T I M E S à C H A N G I N '

Père LeDoux Chant Nöel

2011-12-15T08:07:00.000-06:00

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On the 33rd Anniversary of the Asassination of Harvey Milk

2011-11-27T09:55:00.001-06:00

An old poem from the Civil War about a deeply wounded vet~

2011-11-11T08:26:00.000-06:00

Wisperin’ Bill

So yer takin' the census, eh Mister.
Lemme tell ye about my son.
He was a soldier thet fought fer the North
Until the war wuz won.

This dooryard's now his battlefield.
Lesee, he wuz nigh sixteen
When Sumpter fell and as likely a boy
As this world's ever seen
And what with the news of battles lost
And shoutin' and all the noise
Ah giss every farm in the neighborhood
Lost a part of it's crop of boys.

‘Twas harvest time when Bill left home
Every stalk in the field of rye
Seemed to stand tip toe to see him off
And wave him a fond goodbye.
His momma used to tell him
When she knowed he wuz goin' away
That God’d surely take care of him
If'n he didn't fergit to pray.

And on the bloodiest battlefields
When bullets whizzed through the air
And Bill wuz a-fightin' desprit
He used to whisper a prayer.
His comrads has often tol' me
That Bill never flinched a bit
When every second a gap in the ranks
Showed where a ball had hit.

Then one night when the field wuz covered
With the awful harvest of war,
They found my boy 'mongst the martyrs
Of the cause he wuz fightin' for.

His fingers wuz clutched in the dewy grass,
Oh no Sir, he wasn't dead.
He just lay there sort of helpless and crazy
With a rifle ball in his head.
And if Bill had only died that night
I'd give all I got worth givin'
'Cause ya see that bullet killed his mind
But left his body livin’.

An officer he wrote and told us
How the boy'd been hurt in a fight
But he said that the doctors reckoned
They could bring him 'round alright.

Well, we waited and watched fer a month or more.
The summer wuz almost past
When we got a letter one day that said
Bill had started fer home at last.

I'll ne'er fergit when Bill come home,
"Twas harvest time again.
The air blowing o’er the yaller fields
Was sweet with the smell of grain.
The dooryard wuz full of neighbors
That come to share our joy
And we all set out a rousin' cheer
At the sight of that solier boy.

Then all of a sudden some-one said,
"My God, don't that boy know his mother?"
And Bill stood a-whisperin' fearful like
And starin' from one to another.

"Don't be afraid Bill." said he to himself
As he stood in his coat of blue.
"God'll take care of you, Bill
God'll take care of you."

Bill seemed to keep loadin' and firin' a gun
And actin' like a man who hears
The awful sounds of the battlefield
A-poundin' in his ears.
Ten thousand ghosts from that bloody day
Was a-marchin' through his brain
And his feet they kind of picked their way
As if they could feel the slain.

He ain’t never knowed us since that day
Nor his sweetheart and never will.
Mother and father and sweetheart,
We all the same to Bill.

And he groans like a wounded soldier
Sometimes the whole night through
And we just smooth his head and say, "Yes Bill,
God'll take care of you."

Irving Batchelder (written in the 1860's during civil war)

Today in Gay History ~~THANK YOU PRESIDENT OBAMA

2011-09-20T08:59:00.001-05:00

For Keeping Your Promise. Without your leadership, who knows when, if ever, this injustice would have ended.

2011-09-14T09:30:00.000-05:00

Why Labor Day?

2011-09-03T08:52:00.001-05:00

Le Jour de Gloire est Arrivée !

2011-07-14T08:11:00.003-05:00

Today in Gay History

2011-07-12T04:07:00.002-05:00

Happy 194th Birthday
July 12th
Henry David Thoreau, (1817-1862)

For more go to glbtq.com to which credit gratefully acknowledged for following excerpts:

. . . .Thoreau is perhaps best known for his stay at Walden Pond, chronicled in Walden (1854), and his night in jail after refusing to pay a poll tax to a government that supported the Mexican War and endorsed slavery. He wrote about this latter act of protest in "Resistance to Civil Government," popularly known as "Civil Disobedience," an essay that has inspired many, including Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr.
. . . .

Biographers remain undecided about Thoreau's sexuality. He never married. He proposed to Ellen Sewall in 1840, but she rejected his offer. Some believe he was a "repressed" homosexual and others that he was asexual and remained celibate all of his life.

But his Journals, his essay "Chastity and Sensuality," and the long discourse on "Friendship" in A Week are prolific expressions of the beauty, and the agony, of love between men.

Some of these discussions are said to refer to his brother or to Ralph Waldo Emerson. Others clearly refer to two men whom Thoreau found particularly attractive: Tom Fowler, whom Thoreau chose as a guide on a trip to the Maine woods; and Alek Therien, the Canadian woodchopper who visited Thoreau at Walden Pond.

The passion evident in his discourses on love and friendship, and the utter lack of reference to women in his writings, has made Thoreau of great interest to scholars of gay and lesbian literature. Jonathan Katz included a section on Thoreau in his Gay American History. Walter Harding, the distinguished Thoreau scholar, argued quite convincingly in 1991 that Thoreau's "actions and words . . . indicate a specific sexual interest in members of his own sex."

Complicating matters concerning Thoreau's sexuality is historical research suggesting that homosexual identity is a late nineteenth-century phenomenon. But, as Michael Warner suggests, Thoreau's writing resists normalization even within nineteenth-century "rhetorics of romance and sexuality."

Although Thoreau may not have identified as "homosexual" in the way a twentieth-century gay man might, his rhetoric of sexual difference strikes a chord with gay readers and anticipates an emerging homosexual identity: "I love man with the same distinction that I love woman--as if my friend were of some third sex--some other or some stranger and still my friend" (Journal 2:245).

H a p p y B i r t h d a y U S A

2011-07-04T04:57:00.002-05:00

Today in Gay History

2011-06-24T07:35:00.005-05:00

June 24, 1973 in New Orleans

32 People Murdered in
Firebombing of
Upstairs Lounge

See HERE for a good summary of this unsolved tragic crime and a sense of the intolerance of the time.

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Today in Gay History

2011-06-11T15:24:00.000-05:00

Today in Gay History

2011-05-22T08:26:00.006-05:00

Happy 81st Birthday!

Harvey B. Milk
May 22, 1930 - November 27, 1978

Harvey Milk was the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in the United States (and only the second openly homosexual, after Massachusetts State Assembly member Elaine Noble). His tragic assassination in San Francisco's City Hall made him the American gay liberation movement's most visible martyr.

I ask my gay sisters and brothers to make the commitment to fight. For themselves, for their freedom, for their country ... We will not win our rights by staying quietly in our closets ... We are coming out to fight the lies, the myths, the distortions. We are coming out to tell the truths about gays, for I am tired of the conspiracy of silence, so I'm going to talk about it. And I want you to talk about it. You must come out. Come out to your parents, your relatives...

Stonewall anniversary speech 1978

Harvey Milk Speech
- Watch more Videos at Vodpod.

2011-04-28T08:36:00.003-05:00

On April 28, 1990 -

A pipe bomb exploded in Uncle Charlie's, a Greenwich Village Gay bar, injuring three people. In protest, Queer Nation mobilized 1,000 protesters in a matter of hours. Angry marchers fill the streets, carrying the banner "Dykes and Fags Bash Back."

Credit GayWisdom.com and White Crane Institute

Today in Gay History

2011-04-21T07:54:00.004-05:00

Happy 128th Birthday
JOHN MAYNARD KEYNES

1946 - the British economist John Maynard Keynes died on this date (b. 1883). Also known as 1st Baron Keynes, his ideas have had a major impact on modern economic and political theory as well as on many governments' fiscal policies. He advocated interventionist government policy, by which the government would use fiscal and monetary measures to mitigate the adverse effects of economic recessions, depressions and booms. His ideas are the basis for the school of thought known as Keynesian economics. Time magazine named him as one of the greatest minds of the 20th century. Keynes's early romantic and sexual relationships were almost exclusively with men. Attitudes in the Bloomsbury Group, in which Keynes was avidly involved, were relaxed about homosexuality. One of his great loves was the artist Duncan Grant (they're together in the photo above), whom he met in 1908, and he was also involved with the writer Lytton Strachey.

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Today in Gay History

2011-04-13T03:57:00.004-05:00

Happy 121st Birthday

Justice Frank Murphy
b. April 13, 1890

Former Michigan governor and U.S. Supreme Court Justice FRANK MURPHY was born April 13, 1890 (d. 1949). Born William Francis Murphy, he was a politician and jurist from Michigan. He served as First Assistant U.S. District Attorney, Eastern Michigan District, Recorder's Court Judge, Detroit. Mayor of Detroit, the last Governor-General of the Philippines, U.S. High Commissioner of the Philippines, the 35th Governor of Michigan, United States Attorney General, and United States Supreme Court Associate Justice. Murphy was pretty beloved in Michigan.

Murphy was elected the Governor of Michigan in 1936 and served one two-year term. During his two years in office, an unemployment compensation system was instituted and mental health programs were improved. The United Automobile Workers engaged in an historic sit-down strike at the General Motors' Flint plant. The Flint Sit-Down Strike was a turning point in national collective bargaining and labor policy. After 27 people got injured in a battle between the workers and the police, including 13 strikers with gunshot wounds, Murphy sent the National Guard to protect the workers. The governor didn't follow a court's order requesting him to expel the strikers, and refused to order the guards troops to suppress the strike. Murphy successfully mediated an agreement and end to the confrontation; G.M. recognized the U.A.W. as bargaining agent under the newly adopted National Labor Relations Act. This had an effect upon organized labor. In the next year the UAW saw its membership grow from 30,000 to 500,000 members. As later noted by the British Broadcasting System, this strike was "the strike heard round the world."

Murphy was first nominated by Franklin Delano Roosevelt to be Attorney General and then in 1940 Roosevelt promoted him to the Supreme Court where he served till his death in 1949. Murphy authored 199 opinions: 131 majority, 68 in dissent and took an expansive view of individual liberties, and the limitations on government he found in the Bill of Rights.

Opinions differ about him and his jurisprudential philosophy. He has been acclaimed as a legal scholar and a champion of the common man. Justice Felix Frankfurter disparagingly nicknamed Murphy "the Saint", criticizing his decisions as being rooted more in passion than reason. It has been said he was "Neither legal scholar nor craftsman" who was criticized "for relying on heart over head, results over legal reasoning, clerks over hard work, and emotional solos over team play."

Murphy's support of African-Americans, aliens, criminals, dissenters, Jehovah's Witnesses, Native Americans, women, workers, and other outsiders evoked a pun: “tempering justice with Murphy.” As he wrote in Falbo v. United States (1944), “The law knows no finer hour than when it cuts through formal concepts and transitory emotions to protect unpopular citizens against discrimination and persecution.”

The reason Murphy's being mentioned here is for his lifelong companion and roommate, Edward Kemp. The two met while in college, attended law school together, started a law practice together and were basically inseparable for Murphy's entire life. They travelled overseas together, and lived together before and during Murphy's time on the Supreme Court. Kemp said he was only Murphy’s personal assistant and political advisor. That's odd because Justices have clerks for personal assistants and, with lifetime tenure, Murphy had little need for political advisors. We can at least hope they were happy together.

CREDIT: Entire text to~ Dan Vera of GAY WISDOM for Daily Living... from White Crane Institute

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Today in Gay History

2011-04-07T13:12:00.002-05:00

HAPPY 99^th BIRTHDAY APRIL 7TH
Harry Hay

(April 7, 1912 – October 24, 2002)

Chief Founder of the Mattachine Society and Radical Faeries.

"We pulled the ugly green frog skin of heterosexual conformity over us, and that's how we got through school with a full set of teeth," Hay once explained. "We know how to live through their eyes. We can always play their games, but are we denying ourselves by doing this? If you're going to carry the skin of conformity over you, you are going to suppress the beautiful prince or princess within you."

