More Tuesday Male Beauty

Saddam Hussein's Rule 'Better' for Gay Iraqis

In yet another story that is a sad testimony on the American occupation of Iraq, the BBC is running a story that looks at the fact that for gay Iraqis, life was far better under Saddam's secular dictatorship than under the puppet government put in place by the Chimperator and Emperor Palpatine Cheney. Indeed, freedom of religion appears to have decreased as Islamic fundamentalists have been unleashed to spread religious based hate and intolerance across the country - providing a glimpse of what Christianist rule would look like in the USA if the Christian Right are not defeated politically. And Bush and Cheney are proud of their "accomplishments"? Here are some story highlights:

*

There has been so much news of death and destruction from Iraq that the position of sexual minorities is rarely touched on in the mainstream media. But stories of torture and murder of gay Iraqis, particularly men, have been emerging in the gay press for several years.

*

Some say the violence has intensified in the past few months. Others say killings run into the hundreds and have been going on since 2003.

*
What is clear, and confirmed by separate evidence from various human rights groups, is that some gay men have been subjected to appalling violent abuse. One young Iraqi, Amil (not his real name) recalled the death of a friend: "They found out he was gay and they killed him and they chopped him like a lamb, it was awful."

*

Another man (who wished to remain anonymous) revealed to Scott Long from the New York-based Human Rights Watch, how his partner was kidnapped and killed. . . . "We found his body the next day dumped in the garbage, his throat cut out, his genitals cut off."

*

All the LGBT Iraqis interviewed for Gay Life After Saddam maintained that life was easier for them when Saddam Hussein was in power, from 1979 to 2003. Some spoke fondly of an underground gay culture that flourished before the war in Baghdad.

*

I am left again pondering whether or not the world might not be better off without religion all together when I read stories such as this one.

The Oldest Known Bible

I have a very hard time understanding fundamentalists and Christianists who maintain - largely out of fear it seems - that the Bible is the so-called inerrant "Word of God." Any student of history knows that the Bible of today is very different from the original texts and indeed, no one will likely ever know its original contents. Rather, what we have in today's text is the result of translation related revisions, misinterpretations and out right deliberate changes made to fit the agenda of church fathers over the centuries. This reality is now all the more self-evident with the availability of the Codex Sinaiticus, the world’s oldest known Bible, online. Here is how the website describes the Codex Sinaiticus:

*

Codex Sinaiticus, a manuscript of the Christian Bible written in the middle of the fourth century, contains the earliest complete copy of the Christian New Testament. The hand-written text is in Greek. The New Testament appears in the original vernacular language (koine) and the Old Testament in the version, known as the Septuagint, that was adopted by early Greek-speaking Christians. In the Codex, the text of both the Septuagint and the New Testament has been heavily annotated by a series of early correctors.

*

And what can be learned from this anciet document? Quite a bit that will be most unsettling to the professional Christian set and far right Christian extremists. As BBC News reports this document shows many, many differences from the modern Bible (including the King James version, commissioned by King James I of England - who had numerous male lovers - as part of an effort to come up with a text that would lessen the religious infighting withhin the country. Here are some story highlights:

*

For those who believe the Bible is the inerrant, unaltered word of God, there will be some very uncomfortable questions to answer. It shows there have been thousands of alterations to today's bible.

*
The Codex, probably the oldest Bible we have, also has books which are missing from the Authorised Version that most Christians are familiar with today - and it does not have crucial verses relating to the Resurrection.

*

Firstly, the Codex contains two extra books in the New Testament. One is the little-known Shepherd of Hermas, written in Rome in the 2nd Century - the other, the Epistle of Barnabas. This goes out of its way to claim that it was the Jews, not the Romans, who killed Jesus, and is full of anti-Semitic kindling ready to be lit. "His blood be upon us," Barnabas has the Jews cry.

*

The Codex - and other early manuscripts - omit some mentions of ascension of Jesus into heaven, and key references to the Resurrection, which the Archbishop of Canterbury has said is essential for Christian belief. Other differences concern how Jesus behaved. In one passage of the Codex, Jesus is said to be "angry" as he healed a leper, whereas the modern text records him as healing with "compassion".

