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.

Stumble It!

Do I Look Like A Lesbian To You?

Over at The Political Carnival (cue calliope music), Laffy astounds us all with this wonderful video:



Which poses the question of why the fuck it is OK to ask people that you think might be gay about their sexuality, yet nobody asks straight people if they ever practice sodomy (you know, like anal sex which is apparently pretty popular with the teenage Christian straight population, who want to save the other orifice for their Jebus-sanctioned fucking), or those dreadfully perverse practices such as anilingus, cunnilingus, fellatio, mutual masturbation, manual stimulation of various body parts, et cetera, ad infinitum, ad nauseam.

Notice that we do not even begin to mention the many paraphilias rampant in this world of ours — sadism, masochism, coprophilia, water sports, full-body massages from rentboys (see Reker, George, or Rentboy.com for details).

Also, teh softball? Denizens of La Casa de Los Gatos hold that you can't claim to be a real dyke unless you play field hockey. Softball is for pussies (um, you know, that is, what I mean, uh ... never mind).

Stumble It!

It'll Save Your Marriage

ICHC

In this day and age when the sacred institution of marriage (because, really, what else can you call that fucking straightjacket that allows everybody else to opine about who you fuck or don't) appears to be under increasing threat by all teh GHEY (I mean, SRSLY, peeps, WTF is with politicians claiming other politicians are claiming [or refusing to claim] sexual preferences to which they may or may not be entitled?) — well, you get my drift, don't you?

Anything that can save marriage from the onslaught of the Catholic church and the like should be welcomed with open arms by all, yes?

After all, the minute we give in to those bad, immoral, naughty, gay people, whether they live inside or outside our heads, we're all headed to perdition.

So here's one for all those guys who've been dutching their long-suffering partners for years.



Assuming they're not dutching you. Finally, a good night's sleep. Go for it, kids, you know you want to.

Who thinks up things like these?

Stumble It!

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!

Stumble It!

LGBTQ: Teh Effect of Teh H8

Good God Almighty! This is so revolting, it has me, an atheist, calling on a deity in which I do not believe.

What, you ask, has my knickers in a wad? Me, wot tolerates anything short of someone actually crapping on my living room floor and has friends with a wide variety of, um, interesting paraphilias or interest in paraphilias, including the very sexy Sirenita Lake who gladdens my heart with her detailed descriptions of adventurous sex?

Hate, that's what. I don't have a problem with people doing anything to each other, as long as I don't have to watch the parts I don't like and, more importantly, as long as it's consensual between adults. (Animals cannot consent, and neither can children under an age as defined by law in their community; nor can the mentally disabled, the mentally ill, and the unconscious, regardless of whether their unconscious state is self-inflicted.)

But here we have what we used to quaintly call "shock-jocks" broadcasting from a Sacramento radio station. And they're using their bully — and I mean bully — pulpit to hate on children, and recommend violence against them. The station is KRXQ 98.5 FM in Sacramento. The show is called Rob, Arnie, & Dawn in the Morning. Here's a little of what they had to say on the issue of transgender, or gender-dysphoric, behaviour in children:

"Allowing transgenders to exist, pretty soon it becomes normal to fall in love with the animals," they said.

For his part, [Arnie] States bragged that if his own son were to ever dare put on a pair of high heels, States would beat his son with one of his own shoes. He urged parents whose own little boys expressed a desire to wear a dress to verbally abuse and degrade them as a viable response. "Because you know what? Boys don't wear high heel shoes. And in my house, they definitely don't wear high heels.

"I'm going to go, 'You know what? You're a little idiot! You little dumbass!'" States sneered, adding later, "I look forward to when [the transgender children] go out into society and society beats them down. And they wind up in therapy."

What kind of bullshit is that? You want to beat a child with a shoe? Pick on someone your own size, you walking shit-receptacle. If, by all I hold dear, you ever hit a kid with a shoe in front of me, I'll break both your legs off and stick them down your throat. You puke-sucking anus on legs.

What the fuck is this? We allow people like this to say these things on air? Some idiot hears this and decides his kid is not "masculine" enough and hits the kid, and then what?

Mind you, these two assholes have long spread this kind of vitriolic hate on the air. Their attitude towards women is just as reprehensible and disgusting. You can read about it here in a decision from the FCC to penalize the motherfuckers for their creative ideas on sexual intercourse with women. No, fuck it, it's not sexual intercourse because there's nothing consensual about it. This is their diatribe on how to rape women in the most humiliating and degrading way.

