OUT Of The Closets and Into The STREETS!!!!

Yay! New York just signed the Gay Marriage Bill, people, so what are you waiting for? Time to PAR-TAY DOWN!

FTA: "Republican Sen. Stephen Saland, who had been undecided about the bill and was one of the legislators who led the negotiations, announced during the debate on the Senate floor that he would support the bill, effectively giving it the 32 votes it needed to pass."

Everybody be sure to send a thank-you note to Rep. Saland, who will be targeted by homophobes for his support. He did the right thing, and it will cost him unless we all translate our thankyous into support at the polls. Thank you, Rep. Saland, for making this day happen!

TalkingPointsMemo has the details. And be sure to check out their pic of the celebrations at STONEWALL!!! Hai-yaah!

A great big huge gigantinormous thank you to Joshua Micah Marshall of TalkingPointsMemo who brought us this wonderful reportage.

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LGBTQ: Gay Pride Weekend

No, we didn't go to the parade. Actually, we stopped going years ago, after meeting the current partner. And also because the fucking crowds got unmanageable, although that's not a slur on the fine Pride Marshals who did a great job of keeping Teh Gay folks happy yet disciplined. It was the gawkers from outa town wit' their cameras and their annoying brats, videotaping anything that moved and oohing and ahhing over teh gheyness of it all. Not getting up four hours earlier than usual to ride the train over, get one's toes stepped on, swelter in the heat and get one's naughty bits crushed, not even for Dykes on Bykes or Teh Menstrual Cycle or teh Gay Games folks doing their trix on Parade, not with those leering Xtians watching and all but prodding the leather daddies.

Fuck that shit.

Hope y'all had a wonderful Gay Day, children, and tomorrow we go back to working on DOMA and DADT and the hate crimes bill, and those nasty Mormons pouring millions into the fight against our rights!

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Entertainment: Today's Attack onTeh Ghey

Congratulations, LGBTQ brothers, sisters! Maine has become the fifth state to recognize full marriage equality for gay people.

And North Carolina legislator Virginia Foxx has written a letter of apology to Matthew Shepard's mother, Judy, after calling Matthew's cruel murder "a hoax" in her ludicrous argument against hate-crime legislation that would (finally!) afford gay people the same rights and protections straight people have. Needless to say, it's a non-apology sort of apology. You know, "I'm sorry if you were offended," as opposed to "I realize that my use of the word "hoax" was inaccurate and inappropriate and that it must have hurt you very deeply. I apologize for my insensitivity and my lack of empathy." That's OK, you stupid beast. Eventually, you, like the rest of your queer-hatin' cohorts, will go the way of the dinosaur or the dodo.

Meanwhile, Marion Barry unleashes his inner hypocrite by being the sole holdout in the DC vote for gay marriage — on the grounds that Teh Ghey is immoral and ol' Marion is simply trying to be the good ol' MORAL politician that he's always aspired to be. Fortunately, there IS a Jon Stewart, Marion, you pathetic asshole. And Jon ain't about to let Marion get away with that bullshit. See for yourself.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	M - Th 11p / 10c
Gaywatch - Marion Barry
thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Economic Crisis Political Humor

Because, of course, the God of the Bible hates Teh Ghey way more than he hates adultery, deception, cheating, drug usage, and betrayal of the public trust. Why, just look, right here in the bible he rails against Teh Ghey all of ... er, a couple of times. As opposed to adultery and lying, which both the Old and the New Testaments condemn repeatedly. So much for that. Oh, yeah, and the lobster. Don't forget about the lobster. And ham. Pork. Scallops. Shrimp. Catfish. All that stuff Marion Barry's probably been eating for years in defiance of God's Word.

Moral my ass.

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Entertainment? Say WHAT?

First the teabaggers.

Now the RIMjobs.

Get yourself one here:



Found over at Watertiger's, home of LGBTQ amusement for the gay and straight masses.

Admit it, you actually wondered if it was for real, for just a minnit, din'tchu?

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LGBTQ: National Coming-Out Day

Hey, everybody, it's National Coming-Out Day! Time to celebrate your queerness. We'd like to link to celebrating queer and straight bloggers out there whether you're on our blogroll or not, so join us as we sashay down the street, y'all.

• Benny, over at Benny's World, has a cool post on the origin and meaning of the Rainbow Flag, go check it out!
  
  
• Over at Penguin Central, BadTux reminds us that the face of hate is not always easily recognizable, that a huge effort is underway in California to repeal the right to marriage for the LGBTQ community, and that you can, and should, grow a pair and tell the bigots to fuck themselves.
  
  
• Alan, over at Blogging Out Loud, makes us pee our pants laughing, as usual, with his commemorative post. Warning: Keep fresh, dry pantalones handy.
  
  
• VJack, over at Atheist Revolution, wishes our whole community a happy National Coming-Out Day, thanks, VJack!
  