*
Also missing is the story of the woman taken in adultery and about to be stoned - until Jesus rebuked the Pharisees (a Jewish sect), inviting anyone without sin to cast the first stone. Nor are there words of forgiveness from the cross. Jesus does not say "Father forgive them for they know not what they do".

*

"It should be regarded as a living text, something constantly changing as generation and generation tries to understand the mind of God," says David Parker, a Christian working on digitising the Codex. Others may take it as more evidence that the Bible is the word of man, not God.

*

Thus, those who vehemently condemn LGBT individuals and dny us equality citing as justification the "inerrant word of God" do so based on a document that I suspect will increasingly be proved over time to have been written and revised largely by men over the centuries to support certain societal norms of the time and based on tribal bigotry, nationalism, quests for power, and medical and scientific ignorance. Yes, I support the general Gospel message of loving God and loving one's neighbor. Beyond that, however, I believe that it is increasingly risky to act and persecute others based on words in the modern day Bible that may never have existed in the original version.

*

H/T Bob Felton.

Tuesday Male Beauty

I Need Convincing

John Aravosis has a post from one of his readers that largely sums up my feelings and emotions to date on Barack Obama and his administration. It's one of disappointment and borderline despair that after being promised change and fooled into believing that Obama actually gave a damn about LGBT Americans - as opposed to merely our money and votes - the real story is that we were suckered and nothing is going to change as we were promised. All in all it is very disheartening and among the activists that I know the level of frustration and unhappiness seems to be growing by leaps and bounds. In truth, if I had a realistic way to leave the USA, I would seriously consider it. Here are some highlights from the America Blog post:

*

Recently my partner and I have been growing more and more despondent over the current state of the nation and the direction it is going. We both feel that our votes for Barack Obama, votes we were proud to cast for the very first American of African decent to run for president, were in vain.

*

It is almost like what we fought for was not a new progressive century but a return to politics from the 80s and 90s. Gay rights, corporate welfare, lobbyists, universal health care, smart drug law, support for the middle class and their jobs and all the other progressive issues seem to not even be on the table anymore or have been so castrated that they no longer resemble the change we were promised. This is not what my time, effort and money were supposed to do.

*

I'm sitting here looking at information I just received from the Danish Consulate stating that I, as well as my partner, qualify for working in and possibly gaining citizenship in Denmark. Please John, Chris, Joe and the others, convince us to stay. Convince us to fight. Convince us that this nation is worth living in now that all of our hopes have been shattered. We love America, we feel great pride for our nation sometimes, but not enough to justify staying here when there are other nations that have gotten the issues so right while we get them so wrong.

*

I continue to hope that I will be proven wrong on the apparent false promises of the Obama administration and the Congressional Democrats, yet I remain pessimistic.

Professional Christian Liars

There are those who accuse me of being "too angry" in my treatment of the professional Christian set or the bitter old men in dresses at the Vatican. I will concede that I DO have anger at times for the simple reason that these individuals and organizations knowingly ignore legitimate medical and mental health knowledge on sexual orientation and purposely work to make life a living hell for LGBT citizens. Worse yet, often their true motivation is power and/or money. Two of Jeremy Hooper's recent posts at Good as You illustrate the types of deliberate lies that make my blood boil. The first example involves the efforts of Candi Cushman at Focus on the Family who works diligently every day to spread anti-gay propaganda. Here's how Jeremy describes Ms. Cushman's efforts:

*

When it comes to anti-gay advocacy, this writer reserves a special ring of detestation for those who militantly push for yet another generation to be brought up in a homo-hostile world. Because since we all know that acceptance could be an easy, natural instinct if not for the outside intervention of biased guardian, it's particularly disheartening to see those who've chosen to narrowly focus their form of discrimination on those impressionable children who WANT to love and WANT to peacefully accept. And it's absolutely disgusting for me, . . .