As nasty and misogynistic as they are, I suppose it's no surprise that they should turn from attacking women to attacking children. Do they have any idea how much harrassment children already face from their peers? Especially gender and gender-identity related harrassment? Have they ever heard of Carl Joseph Walker-Hoover? Carl, a sweet-faced eleven-year-old, hanged himself recently because of homophobic harrassment by his classmates. The saddest thing is, Carl wasn't gay. He was just a child, a child who happened to be less than macho enough for his classmates. Or maybe his classmates had daddies who listened to the kind of shit that Arnie and Rob spout. Thus, for instance, Jaheem Herrera, who hanged himself because he couldn't take the antigay taunting and slurs. An eleven-year-old boy. And the murder of Lawrence King.

Jill, over at Feministe, has posted a list of Arnie and Rob's advertisers. She thinks you should contact these people and tell them to pull their advertising.

CARLS”S JR. (CKE RESTAURANTS):
pr@ckr.com Press Room

HOME DEPOT
public_relations@homedepot.com

TOBACCO REPUBLIC:
trcigar@aol.com

ALBERTSON”S:
Alicia Rockwell
arockwell@savemart.com

FLEX YOUR POWER
enewswire@fypower.org Editor
info@fypower.org

NISSAN:
Darryl Harrison - Media
Darryll.harrison@nissan-usa.com

BANK OF AMERICA:
joseph.l.goode@bankofamerica.com
AT&T
John Britton
E-Mail: john.britton@att.com

VERIZON:
Debra Lewis
908-559-7512
Debra.Lewis@VerizonWireless.com

McDONALDS:
Walt Riker
Vice President, Corporate Media Relations
walt.riker@us.mcd.com
Heidi Barker
Sr. Director, Corporate Media Relations
heidi.barker@us.mcd.com

WELLS FARGO:
Media Relations: corpcsf@wellsfargo.com

GRIFFIN & REED EYECARE:
info@LASIKworld.com

PRO CITY MORTGAGE:
procity@procitymortgage.com

Thanks to William for the link.

I couldn't agree more. What kind of sick fucks are we letting on our public airwaves? For the love of Mike, get these fuckers off the air. Nobody should deny them their freedom of speech, but that does not include this kind of hate speech. Moreover, they're free to set up soapboxes at the local park and spout whatever they like. What they're not free to do is use public resources, such as the airwaves, to make themselves tons of money by advocating beating one's children with shoes.

Please do your part by writing the sponsors of these lowlife scum. Booting them off the air should be the least to be done to them.

Stumble It!

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?

Stumble It!

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.

Stumble It!

LGBTQ: The Face of Hate

Copyright Melina Mara, The Washington Post

The wretched bag of vituperation pictured above is one Elaine Donnelly, the president of an organization called Center for Military Readiness (CMR), a 501(c)(3) organization whose sole purpose appears to be keeping women and gay people out of the military. Judging from the tone of this excerpt from their statement of "principles," they're sadly in need of some sensitivity training themselves:

To repair the damage, strong leadership and sound priorities will have to be applied in all matters, including personnel policies that impose heavy costs in return for little or no benefit. These include co-ed basic training, dcounter-productive gender quotas, double standards in training and disciplinary matters, misinterpretation of the law banning open homosexuality in the military, overly generous pregnancy policies that worsen deployability problems, and universal "sensitivity training" to convince everyone that social engineering "works."

A less charming bunch of troglodytes one is hard put to imagine. Ms. Donnelly somehow found herself invited to the Congressional hearings on the "Don't Ask Don't Tell" policy towards homosexuals in the military.

Washington Post's Dana Milbank covered the hearings, which were also attended by several gay troops. Given that this is the first hearing on DADT that has been held in the past 15 years, you'd think Ms. Donnelly could stifle the bile and present some facts rather than the steaming products of her fetid and clearly unpleasant inner workings. But no.

She ranted and raved and waxed so wroth it's nothing short of a miracle that her clearly botoxed and overpainted face didn't just fall off with disgust and crawl under a chair. In her own words, hear ye, hear ye:

Donnelly treated the panel to an extraordinary exhibition of rage. She warned of "transgenders in the military." She warned that lesbians would take pictures of people in the shower. She spoke ominously of gays spreading "HIV positivity" through the ranks.

"We're talking about real consequences for real people," Donnelly proclaimed. Her written statement added warnings about "inappropriate passive/aggressive actions common in the homosexual community," the prospects of "forcible sodomy" and "exotic forms of sexual expression," and the case of "a group of black lesbians who decided to gang-assault" a fellow soldier.

