocese in Crookston, Minnesota, for a little more than a year in 2004 and 2005, according to church documents unearthed in a lawsuit related to the case. Complaint letters from Crookston Bishop Victor Balke to Rome were acknowledged by Vatican officials, but no disciplinary action was taken, the documents show.
Jeyapaul is now the head of a church education commission in Ootacamund, giving him continued access to children, lawyers said.
…Balke wrote that according to an internal investigation, Jeyapaul took a teenage girl to his rectory in the summer of 2005, where “he proceeded to kiss her repeatedly, pulling her on top of him and at one point touching her beneath her clothing.”
Balke also said in the letter that Jeyapaul had misappropriated “a substantial amount of money belonging to the parish and also attempted to give a diocesan vehicle to a third party as payment for an outstanding debt.”
The bishop went on to warn the Vatican that it is “impossible to say that Father Jeyapaul does not at present pose a risk to minors.”
Six months later, “Father” Joseph abused a second girl. Five years later, he is still working in his home diocese in India.
What was the “connection” when Father James Poole raped and impregnated Rachel Mike?
In a 2005 deposition, Rachel testified that she had been molested by Father Poole in 1975, while in Nome for her second suicide attempt, an attempted overdose of alcohol and pills. He’d come sit by her bed, put his hand under the hospital blanket, and fondle her, she said.
She traveled between Stebbins and Nome several times in the late 1970s, spending time in hospitals and receiving homes. By 1977, Rachel testified, Poole had given her gonorrhea, and by 1978 she was pregnant with his child. In an interview with The Stranger, she said Poole encouraged her to get an abortion and tell the doctors she had been raped by her father. She followed his advice. “He brainwashed me,” she said. “He messed up my head, man.”
Rachel Mike’s father died in 2004. A year later, she heard Elsie Boudreau, another survivor of Poole’s abuse, being interviewed on the radio. Listening to Boudreau, Rachel was moved to finally tell the truth.
“He’s gone, and I’ll never have a chance to tell him in person,” she said, talking about her father between heaving sobs. “I was scared. In a way he knew, but?he never even touched me.”
“This man,” says Anchorage-based attorney Ken Roosa, referring to Poole, “has left a trail of carnage behind him.”
Mind you Poole was only one of many predatory priests the church shipped of to Alaska, to prey upon the native population there, in what The Stranger called “The Pedophile’s Paradise.”
Father James Poole’s story is not an isolated case in Alaska. On the morning of January 14 in Seattle, Ken Roosa and a small group Alaska Natives stood on the sidewalk outside Seattle University to announce a new lawsuit against the Jesuits, claiming a widespread conspiracy to dump pedophile priests in isolated Native villages where they could abuse children off the radar.
“They did it because there was no money there, no power, no police,” Roosa said to the assembled cameras and microphones. “It was a pedophile’s paradise.” He described a chain of poor Native villages where priests?many of them serial sex offenders?reigned supreme. “We are going to shine some light on a dark and dirty corner of the Jesuit order.”
…The suit, filed in the superior court of Bethel, Alaska, the day before, accuses several priests of being offenders and conspirators. Among the alleged conspirators is Father Stephen Sundborg, who is the current president of Seattle University and was Provincial of the Oregon Province of Jesuits from 1990 through 1996. (The Oregon Province includes Washington, Oregon, Montana, Idaho, and Alaska; as Provincial, Sundborg was head of the entire province.) The suit alleges that while Sundborg was head of the Northwest Jesuits, he had access to the personnel files of several pedophile priests, including one named Father Henry Hargreaves, whom he allowed to remain in the ministry. “As a direct result of Father Sundborg’s decision,” the suit alleges, “Father Hargreaves was able to continue molesting children, including but not limited to James Doe 94, who was raped by Father Hargreaves in 1992, when James Doe was approximately 6 years old.”
…This concentration of abuses is orders of magnitude greater than Catholic sex-abuse cases in other parts of the United States. Today, Roosa said, there are 17,000 Catholics in the diocese of Fairbanks, though there was a much smaller number during the peak of the abuse. Roosa compared this lawsuit to the famous Los Angeles suits of 2001, which claimed 550 victims of abuse in a Catholic population of 3.4 million.
These abusers in Alaska, Wall said, were specifically sent to Alaska “to get them off the grid, where they could do the least amount of damage” to the church’s public image.
This is an institution that, yet, wants to influence policy. It tried to use health care reform in this country to further restrict women’s access to safe, legal abortion ? a “pro-life” posture and penchant for protecting the “pre-born” perversely at odds with decades-old policies of placing pedophile priests in parishes with plenty potential new victims.
It was so opposed to my family having the protection of legal marriage that it threatened to cease caring for the sick, the hungry and homeless in D.C., while yet protecting priests who prey upon children and inflict immeasurable damage on lives this institution claims to be so concerned about ? at least, in-utero.
As a parent it is my duty to protect my children, and it is one I take very seriously. I would never knowingly put my children in harm’s way. The church, however, has done so as a matter of policy for decades, but assumes it has the moral authority to judge my fitness as a parent and an equal citizen.
It assumes the moral authority to judge me as less fit to be a parent than any of the parents above, solely because I am a gay man in a committed, loving marriage with another man.
The church would deny my fatherhood, yet it protects men who assume the title “father” while raping children ? men much like the parents mentioned above.
Yet it clings to a notion that it still has, and should still have, overwhelming moral authority to which people everywhere should listen.
Instead of listening, we are watching. I am watching. And the difference between the church and the child-rapists above is growing harder and harder to see.