For a great deal more, see previous post here:

Today in Gay History

2011-03-19T19:33:00.002-05:00

On March 19, 2010 celebrity Kathy Griffin headlined a rally at Freedom Plaza in DC calling for the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell. Openly gay West Point graduate, Lt. Dan Choi, and Capt. James Pietrangelo marched from the rally site to the White House and handcuffed themselves to the fence. They were arrested and spent the night in jail, being denied the right to make a phone call and bail until the next day. "But what I was taught at West Point and learned in war is -- hope is not a strategy. As officers, James and I both find it a dereliction of our moral duty to remain silent while thousands of our brothers and sister are not allowed to serve openly and honestly." Within a year, the Democratic Congress voted to repeal the 18 year old policy, and before he signed the bill into law, President Obama stated that ending the ban will mean that "thousands of patriotic Americans" won't be forced to leave the military "despite years of exemplary performance, because they happen to be gay…" and that gay people will no longer be be "asked to live a lie in order to serve the country they love."

Today in Gay History

2011-03-12T07:38:00.001-06:00

On March 10-12, 1987, ACT UP is founded by Larry Kramer.

Credit to GayWisdom.org
1987 - ACT UP was formed [on March 12,1987 following a meeting-speech on March 10th] at the Lesbian and Gay Community Services Center in New York. The writer Vito Russo wrote at the time that "living with AIDS in this country is like living through a war that's happening only for those people in the trenches. Every time a shell explodes you look around to discover that you've lost more of your friends. But nobody else notices, it isn't happening to them." Larry Kramer had been asked to speak at the Lesbian and Gay Community Center as part of a rotating speaker series, and his well-attended speech focused on action to fight AIDS. Kramer spoke out against the Gay Men's Health Crisis (GMHC), which he perceived as politically impotent. Kramer had actually co-founded the GMHC but had resigned from its board of directors in 1983. According to Douglas Crimp, Kramer posed a question to the audience: "Do we want to start a new organization devoted to political action?" The answer was "a resounding yes." Approximately 300 people met two days later [March 12] to form ACT UP.

They became confrontational about the government's complete lack of urgency towards the plight of the thousands of Gay men dying of AIDS. That was the face of AIDS at the time and no one seemed to care that so many were dying. And many were actively blocking (as many still do) the use of condoms for AIDS prevention. They called out Ronald Reagan and Cardinal O'Connor and Pope John Paul for their responsibility in the deaths of millions while they prevented treatment and prevention. Because of ACT UP, political leaders and the media were forced to pay attention to what was happening. Because of ACT UP things moved for the care and treatment of people living and dying with AIDS. Their work is not finished and their model is one that has been replicated by many dealing with entrenched hostility and animus.

Today in Gay History

2011-03-11T09:14:00.000-06:00

March 11, 1967 – Today is the birthday of Scottish singer, actor, and activist JOHN BARROWMAN. Best known for his role as Captain Jack Harkness in the science fiction series Doctor Who and Torchwood. Born in Glasgow, Scotland, Barrowman and his family emigrated to the U.S. when he was nine. Growing up in the state of Illinois, his high school teachers encouraged his love for music and theatre and he studied performing arts at the United States International University in San Diego before visiting the United Kingdom and landing the role of Billy Crocker in Cole Porter's Anything Goes in London's West End.

Barrowman met his partner Scott Gill in 1993 and in 2005 they registered as civil partners under British law. They do not call their relationship a marriage: "We're just going to sign the civil register. We're not going to have any ceremony because I'm not a supporter of the word marriage for a Gay partnership." Barrowman explained later: "Why would I want a 'marriage' from a belief system that hates me?" A small ceremony was held in Cardiff with friends and family, with the cast of Torchwood and executive producer Russell T Davies as guests.

In 2009, Barrowman published I Am What I Am, his second memoir detailing his recent television work and musings on fame. In the book, Barrowman reveals that when he was just beginning his acting career, a Gay producer told Barrowman that he should try to pretend to be heterosexual in order to be successful. Barrowman was offended by the incident, and it made him more aware of the importance of his role as a Gay public figure: "One of my explicit missions as an entertainer is to work to create a world where no one will ever make a statement like this producer did to me to anyone who s Gay." To this end, Barrowman is active in his community supporting the issues that matter to him most. He worked with Stonewall, a Gay rights organization in the UK, on the "Education for All" campaign against homophobia in the schools. In April 2008, the group placed posters on 600 billboards that read, "Some people are Gay. Get over it!" Barrowman contributed his support to the project asking people to join him and "Help exterminate homophobia. Be bold. Be brave. Be a buddy, not a bully." In the same month, Barrowman spoke at the Oxford Union about his career, the entertainment industry, and gay rights issues. The event was filmed for the BBC program The Making Of Me, in an episode exploring the science of homosexuality

In 1998, Barrowman was nominated for an Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Musical, and in 2006 he was voted Stonewall's "Entertainer of the Year."

credit gaywisdom.org

Another Great Hallelujah

2011-03-10T06:19:00.000-06:00

Today in Gay History

2011-02-28T08:31:00.000-06:00

Monday, February 28, 2011

credit to Dan Vera and SEE MORE @ gaywisdom.org

1824 - on this date Karl-Maria Kertbeny or Károly Mária Kertbeny (born Karl-Maria Benkert) (d. 1882) was born in Vienna, the son of a writer and painter. He was an Austrian-born Hungarian journalist, memoir-ist and human rights campaigner who in 1869 coined the word homosexual. This was part of his system for the classification of sexual types, as a replacement for the pejorative terms "sodomite" and "pederast" that were used in the German- and French-speaking world of his time. In addition, he called the attraction between men and women "heterosexualism", masturbators "monosexualists", and practitioners of anal intercourse "pygists." [Please note that "homosexuality" was defined first. Then they had to come up with the term for "heterosexuals."]

1973 - on this date two members of the GAY ACTIVIST ALLIANCE appeared on the popular national television program JACK PAAR TONITE show to demand that the host stop using the terms "fairies", "dykes" and "fags" to disparage Gay people. It was the first such conversation on network television and resulted in Paar apologizing for his deluge of anti-gay remarks (he had a long track-record of homophobic remarks over his career).

Hymn to Love

2011-02-18T15:33:00.004-06:00

HYMNE à L'Amour

(Lyrics by Edith Piaf  ~Music by M. Monnot / E. Constantine)

Edith Piaf (France), and many covers such as Thierry Amiel, nice one by Josh Groban

Le ciel bleu sur nous peut s'effrondrer

Et la terre peut bien s'écrouler

Peu m'importe si tu m'aimes

Je me fous du monde entier

Tant que l'amour inondera mes matins

Tant que mon corps frémira sous tes mains

Peu m'importent les grands problèmes

Mon amour, puisque tu m'aimes...

J'irais jusqu'au bout du monde

Je me ferais teindre en blonde

Si tu me le demandais...

J'irais décrocher la lune

J'irais voler la fortune

Si tu me le demandais...

Je renierais ma patrie

Je renierais mes amis

Si tu me le demandais...

On peut bien rire de moi,

Je ferais n'importe quoi

Si tu me le demandais...

Si un jour la vie t'arrache à moi

Si tu meurs, que tu sois loin de moi

Peu m'importe, si tu m'aimes

Car moi je mourrai aussi...

Nous aurons pour nous l'éternité

Dans le bleu de toute l'immensité

Dans le ciel, plus de problèmes

Mon amour, crois-tu qu'on s'aime?...

...Dieu réunit ceux qui s'aiment!

HYMN TO LOVE~  ENGLISH LYRICS

Original : Hymne À L'Amour

(Eddie Constantine / Marguerite Monnot)

Recorded by : Edith Piaf, Thierry Amiel, Christine Albert; Corey Hart; Cyndi Lauper.

NOT a literal translation, but an artistic one

If the sky should fall into the sea

And the stars fade all around me

All the times that we have known here

I will sing a hymn to love

We have lived and dreamed we two alone

In a world that's been our very own

With it's memories ever grateful

Just for you I sing a hymn to love

I remember each embrace

The smile that lights your face

And my heart begins to sing

Your eyes have never lied

And my heart begins to sing

And my heart begins to sing

If one day you should ever disappear

Always remember these words

If one day we had to say goodbye

And our love should fade away and die

In my heart you will remain here

And I'II sing a hymn to love

O for love, we live eternally

In the blue we'll roll this harmony

With every day we are in heaven

As for you, I'll sing a hymn to love

Don't you ever worry, dear

And the stars shall fade from the sky

All the times that we have known here

I will sing a hymn to our love

Oh darling,

Just for you I sing

A hymn to love

ENCORE PAR THIERRY AMIEL

Strange Videos

2011-02-17T11:42:00.003-06:00

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This is just plain wrong on so many levels

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I'm Glad I Have My Tétard

2011-02-14T20:00:00.001-06:00

Happy St. Valentine Day, My Baby

For Egypt

2011-02-13T09:23:00.002-06:00

Don't Worry: It's Only timeschangin' !

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Today in Gay History

2011-02-12T06:05:00.002-06:00

Del Martin (left) and Phyllis Lyon (right) at their 2004 wedding

On this day in 2004, and after 50 years together, LGBT pioneers Phyllis Lyon and Del Martin were the 1st gay couple wed in San Francisco weddings. Del died just two short years later in August 2006 at age 87. Phyllis still lives in San Francisco, the undisputed gay female icon of the last 70 years.

In their younger years, Del and Phyllis had founded the lesbian organization, The Daughter’s of Bilitis in 1956. They published for several years the newsletter “The Ladder,” with Phyllis being the first editor for about a year, and Del becoming the editor for the next several years. They also were very involved advocating for the entire LGBTQ community for over 58 years.

For more on their remarkable and very public activism over 50+ years, see Wiki here.

Phyllis Lyon and Del Martin in the 1950s

Herewith a letter published in “The Ladder” from Del in 1956, explaining the rationale for the Daughters of Bilitis.

“ . . . The Daughters of Bilitis is a women’s organization resolved to add the feminine voice and viewpoint to a mutual problem. While women may not have as much difficulty with law enforcement, their problems are none the less real — family, sometimes children, employment, social acceptance.

However, the lesbian is a very elusive creature. She burrows underground in her fear of identification. She is cautious in her associations. Current modes in hair style and casual attire have enabled her to camouflage her existence. She claims she does not need help. And she will not risk her tight little fist of security to aid those who do.

But surely the ground work has been well laid in the past 5½ years [referring to earlier references to the male-dominated groups such as The Mattachine Society]. Homosexuality is not the dirty word it used to be. More and more people, professional and lay, are becoming aware of its meaning and implications. There is no longer so much “risk” in becoming associated with [text missing].

And why not “belong”? Many heterosexuals do. Membership is open to anyone who is interested in the minority problems of the sexual variant and does not necessarily indicate one’s own sex preference.

Women have taken a beating through the centuries. It has been only in this 20th, through the courageous crusade of the Suffragettes and the influx of women into the business world, that woman has become an independent entity, an individual with the right to vote and the right to a job and economic security. But it took women with foresight and determination to attain this heritage which is now ours.

And what will be the lot of the future lesbian? Fear? Scorn? This need not be — IF lethargy is supplanted by an energized constructive program, if cowardice gives way to the solidarity of a cooperative front, if the “let Georgia do it” attitude is replaced by the realization of individual responsibility in thwarting the evils of ignorance, superstition, prejudice and bigotry.

Nothing was ever accomplished by hiding in a dark corner. Why not discard the hermitage for the heritage that awaits any red-blooded American woman who dares to claim it?

S/ Del Martin, President
Daughters of Bilitis

Today in Gay History

2011-02-11T07:57:00.001-06:00

Happy Birthday

U S Rep Tammy Baldwin (D-Ws)

Born February 11, 1962

“The first out lesbian elected to the United States Congress, Democratic legislator Tammy Baldwin has been a strong supporter of glbtq rights, but she is far from a one-issue politician. Because of her solid record on such concerns as health care, the environment, education, and farming, her constituents in Wisconsin have [thus far] elected her to four terms in the House of Representatives. The last two terms, she was elected by over 2 to 1 margins over her nearest opponents.” http://www.glbtq.com/social-sciences/baldwin_t.html

From wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tammy_Baldwin

“Baldwin has stated her support for such legislation as the Equal Pay Act (EPA) and recently voted for the Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. These acts criminalize and outline prosecution guidelines and punishments for wage discrimination based on sex. She received a grade of 100 from the League of Women Voters as of 2007. She has received favorable evaluations from other civil rights groups, such as the American Civil Liberties Union.

Representative Baldwin has also advanced what she sees as stronger enforcement of laws against sexual violence and violence against women. She is a supporter of the Violence Against Women Act, which allowed victims of sexual violence and other sexual crimes to take their cases to federal courts as well as providing funding for various anti-sexual violence initiatives and programs. She is also among the sponsors of a resolution to promote and support National Sexual Assault Awareness and Prevention Month.