*

With an unrighteous goal of seizing Anita Bryant's tried and true tired and untrue "gays recruit children" mantra and applying it to modern day, Candi spends her days toiling away at Focus on the Family's Colorado Springs headquarters, devising new and unique ways to mask a very simple idea (namely: "we simply don't care for gay people, so we don't want kids thinking such kinds of humans are okay") behind overwrought language (namely: "we want to protect children"). When there arises a program that's meant to curb school bullying, Candi jumps in to convince folks that it is the "agenda" and not the harassment that is truly unsavory.

*

Of course all the legitimate science confirms that no one is "recruited" to have a particular sexual orientation not to mention that one cannot change their homosexuality. The truth simply doesn't matter to folks like Ms. Cushman. Another example of the Christianist dishonesty comes from Family Research Council which regaularly fabricates its own "evidence" and "data" or totally distorts the real facts in order to support its viciously anti-gay agenda. Here's Jeremy's take on that issue:

*

Wanna see Family Research Council spinjob in action? Well here, check this out. This is what FRC has to say about a new poll covering New Hampshire governor John Lynch: After Gov. John Lynch (D-N.H.) betrayed voters and signed a same-sex "marriage" bill into law, some pundits suggested that the issue didn't carry the same political risk that it once did. According to a new poll, they couldn't be more wrong. In the aftermath of Lynch's marriage flip-flop, his approval ratings have plummeted.

*

[T]he governor, . . . still maintains a 63% approval rating. Now of course that, the key point, is never mentioned by FRC. Instead, they focus solely on his disapproval and unfavorable ratings, which even among Republicans are only at a minority 43% and 42% respectively. And then the big whopper, which is highlighted in the very link to which FRC directs its readers: Same-sex marriage actually had little to no effect on this new poll! The vast majority say it had no effect on their views.

*

But yet the FRC writers editorialize that "any politicians who cross voters on marriage do so at their own peril "??! They present same-sex marriage as the key issue? And they, long supporters of the most dreadfully unpopular president in American history, are chastising a governor who still maintains a fairly healthy, bipartisan favorable rating?!

*

The truth is that these folks are pathological liars and care nothing whatsoever for the truth. Sadly, the MSM never has the balls to take them on and challenge their lies and instead simply gives them a platform to spew untruths. Exposing liars is not anti-religion and I wish the MSM would wake up to that reality.

Monday Male Beauty

Bishop Steps Down Amid Gay Sex Scandal

Over at Joe My God, Joe has his usual Monday "This Week In Holy Crimes" that looks at the sexual and monetary misdeeds of clergy and various church ministry folks. As usual, the hypocrisy meter goes off the charts. My own personal favorite of the week is that of Roman Catholic Bishop Francisco Domingo Barbosa Da Silveira who has stepped down from his ministry amid a gay sex scandal. It seems that the good bishop hired some male prostitutes at least one of whom documented the encounters with the camera on his cell phone. Not surprisingly, the Vatican was none too happy and accepted Bishop Barbosa's resignation. Here are some highlights from On Top Magazine:

*

Uruguayan Bishop Francisco Domingo Barbosa Da Silveira has stepped down from his ministry amid a gay sex scandal, reports the AFP. Barbosa is alleged to have engaged in gay sex with two men whom he hired late last year. Using a cell phone camera, the two men filmed at least one of the encounters and attempted to extort money from the bishop.

*
The allegations surfaced as the men stood trial in an Uruguay courtroom after Barbosa sought relief from the authorities, and pressed charges against the two men. The diocese of Minas demanded his resignation after the scandal surfaced.

*

The Holy Father accepted the resignation from the pastoral governance of the diocese of Minas submitted by Monsenor Francisco Domingo Barbosa Da Silveira,” the Vatican said in a statement. The Vatican accepted the bishop's resignation under a Canon Law article that orders “A diocesan Bishop who, because of illness or some other grave reason, has become unsuited for the fulfillment of his office, is earnestly requested to offer his resignation from office.”