Because, you know, all those lezzies are just dying to get some T&A shots in the showers. And what, exactly, is an "exotic" form of sexual expression? Doesn't this daft dunderhead realize, judging from the reports of rape and sexual harrassment in the military, that women are in much greater danger from their male comrades-in-arms than from shower photogs of the lesbian persuasion?

And forcible sodomy? Darlings, we're just not that into you, so to speak. Sorry to disappoint, but forcible sodomy is much more likely to occur in prisons or other concentrations of straight males who use sex as a means of asserting dominance and power. You know, just like heterosexual rape.

As for that "group of black lesbians who decided to gang-assault" a fellow soldier, Ms. Donnelly sounds much more focused on their blackness than their lesboness. There are plenty of existing procedures to deal with misconduct in the armed forces whether heterosexual or homosexual. What's got this woman's pantalones in such a wad, I wonder?

At any rate, she had the effect of getting Congresscritters' underroos in a similar bunch. Here's one of 'em:

Rep. Vic Snyder (D-Ark.) labeled her statement "just bonkers" and "dumb," and he called her claims about an HIV menace "inappropriate." Said Snyder: "By this analysis . . . we ought to recruit only lesbians for the military, because they have the lowest incidence of HIV in the country."

The Lesbian Army. Diamanda Galas would LOVE that.

Of course, the Washington Blade has considered Chris Shays a reasonably reliable backer of gay rights, but his performance at the hearing was the cherry on the sundae. He'd better watch it or his Republican buddies won't let him play with their toys.

Stumble It!

LGBTQ: Congratulations!

To all our gay, lesbian, bi, trans, and queer friends!

Today, y'awl can get married in California. Let the weddings begin!

Here, some good advice from your friendly neighbourhood Lesbian blogger on how to buy wedding rings for you and your best gal.

And Wilkes Bashford has what you guys need to take your vows with Boyfriend stunningly attired.

This is a happy day for y'awl, so get out there and get married, dammit.

Stumble It!

LGBTQ: An Activist Addition To The Blogroll

La Casa de Los Gatos welcomes Queers United to the blogroll and thanks them for this very interesting post on the formation of the LGBTQ Caucus in the U.S. House of Representatives. The post links to all the LGBTQ Caucus members so you can thank them yourself, and includes such progressive stalwarts as Fortney (Pete) Stark, Lynn Woolsey, Robert Wexler, Eleanor Holmes Norton, Niki Tsongas, Henry Waxman, and our very own dearly beloved Barbara Lee!

You rock, Reps! Fifty-two members, count them.

Stumble It!

LGBTQ: Say WHAT?

Excuse me, could these people get any ruder? Or stupider? Are they dumping stupid in the water wholesale where these folks live, or what?

NBC is reporting that the Attorneys General of TEN states are asking the California Supreme Court to delay implementation of its same-sex marriage ruling (by granting a stay) until every hetero troglodyte who has ever seized a bogus issue and used it as a club to whup the LGBTQ community upside the head with has had a chance to expose their chancreous fear and pathetic weenie whining on the issue.

Hello, people! Are you not getting laid regularly or what? Wouldja please just mind your own goddamn fucking, and we do mean fucking, business for a change? Like take your wife or girlfriend or boyfriend or whatever out for a good time and spend a few hours doing the horizontal samba until you experience that longed-for sweaty bliss that comes from rubbing your happy nubbins together.

Stop worrying about other people's private fucking, and yes, we really do mean fucking, lives! Jesus would slap you unconcscious if he could see what you were up to. Oh, yes. It's time to get your happy on and leave other people the fuck alone.

What slightest bit of difference does it make to you or your marriage or your relationship if Adam and Steve or Anna and Eve are happily married? What the hell is that going to do to your sex life or, more likely, the complete and total lack thereof? Can anybody tell me?

The only people who get their shorts in a knot about gay people getting married are people who don't have a sweet patoo to unbunch their undies. Or those who are secretly lusting for Teh Gay in a big way but think some Old Man in Teh Sky is watching them and going to zap their rubbable bits with lightning forEVER for thinking those dirty, dirty thoughts.

Enough already, you pathetic creeps and godbags. Grab your partner, or spend your energy finding a goddamned partner, or buy some really nice toys (available at any of these fine online purveyors, and they'll probably send them to you in a plain brown wrapper if you happen to live in Buttfuck, Missouri) and get your pant 'n sweat on. And for mercy's sake, leave other people's happy humps the hell alone.