Baldwin has also promoted her efforts on behalf of women's health and reproductive rights.^[5] She sponsored of the National Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program Reauthorization Act of 2007, which helped low-income, underinsured and uninsured women pay for cervical and breast cancer-related medical services.”

Baldwin and her domestic partner Lauren Azar were together for 16 years before amicably separating and ending their relationship in May, 2010.

Today in Gay History

2011-02-07T07:36:00.008-06:00

During this week, in fact on February 7th, 1941, an incident took place in Hamburg, Germany during World War II. As the Nazi’s reign of terror continued, many gay couples had one man dress as a woman to avoid being caught. One such couple, Franz Liederspool and his lover, Burt Nowitski were out for casual evening of beers and weinershnitzel when the Nazi’s noticed that one of them was actually a woman. The men ran through the crowded streets of Hamburg trying to escape the Nazi’s when they ended up in a dark alley.

Knowing that if they were caught together they were doomed, Franz Liederspool told Burt Nowitsk, who was dressed as the woman, to go into the back entrance of a local burlesque house. Little did Franz know that the door actually led right to the stage. For the next three hours the Nazi’s hunted for the gay couple while Burt performed with some of the best leg kicks that the German people had ever seen. Not only did the Nazi’s not find them, but the soldiers eventually grew tired and went for some R&R at the very burlesque house that Burt was working at. It was quite an ironic twist of fate, indeed.

Years later the movies “La Cage au Folles” and “The Bird Cage” were loosely based on their story.

2011-02-05T06:30:00.001-06:00

Credit MJS on Vimeo via GayWisdom.org

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"Secretly" - A Vintage Montage Of Guys Together from MJS on Vimeo.

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Mange La Chandeleur !

2011-02-02T05:25:00.003-06:00

FEBRUARY 2 is the Catholic holiday of Candlemas, a feast to commemorate the purification of the Virgin Mary and the presentation of the baby Jesus forty days after his birth.

For many French people La Chandeleur is a chance to enjoy a lot of crêpes, as well as do some fortune telling while making them.

The tradition is to hold a coin in your writing hand and a crêpe pan in the other; then toss the crêpe in the air. If you manage to catch the crêpe in the pan, your family will enjoy prosperity for the rest of the year.

Mardi Gras In the Country~ Terrence Simien and the Zydeco Experience

2011-01-20T14:34:00.001-06:00

	Terrance Simien - Mardi Gras in the Country .mp3

	Found at bee mp3 search engine

Get Your Hanky Ready~ A Happy Tears Coming Out Story

2011-01-07T18:34:00.005-06:00

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Bonne Année

2010-12-31T20:25:00.001-06:00

Did you get an odd-looking sweater for Xmas?

2010-12-25T18:11:00.002-06:00

Click here for more more UGGO Xmas sweaters you should be grateful you did not receive this year.

Eight Crazy Nights of Channuka

2010-12-01T06:59:00.001-06:00

Thanksgiving

2010-11-26T09:24:00.003-06:00

Lest We Forget Our Sisters & Brothers

2010-11-15T20:13:00.007-06:00

Every Year on November 20,

click here to remember those lost

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Yes We Can, remix

2010-11-12T07:38:00.002-06:00

Today in Gay History

2010-11-11T06:37:00.007-06:00

First Mattachine Society meeting

Members of the Mattachine Society in a rare group photograph.

Pictured are Harry Hay (upper left),
then (l-r) Konrad Stevens, Dale Jennings, Rudi Gernreich,
Stan Witt, Bob Hull, Chuck Rowland (in glasses),
Paul Bernard. Photo by Jim Gruber.

On November 11, 1950, at Harry Hay's home in the Silver Lake district of Los Angeles, a group of gay men met as a group to assert their common societal interests as gay men. Harry hay had been promoting the idea of such a society for several years prior, as he envisioned, to be "a service and welfare organization devoted to the protection and improvement of Society's Androgynous Minority."

Subsequent meetings of the group resulted in the formation of the Mattachine Society. Of the original Mattachine founders, Chuck Rowland, Bob Hull, Dale Jennings pre-deceased Hay; Konrad Stevens and John Gruber are the last surviving members of the founding group.

"Mattachine" took its name from a group of medieval dancers who appeared publicly only in mask, a device well understood by homosexuals of the 1950s. Hay devised its secret cell structure (based on the Masonic order) to protect individual gays and the nascent gay network. Officially co-gender, the group was largely male; the Daughters of Bilitis, the pioneering lesbian organization, formed independently in San Francisco in 1956. Though some criticized the Mattachine movement as insular, it grew to include thousands of members in dozens of chapters, which formed from Berkeley to Buffalo, and created a lasting national framework for gay organizing. Mattachine laid the ground for rapid civil rights gains following 1969's Stonewall riots in New York City.

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Migration to Canada Booms

2010-11-08T08:59:00.010-06:00

Click HERE: Expected to last about 2 years

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S W A M P E D

2010-11-06T22:39:00.001-05:00

Remember to Vote Novemeber 2; Get Out or Get Swamped

2010-10-20T09:18:00.001-05:00

Today in Gay History

2010-10-16T07:21:00.000-05:00

Happy 65^th Birthday

(October 16, 1945-1995)

Paul Monette

Writer, Chronicler of AIDS

Paul Monette & Roger Horowitz >

this from glbtq:

In novels, poetry, and a memoir, Paul Monette wrote about gay men striving to fashion personal identities and, later, coping with the loss of a lover to AIDS.

Monette was born in Lawrence, Massachusetts, in 1945. He was educated at prestigious schools in New England: Phillips Andover Academy and Yale University, where he received his B.A. in 1967. He began his prolific writing career soon after graduating from Yale. For eight years, he wrote poetry exclusively.

After coming out in his late twenties, he met Roger Horwitz, who was to be his lover for over twenty years. Also during his late twenties, he grew disillusioned with poetry and shifted his interest to the novel, not to return to poetry until the 1980s.

In 1977, Monette and Horwitz moved to Los Angeles. Once in Hollywood, Monette wrote a number of screenplays that, though never produced, provided him the means to be a writer. Monette published four novels between 1978 and 1982. These novels were enormously successful and established his career as a writer of popular fiction. He also wrote several novelizations of films.

Monette's life changed dramatically when Roger Horwitz was diagnosed with AIDS in the early 1980s. After Horwitz's death in 1986, Monette wrote extensively about the years of their battles with AIDS (Borrowed Time, 1988) and how he himself coped with losing a lover to AIDS (Love Alone, 1988). These works are two of the most powerful accounts written about AIDS thus far.

Their publication catapulted Monette into the national arena as a spokesperson for AIDS. Along with fellow writer Larry Kramer, he emerged as one of the most familiar and outspoken AIDS activists of our time. Since very few out gay men have had the opportunity to address national issues in mainstream venues at any previous time in U.S. history, Monette's high-visibility profile was one of his most significant achievements. He went on to write two important novels about AIDS, Afterlife (1990) and Halfway Home (1991). He himself died of AIDS-related complications in 1995. . . .

Monette's harrowing collection of deeply personal poems, Love Alone: 18 Elegies for Rog, conveys both the horrors of AIDS and the inconsolable pain of love lost. The elegies are an invaluable companion to Borrowed Time.

Before the publication and success of his memoir, Becoming a Man, it seemed inevitable that Monette would be remembered most for his writings on AIDS. Becoming a Man, however, focuses on the dilemmas of growing up gay. It provides at once an unsparing account of the nightmare of the closet and a moving and often humorous depiction of the struggle to come out. Becoming a Man won the 1992 National Book Award for nonfiction, a historical moment in the history of lesbian and gay literature and culture in the United States.

Prior to his death, Monette established the Monnette-Horowitz Trust “to ensure the continued fruits of their activism as well as the memory of their loving partnership.”

The Monette-Horwitz Trust provides annual awards to individuals of diverse cultural backgrounds, genders, and sexual orientations who are, through their work, making significant contributions to eradicating homophobia. The Trust acknowledges the accomplishments of organizations and persons working in arenas ranging from academic research and creative expression to activism and community organizing.

For more, see:

http://www.monettehorwitz.org/about.html

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Move over Columbus

2010-10-12T08:14:00.011-05:00

October 12 May be the
New Gay Independence Day?

Judge to military:

Stop discharging gays under

'don't ask, don't tell'

Landmark ruling says government's

17-year-old policy must end

From MSNBC news

RIVERSIDE, Calif. — A federal judge Tuesday

ordered the government to stop banning openly gay men and women from serving in the military under the "don't ask, don't tell" policy.

U.S. District Judge Virg

inia Phillips found the policy unconstitutional in September. On Tuesday, she rejected an Obama administrat

ion request to delay an injunction and ordered enforcement of the 17-year-old policy permanently stopped.

The decision was cheered by gay righ

ts organizations that credited her with getting accomplished what President Barack Obama and Washington politics could not.

"This order from Judge Phillips is another historic and courageous step in the right direction, a step that Congress has been noticeably slow in taking," said Alexander Nicholson, executive director of Servicemembers United, the nation's largest organization of gay and lesbian troops and veterans.

He was the sole named veteran plaintiff in the case along with the Log Cabin Republicans, a gay rights organization that filed the lawsuit in 2004 to stop the ban's enforcement.

The Justice Department has 60 days

to appeal. Legal experts say the government is under no legal obligation to do so and they could let Phillips' ruling stand.

A Perntagon official

suggested the military may in fact halt all attempts to enforce the policy for the forseeable future. The official told NBC News: "It's important to point out that today's federal court order comes less than t

wo months (Dec. 1) before the Pentagon is to provide Secretary of Defense Robert Gates with a plan on how, not if, but how to implement the repeal of 'Dont Ask Dont Tell' in the military."

Legal experts say government attorneys are not likely to let the ruling stand since Obama has made it clear he wants Congress to

repeal the policy.

. . .The Department of Justice attorneys also said Congress should decide the issue — not her court.

Phillips disagreed, saying the law doesn't help military readiness and instead has a "direct and deleterious effect" on the armed services by hurting recruiting during wartime and requiring the discharge of service members with critical skills and training.

"Furthermore, there is no adequate remedy at law to prevent the continued violation of servicemembers

' rights or to compensate

them for violation of their rights," Phillips said in her order.

She said Department of Justice attorneys did not address these issues in their objection to her expected injunction.

Phillips declared the law unconstitutional after listening to the testimony of discharged service members during a two-week nonjury trial this summer in federal court in Riverside.

She said the Log Cabin Republicans "established at trial that the Don't Ask, Don't Tell Act irreparably injures servicemembers by infringing their fundamental rights." She said the policy violates due process rights, freedom of s

peech and the right to petition the government for redress of grievances guaranteed by the First Amendment.

Gay rights advocates have worried they los

t a crucial opportunity to change the law when Senate Republicans opposed the defense bill last month because of a "don't ask, don't tell" repeal provision.

If Democrats

lose seats in the upcoming elections, repealing the ban could prove even more difficult — if not impossible — next yea

The Log Cabin Republicans asked her for an immediate injunction so the policy can no longer be used against any U.S. military personnel anywhere in the world.

...

AND FROM EQUALITY FLORIDA, ADIOS ANITA

Florida Ends Anti-Gay Adoption Ban

Moments ago, Department of Children & Families' (DCF) Director, George Sheldon, announced that the agency will not appeal last month's court ruling which struck down Florida's ban on gay and lesbian adoption as "unconstitutional."

It is now legal for gay and lesbian parents to adopt children everywhere in the state of Florida.

In an official statement from DCF, spokesman Joe Follick made clear that the 33 year ban comes to and end today. "The DCA opinion is binding on all trial courts and therefore provides statewide uniformity. The ban on gay adoption is unconstitutional statewide," Follick said.

Equality Florida spoke directly with DCF Director, George Sheldon, this evening, and while the official clock for the state to appeal does not officially run out until October 22nd, Sheldon made clear the ban is over. "The Gill family adoption is now final. They can take pride that they are now a family in the eyes of the state and they can take pride that their struggle has closed the chapter on this law for good," Sheldon said.

As we pause and celebrate this tremendous victory, we want to say a special thank you to Martin and his family, the ACLU and ACLU of Florida, Greenberg Traurig, and Charles Auslander for their brilliant work in the courtroom.