Atlanta megachurch head denies sex with young men
(Atlanta) The prominent pastor of a 25,000-member megachurch near Atlanta denies allegations in a lawsuit that he coerced two young men from the congregation into a sexual relationship, his attorney said.
Lawyers for the men, now 20 and 21, say they filed the lawsuit Tuesday in DeKalb County Court against Bishop Eddie Long. The Associated Press generally does not identify people who say they were victims of sexual impropriety.
President George W. Bush and three former presidents visited the sprawling New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in the Atlanta suburb of Lithonia for the 2006 funeral of Coretta Scott King, the widow of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Long introduced the speakers and the Rev. Bernice King, the Kings' younger daughter, delivered the eulogy. She is also a pastor there.
The men who filed the suit were 17- and 18-year-old members of the church when they say Long abused his spiritual authority to seduce them with cars, money, clothes, jewelry, international trips and access to celebrities.
Craig Gillen, Long's attorney, says the pastor "categorically denies the allegations."
"We find it unfortunate that these two young men would take this course of action," Gillen said late Tuesday after news of the lawsuit broke. He said Long had not yet been served with copies of the lawsuits.
Long has called for a national ban on same-sex marriage and his church counsels gay members to become straight. In 2004, he led a march with Bernice King to her father's Atlanta grave to support a national constitutional amendment to protect marriage "between one man and one woman."
B.J. Bernstein, an attorney representing the plaintiffs, said that when the relationships started, the plaintiffs were past the legal age of consent in Georgia, which is 16.
"Defendant Long has utilized his spiritual authority to coerce certain young male members ... into engaging in sexual acts and relationships for his own personal sexual gratification," the lawsuits read.
When asked about a possible motive for the accusations, Gillen referred to a break-in at Long's office in June.
Bernstein said one of the plaintiffs is facing a criminal burglary charge in the incident. She said the break-in was a way of lashing out at Long.
Bernstein said she contacted the U.S. Attorney's Office earlier this month when she became aware of the young men's allegations. She did not know what action, if any, the agency planned to take.
Bernstein told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution she has not contacted DeKalb County law enforcement because Long has ties to county officials.
Orzy Theus, a spokesman for the DeKalb County district attorney's office, said he was not aware on Tuesday of an investigation in that office related to the allegations.
Long was appointed pastor of New Birth in 1987. Then, the church had about 150 members. Less than four years later, the church had grown to more than 8,000 members. Athletes and entertainers claim membership at the church.
Long's church was among those named in 2007 in a Senate committee's investigation into a half-dozen Christian ministries over their financing.
Today, New Birth sits on 250 acres and has more than 25,000 members, a $50 million, 10,000-seat cathedral and more than 40 ministries - including the Longfellows Youth Academy, a tuition-based program for young men 13 to 18.
Lawyers for the men, now 20 and 21, say they filed the lawsuit Tuesday in DeKalb County Court against Bishop Eddie Long. The Associated Press generally does not identify people who say they were victims of sexual impropriety.
President George W. Bush and three former presidents visited the sprawling New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in the Atlanta suburb of Lithonia for the 2006 funeral of Coretta Scott King, the widow of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Long introduced the speakers and the Rev. Bernice King, the Kings' younger daughter, delivered the eulogy. She is also a pastor there.
The men who filed the suit were 17- and 18-year-old members of the church when they say Long abused his spiritual authority to seduce them with cars, money, clothes, jewelry, international trips and access to celebrities.
Craig Gillen, Long's attorney, says the pastor "categorically denies the allegations."
"We find it unfortunate that these two young men would take this course of action," Gillen said late Tuesday after news of the lawsuit broke. He said Long had not yet been served with copies of the lawsuits.
Long has called for a national ban on same-sex marriage and his church counsels gay members to become straight. In 2004, he led a march with Bernice King to her father's Atlanta grave to support a national constitutional amendment to protect marriage "between one man and one woman."
B.J. Bernstein, an attorney representing the plaintiffs, said that when the relationships started, the plaintiffs were past the legal age of consent in Georgia, which is 16.
"Defendant Long has utilized his spiritual authority to coerce certain young male members ... into engaging in sexual acts and relationships for his own personal sexual gratification," the lawsuits read.
When asked about a possible motive for the accusations, Gillen referred to a break-in at Long's office in June.
Bernstein said one of the plaintiffs is facing a criminal burglary charge in the incident. She said the break-in was a way of lashing out at Long.
Bernstein said she contacted the U.S. Attorney's Office earlier this month when she became aware of the young men's allegations. She did not know what action, if any, the agency planned to take.
Bernstein told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution she has not contacted DeKalb County law enforcement because Long has ties to county officials.
Orzy Theus, a spokesman for the DeKalb County district attorney's office, said he was not aware on Tuesday of an investigation in that office related to the allegations.
Long was appointed pastor of New Birth in 1987. Then, the church had about 150 members. Less than four years later, the church had grown to more than 8,000 members. Athletes and entertainers claim membership at the church.
Long's church was among those named in 2007 in a Senate committee's investigation into a half-dozen Christian ministries over their financing.
Today, New Birth sits on 250 acres and has more than 25,000 members, a $50 million, 10,000-seat cathedral and more than 40 ministries - including the Longfellows Youth Academy, a tuition-based program for young men 13 to 18.
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
Groban releases new single
Josh Groban, the 29-year-old singer who first broke through almost 10 years ago with his platinum debut and followed that with the quintuple-platinum CD Closer as well as the double-platinum Awake has released Hidden Away, the first single from his forthcoming album, Illuminations.
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