Some of the idiotic godbags involved include these miserable spoo-rags of Satan, to paraphrase Maru:

The Campaign for California Families wrote in its petition Thursday that permitting the ruling to go into effect before November could cause "a perfect storm" of legal chaos.

A similar request for a stay was filed last week by the Proposition 22 Legal Defense and Education Fund.

Look, folks, get real. The economy is in the turlet. We need a way to generate some moolah. What better than big ol' gay weddings all over the place. Imagine the money flowing in. Venue rentals. Florists. Licenses. Catering. Wedding garb. Printed invitations. Stamps, fer cryin' out. Balloons, streamers, confetti, shoes, clothes, horses and carriages, limousines, hotel rooms, plane reservations, photographers, video producers, champagne, wine, receptions. Lots of people buying new clothes or getting existing outfits cleaned so they can zip off to some friend's or loved one's fancy-assed wedding. Parties everywhere. Happy people. Smiles on many faces. And, this being a city with precious little parking, lotsa lotsa parking fines. How can you argue with money?

So feck off, you pathetic moralists, you rainers upon parades. Let the people of every stripe of the rainbow have their jollies. You don't like it? Don't marry a gay person. Meanwhile? Shut the fuck up and go find something pleasant to do with your time.

Stumble It!

Politics: Jesse Ventura Speaks On Gay Marriage

Initially, we disliked Jesse Ventura, but after his comment on religion, we came to respect him for his sheer guts in uttering this statement:

"Organized religion is a sham and a crutch for weak-minded people who need strength in numbers. It tells people to go out and stick their noses in other people's business."

At the height of the religious godbaggery that has infested this nation's politics, it was a courageous thing to do.

And Ventura recently proved yet again that he has no problem stating what he believes.

Love is bigger than government.

"Who the hell are we as a government to tell people who you can fall in love with? I think it's absurd, the fact that it's even being debated."

Ventura proposes a separation of church and state, with across-the-board civil unions at government level, leaving the church as part of the private sector free to sanction marriages.

[...]

"[...] you can't put a civil rights issue on the general ballot in a state and let people vote on it, because if you do that, in the southern states before, you can bet they would have voted to continued slavery."

It's not going to win him lots of friends and admirers, except among the LGBTQ community. But he's right. Many queer folk want the rights that straight folk get when they marry. Some of them also want religious sanction for their union.

Let those who want rights have them. As for those who want rites, that's between them and their religious faction. They'd be better off not letting the godbags take control of their lives, but they're entitled to fight that battle. What they're not entitled to do is insist that the rest of us fight their battle with them.

Just give us our power of attorney, inheritance rights, property rights, tax money, and all that good stuff. Y'all can have the fluff.

Stumble It!

LGBTQ: YouTube and Homophobia

Casa de Los Gatos is an inclusive casa. We welcome and love our gay friends, our lesbian friends, our TS/TG, bi, queer friends of every stripe. And we love them all, because each of them is &mdash along with the other 6+ BILLION FUCKING PEOPLE on this planet &mdash a unique individual who brings their very own and very special combination of qualities for the delectation of this planet and its inhabitants.

And then there's the people who bash our LGBTQ community for being what we are. The gay bashers, the gay haters, the homophobes, the ones so deep in the fucking closet, they're pooping hangers. Those people we don't love. Those people we would like to part the hair of with the Golden Bat o'Clue, a Casa de Los Gatos tool for dealing with brains stuck on hate.


We've been harrassed and hated on for appearing a certain way, and we know damned well that you don't have to be different, you just have to hit the radar of some fucking creep who thinks you're different.

So we thought we ought to highlight NGblog's little clip of Chris Crocker (yeah, the "crazy BritneySpears fan," so what?) talking about homophobia on YouTube.

And we join with Chris to say, a hearty FUCK YOU to all you haters out there. Just go Cheney yourselves, you miserable myrmidons of Mephitica.

YouTube is gonna be hearing from us. And all los gatos at mi casa sincerely hope they'll be hearing from you too. Because homophobia is not just about freedom of speech. It often degenerates into verbal assault, threats of personal harm, and ultimately, bashing. And the number of hate crimes is rising since the advent of teh Antichrist Chimperor.

Stumble It!

LGBTQ Rights: Stupidity Epidemic

Not the puppy in question!