*

Over the past year, Pope Benedict has increased his attacks on being gay and gay rights, calling gay sex “intrinsically evil,” and refusing to sign onto a United Nations resolution that calls for the universal decriminalization of being gay because he feared it would lead to more countries legalizing gay marriage.

More Signs of Back Tracking on DADT Repeal?

Over the weekend more disturbing remarks were made by Admiral Michael Mullen, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, and former Secretary of State Colin Powell that suggest that the Obama administration is going to break its campaign promise of repealing Don't Ask, Don't Tell. Powell's comments are particularly ironic since at the time President Harry Truman integrated the military there were many racist whites who viewed blacks much the same way gays are viewed by homophobic bigots. Using Powell's analysis, Truman should not have made the move he did - waiting instead for the country to be ready for the change. Living around the military as I do, it is likely the most anti-change institution there is save perhaps the bitter old queens at the Vatican. First, here are highlights of Mullen's comments via the San Francisco Chronicle:

*

The nation's top military officer said Sunday he has advised President Barack Obama to move "in a measured way" in changing the "don't ask, don't tell" policy that bans gays from serving openly in the military. . . . "I've had conversations with him about that. What I've discussed in terms of the future is I think we need to move in a measured way," Mullen said.

*
Mullen said he has discussed with his staff what steps might be taken to implement a change in the policy. "I haven't done any kind of extensive review. And what I feel most obligated about is to make sure I tell the president, you know, my — give the president my best advice, should this law change, on the impact on our people and their families at these very challenging times," he said.

*

WTF does whether gays serve openly have to do with military families? And as for "challenging times," the military is now accepting recruits with criminal records and deficient education credentials rather than qualified gays which would seem to raise far greater issues for "our families." As for Powell, he made the following remarks:

*

Former Secretary of State Colin Powell said on Sunday that the "Don't Ask Don't Tell" policy he helped craft should be revisited, but he would not go so far as to call for a full repeal of the compromise.

*

"I was withholding judgment because the commanders of the armed forces of the United States and the Joint Chiefs of Staff need to study it and make recommendations to the president, and have hearings before the Congress before a decision is made," he added. "It is not just a matter of old generals who, you know, are just too high-bound. There are lots of complicated issues with respect to this, and I think all of those issues should be illuminated. And I hope that the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the commanders working with the secretary of defense will give this the greatest consideration and make their recommendation to the president and to the Congress."

*

By not calling for full repeal, the former Secretary of State and prominent Obama endorser doesn't really do the Obama administration many favors. During the campaign, the president called for overturning "Don't Ask Don't Tell." But he has been slow to act since taking office, even as 250 military servicemen have been dismissed for disclosing their sexuality.

*

In effect both men seem fine with continuing religious based legal discrimination against LGBT Americans. Has Powell forgotten how the Bible was used to justify slavery in the past? Both men disgust me.

Gay Sailor’s Family Blames Military After his Death

In what seems to be an all too familiar scenario, the family of slain Navy Seaman August Provost, III, are complaining that Provost had been complaining for over a year about harassment and the Navy higher ups did nothing. Apparently, strict discipline and punishment do not apply when the target of harassment is gay. The sad truth is that many military commanders turn a blind eye to anti-gay harassment and take a "boys will be boys" attitude and/or yuck it up when the harassment targets a "faggot." What is especially disturbing is the brutality to which Provost was subjected - reflecting an all too prevalent attitude that somehow gays are not fully human. Instead of barring gays from the military, it is the bigots who should be barred since they likely commit atrocities in places like Iraq against others who they likewise see as less than human. Here are some highlights from the Houston Chronicle:

*

Relatives of a slain sailor are calling the 29-year-old’s death a hate crime. Rose Roy of Beaumont said her nephew, Navy Seaman August Provost III, had complained a year before about being harassed for being gay. Roy said she advised Provost to report and document the incidents, but she said the military did little to help. “He went to the Navy to serve and protect,” she said in an interview with Beaumont’s KFDM News, “he didn’t get protected at all.” Roy told The Associated Press that the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy discouraged her nephew from asking for help. “That phrase is just stupid because it tells them they have no one to speak to,” she said.

