Bloggasm

The title of this post is misleading, since the news isn’t actually attracted to other news of the same sex, but moving on:

Florida State Senate Candidate Excludes Black, Gay Son From Family Photo:

To see his campaign photo, you would never know that Florida State Senate Candidate Randall Terry had two grown, black adopted children, one of whom is gay and the other, a woman, who had a child out of a wedlock.

The photo includes only Terry, his wife, and his five tow-headed rugrats: very all-American, full of old-fashioned family values, just like Terry himself.

What an asshole.

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12th Anti-Gay Funeral Protest Law Passed:

New Jersey has become the 12th state to adopt a law limiting protests at funeral services for soldiers killed in combat.

The laws are a response to demonstrations that have been staged around the country by members of a small Kansas church. The Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka contends that U.S. military deaths are God’s vengeance for America’s tolerance of homosexuality.

What’s fucked up about this is the fact that congress didn’t mobilize against Fred Phelps and his kind until they started protesting at soldier funerals. They had been protesting at gay funerals for years. I guess when they realized nobody cared, they moved onto bigger fish.

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San Diego Teachers Blasted for Bringing Kids to Gay Pride Event:

Teachers at an elementary charter school in San Diego, California, are being condemned for bringing young children to participate in the city’s “gay pride” parade last month.

James Hartline, a former homosexual turned Christian activist, reports that teachers with the San Diego Cooperative Charter School brought children to the July 29 San Diego Pride Parade. A picture in the school newsletter shows several teachers and other individuals affiliated with the school marching in the parade.

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Gay-bias ban in schools OK’d:

The state Assembly approved legislation Monday designed to bar discrimination in public schools against gay, bisexual and transgender people, retreating from an earlier proposal that would have required schools to teach students about the contributions of prominent gay people.

Current law prohibits instruction, school activities and textbooks that reflect poorly on people on the basis of their race, sex, national origin and other characteristics. The bill, which passed on a partisan 46-31 vote, would add sexual orientation to that list.

But even the scaled-back bill faces a possible veto by Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who is working to appease conservatives as he campaigns for re-election. The governor’s press secretary said he opposes any legislation that would “micromanage” the selection of public school textbooks.

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TV not gay enough

While Brokeback Mountain, Transamerica and Capote featured lesbian, gay, bisexual and transsexual (LGBT) characters in mainstream films, the LGBT community is still underrepresented on TV, according to the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD).

GLAAD analysed the 95 primetime series on the six major US networks and just counted nine homosexual characters – eight gay men and one lesbian – out of a total 679 lead or supporting roles.

Kate Bornstein is a nationally-known gender expert who has recently wrote a book called 101 Alternatives to Teen Suicide. It has its predictable and unpredictable pieces of advice, but it also has some radical thoughts as well. She says that one alternative to suicide is cutting yourself. Another piece of advice is to take drugs. She describes her reasons why she gave this radical advice in this interview:

When people look at the ones—especially those like cutting and starving and taking drugs—everyone who was involved in this book gave them a lot of pause, and we went back and forth to figure out how best I could present them. I wasn’t going to knock them out because those are all things that I’ve done to stay alive. But how do you write about that? How do you say, “It’s really stupid but [Laughs] if it comes down to killing yourself or doing that, please do it!” That’s really what it came down to. And how would I say that with as much care and as much love, and without being a preachy jerk about it? That was the hard part, I think.

It does have a kind of shaky logic to it, and yes, I guess if it comes down to killing yourself or doing something slightly better, though not much, then you should do the alternative. But one of the readers in the comment made some good points:

I’ve done extensive study in abnormal psychology which includes the self-mutilating behaviors of cutting, anorexia, and bulemia. Recommending that someone do those things – EVEN as an alternative to suicide – is NOT reasonable. It is not moral. It is not responsible.

I’ve worked off and on with suicide support groups for the last two years. I have heard many, MANY different coping mechanisms suggested. Self-mutilation is never one of them.

Becoming anoretic, cutting yourself, or getting addicted to drugs will not alleviate depression. It makes depression much, much worse. Sorry if I base my opinion on scientific studies rather than “right-wing propaganda”, but I rather think my opinion is valid here.