While the 33-year ban comes to an end today, the fight is not over yet. We must defend this victory against extremists who are already at work to reinstate the ban. The same anti-gay forces who pushed for Florida's marriage amendment in 2008 will likely try to put a return of the adoption ban up for a statewide vote 2012.

With your continued support, we will be ready for them. Equality Florida has been working with a coalition of organizations and individuals on a project called Adopt Equality. For months, our volunteers have been calling Florida voters and asking them to support adoption by gay and lesbian parents.

But even as we prepare for what's next, today is a day to celebrate the end of an ugly chapter in Florida's history. Florida's adoption ban is no more, as evidenced by a DCF directive sent to department heads statewide that reads:

Based on the ruling that the current law is unconstitutional, you are no longer to ask prospective adoptive parents whether they are heterosexual, gay or lesbian, nor are you to use this as a factor in determining the suitability of applicants to adopt. Focus your attention on the quality of parenting that prospective adoptive parents would provide, and their commitment to and love for our children.

2010-10-09T22:25:00.001-05:00

A little humor goes a Long way: Bishops and Bling and Drag

2010-10-01T10:28:00.002-05:00

(All images from public domain or republished with permission)

Bishop Eddie Long of Atlanta

Patriarch of Moscow and All-Russia,
Bishop Kyrill I

Pope Benedict XVI, Pretty in Pink
Bishop of Rome

Bishop V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire

Joey, late BISHOP of LATE NITE

Rapper Arch Bishop Majic Juan

West Coast Rapper, Bishop Lamont

Bishop Katherine Jefferts Schori
Presiding Bishop, Episcopal Church (USA)

AND LASTLY
A current Cartoon referring to comments by Archbishop Nichols of Westminster
about spreading the light, which COMMENTS can be found here

http://www.indcatholicnews.com/news.php?viewStory=16792

republished by permission of jesusandmo.net

Republicans Filibuster Defense Spending

2010-09-21T22:42:00.003-05:00

Gingrich Calls Obama A "Kenyan"

2010-09-14T06:51:00.001-05:00

"What if Obama is so outside our comprehension, that only if you understand Kenyan, anti-colonial behavior, can you begin to piece together his actions? That is the most accurate, predictive model for his behavior. This is a person who is fundamentally out of touch with how the world works, who happened to have played a wonderful con, as a result of which he is now president.

"I think he worked very hard at being a person who is normal, reasonable, moderate, bipartisan, transparent, accommodating — none of which was true. In the Alinksy tradition, he was being the person he needed to be in order to achieve the position he needed to achieve. He was authentically dishonest." - Newt Gingrich, speaking to the National Review.

Today in Gay History

2010-09-13T17:57:00.006-05:00

Happy 82nd Birthday
Robert Indiana, Visual Artist
(b. September 13, 1928)

Robert Indiana, né Robert Clark, was born in Newcastle, Indiana September 13, 1928. He served in the U.S. Army Air Corps from 1946 to 1949 and then entered the Art Institute of Chicago with the assistance of the GI Bill. Upon graduating with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1953, Clark won a scholarship to the University of Edinburgh. He earned an Masters degree in Fine Arts there in 1954 and moved to New York City.

Establishing himself in the growing art colony at the very southern tip of Manhattan, he became part of a group of young artists including Agnes Martin, Lenore Tawney, Jack Youngerman, and Ellsworth Kelly. For a time, he and Kelly were lovers.

Clark changed his surname to Indiana in 1958 to reflect better the American focus of his work. He first attracted notice in 1959 with unpainted assemblages, stenciled with short words and constructed from scavenged wood, pieces of iron, and wheels.

Indiana is part of the pop art movement, though he deprecatingly refers to himself as a "sign painter." Like other pop artists he invests commonplace objects and familiar images with new meaning. However, his works occasionally deviate from the pop art norm by evincing intense personal and political engagement. They express concern over social issues and make pointed political statements. His painting Yield Brother (1962), for example, focuses on the peace movement while his Confederacy series (1965-66), created during the Civil Rights movement, attacks racism in four southern states.

He painted "LOVE" for a Christmas card for the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1965.

The LOVE image had an immediate impact, especially among the youth culture of the 1960s. As a painting, graphic design, and a sculpture, it has become one of the most pervasive and widely disseminated images of all time.

In 1973, the U.S. Postal Service commissioned Indiana to do a LOVE postage stamp. The resulting product became the most popular stamp ever issued by the U.S. government.

In 1978, Indiana moved to Vinalhaven, Maine. Working with Vinalhaven Press, he has used the traditional printmaking media of etching and lithography to depict the solitude and isolation of his life in rural Maine.

Indiana's more recent works include biographical elements of gay lives, including his own.

Indiana continues to work actively and accept commissions. He filed suit a few months ago to protect his rights in his art against his “business” “partner” John Gilbert who’d been merchandizing Indiana’s images in India and elsewhere.

see: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/paint_smears_jBZJS1KAzFac0GKYyhIgMO#ixzz0zS1yuIFE

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Today in Gay History

2010-09-07T07:58:00.003-05:00

Happy 41st Birthday
Rudy Galindo (b. Sept 7, 1969)
the first openly gay American figure skating champion

Credit:
glbtq

With a stunning upset victory in 1996 Rudy Galindo became the first openly gay man and the first Mexican-American to win the United States figure skating championship.

Galindo came from a family of modest means. His father, Jess Galindo, was a long-distance truck driver, and his mother, Margaret Galindo, a homemaker. Rudy Galindo, the youngest of their three children, was born September 7, 1969.

His mother and father made enormous sacrifices so that Rudy and his sister Laura could become accomplished figure skaters as youngsters. Rudy won many accolades in the late 1980s in pair skating with Kristi Yamaguchi as his skating partner. She decided to move to full time women’s singles skating, and , depressed over the break-up of the promising partnership, Galindo turned to drugs and alcohol. He continued skating as a single, but with disappointing results.

Galindo's brother George contracted AIDS in 1992. Rudy Galindo became the primary care-giver until his brother's death in 1994. Only a few months later, Galindo's coach Rick Inglesi also succumbed to AIDS (as had his pairs coach, Jim Hulick). The previous year Galindo had lost his father, who had always been close to and supportive of him, to a sudden heart attack.
Discouraged by his eighth-place finish in the 1995 U.S. Nationals and short of money, Galindo abandoned skating for eight months.

Galindo lacked funds for travel, but since the 1996 U.S. Nationals were to be held in his hometown of San Jose, he resumed training, this time with his sister, Laura Galindo-Black, as his coach.
Discouraged by his eighth-place finish in the 1995 U.S. Nationals and short of money, Galindo abandoned skating for eight months.

Galindo lacked funds for travel, but since the 1996 U.S. Nationals were to be held in his hometown of San Jose, he resumed training, this time with his sister, Laura Galindo-Black, as his coach.
With a string of lackluster performances before his absence from skating, Galindo was regarded as such an unlikely competitor for the title that the United States Figure Skating Association did not even include him in its publicity guides.

After an artistic short program skated to Pachelbel's Canon, Galindo stood third, a result booed by the crowd, who felt that he had been undermarked.

Galindo's style had been criticized as too balletic and not sufficiently "masculine," but his long program, choreographed by jazz dancer Sharlene Franke to Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake, featured eight triple jumps, including two triple-triples. Galindo's flawless execution of a program that was both masterful in its artistry and athletically demanding drew a wild standing ovation and earned him the national title. His artistic marks included two perfect scores of 6.0.

Galindo thus became the first openly gay American figure skating champion. In the exhibition after the competition he wore a simple black costume with a large AIDS ribbon as he skated a moving routine to Schubert's Ave Maria as a tribute to his late brother and coaches.
After winning a bronze medal at the 1996 World Championships, Galindo turned pro, joining the Champions on Ice tour.

In the spring of 2000 he had to withdraw from a performance due to shortness of breath. A subsequent medical examination revealed that he was HIV-positive. Galindo suspects that he contracted the virus during his period of depression, when he practiced unsafe sex. Galindo made the news of his diagnosis public and quickly resumed skating. He is still active on the tour, where he is popular with fellow performers and audiences alike. His signature piece, "Village People Medley," is a particular fan favorite.

In the summer of 2002, Galindo was diagnosed with avascular necrosis in his hips, a condition that results in the death of bone. It is an increasingly occurring condition in long-term HIV survivors. Although he skated with the debilitating disease for over a year, in 2003 he underwent two operations to replace his hips. By April 3, 2004, he was ready to return to the Champions on Ice tour, where, skating on two new hips, he exemplified the determination and courage that has characterized his entire career.

Galindo has worked to increase AIDS awareness, especially in minority communities. He served on the National Minority AIDS Council, and in 2001 received the Ryan White Award for contributions to AIDS awareness, prevention, and education.

Happy Labor Day

2010-09-06T12:51:00.003-05:00

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Do You Know What It Means

2010-09-01T23:06:00.002-05:00

To Miss New Or-leans, 5 years after the Deluge

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This Weekend in Wingnuttery

2010-08-28T08:29:00.002-05:00

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This Week in Gay History

2010-08-22T01:15:00.003-05:00

August 22-25, 1968

At the Democratic Party National Convention in Chicago, a sub-convention of gay rights groups coalesced under the moniker of the North American Conference of Homophile Organizations (NACHO) met to create a Homosexual Bill of Rights and coined the slogan "Gay is Good," an homage to the Black Power slogan "Black is Beautiful."

Their non-violent gathering and meetings were greatly overshadowed by the large number of leftist anti-war groups coalescing in concert with the Youth International Party (Yippies) and other more “demonstrative” characters. Crapaud was there attending a college social fraternity annual gathering in Evanston, but did just barely escape being tear-gassed downtown one evening when he took a wrong turn on a walking tour. It was the first time I ever saw machine gun emplacements and armed soldiers on the street corners of an American city.

A number of lesbian organizations, still concerned over the lack of attention being paid to their issues, refused to participate. Daughters of Bilitis president Rita LaPorte compared the relationship between NACHO and DOB to a husband and wife. Heterosexual women, she argued, dissipated their energy through their marriages; similarly, lesbians risked dissipating their energy should DOB become a surrogate "wife" to what she perceived as the male-centered NACHO.

NACHO held national conferences in 1969 and 1970, but faded in importance with the rise of the Gay Liberation Front and others becoming more radicalized after Stonewall.

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Constitutional Rights Should NEVER be a popularity contest

2010-08-20T05:40:00.002-05:00

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The Daily Advertiser Blogosphere on Steroids

2010-08-15T13:52:00.003-05:00

The “N” Word

With no aspersion whatsoever to any rabbit we know, this little video cartoon subtly illustrates the Jekyll and Hyde aspect of multiple personalities disorder.

Having Dissociative Identity Disorder (Multiple Personalities) is a clinical condition. Assuming multiple identities to hammer your viewpoint home and having them repeatedly validate one another by clicking “recommend” dozens of times, well, that’s apparent Narcissism with an evil twist.

How many narcissists does it take to change a light bulb?

There are two answers, which often overlap.

(a) Just one -- but he has to wait

for the whole world to revolve around him; or,

(b) None at all -- he hires menials for work that's beneath him.

For a thorough lay-friendly exposition about recognizing Narcissists, try this link:

http://www.halcyon.com/jmashmun/npd/dsm-iv.html#npd

There is a vast difference between those who have a healthy self-image and those who constantly display hallmarks of Narcissism. It takes a pretty good opinion of oneself for anyone to post our thoughts in blogs or comments in these digital pages. Most here have that healthy confidence that makes us interested in and respectful of the views of others.

The few “N”s here who assume multiple identities fool no one. They deflect when caught in lies, have a grossly exaggerated sense of the value of their own opinions and totally lack empathy. When called upon by their peers here to offer even the simplest apology when everyone else agrees they’ve displayed inhumanity, they ignore and only make more self-serving comments. To bolster their self-esteem the “N”s here create multiple user identities. This allows the Narcissist to pat himself on the back, comment on his own blogs, etc. Once he has created a dozen or more blogger personalities, he is then free to “recommend” himself repeatedly.