  
• Steven, over at Heterosexually Challenged, acknowledges the day, reminds us it's the tenth anniversary of Matthew Shepard's death (gads, it feels like it only happened yesterday), and celebrates with football;
  
  
• The Bilerico Project is celebrating Queer History Month with lots of posts from lots of posters. Checkidout;
  
  
• Over at Pam's House Blend (note new URL), a couple of posters talk about coming out and coming out. Please to read;
  
  
• Kathy, over at If I Ran the Zoo, has a nice reminder for all the straight allies — equality for LGBTQ people will only happen if you join us in the struggle;
  
  
• A funny story about figuring out your sexuality, from Mockingbird's Medley;
  
  
• caliberal has a post about marriage equality up on My Left Wing;
  
  
• Nelson has his usual biting posts on the homophobes among us, over at NGblog;
  
  
• QueersUnited has a slew of celebratory posts, check 'em out!
  
  
• quenchzine has plenty to say too!

Did we miss anybody? Give us a shriek and we'll fix the error post-haste.

From ICHC, your source of LOLcattitude

Happy Coming-Out Day! If you're not out yet, consider doing it now. Yeah, it'll hurt and people might say shitty things, but you might find support where you least expect it.

Update: Missing link to Badtux' post fixed.

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LGBTQ: Yay Denise Simmons!

PageOneQ, source of all news about the Queer Community, reports that the progressive city of Cambridge in Massachusetts has elected its first black and openly lesbian Mayor. Denise Simmons, a city Councilwoman since 2001, is the first black lesbian Mayor in the U.S.

We regard this with a mixture of pride and shame. We're proud that an American city regards competence as more important than a person's private business. If we had behaved that way during the last Presidential elections, we'd have something other than an anthropophagous troglodytish buffoon who can't talk in a straight line in charge of the country.

We're ashamed that it took so long for us to come this far, and that although we can apparently elect a black lesbian Mayor, we still quibble about electing a black President or Vice-President; and we still refuse to grant full equality to folk who happen to be queer, female, or black (or brown, for that matter).

And, to our disgrace, we have yet to elect a transgendered person as Mayor. Unlike the city of Cambridge in England. Ms. Simmons replaces former Mayor Ken Reeves, an openly gay black man.

However, this is a new and healthy trend. If we elect enough Councilmembers, Mayors, Governors, legislators, judges, school board members, and other administrative officials who are openly gay, perhaps we will eventually move towards granting queer (and female and black and brown) people full human rights.

Throwing the current administration of crooks, liars, and bigots out of office and replacing them with progressives like, oh, Dennis Kucinich, or John Edwards, or Barack Obama, or even Hillary Clinton (caveat: we don't consider her a progressive, but she's still an arm, a leg, and a beating heart better than any of the louts on the Republican side of the fence) as our next President would be a good start.

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LGBTQ: Uruguay Sanctions Gay Unions

Good grief. When is it our turn?

Uruguay has just enacted civil unions for queer folk, giving them the same rights as straight folk when it comes to inheritance, child custody, and pensions. PageOneQ includes this quote:

The law recognizes "two people--of any sex, identity, orientation or sexual option--who maintain an emotional relationship sexual in nature, that is exclusive, stable and permanent, without being united in matrimony."

That's a far cry from the "meretricious relationship" language of U.S. courts, isn't it.

First Nepal, and now Uruguay. When does the U.S. propose to join the ranks of civilized nations around the world and allow two people who love each other to share all the legally granted rights and privileges that so many straight people take for granted now?

Details here.

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LGBTQ: Looks Like We're Not The Only Ones

NOT GAY!!!

Protestant minister Marcos Zapata of Spain is holding seminars in Galicia to "cure" homosexuals, says the Guardian.

Is that like the Richard Cohen school of ex-gaydom, like, "We can make you 'straight' so you can still hang out with lots of men and touch lots of men but have a wife and kids?" Let's see what Fr. Zapata has to say.

... Zapata likened homosexuality to alcoholism and called it an illness, but said healing was possible through family therapy. In his family, he said, he reinforces masculine roles by watching professional wrestling with his two sons. Zapata also advised the audience to "hug your sons as much as you can, because if you don't, perhaps another man will".

Watching professional wrestling? With all those guys dressed in skin-tight clothing and major makeup that just screams "I am so not fucking gay, you sissymary!"? Oh, yeah, that'll make a person straight.

About as straight as Ted Haggard. No, he's straight now, reeelly.

The "hugging your sons" bit? Dunno. Homosexuals are not the same thing as pedophiles, but if you're an adult male fighting off libidinous desires for some hunky young dude, and you start in on hugging your adolescent sons, uh ... not that you'd have sexual desire for them, necessarily, but you want to keep away from temptation, not sport a woody (thereby leading to lots of embarrassing questions) while embracing it. It's probably OK when they're really young, but what happens when they're at the height of their adolescent beauty?