We're pleased to announce that the courts in Stockholm will fine the terminally stupid. Like this moron, Anette Sjoeholm, who is clearly too stupid to live, because she refused to sell a puppy to a lesbian on the grounds that "transvestites abuse animals."

Someone needs to sit the dumbass down with a dictionary and have her look up "lesbian" and "transvestite." Then someone needs to smack both her cheeks till her head spins.

Casa de Los Gatos is very pleased that she got hit with a hefty fine.

Stockholm's appeals court on Monday found a kennel owner who had refused to sell a puppy to a lesbian woman guilty of discrimination, slapping her with a 20,000-kronor (2,300-euro, 3,100-dollar) fine.

But here's what we'd rather hit her with.


A parting of the hair with the Golden Bat o'Clue, Ms. Sjoeholm. Long may your solitary brain cell tingle!

Geez. How dumb can you get without forgetting to breathe, we'd like to know?

Stumble It!

R.I.P. Heath Ledger

So sad that such a talented young actor should be gone like this at a time when the screen seems to prefer looks to talent. Not that he didn't have more than his fair share of cute, we hasten to add.

In other news, Druggie McDrinkerson canceled out of some event scheduled for today, supposedly promoting an ad campaign aimed at preventing prescription drug abuse. Thanks a lot, asshole. You're implying Ledger died of drug abuse. Even though the medical authorities have openly stated that they cannot confirm a cause of death at present, and will not be able to do so for approximately ten days more.

A brief quote from Ledger:

Ledger said in an interview in November that "Dark Knight" and last year's "I'm Not There," took a heavy toll. He said he "stressed out a little too much" during the Dylan film, and had trouble sleeping while portraying the Joker, whom he called a "psychopathic, mass-murdering, schizophrenic clown with zero empathy."

He sounds like such an interesting human being. Such a consummate professional. He was known for taking difficult roles rather than blockbuster "guaranteed money" roles. Details here.

And just to prove that Druggie McDrinkerson is not the only creepy vulture to try and leverage another person's death, professional hatemonger and turd impersonator Fred Phelps and his skanky family of worthless bloodsucking God-botherers have announced that they plan to protest at Ledger's funeral.

Perhaps T3H Deity will prove his existence to the massed unbelievers by smiting the worthless lot of the Westboro congregation? A person can only hope.

As for Druggie McDrinkersons (twitch of the PoliticalCat ears at Maru, who keeps coming up with wonderful names for various idiots), we're kinda suspecting that he canceled because his dealer brought him some top quality blow and a case of good booze.

Stumble It!

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.

Stumble It!

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.

Stumble It!

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.

Stumble It!

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.

Stumble It!

Religion: It Makes You

Dress up like a hooker for Halloween, ABC tells us.

C'mon, do I look like a perv to you?

Or something. This story might belong in Republican whack-a-mole, except we don't know the guy's politics. We will not be surprised in the least if he turns out to be a card-carrying member of the Republic party.

The charming lad pictured above is one Paul A. Schum, principal of Bethlehem (a Catholic high school), recently arrested for loitering in Louisville. Mr. Schum might not have come to the attention of the authorities in Louisville if not for an unfortunate incident which resulted in the following description of his attire:

"He was wearing an all-black, leather, woman's outfit, fishnet stockings and women's black plastic breasts," Russell said, describing the part of town where Schum was found as "a problem area" for prostitution and drugs.

Mr. Schum was, apparently, sitting in his car in full regalia. Now, as far as I know, cross-dressing isn't a crime, even in Louisville. But the cops busted him for "loitering" because he offered "inconsistent explanations" for his presence and appearance.

Most cops don't have a problem with arresting your average poor person, like, oh, crackheads, street hookers, and Persons Of Hue. But, as a rule, they stay away from the rich and powerful. The principal of the local Catholic high school is likely to get a warning instead of an arrest unless he's actually caught in the act of buggering a sheep. So I figure the only reason they didn't let him off is, he was dressed in a manner, or acted in a manner, that indicated something more serious going on.

To all the apologists who say, Hey, it was Halloween, he should be able to dress as he likes. Yes, he should. In our book and yours. But he's a member of a Church that frowns mightily on Teh Gay (even as it covers up for pedophiles to the tune of millions of dollars in collection-plate offerings from the faithful). It is not we who will pillory him for his questionable activities. It is his own church and community. And given how the church has treated LGBTQ folks, we insist on treating this as high entertainment.

Praise Be to Sister Nancy Beth Eczema for her acuity and acumen in turning us on to this amusing spectacle.

Stumble It!