“…. it's possible to get along with narcissists, but it's probably not worth bothering with. If family members are narcissists, you have my deep sympathy. If people you work with are narcissists, you will be wise to keep an eye on them, if just for your own protection, because they don't think very well, no matter what their IQs, they feel that the rules (of anything) don't apply to them, and they will always cut corners and cheat wherever they think they can get away with it, not to mention alienating co-workers, clients, and customers by their arrogance, lies, malice, and off-the-wall griping. Narcissists are threatened and enraged by trivial disagreements, mistakes, and misunderstandings, plus they have evil mouths and will say ANYTHING, so if you continue to live or work with narcissists, expect to have to clean up after them, expect to lose friends over them, expect big trouble sooner or later. ”

End the so called "Don't Ask, Don't Tell"

2010-08-10T14:20:00.002-05:00

Today in Gay History

2010-08-04T16:14:00.004-05:00

BREAKING NEWS ~~

The U S District Court for the northern district of California, ruled today that California's Proposition 8 violates both the Due Process and the Equal Protection principles of the U S Constitution. The full text of the decision can be found HERE.

This L A N D M A R K decision will now wind its way through the appeals process. Pray that at least one activist Republican S Ct Justice (Kennedy?) will do the right thing by the law in favor of freedom. Otherwise the case will end in a year or so with the ROBERTS COURT 5-4 repeating the Plessy v Ferguson canard of equality.

One of those rare days where my people cry many happy tears.

Today in Gay History

2010-08-02T03:42:00.007-05:00

HAPPY 86TH BIRTHDAY

James Arthur Baldwin, (August 2, 1924-1987)

AMERICAN AUTHOR OF ARTICULATE CHALLENGES TO RACISM AND MANDATORY HETEROSEXUALITY

James Baldwin, a pioneering figure in twentieth-century literature, wrote sustained and articulate challenges to American racism and mandatory heterosexuality.

The circumstances of Baldwin's birth were unremarkable: He was born on August 2, 1924, at Harlem Hospital in New York City to a poor, unmarried, twenty-year-old woman named Emma Berdis Jones. But his death sixty-three years later on December 1, 1987, at his home in southern France was an event reported on the front pages of newspapers around the world. Indeed, his journey from a difficult childhood in Harlem to his eventual status as a legendary artist with a large and loyal international audience constitutes one of the most compelling American life-stories of the twentieth century.

Baldwin is a pioneering figure in twentieth-century literature. As a black gay writer in a culture that privileges those who are white and straight, he offered in his work a sustained and articulate challenge to the dominant discourses of American racism and mandatory heterosexuality. As an African-American writer, he ranks among the finest. As a gay writer, he occupies a preeminent place.

Long before the Stonewall Riots of 1969 helped liberate the gay literary imagination in the United States, he boldly made his sexuality a vital part of his artistic vision. Even more important, by insisting on honest and open explorations of gay and bisexual themes in his fiction, he made a sharp break from the established African-American literary conventions. Through such a radical departure from tradition, he helped create the space for a generation of young African-American gay writers who succeeded him.

Today in Gay History

2010-07-27T00:52:00.005-05:00

HAPPY 70th BIRTHDAY, REV. TROY PERRY
Founder, Metropolitan Community Church (MCC)

Born July 27, 1940

In September 1968, when he was twenty-eight, the Rev. Troy Perry put an ad in the Advocate announcing worship services for gay and lesbian Christians. On October 6, twelve people gathered in his living room in Los Angeles for what would become the Metropolitan Community Church, which now has over 300 congregations in eighteen countries.
Perry was thirteen when he preached his first sermon. His father had died when he was twelve and his new stepfather was violent and abusive to Perry and his four brothers. Perry ran away to stay with relatives in Georgia and Texas and began attending Pentecostal services, then entered their ministry. He married the daughter of pastor, had two sons, came out, was defrocked, divorced, and was barred from seeing his children until a reunion in 1985. He married his partner of twenty-three years, Phillip De Blieck, in Toronto in 2003 at the local MCC. The newlyweds sued California for their marriage to be recognized and won. When the State appealed, the ruling was overturned. Perry retired as Moderator of the church in 2005 and his successor, Nancy Wilson, was installed in a special service held in the Washington National Cathedral. Perry continues preaching, public speaking, writing, and fighting for social change .
The MCC’s history has been equally tumultuous. Less than two years after opening their Mother Church in Los Angeles in 1971, it was burnt to the ground by arsonists who were never caught. Fires have been set to MCC buildings seventeen additional times. A New Orleans bar that had hosted MCC services was torched fives months after the Los Angeles fire and thirty-two people were killed, among them twelve MCC members including the pastor and assistant pastor. Much more about the MCC’s history can be read here.

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Bonne Fete Nationale de France

2010-07-14T13:10:00.003-05:00

H A P P Y B A S T I L L E D A Y

2010-07-06T04:41:00.000-05:00

2010-07-01T00:03:00.000-05:00

Today in Gay History

2010-06-27T12:51:00.003-05:00

Stonewall's Anniversary

This post is entirely stolen from Joe.My.God.

It was June 27th, 1969.

The day that the fags, dykes, and queens of New York City finally said "Enough!" For some historical perspective, I'm posting the story that the New York Daily News ran about the Stonewall Riots. Note how the story drips with condescension and ridicule. We've come a long, long way in 41 years and we've still got some distance to cover, but today we should all offer up a shout, a snap, and a moment of thanks to the people who started us down this road.

HOMO NEST RAIDED - QUEEN BEES ARE STINGING MAD

-by Jerry Lisker, New York Daily News, July 6th 1969

She sat there with her legs crossed, the lashes of her mascara-coated eyes beating like the wings of a hummingbird. She was angry. She was so upset she hadn't bothered to shave. A day old stubble was beginning to push through the pancake makeup. She was a he. A queen of Christopher Street.

Last weekend the queens had turned commandos and stood bra strap to bra strap against an invasion of the helmeted Tactical Patrol Force. The elite police squad had shut down one of their private gay clubs, the Stonewall Inn at 57 Christopher St., in the heart of a three-block homosexual community in Greenwich Village. Queen Power reared its bleached blonde head in revolt. New York City experienced its first homosexual riot. "We may have lost the battle, sweets, but the war is far from over," lisped an unofficial lady-in-waiting from the court of the Queens.

"We've had all we can take from the Gestapo," the spokesman, or spokeswoman, continued. "We're putting our foot down once and for all." The foot wore a spiked heel. According to reports, the Stonewall Inn, a two-story structure with a sand painted brick and opaque glass facade, was a mecca for the homosexual element in the village who wanted nothing but a private little place where they could congregate, drink, dance and do whatever little girls do when they get together.

The thick glass shut out the outside world of the street. Inside, the Stonewall bathed in wild, bright psychedelic lights, while the patrons writhed to the sounds of a juke box on a square dance floor surrounded by booths and tables. The bar did a good business and the waiters, or waitresses, were always kept busy, as they snaked their way around the dancing customers to the booths and tables. For nearly two years, peace and tranquility reigned supreme for the Alice in Wonderland clientele.

The Raid Last Friday

Last Friday the privacy of the Stonewall was invaded by police from the First Division. It was a raid. They had a warrant. After two years, police said they had been informed that liquor was being served on the premises. Since the Stonewall was without a license, the place was being closed. It was the law.

All hell broke loose when the police entered the Stonewall. The girls instinctively reached for each other. Others stood frozen, locked in an embrace of fear.

Only a handful of police were on hand for the initial landing in the homosexual beachhead. They ushered the patrons out onto Christopher Street, just off Sheridan Square. A crowd had formed in front of the Stonewall and the customers were greeted with cheers of encouragement from the gallery.

The whole proceeding took on the aura of a homosexual Academy Awards Night. The Queens pranced out to the street blowing kisses and waving to the crowd. A beauty of a specimen named Stella wailed uncontrollably while being led to the sidewalk in front of the Stonewall by a cop. She later confessed that she didn't protest the manhandling by the officer, it was just that her hair was in curlers and she was afraid her new beau might be in the crowd and spot her. She didn't want him to see her this way, she wept.

Queen Power

The crowd began to get out of hand, eye witnesses said. Then, without warning, Queen Power exploded with all the fury of a gay atomic bomb. Queens, princesses and ladies-in-waiting began hurling anything they could get their polished, manicured fingernails on. Bobby pins, compacts, curlers, lipstick tubes and other femme fatale missiles were flying in the direction of the cops. The war was on. The lilies of the valley had become carnivorous jungle plants.

Urged on by cries of "C'mon girls, lets go get'em," the defenders of Stonewall launched an attack. The cops called for assistance. To the rescue came the Tactical Patrol Force.

Flushed with the excitement of battle, a fellow called Gloria pranced around like Wonder Woman, while several Florence Nightingales administered first aid to the fallen warriors. There were some assorted scratches and bruises, but nothing serious was suffered by the honeys turned Madwoman of Chaillot.

Official reports listed four injured policemen with 13 arrests. The War of the Roses lasted about 2 hours from about midnight to 2 a.m. There was a return bout Wednesday night.

Two veterans recently recalled the battle and issued a warning to the cops. "If they close up all the gay joints in this area, there is going to be all out war."

Bruce and Nan

Both said they were refugees from Indiana and had come to New York where they could live together happily ever after. They were in their early 20's. They preferred to be called by their married names, Bruce and Nan.

"I don't like your paper," Nan lisped matter-of-factly. "It's anti-fag and pro-cop."

"I'll bet you didn't see what they did to the Stonewall. Did the pigs tell you that they smashed everything in sight? Did you ask them why they stole money out of the cash register and then smashed it with a sledge hammer? Did you ask them why it took them two years to discover that the Stonewall didn't have a liquor license."

Bruce nodded in agreement and reached over for Nan's trembling hands.

"Calm down, doll," he said. "Your face is getting all flushed."

Nan wiped her face with a tissue.

"This would have to happen right before the wedding. The reception was going to be held at the Stonewall, too," Nan said, tossing her ashen-tinted hair over her shoulder.

"What wedding?," the bystander asked.

Nan frowned with a how-could-anybody-be-so-stupid look. "Eric and Jack's wedding, of course. They're finally tying the knot. I thought they'd never get together."

Meet Shirley

"We'll have to find another place, that's all there is to it," Bruce sighed. "But every time we start a place, the cops break it up sooner or later."

"They let us operate just as long as the payoff is regular," Nan said bitterly. "I believe they closed up the Stonewall because there was some trouble with the payoff to the cops. I think that's the real reason. It's a shame. It was such a lovely place. We never bothered anybody. Why couldn't they leave us alone?"

Shirley Evans, a neighbor with two children, agrees that the Stonewall was not a rowdy place and the persons who frequented the club were never troublesome. She lives at 45 Christopher St.

"Up until the night of the police raid there was never any trouble there," she said. "The homosexuals minded their own business and never bothered a soul. There were never any fights or hollering, or anything like that. They just wanted to be left alone. I don't know what they did inside, but that's their business. I was never in there myself. It was just awful when the police came. It was like a swarm of hornets attacking a bunch of butterflies."

A reporter visited the now closed Stonewall and it indeed looked like a cyclone had struck the premises.

Police said there were over 200 people in the Stonewall when they entered with a warrant. The crowd outside was estimated at 500 to 1,000. According to police, the Stonewall had been under observation for some time. Being a private club, plain clothesmen were refused entrance to the inside when they periodically tried to check the place. "They had the tightest security in the Village," a First Division officer said, "We could never get near the place without a warrant."

Police Talk

The men of the First Division were unable to find any humor in the situation, despite the comical overtones of the raid.

"They were throwing more than lace hankies," one inspector said. "I was almost decapitated by a slab of thick glass. It was thrown like a discus and just missed my throat by inches. The beer can didn't miss, though, "it hit me right above the temple."

Police also believe the club was operated by Mafia connected owners. The police did confiscate the Stonewall's cash register as proceeds from an illegal operation. The receipts were counted and are on file at the division headquarters. The warrant was served and the establishment closed on the grounds it was an illegal membership club with no license, and no license to serve liquor.

The police are sure of one thing. They haven't heard the last from the Girls of Christopher Street.

They sure fucking haven't. Now get your ass up and get down to the parade.

2010-06-09T19:00:00.001-05:00

President Obama's Commitment to the Gulf Region

2010-06-05T20:42:00.001-05:00

Yesterday, I visited Caminada Bay in Grand Isle, Louisiana -- one of the first places to feel the devastation wrought by the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. While I was here, at Camerdelle's Live Bait shop, I met with a group of local residents and small business owners.