*

The 29-year-old Houston native was found dead Tuesday at Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, north of San Diego. Roy said the family was told that Provost was shot three times, had his hands and feet bound, his mouth gagged, and body burned. The family plans to hold funeral services July 10 in Houston.

*
Democratic Rep. Bob Filner of San Diego said Thursday he wants a Defense Department investigation into the death, after leaders of the city’s gay community asked him to intervene. Investigators have called the sailor’s death a random act unrelated to the his sexuality and have taken a “person of interest” into custody. No charges have been filed.
Roy said Provost joined the Navy in March 2008 to pay off college debt.

*

Living in this area with a huge Navy presence, I have zero confidence that the Navy would ever admit that Provost's death was an anti-gay hate crime no matter how overwhelming the evidence. What is equally frightening is that the mindset of someone who would treat another human so brutally is daily reinforced by the Christianists who allege gays seek to destroy the family or bring God's wrath down on America.

More Sunday Male Beauty

New Coven of Christianists

As several bloggers have noted, a number of the leading anti-democracy, Christian Right organizations that seek political and worldly power rather than honestly preaching the Gospel message have joined together to form the inappropriately named the "Freedom Federation." This group, which the Washington Post as describes as a direct descendant of the Moral Majority, the Christian Coalition and Values Voters, includes all of the leading gay-hating demagogues and seems to represent an attempt on the part of these Uber-Christians to regain lost political power now that the GOP is imploding - largely because it embraced these very enemies of religious freedom and knowledge. Without a doubt LGBT Americans will remain one of their favorite targets as they try to eek out more donations in these challenging economic times. Here are highlights from the Post story:

*

Founders say the new group will have a broader membership and a kinder, gentler, more nonpartisan approach than its ancestors. "The stereotypical media-exacerbated image of the angry white evangelical will be replaced by an evangelical movement that will reconcile uncompromised values of compassion, truth with mercy, and righteousness with justice," Rev. Samuel Rodriguez, president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, told reporters last week. We shall see.

*

But what's most interesting about the Freedom Federation isn't who's participating. It's the conspicuous absence of evangelical America's three most influential organizations -- Focus on the Family, the National Association of Evangelicals, and Rick Warren's Saddleback Church network, . . .

*

The Freedom Federation seems to be making an effort to broaden its white, evangelical Protestant base by adding the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference and Catholic Online to the mix. But the roster is filled with such culture war veterans as the American Family Association (Donald Wildmon), Eagle Forum (Phyllis Schlafly), the Family Research Council (Tony Perkins) and the Traditional Values Coalition (Lou Sheldon). (EDITOR'S NOTE: TVC has been identified as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center).

*

[The] core shared values, found in the new group's Declaration of American Values, reads more like the Republican Party platform than the Sermon on the Mount. For example, it calls on Christians to oppose progressive tax systems and "to encourage economic opportunity, free enterprise, and free market competition." It also includes opposition to abortion and homosexuality (emphasis on gay marriage) and support for the Second Amendment, the Ten Commandments ("the freedom to acknowledge God through our public institutions") and the U.S. military. The new grouping also seems to oppose health care reform and hate crime penalties.

*

In my opinion, the Freedom Federation is merely an effort to put lipstick on a pig. Hopefully, more and more Americans are waking up to the toxicity of the Christianists and their goal of imposing their poisonous version of Christianity on all - much like the Islamic extremists currently cracking down on the reform minded opposition.