And this is what I thought, as well, with not so many words. From what I remember hearing, taking drugs and alcohol only fuel the depression more, in fact many people actually get up the guts to kill themselves after they’ve been on drugs or are in an alcoholic haze.

Related posts: Even gay princes aren’t safe, Is your kid whiny? Chances are he or she will grow up to be a conservative.

When you type in the word “gay” into Google and then try to translate it to the Arabic language, predictably enough the translations are derogatory in nature. Many gay rights groups have spoken up about this, and now Google is going to fix the problem:

When the word “gay” is entered into Google’s translation tools, the word “luti” is returned, an Arabic equivalent of “sodomite”, to the ire of gay activists.

The translation tools of Google, one of the world’s leading internet corporations, are widely available on both Google’s website and in downloadable software.

In response, Google has vowed to ameliorate the issue shortly.

As always when it comes to search engines, there’s a debate to how much Google should tamper with their search results. Though I’m in favor of these changes, I’m also wary of the cultural contexts for the translations. As the article points out, there aren’t many non-derogatory words for “gay” yet in the Arabic language, since until recently there was no fight for gay rights in the Arab world.

Related posts: Interview with Queerty, Microsoft employees don’t even use MSN search

An Indian prince, heir to a massive fortune, has recently come out of the closet as being gay. By doing so, he has not only been shunned by his family, but he has also broken the law:

An Indian prince has been disowned by his family after he publicly announced he was gay in a country where homosexuality is outlawed by a 145-year-old law.

Prince Manvendra Singh Gohil, who belongs to one of the country’s richest royal families that ruled the former Rajpipla principality in the western state of Gujarat, has been disowned for “activities unacceptable to the society,” one disinheritance notice placed by his parents in a newspaper said.

Last month, his parents issued notices in a Gujarati language daily withdrawing his right to the family property.

Not only is homosexuality against the law in India, but you can receive jail-time for up to 10 years! The article doesn’t indicate that the prince will be arrested, however. He doesn’t appear concerned that he’s going to lose his inheritance, and the disownment from his biological family doesn’t bother him.

Related posts: War still raging over book that casts Cuba in a favoring light, Interview with ConWebWatch

Ok, it’s almost too easy to do this, I could comb through Robertson’s site and find hundreds of things that most of us would find hilarious, but I particularly enjoyed this piece of advice offered to a person whose lesbian friend hits on her the whole time.

The question:

My best friend is a lesbian and has a crush on me. I tell her I don’t want her to be like this. I try to forget about her gayness, but it’s hard when she seems to like me more than as a friend. One time she even tried kissing me, which crossed a big line with me. What should I do? I want to be there for her as a friend, but nothing more.

The answer:

The Bible says, “Can two walk together except they be agreed?” The Bible also says, “What fellowship has Christ with Belial?” I’m sure you want to do something for this friend of yours, but you can’t have her hitting on you. The next thing you know, one time you’re going to say, “Well, why not?” Then you’re going to say, “What have I done?” You’re going to wake up with this horrible guilt.

via farklebarkle

Related Posts: And you wonder why we mock the Christian Right, An Open Letter to Carlos Mencia, Student Expelled After Revealing He’s Gay On MySpace,

Put on your short-shorts and rollerblades, here come Gay Games VII:

Just one month remains before Chicago plays host to Gay Games VII, an Olympics-like extravaganza expected to draw as many as 100,000 people from around the world for a weeklong celebration of sports, culture and gay pride.

Organizers, who have been preparing for the July 15-22 event since Chicago emerged as a possible host city seven years ago, are keyed up.

I especially love the (probably accidental) pun that the article-writer has near the end (emphasis mine):

Chicago’s organizers say the hurdles they’ve cleared represent the social change that might result.

Unfortunately, he doesn’t tell us which games are played: Are they somehow related to some kind of gay lifestyle, or are they just olympic sports played by gay people?