Folks like Floyd Lasseigne, a fourth-generation oyster fisherman. This is the time of year when he ordinarily earns a lot of his income. But his oyster bed has likely been destroyed by the spill.

Terry Vegas had a similar story. He quit the 8th grade to become a shrimper with his grandfather. Ever since, he's earned his living during shrimping season -- working long, grueling days so that he could earn enough money to support himself year-round. But today, the waters where he has worked are closed. And every day, as the spill worsens, he loses hope that he will be able to return to the life he built.

Here, this spill has not just damaged livelihoods. It has upended whole communities. And the fury people feel is not just about the money they have lost. It is about the wrenching recognition that this time their lives may never be the same.

These people work hard. They meet their responsibilities. But now because of a manmade catastrophe -- one that is not their fault and beyond their control -- their lives have been thrown into turmoil. It is brutally unfair. And what I told these men and women is that I will stand with the people of the Gulf Coast until they are again made whole.

That is why, from the beginning, we have worked to deploy every tool at our disposal to respond to this crisis. Today, there are more than 20,000 people working around the clock to contain and clean up this spill. I have authorized 17,500 National Guard troops to participate in the response. More than 1,900 vessels are aiding in the containment and cleanup effort. We have convened hundreds of top scientists and engineers from around the world. This is the largest response to an environmental disaster of this kind in the history of our country.

We have also ordered BP to pay economic injury claims, and this week, the federal government sent BP a preliminary bill for $69 million to pay back American taxpayers for some of the costs of the response so far. In addition, after an emergency safety review, we are putting in place aggressive new operating standards for offshore drilling. And I have appointed a bipartisan commission to look into the causes of this spill. If laws are inadequate, they will be changed. If oversight was lacking, it will be strengthened. And if laws were broken, those responsible will be brought to justice.

These are hard times in Louisiana and across the Gulf Coast, an area that has already seen more than its fair share of troubles. The people of this region have met this terrible catastrophe with seemingly boundless strength and character in defense of their way of life. What we owe them is a commitment by our nation to match the resilience they have shown. That is our mission. And it is one we will fulfill.

Thank you,

President Barack Obama

Today in Gay History

2010-06-05T04:17:00.005-05:00

June 5, 1981

The Centers for Disease Control announce that five previously healthy gay men in Los Angeles have been diagnosed with P C P (Pneumocystis pneumonia), which was the first official warning of what would become known as AIDS ~

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This Month in Gay History

2010-06-01T05:41:00.001-05:00

June, 1989

U.S. Postal Service issues the first commemorative "Lesbian and Gay Pride" postage stamp

Today in Gay History

2010-05-22T01:32:00.002-05:00

Happy 80 th Birthday !

Harvey B. Milk

Harvey Milk Speech
- Watch more Videos at Vodpod.

Today in Gay History

2010-05-21T07:00:00.001-05:00

Happy 85th Birthday May 21st
Frank Kameny (b. 1925)
Gay Rights Founding Father

Frank Kameny is one of the founding fathers of the American gay rights movement. He helped radicalize the homophile movement, preparing the way for the mass movement for equality initiated by the Stonewall Rebellion of 1969.

He was born Franklin Edward Kameny on May 21, 1925, into a New York middle-class Jewish family. A prodigy who had taught himself to read by the age of four, he entered Queens College at the age of 15 to study physics. He interrupted his education, however, to serve in the armed forces during World War II. After the war he returned to his studies, and in 1956 he received a Ph.D. in astronomy from Harvard University.

Upon graduation Kameny moved to Washington, D. C. to join the faculty of Georgetown University. In July 1957, after one year of teaching, Kameny obtained a civil service job as an astronomer with the United States Army Map Service and began what he hoped would be a fulfilling scientific career. However, events over the next couple of years changed the direction of his life forever.

Late one night in 1957, Kameny was arrested on a morals charge in Lafayette Park, a popular gay cruising area in Washington, D. C. He was released, and nothing immediately came of the incident. It was not long afterward, however, that an investigator from the Civil Service Commission came to question him about rumors that he was a homosexual.

That fall, after serving in his job for only a few months, Kameny was fired from the Map Service, and early the next year he learned that he had been barred from all future employment in the federal government. A victim of the McCarthy-era regulations that branded homosexuals as potential traitors and unfit for government employment, Kameny found his career in ruins.

This experience drove Kameny to militant activism. "My dismissal amounted to a declaration of war against me by the government," Kameny later said, "and I tend not to lose my wars." Kameny attempted to sue the government to get his job back, a lengthy process that went through several appeals. However, all his legal efforts came to naught, including filing his own petition to the United States Supreme Court, which was denied in 1961.

Having failed to achieve his goal as an individual, he resolved that it was time to organize and work within a group. Kameny and his friend Jack Nichols established the Mattachine Society of Washington, D. C. in August 1961. Although the Washington group took its name from the Los Angeles-based homophile organization, the two were not affiliated.

The Mattachine Society of Washington, D. C.'s first official meeting was held on November 15, 1961 and drew about a dozen men and women. Kameny was elected as the group's first president. In opposition to many gay leaders at the time, Kameny embraced direct action and sought contact with public officials rather than hiding from them. Kameny believed that gay people should fight a "down-to-earth, grass-roots, sometimes tooth-and-nail battle" against discrimination.

Under Kameny's leadership, the Mattachine Society of Washington, D. C. charged to the forefront of the emerging homophile movement, in many ways anticipating the militancy that was to be unleashed among gay men and lesbians generally by the Stonewall Rebellion of 1969.

. . .Kameny's group focused its efforts on removing discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation from civil service employment, as well as on granting gay men and lesbians security clearances and qualifying them for service in the military.

In April 1965, the group organized the first gay demonstration at the White House. A dozen or so gay men and lesbians, including Kameny and Barbara Gittings, dressed in business attire, carried signs reading "First Class Treatment for Homosexuals" and "Civil Service Commission is Un-American."

A few months after that demonstration, the U. S. Court of Appeals issued a ground-breaking decision. The court held that rejection of an application for federal employment on the grounds of "homosexual conduct" was "too vague." The Civil Service Commission, the court ruled, failed to state "why [homosexuality] related to occupational competence or fitness."

After a number of similar court decisions were handed down over the next ten years, the Civil Service Commission finally amended its anti-gay policy in 1975.

In addition to battling discrimination in civil service employment, Kameny also sought to challenge the negative images of homosexuals prevalent in the 1960s. Toward that goal, he coined the slogan "Gay is Good." The slogan was later adopted by the 1968 North American Conference of Homophile Organizations (NACHO).

In 1971 Kameny participated in the annual meeting of the American Psychiatric Association, where he accused psychiatrists of victimizing gay men and women with their unscientific theories of homosexuality. He urged the APA to remove homosexuality from its list of psychiatric illnesses, which the organization eventually did in 1973.

In 1971, Kameny became the first openly gay person to run for congress. Competing for D. C.'s non-voting seat in the House of Representatives, Kameny came in fourth among six candidates. He used the campaign to call attention to the inequities experienced by homosexuals in a country in which the government "wages a relentless war against us."

Kameny is also a cofounder of the National Gay Task Force and the Gay Rights National Lobby. In 1975, he was appointed a Commissioner of the D. C. Commission on Human Rights, becoming the first openly gay municipal appointee. He also personally drafted the bill that repealed D. C.'s sodomy law, which was finally enacted in 1993.

Dr. Kameny's archives and papers documenting his life and leadership were acquired by the Library of Congress in 2006.

In February 2009, Kameny’s home in Washington was designated as a D.C. Historic Landmark by the District of Columbia’s Historic Preservation Review Board.

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Today in Gay History

2010-04-30T07:52:00.002-05:00

April 30, 1997

Ellen Morgan,

portrayed by

Ellen DeGeneres,

came out on her

ABC television

series "Ellen."

And the world has not been the same since. Thank you, Ellen!

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Today in Gay History

2010-04-29T06:30:00.006-05:00

On April 29, 1997

The State of Hawaii created

a "domestic partners registry."

This was in response to the May 1993 ruling of Hawaii's Supreme Court that the state must show a compelling reason to ban same-sex marriage and orders a lower court to hear a case seeking the right of same-sex couples to marry. By November 1998, the voters of Hawaii approved a state constitutional amendment reserving the right to define marriage to the Legislature, barring further judicial action.

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Today in Gay History

2010-04-25T06:15:00.000-05:00

Happy 726th Birthday

Edward II, King of England
(April 25, 1284-1327)

"Historians largely regard the reign of Edward II as one of the most ineffectual of the Middle Ages. The nobility deemed his intimacy with Piers Gaveston (d. 1312) inappropriate and excessive; and Edward's insistent loyalty to his closest friend only further alienated them, ultimately contributing to his own fall from power.

Edward was born on April 25, 1284 at Caernarvon Castle in Wales. Although he was the fourth son of Edward I and his first wife Eleanor of Castile, he was the only son to survive infancy and become heir to the throne. . . .

His pursuits were not those typically approved of in kings at this time. Edward preferred such activities as swimming, boating, thatching roofs, and arranging theatrical and musical events. . . . In addition, he formed intense friendships with men whom his father felt wielded too much influence over the prince. Piers Gaveston, a knight from Gascon, was the first and most important of Edward's favorites.

Gaveston and Edward may have become intimate friends during the Scottish campaign led by Edward I in 1300. The king became critical of this friendship, and exiled Gaveston from England. " Learn more about Edward @ g l b t q

Today in Gay History

2010-04-20T00:04:00.006-05:00

April 21, 2005

Connecticut Governor signs Civil Unions law, becoming only the second state to do so legislatively without being compelled by the courts. While affirming that marriage was only to be between one man and one woman, the key provisions of the new Civil Unions law were:

Sec. 2. (NEW) (Effective October 1, 2005) A person is eligible to enter into a civil union if such person is:

(1) Not a party to another civil union or a marriage;

(2) Of the same sex as the other party to the civil union;

(3) Except as provided in section 10 of this act, at least eighteen years of age; and

(4) Not prohibited from entering into a civil union pursuant to section 3 of this act.

Sec. 14. (NEW) (Effective October 1, 2005) Parties to a civil union shall have all the same benefits, protections and responsibilities under law, whether derived from the general statutes, administrative regulations or court rules, policy, common law or any other source of civil law, as are granted to spouses in a marriage, which is defined as the union of one man and one woman.

Sec. 15. (NEW) (Effective October 1, 2005) Wherever in the general statutes the terms "spouse", "family", "immediate family", "dependent", "next of kin" or any other term that denotes the spousal relationship are used or defined, a party to a civil union shall be included in such use or definition, and wherever in the general statutes, except sections 7-45 and 17b-137a of the general statutes, as amended by this act, subdivision (4) of section 45a-727a, sections 46b-20 to 46b-34, inclusive, section 46b-150d of the general statutes, as amended by this act, and section 14 of this act, the term "marriage" is used or defined, a civil union shall be included in such use or definition.

Meanwhile, a year or so later, the Supreme Court of Connecticut ruled that legal Marriage constitutionally could not be denied to same sex couples. The separate establishment of mere Civil Unions did not meet constitutional muster.

On April 23, 2009 lawmakers of Connecticut both in the House (vote 100-44) and in the Senate (vote 28-7) agreed to repeal all the old marriage laws and fully replace them with genderless quotes and all references to marriage will be fully gender -neutral. Governor Jodi Rell, a Republican, signed the law. On October 1, 2010, civil unions will cease to be provided and existing civil unions will be automatically converted to marriages. Until then, existing civil unions will be kept and couples may "upgrade" to marriage voluntarily. Same-sex marriages, civil unions and broad domestic partnerships from other jurisdictions will be legally treated as marriages in Connecticut.

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We Need a New Covenant

2010-04-04T10:16:00.003-05:00

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Happy All Fools Day

2010-04-01T06:50:00.002-05:00

Les Poissons d' Avril

Unlike most of the other nonfoolish holidays, the history of April Fool's Day, sometimes called All Fool's Day, is not totally clear. There really wasn't a "first April Fool's Day" that can be pinpointed on the calendar. Some believe it sort of evolved simultaneously in several cultures at the same time, from celebrations involving the first day of spring.