And before anyone starts casting stones, consider that teenage girls are what defines the height of desireability for the slack-jawed male masses, in this culture. Why should things be any different for homosexuals than heterosexuals? Would you want straight fathers hugging their adolescent daughters? Isn't that what creeps most people out about those Purity Ball thingies, men dancing with their adolescent daughters as they would dance with their wives or lovers?

At any rate, the Galician regional government is about to investigate Fr. Zapata to ensure he's not promoting homophobia, and Spanish gay/lesbian organizations plan to sue him.

Pity there's no therapists offering a cure for homophobia.

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Gay Rights: Nepal

Auntie Beeb tells us that the Supreme Court of Nepal has ordered the Nepali government to strike down laws that discriminate against LGBTQ individuals, and that sexual minorities should have the same rights as other citizens.

"Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual and intersex are natural persons irrespective of their masculine and feminine gender and they have the right to exercise their rights and live an independent life in society."

Great news! I'll drink to that.

Meanwhile, the U.S. government is apparently willing to ally itself with fundamentalist Muslims in Iran to deny rights to LGBTQ people. Thanks a lot, Condi. I wish somebody would pick up on the fact that Condi is a dyke who is invested in making life difficult for other sexual minorities, just like a lot of other Republicans. Let's not even talk about how this purported woman turned over Jamie Leigh Jones' rape kit to the same company that threatened Ms. Jones.

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Politics - Teh Ghey Has Jumpt Teh Shark

It's official. Teh Ghey has jumped teh shark. I mean, hello? Dear Abby sez IT'S OKAY TO BE GAY, y'all.

Caveat: That link is to an article in the NYT, which requires registration.

''I believe if two people want to commit to each other, God bless 'em,'' the syndicated advice columnist told The Associated Press. ''That is the highest form of commitment, for heaven's sake.''

That's about as mainstream as it gets, Dear Abby. She's being honoured by PFLAG, a fine organization that helps traumatized parents through the process of loving and accepting their LGBT sprog.

It's time people quit worrying about other peoples' pants and what's in 'em. Worry about your own damn pants, folks. Like keepin' 'em unbunched, and all.

And on that happy note, PageOneQ reports (from the Gay&Lesbian Victory Fund) that Howard J. Bayless III of Alabama has won a seat on the Board of Education to represent Birmingham's Third District.

Bayless, sitting co-chair of the Equality Federation and former board chair of Equality Alabama, follows in the footsteps of State Rep. Patricia Todd of Birmingham, who last year became the state's first openly gay public official.

Alabama! Reminds me of Nina Simone's song, "Mississippi Goddamn!" Maybe the Dark Ages of Bushica are finally shredding on the horizon? First a lesbian elected to state legislature, now a gay man elected to the school board. There's hope for this old country yet, folks.

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Transgender Rights: United We Stand!

There is a bill that was introduced in Congress in April saying that it would be illegal to fire, refuse to hire or refuse to promote an employee based on the person's sexual orientation or gender identity.

Apparently there are some members of Congress that need to be schooled on the concept of unalienable rights: "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." They want to exclude ... in a sneaky manner ... the part about gender identity. They are quietly trying to remove the rights of transgender people from this bill (Federal Employment Non-Discrimination Act, or ENDA).

Nine national LGBT organizations announced Thursday they would fight any attempt to strip protections from the transgendered from the Federal Employment Non-Discrimination Act, or ENDA. The groups include:

• Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays
  
• National Gay and Lesbian Task Force
  
• National Center for Lesbian Rights
  
• National Stonewall Democrats
  
• National Coalition for LGBT Health
  
• Pride At Work (AFL-CIO)
  
• National Coalition of Anti-Violence Projects
  
• Mautner Project
  
• National Center for Transgender Equality
  

Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) is threatening that if Congress passes a bill stripping rights from transgendered folks he will put forth an amendment adding rights for the transgendered. However, the nine organizations oppose this strategy and say they will oppose any bill that excludes transgender people:

"While we don’t doubt the sincerity of congressional leadership’s intent to take action and be helpful to the LGBT community, we cannot disagree more with this strategy. We will continue to work with LGBT-supportive members of Congress to urge their colleagues to immediately drop this strategy."

If you'd like to read more about this issue, please click here.

I wholeheartedly agree with the nine organizations. We in the LGBT community need to stick together on this one. Don't let them start dividing us. We have a whole lot in common ... you know ... fighting all those bigots that have rigid ideas of how you express yourself around masculinity and femininity ... and who you should sleep with.

Reminds me of this postcard I used to have up on my wall. In a bar, a woman is sidling up to a man that is dressed as a woman and she says to him/her: "You're a transvestite aren't you? I love that in a man."

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