Related interviews and posts: Alphecca, The Homosexual Identity Was Created by Those Who Fight Against Them: The Irony, Queerty

Jeff Soyer describes himself as a “gay gun nut” and has turned that into a franchise via his blog Alphecca.com. Shunned by all but a handful of “gay” bloggers, he has found acceptance within the pro-2nd Amendment community as one of the tireless defenders of the right to keep and bear arms. His “Weekly Check on the Bias” of media regarding firearm issues has been a weekly feature at Alphecca for nearly four years and he does the report live every Tuesday on the NRA’s NRA News radio broadcast with the host of the show, Cam Edwards, heard by thousands on Sirius Satellite Radio and streamed on the web. At 51-years-old, Jeff lives in a rural part of Vermont, shuns travel except within Vermont and New Hampshire, and works for a medium sized, gay owned furniture manufacturer. On Thursday evenings, a goodly number of the company’s employees (including several officers of the company) gather at a local range to make a lot of noise. Jeff thinks he’s in heaven.

Simon Owens: Since you describe yourself as a gay gun nut, we’re going to start with a few obvious questions. Obviously, as a gun nut, you probably come into contact with many other gun nuts, and since many gun nuts are socially conservative, how has their reactions been to you? Have they rejected you because of your gay status, or have you seen a kind of “Hmm, maybe gay people aren’t so bad after all if they like guns” kind of response?

Jeff Soyer: At the gun stores I frequent, at all the ranges I’ve gone to — all the firearm enthusiasts I’ve met in person or via Alphecca, I’ve never ever had anyone distance themselves from me, make any sort of comment about me (at least that I’ve heard or heard about) and darn-near all of them read my site. Now, do they all “approve” of my “lifestyle”? I certainly doubt it but in Northern New England, you don’t diss someone to their face. Yet they all call me, “Want to go to the range this weekend?”, and so on. One thing about living rurally — there are too few people around to get into hating any of them. I’ve heard plenty of anti-gay remarks and worse when I lived in urban areas. I’ve never heard it — to my face, anyway — in this area.

Further, there IS a fraternity feeling about firearm enthusiasts. We’re all into it. We like plinking and blasting at targets and discussing and trying out new guns, cartridges, grips, and so on. When you hang out at ranges — and for six months a year I’m there 1-2 times a week — everyone is into helping everyone else, trying each other’s firearms, discussing stance, technique, and so on.

Here’s something else. As the result of occassional, stupid comments by a very rare few, people have the idea that the NRA is homophobic. That’s absolute bullshit. As an organization, they have only one concern; protecting our 2nd Amendment rights. Are there some members who don’t like gays? Sure. There are some members of the NAACP and the ACLU and the Democratic Party who don’t like gays. So what? I know for a fact that one of the lawyers employed by the NRA in it’s ILA (Institute of Legislative Affairs) is openly gay. I know for a real fact that the NRA links to Alphecca (meaning me) and allows me to do a segment every Tuesday on their national radio show. They even have my picture up for the 21 hours before the Tuesday show starts. In fact, they pay me for my segment. Does that sound like a homophobic organization?

Simon Owens: Many special interest groups that deal with controversial issues oppose any legislation that limits their cause, even if they don’t necessarily agree with it completely. For instance, in terms of partial-birth abortion (and I label it this grudgingly, since “partial-birth abortion” was a term made up by conservatives, and is incredibly misleading), many pro-choice people might not agree that it’s a good thing, yet they fight the incremental approach because they recognize that pro-life groups are trying to chip away at a woman’s choice to have an abortion. The same goes for gun legislation. But if it weren’t for the incremental approach, would you agree that at least *some* gun control is necessary?

Jeff Soyer: The fact is that there IS a “slippery slope” and we’ve seen it time and again. Outside the U.S. we’ve seen England, Australia, and others who have, through the years, enact more and more restrictions, regulations, and outright bans of firearms. Not coincidentally, their crime rate increases as criminals become emboldened because they face victims who are prohibited from defending themselves.

I believe that if someone has not been convicted of a violent crime, that is — they are “law abiding”, then they should be allowed to own whatever guns they would like.

I actually think the national instant background check conducted by gun dealers is fine. The FBI looks you up to see if you are a convicted felon or have restraining orders against you and gives the dealer a Yes or No for the sale. That’s pretty much all the gun control I think is necessary. I think it is obscene that some few states and municipalities think you need to “show cause” for why you want a handgun, or to carry a handgun, and by the way, most of them do not accept “for personal defense” as a valid reason. In some states, such as New Jersey and Delaware, you can be turned down at the whim of a police chief or judge if they don’t like you or consider you a “moral” person. Gay people were routinely turned down for such permits in many states not that long ago.

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