The closest point in time that can be identified as the beginning of this tradition was in 1582, in France. Prior to that year, the new year was celebrated for eight days, beginning on March 25. The celebration culminated on April 1. With the reform of the calendar under Charles IX, the Gregorian Calendar was introduced, and New Year's Day was moved to January 1. However, communications being what they were in the days when news traveled by foot, many people did not receive the news for several years. Others, the more obstinate crowd, refused to accept the new calendar and continued to celebrate the new year on April 1. These backward folk were labeled as "fools" by the general populace. They were subject to some ridicule, and were often sent on "fools errands" or were made the butt of other practical jokes

The butts of these pranks became known as "poissons d'avril" or "April fish" because a young naive fish is easily caught. In addition, one common practice was to hook a paper fish on the back of someone as a joke. It's still the favorite April Fool trick of most French and Québecois children to stealthily attach a paper fish to the back of a copain to this day.

This harassment evolved, over time, into a tradition of prank-playing on the first day of April. The tradition eventually spread to England and Scotland in the eighteenth century. It was later introduced to the American colonies of both the English and French. April Fool's Day thus developed into an international fun fest, so to speak, with different nationalities specializing in their own brand of humor at the expense of their friends and families.

In Scotland, for example, April Fool's Day is actually celebrated for two days. The second day is devoted to pranks involving the posterior region of the body. It is called Taily Day. The origin of the "kick me" sign can be traced to this observance.

Mexico's counterpart of April Fool's Day is actually observed on December 28. Originally, the day was a sad remembrance of the slaughter of the innocent children by King Herod. It eventually evolved into a lighter commemoration involving pranks and trickery.

Pranks performed on April Fool's Day range from the simple, (such as saying, "Your shoe's untied!), to the elaborate. Setting a roommate's alarm clock back an hour is a common gag. Whatever the prank, the trickster usually ends it by yelling to his victim, "April Fool!"

April Fool's Day is a "for-fun-only" observance. Nobody is expected to buy gifts or to take their "significant other" out to eat in a fancy restaurant. Nobody gets off work or school. It's simply a fun little holiday, but a holiday on which one must remain forever vigilant, for he may be the next April Fool!

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Today in Gay History

2010-03-31T05:16:00.003-05:00

Happy 70th Birthday

March 31, 1940

Congressman Barney Frank
Turns '70' today!

United States congressman Barney Frank is known for his intelligence, his quick and acerbic wit, and his spirited defense of his social and political beliefs. He has been a leader not only in the cause of gay and lesbian rights, but also on issues including fair housing, consumer rights, banking, and immigration.

Frank was born on March 31, 1940 in Bayonne, New Jersey, where his father owned a truck stop. As a youngster Frank developed an interest in politics. He did not, however, foresee a career in government for himself because he observed in politics a dismaying amount of corruption and an inhospitable attitude toward Jews. He had, moreover, realized at the age of thirteen that he was gay, which also seemed an obstacle to a political career.

Frank first ran for the United States House of Representatives in 1980, when the incumbent, Father Robert Drinan, retired. Drinan endorsed Frank to succeed him, but Boston's Humberto Cardinal Medeiros tried to mobilize Catholics to vote against him because of his pro-choice stance. With narrow victories in both the primary and general elections, Frank became the Representative of the Fourth District of Massachusetts and began his career on the national stage.

The liberal freshman congressman zealously defended programs that protected low-income people, the elderly, and other groups at risk, and he was also a vigorous opponent of initiatives by the Reagan administration to give tax breaks to large corporations, especially those in the oil industry, at the expense of the general populace. One commentator noted that Frank showed "a combination of humor and conviction that left even ideological opponents paying him grudging respect."
Although always an advocate for gay and lesbian rights, Frank was closeted at the beginning of his political career. Fearing that disclosing his sexual orientation would jeopardize his chances for election, Frank "made a conscious choice for a political career over a personal life." Gradually, however, he came out to various friends and colleagues, but it was not until 1987 that he commented publicly, when questioned by a reporter from the Boston Globe. The response of Frank's constituents was overwhelmingly favorable; letters of support outnumbered those critical of him by a margin of six to one.

Frank's record on gay and lesbian concerns is second to none, but he is far from a one-issue legislator. He has supported civil rights, gun control, fair housing, reproductive rights, and the medical use of marijuana. He favors a balanced approach toward environmental issues, opposing oil exploration in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge but also arguing against restrictions on the fishing industry that "are too rigid and reflect inaccurate science."

In 2003 Frank became the Ranking Member of the House Financial Services Committee, whose oversight includes issues of banking, insurance, real estate, consumer rights, and financial privacy laws. He has been Chair of that powerful committee since the Democrats regained control of Congress in 2006.

Frank has raised the profile of gays in government by attending White House dinners and other official functions with his partner. Herbert Moses, Frank's companion for over a decade, was the first partner of a gay Representative to be granted spousal access privileges to the Capitol. Frank and Moses parted amicably in 1998, about the same time Frank co-founded the National Stonewall Democrats. For severa years Frank attended events at the White House with his then partner, Sergio Pombo.

A true old school liberal, he is equally beloved by his constituents as by Hill staffers, who named him the "most eloquent," "brainiest," and "funniest" Member of the House in both 2004 and 2006. Frank is sixty-nine today. His current partner, Jim Ready, is forty year-old surfer who runs an awning company in Maine.

Frank is known for his intelligence, integrity, and work ethic. Called a "political theorist and pit bull at the same time" and "one of the most colorful and quotable figures in Congress" because of his quick and often biting wit and his rapid-fire style of speech, the congressman is a force to be reckoned with in debate and is also an engaging public speaker.

Frank calls political engagement and participation the most effective course for glbtq people. "Marches and demonstrations may be fun, but they don't affect politicians," he stated. Those who wish to bring about change should, he said, "vote and let [their] elected officials know [they]'re there."

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Today in Gay History

2010-03-26T05:29:00.004-05:00

March 26, 1997

The White House

The first ever official government meeting of people brought together to

discuss gay and lesbian rights is held at the White House;

Bill Clinton is president.

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Today in Gay History

2010-03-24T05:38:00.009-05:00

March 24, 1987

ACT UP demonstrates

for first time

On this day in Gay History, ACT UP staged its first major demonstration demanding the establishment acknowledge the AIDS crisis and do something about it. On March 24, 1987, 250 ACT UP members demonstrated at Wall Street and Broadway to demand greater access to experimental AIDS drugs and for a coordinated national policy to fight the disease. An Op/Ed article by Larry Kramer published in the NY Times the previous day described some of the issues ACT UP was concerned with. Seventeen ACT UP members were arrested during this street theatre form of civil disobedience.

This notice had been posted all over the GLBT neighborhoods of New York:

NO MORE BUSINESS AS USUAL!

Come to Wall Street in front of Trinity Church
at 7AM Tuesday March 24 for a

MASSIVE AIDS
DEMONSTRATION

To demand the following

1. Immediate release by the Federal Food & Drug Administration of drugs that might help save our lives.

These drugs include: Ribavirin (ICN Pharmaceuticals); Ampligen (HMR Research Co.); Glucan (Tulane University School of Medicine); DTC (Merieux); DDC (Hoffman-LaRoche); AS 101 (National Patent Development Corp.); MTP-PE (Ciba-Geigy); AL 721 (Praxis Pharmaceuticals).

2. Immediate abolishment of cruel double-blind studies wherein some get the new drugs and some don't.

3. Immediate release of these drugs to everyone with AIDS or ARC.

4. Immediate availability of these drugs at affordable prices. Curb your greed!

5. Immediate massive public education to stop the spread of AIDS.

6. Immediate policy to prohibit discrimination in AIDS treatment, insurance, employment, housing.

7. Immediate establishment of a coordinated, comprehensive, and compassionate national policy on AIDS.

President Reagan, nobody is in charge!

AIDS IS THE BIGGEST KILLER IN NEW YORK CITY
OF YOUNG MEN AND WOMEN.

Tell your friends. Spread the word. Come protest together.

7 AM ... March 24 ... You must be on time!

AIDS IS EVERYBODY'S BUSINESS NOW.

The AIDS Network is an ad hoc and broad-based community of AIDS-related organizations and individuals.

THE NEXT YEAR, on March 24, 1988, ACT UP

returned to Wall Street for a larger demonstration in which over 100 people were arrested.

This activism, modeled on Ghandi and MLK’s Soulforce principles, did much to direct much needed popular and government attention, and eventually action to making HIV treatments more widely available and earlier.

Today in Gay History

2010-03-16T03:53:00.001-05:00

Photo left to right: Dr. Frank Kameny, Jack Nichols, and Dr. George Weinberg being honored as Grand Marshalls of New York City's 2004 Heritage of Pride Parade
Happy 72nd Birthday
JACK NICHOLS, ~March 16, 1938 - May 2, 2005

Credit: Thomas Kraemer; see his blog from 2006 @
http://thomaskraemer.blogspot.com/2006/09/jack-nichols-1938-2005.html

Although Jack Nichols affected the lives of all gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Americans with his five decades of gay activism. Jack Nichols died in Florida on May 2, 2005 at the age of 67. Nichols' 1972 book "I Have More Fun With You Than Anybody" was co-authored with his lover Lige Clarke. For many years prior to the publication of this book, Jack and Lige had touched many other gay people with "The Homosexual Citizen" column published in Al Goldstein's very heterosexual "SCREW" newspaper. This column was one of the only sources of gay news available to many Americans. "SCREW" was only sold in adult book stores.

Jack and Lige's column led them to become the editors of "GAY," the first weekly gay newspaper. ("The Advocate" was a biweekly newspaper.) It was often sold in hippie-style bookstores and cigar store newsstands alongside the other radical political publications of the period.

Jack Nichols' activism started years before the 1969 Stonewall rebellion. In 1961 Nichols and Dr. Frank Kameny started the Washington, D.C. chapter of the Mattachine homophile rights organization. Inspired by Martin Luther King's famous 1963 march on Washington organized by Bayard Rustin for black civil rights, Jack and Frank led a protest at Independence Hall on July 4, 1965 calling for homosexual civil rights.

Nichols was the first activist to challenge the medical dogma that homosexuality is a sickness. Nichols worked with Dr. George Weinberg and other activists to get homosexuality removed from the official list of mental disorders. Weinberg coined the term homophobia in the 1960s and initiated psychological research on homophobia.
On March 7, 1967 Nichols was interviewed by Mike Wallace of CBS News for the first nationally televised documentary on homosexuality. Jack Nichols was one of the first homosexual Americans to come out publicly.
Jack Nichols never retired. His gay activism continued into the Internet Age. He edited a daily web publication GayToday.com from 1997 until 2004 that was read by more than 50,000 people worldwide.
In 2002 I sent Jack an email thanking him for his 1972 book. As he seemed to do with everyone who came close, we became friends. Even though he lived on a beach in Florida, the Internet enabled our frequent long distance communications.
Professor J. Louis Campbell of Penn State University has spent the last several years working on a biography of Jack Nichols. A contract with a distinguished book publisher is under negotiation. An early draft of the book promises to preserve this important part of gay history.

Today in Gay History

2010-03-11T03:07:00.002-06:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JOHN BARROWMAN

Born March 11: John Barrowman

clipped from Band of Thebes

Uncomfortably straddling the border of irony and stupidity is this true anecdote: The gay and straight producers of Will & Grace rejected finalist John Barrowman, who's gay, to play the gay character Will Truman, because they said he was too straight, and instead they hired Eric McCormick who is straight but acted "gayer." Our loss. Barrowman, who is Scottish, has a perfect American accent because his family moved to Illinois when he was nine. However he kept his Scots pride, which was not always appreciated in the Land of Lincoln: He arrived to pick up his prom date and she dumped him on the spot because he was wearing a kilt.

After losing Will & Grace, he went back to London and was cast in Dr. Who and its spinoff Torchwood, both hugely successful. A frequent star of West End musicals, Barrowman has also released four solo cds, including an album of Cole Porter songs and his 2007 hit, Another Side, in which he cheeses up mid-tempo hits from Carly Simon, Cyndi Lauper, Chicago, Elton John, Eric Carmen, The Police, and, yes, Air Supply accompanied by a full orchestra. Last year he followed it up with a cd called Music Music Music featuring covers of Both Sides Now, I Made It Through the Rain, Uptown Girl, I Am What I Am, and a duet with also out Daniel Boys of I Know Him So Well. (Clip below, both in pink shirts.) Like Celine, Barrowman delivers what the midcounty ladies swoon to. Perhaps more of an entertainer than an artist, he is wildly popular throughout the U.K., where he substitute hosts the morning chat shows and had more than one thousand people queue up in Cardiff for him to sign copies of his autobiography, Anything Goes.