Wingnut Excuses for Adultery

I swear at times you could not make up some of the wackiness of the fruit loops Christianist set if you tried. Now Mark "I like to Cheat on My Wife" Sanford's "spiritual advisor" is blaming Sanford's apparent multiple cases of adultery on "the power of darkness." I guess this new "Satan made me do it" excuse will sweep like wildfire through the "family values" GOP as an explanation as to why they seem to have a more difficult time keeping their pants up that the supposedly godless liberals or all those heterosexual couples in Massachusetts site of the first gay marriages in the USA. The truth is that Sanford - like so many of his "family values" brethren (think multiple times divorced Newt Gingrich and thrice divorced Rush Limbaugh - is a hypocritical dirt bag who was fortunately exposed. Here are highlights from USA Today:

*

Each Sunday afternoon in May, Gov. Mark Sanford and his wife hosted five other couples at the executive mansion for a spiritual "boot camp." Topics discussed during the hour-and-a-half-long sessions included forgiveness and "not loving your wife as Christ loved the church." Group leader Warren "Cubby" Culbertson did not tell the other four couples what he and his wife, Susan, had known for months: The governor was having an affair with a woman in Argentina.

*

For nearly six months, Culbertson has been the first couple's spiritual counselor — and their secret keeper. The Sanfords "passed" the Culbertsons' course with flying colors. A week later, Jenny Sanford asked her husband to leave their home.

*

In an interview with The Associated Press this weekend at his Columbia office, just blocks from the State House, Culbertson said he believed his friend when he said that this was his only marital transgression. He thinks Sanford was simply caught off guard by "the power of darkness."

*

Culbertson helped found the Round Table, a Bible study that, according to a paper posted on the Web, offers men "a safe place to pose their questions, test their assumptions, and know that they will not be alone or stand out as a spiritual seeker." Sanford sought that spiritual refuge on at least a couple of occasions.

*

Some who watched Sanford's news conference felt he was insincere, playing to the Palmetto State's religious base to salvage his political future. Janine Driver, a Washington, D.C.-based body language and deception detection expert, said Sanford showed more emotion when apologizing to Culbertson and longtime political aide Tom Davis than he did when speaking of his wife and four sons. She also believes he lied when a reporter asked if this was the first time he had been unfaithful.

*

These folk like Sanford and Culbertson make me gag and for the life of me I do not understand why people fall for this manure. They might as well be selling snake oil.

Sunday Male Beauty

Leading Iranian Clerics Defy Ayatollah

I continue to follow events in Iran with the hope that ultimately the reformists will prevail. The Islamic extremist government has shown it self to be not only dishonest but also incredible brutal. All too typically, the forces of brutality are the ones who claim to have God/Allah on their side when in fact it's the exact opposite. Fortunately, some leading clerics are gaining some backbone and resisting the stealing of the election. It is hard to say where this will lead, but it is nonetheless encouraging. The motivation for this move is unclear, although it may be a simple recognition that siding with the people is the safer approach in the longer term. Here are some highlights from the New York Times:

*

The most important group of religious leaders in Iran called the disputed presidential election and the new government illegitimate on Saturday, an act of defiance against the country’s supreme leader and the most public sign of a major split in the country’s clerical establishment.

*

A statement by the group, the Association of Researchers and Teachers of Qum, represents a significant, if so far symbolic, setback for the government and especially the authority of the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, whose word is supposed to be final. The government has tried to paint the opposition and its top presidential candidate, Mir Hussein Moussavi, as criminals and traitors, a strategy that now becomes more difficult — if not impossible.

*

“This crack in the clerical establishment, and the fact they are siding with the people and Moussavi, in my view is the most historic crack in the 30 years of the Islamic republic,” said Abbas Milani, director of the Iranian Studies Program at Stanford University. “Remember, they are going against an election verified and sanctified by Khamenei.”

*
The announcement came on a day when Mr. Moussavi released documents detailing a campaign of fraud by the current president’s supporters, and as a close associate of the supreme leader called Mr. Moussavi and former President Mohammad Khatami “foreign agents,” saying they should be treated as criminals.

*
The documents, published on Mr. Moussavi’s Web site, accused supporters of the president of printing more than 20 million extra ballots before the vote and handing out cash bonuses to voters.

*

The clerics’ decision to speak up again is not itself a turning point and could fizzle under pressure from the state, which has continued to threaten its critics. Some seminaries in Qum rely on the government for funds, and Ayatollah Khamenei and the man he has declared the winner of the election, incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, have powerful backers there.