Gorgeous yes, but no dunce. He frequently speaks on behalf of gay organizations, hosted London's pride in 2007, kisses his partner in public, and doesn't mince words about anti-gay discrimination and double standards. He said, "Why would I want a 'marriage' from a belief system that hates me?" He and his statistically improbable partner [equally handsome, above left] of sixteen years, Scott Gill, signed the civil register in December 2006. OK! magazine covered the small, private ceremony rapturously. Barrowman wore a kilt.

Today in Gay History

2010-02-24T04:23:00.002-06:00

HAPPY 174th BIRTHDAY

Winslow Homer (February 24, 1836-1910)

One of the most prolific and important American painters and printmakers of the second half of the nineteenth century, Winslow Homer created a distinctly American, modern classical style.

For this and other reasons, his works have often been compared to the achievements of such prominent nineteenth-century American authors as Henry Thoreau, Herman Melville, and Walt Whitman.

Very little is known about Homer's "private" life. He consistently refused to answer personal questions from critics and potential biographers, and he left no revealing diaries or other personal papers. His reclusiveness is indicated by the fact that he produced no self-portraits; in contrast, most American and European painters of the nineteenth century eagerly exploited the rapidly growing market for images of artists.

Most historians have adamantly maintained that Homer remained a bachelor because he was extraordinarily "shy" around women. However, such deeply moving and psychologically complex pictures as The Country School (1871) and Mending the Nets (1882), among many others, suggest a respect for and understanding of women that was very unusual for a male artist of the era. Thus, it would seem more plausible to suggest that Homer simply may not have been interested in women sexually.

Constructing Homer as a solitary eccentric, who virtually withdrew from human society, most scholars have overlooked evidence of significant, intimate associations with other men.

One of his closest friends was Albert Kelsey, a fellow artist whom he initially met in 1858 in Massachusetts. In 1867, Kelsey traveled with Homer to Paris, where they lived together for the next two years. A studio photograph, made while they were in Paris, mimics the conventions of marriage portraits, as do so many photographic portraits of male friends of this period. Kelsey inscribed the back of the photograph with the names "Damon and Pythias," famous ancient Greek heroes and lovers.

In the 1890s, Homer remembered their friendship in the humorous and erotically suggestive drawing "Albert Kelsey riding a giant turtle in the Bahamas."

A studio photograph, made while they were in Paris, mimics the conventions of marriage portraits, as do so many photographic portraits of male friends of this period. Kelsey inscribed the back of the photograph with the names "Damon and Pythias," famous ancient Greek heroes and lovers.

In the 1890s, Homer remembered their friendship in the humorous and erotically suggestive drawing "Albert Kelsey riding a giant turtle in the Bahamas."

Homer's closest companion in the final years of his life was an African-American man, Lewis Wright, who worked as his servant and lived at his Prout's Neck, Maine estate from 1895 to 1910. There are indications that some of Homer's acquaintances were disconcerted by the apparent closeness of his friendship with Wright. While most "negative" reactions involved race, other "unmentionable" factors may also have been involved.

Rest In Peace

2010-02-19T04:39:00.002-06:00

Sylvia Rae Rivera

8th Anniversary of her Death

1951 - February 19, 2002

Thanks to wikipedia, we learn that Rivera was born July 2, 1952 and raised in New Your City and lived most of her life in or near that city. She was of Puerto Rican and Venezuelan descent. Her birth name was Ray (or Rey) Rivera. She was abandoned by her birth father José Rivera early in life and became an orphan after her mother committed suicide when Rivera was three years old. Rivera was then raised by her Venezuelan grandmother, who disapproved of Rivera's effeminate behavior, particularly after Rivera began to wear women's makeup in fourth grade.^[3] As a result, Rivera began living on the streets at the age of eleven, where she joined a community of drag queens.

She was one of those rabble rousing resisters to queer oppression who literally led the charge at the Stonewall Inn, New York City, on the night of 27th of June, 1969, the night that a riot at the bar, touched off the open radicalization of the Gay Liberation Movement fighting back against police harassment directed at the most visible members of the community. She became a founding member of both the Gay Liberation Front and the Gay Activists Alliance and helped found STAR (Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries), a group dedicated to helping homeless young street transwomen, with her friend Marsha P. Johnson.

Rivera spent most of her life at the forefront of both transgender and gay activism, tirelessly advocating and demonstrating for LGBT rights, inclusive social policies and struggling against transphobia.

In 1970 Rivera formed a group called S.T.A.R. - Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries - to fight for the civil rights of transgender people, and provide them with social services support. The S.T.A.R. House lasted for two years until her crack habit caused her to lose the house. It was the first institution of its kind in New York City, and inspired the creation of future shelters for homeless street queens.

In 2000, she reformed S.T.A.R. pressuring the Human Rights Campaign to be more inclusive of transgender people. Even when hospitalized with liver cancer, Rivera never stopped working for the civil rights of transgender people and several hours before she passed away on February 19, 2002 she was meeting with LGBT community leaders.

An active member of the Metropolitan Community Church of New York, Rivera ministered through the Church's food pantry, which provided food to the hungry. Recalling her life as a child on the streets, she remained a passionate advocate for queer youth, and MCC New York's queer youth shelter is called Sylvia's Place in her honor.

2010-02-14T18:11:00.000-06:00

February is Black History Month

2010-02-08T09:56:00.000-06:00

Qui c'est ça, ce couillon-la qui dit que << On va battre ces Saints ? >>

2010-01-25T22:27:00.004-06:00

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2010-01-25T12:27:00.001-06:00

And the Dream Will Never Die

2010-01-18T10:42:00.003-06:00

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Happy 81st Birthday,
Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

“... The contemporary church is often a weak, ineffectual voice with an uncertain sound. It is so often the arch supporter of the status quo. Far from being disturbed by the presence of the church, the power structure of the average community is consoled by the church's silent and often vocal sanction of things as they are…
....But the judgment of God is upon the church as never before. If the church of today does not recapture the sacrificial spirit of the early church, it will lose its authentic ring, forfeit the loyalty of millions, and be dismissed as an irrelevant social club with no meaning for the twentieth century. I am meeting young people every day whose disappointment with the church has risen to outright disgust..”

Excerpts from Letter from Birmingham Jail, April 16, 1963 Martin Luther King, Jr.

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Today in Gay History

2010-01-02T05:16:00.003-06:00

H/T to Band of Thebes

HAPPY 11oth BIRTHDAY
William Haines (January 1, 1900-1973)

In 1925, MGM's leading male actor was the charming William Haines and he remained a top-five grossing star from 1928 to 1932. Handsome and funny, his typical character was a clever, athletic young narcissist whose giant ego was deflated before he finally won the day. As for that self-adoring trait, Haines fell in love with his double, Jimmy Shields, whom the studio had hired as his stand-in, and starting in 1926 they lived together openly for nearly fifty years, causing their friend Joan Crawford to declare them "the happiest married couple in Hollywood."
Perhaps, but their happiness came at a high price. In 1933, seven years into their relationship and still at the height of his fame, Haines cruised a sailor in Pershing Square and they went back to the YMCA to have sex, only to be busted by the police. Louis B. Mayer, the genius tyrant running MGM, insisted Haines enter into a fake marriage, and when he refused, choosing to stay with Shields, Mayer canceled his contract, virtually ending his career. As plucky as his characters, Haines and Shields opened an interior design studio which was an immediate success. Two years later, a neighbor claimed they propositioned his son and as a result members of the Ku Klux Klan broke into their house, hauled them outside, and savagely attacked them. Once again, rather than shunning the gay couple, their famous friends and colleagues rallied to support them: Haines' co-star Marion Davies begged her lover William Randolph Hearst to get the neighbor arrested and many others, including Claudette Colbert, Joan Crawford, Kay Francis, Charles Boyer, and even George Burns, implored them to tell the police about the attack, but given their past experience they did not.
Their design studio flourished for decades. They created interiors and furniture for a top tier of international clientele beyond the Hollywood luminaries, George Cukor, Jack Warner, the Annenbergs, the Reagans, and Gloria Swanson, who urged Haines to accept a part in her own comeback movie, Sunset Boulevard, which he declined. Although Haines died on Boxing Day 1973 and Shields killed himself with an overdose of pills soon after, in their shared bed, wearing Haines pajamas, their design studio was recently revived. Look at their lovely work here. And say a prayer of thanks to William J. Mann for rescuing Haines from obscurity with his excellent biography, Wisecracker.

Bonne Année

2010-01-01T00:01:00.002-06:00

Joyeux Noël

2009-12-24T13:49:00.002-06:00

Joyeux Réveillon de Noël

2009-12-23T00:20:00.002-06:00

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Today in Gay History

2009-12-12T20:26:00.001-06:00

Houston elects lesbian mayor

By James Withers, contributing editor, 365Gay Blog 12.13.2009 4:16am EST

Annise Parker, the controller of Houston, won a run-off [Saturday 12-12-09] for mayor. Her victory made her the first openly gay politician to win an election to lead a large American city.

“Tonight the voters of Houston have opened the door to history,” Parker said in her victory speech, with her partner Kathy Hubbard and their three adopted children standing next to her. “I acknowledge that. I embrace that. I know what this win means to many of us who never thought we could achieve high office.”

Parker, mayor-elect of the country’s fourth largest city, defeated her opponent Gene Locke 53 percent to 47 percent.

Crapaud's Comment: And despite bitterly partisan anti-gay $$ and vitriol poured in by the Talibangelicals, Houstonions were unconvinced.

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**** T I M E S à C H A N G I N ' ****

Père LeDoux Chant Nöel

On the 33rd Anniversary of the Asassination of Harvey Milk

An old poem from the Civil War about a deeply wounded vet~

Today in Gay History ~~THANK YOU PRESIDENT OBAMA

Why Labor Day?

Le Jour de Gloire est Arrivée !

Today in Gay History

H a p p y B i r t h d a y U S A

Today in Gay History

Today in Gay History

Today in Gay History

Today in Gay History

Today in Gay History

Today in Gay History

Today in Gay History

Today in Gay History

Today in Gay History

Another Great Hallelujah

Today in Gay History

Hymn to Love

Strange Videos

I'm Glad I Have My Tétard

For Egypt

Today in Gay History

Today in Gay History

Happy Birthday

U S Rep Tammy Baldwin (D-Ws)

Born February 11, 1962

Today in Gay History

Mange La Chandeleur !

Mardi Gras In the Country~ Terrence Simien and the Zydeco Experience

Get Your Hanky Ready~ A Happy Tears Coming Out Story

Bonne Année

Did you get an odd-looking sweater for Xmas?

Eight Crazy Nights of Channuka

Thanksgiving

Lest We Forget Our Sisters & Brothers

Yes We Can, remix

Today in Gay History

Migration to Canada Booms

S W A M P E D

Remember to Vote Novemeber 2; Get Out or Get Swamped

Today in Gay History

Move over Columbus

Judge to military:

Stop discharging gays under

'don't ask, don't tell'

Landmark ruling says government's

17-year-old policy must end

A little humor goes a Long way: Bishops and Bling and Drag

Republicans Filibuster Defense Spending

Gingrich Calls Obama A "Kenyan"

Today in Gay History

Today in Gay History

Happy Labor Day

Do You Know What It Means

This Weekend in Wingnuttery

This Week in Gay History

Constitutional Rights Should NEVER be a popularity contest

The Daily Advertiser Blogosphere on Steroids

End the so called "Don't Ask, Don't Tell"

Today in Gay History

Today in Gay History

Today in Gay History

Bonne Fete Nationale de France

Today in Gay History

Stonewall's Anniversary

President Obama's Commitment to the Gulf Region

Today in Gay History

This Month in Gay History

Today in Gay History

Today in Gay History

Today in Gay History

Today in Gay History

Today in Gay History

Today in Gay History

We Need a New Covenant

Happy All Fools Day

Today in Gay History

T I M E S à C H A N G I N '

Come to Wall Street in front of Trinity Church
at 7AM Tuesday March 24 for a

MASSIVE AIDS
DEMONSTRATION

AIDS IS THE BIGGEST KILLER IN NEW YORK CITY
OF YOUNG MEN AND WOMEN.

And the Dream Will Never Die