*

But the association’s latest statement does help Mr. Moussavi, Mr. Khatami and a former speaker of Parliament, Mehdi Karroubi, who have been the most vocal in calling the election illegitimate and who, in their attempts to force change, have been hindered by the jailing of influential backers.

*

Perhaps more threatening to the supreme leader, the committee called on other clerics to join the fight against the government’s refusal to adequately reconsider the charges of voter fraud. The committee invoked powerful imagery, comparing the 20 protesters killed during demonstrations with the martyrs who died in the early days of the revolution and the war with Iraq, asking other clerics to save what it called “the dignity that was earned with the blood of tens of thousands of martyrs.”

Caribou Barbie to Resign

Anyone who read this blog back during the presidential campaign last year knows that I am no fan of Sarah Palin - in my opinion she is a deranged nutcase - and still cannot fathom why McCain selected her for the VP slot other than to appease the Christianist base. Unfortunately, Palin is the poster girl - or pin up - for the far right base of the Republican Party that seems to live in some warped parallel universe from the rest of us where being in touch with objective reality is actively frowned upon. Personally, I hope it comes out that her resignation was due to some impending scandal - rumors are flying as to who really paid for the Palin home that Caribou Barbie's hubby says he and a few buddies built. The best thing that can happen to the GOP is that Palin goes down in flames and is exposed for the lunatic that her behavior suggests. Just last night, in fact, I said to the boyfriend as we sat behind a car with a McCain/Palin bumper sticker that I'd be embarrassed to have Palin's name in anyway associated with me. Maureen Dowd has a great column in the New York Times that looks at Palin's bizarre fantasy world:

*

Sarah Palin showed on Friday that in one respect at least, she is qualified to be president. Caribou Barbie is one nutty puppy.

*

Usually we don’t find that exquisite battiness in our leaders until they’ve been battered by sordid scandals like Watergate (Nixon), gnawing problems like Vietnam (L.B.J.), or scary threats like biological terrorism (Cheney).

*

And so it was, Todd Purdum learned, as he traveled Alaska reporting on Palin for Vanity Fair, that the governor’s erratic and egoistic behavior has been a source of concern for people there.
“Several told me, independently of one another,” Purdum writes, “that they had consulted the definition of ‘narcissistic personality disorder’ in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders — ‘a pervasive pattern of grandiosity (in fantasy or behavior), need for admiration, and lack of empathy’ — and thought it fit her perfectly.”

*

What looked like a secret wedding turned out to be a public unraveling as the G.O.P. implosion continued: Sarah wanted everyone to know that she’s not having fun and people are being mean to her and she doesn’t feel like finishing her first term as governor. She can hunt wolves from the air and field-dress a moose, but she fears being a lame duck? Some brickbats over her ethics and diva turns as John McCain’s running mate, and that dewy skin turns awfully thin.

*

Maybe there’s another red Naughty Monkey high heel to drop — there’s often a hidden twist in Sarah’s country-music melodramas. Or is this a reckless high-speed escape from small-pond Alaska, where her popularity is dropping, to the big time Below?

*

The maverick must run free when greener pastures beckon. The musher must jump out of the dogsled when warmer climes call. As Palin’s spokeswoman, Meg Stapleton, says, “The world is literally her oyster.” But just remember, beloved Alaska, it’s all about you.

*

The only greener pasture that Palin needs to run to is in my view a psych ward.

Saturday Male Beauty

The Unanimous Declaration of the Thirteen United States of America

When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bonds which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

*
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security. --Such has been the patient sufferance of these colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former systems of government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these states. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world.

*
He has refused his assent to laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
*

He has forbidden his governors to pass laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
*

He has refused to pass other laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of representation in the legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
*

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
*

He has dissolved representative houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
*

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the legislative powers, incapable of annihilation, have returned to the people at large for their exercise; the state remaining in the meantime exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

*

He has endeavored to prevent the population of these states; for that purpose obstructing the laws for naturalization of foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migration hither, and raising the conditions of new appropriations of lands.

*
He has obstructed the administration of justice, by refusing his assent to laws for establishing judiciary powers.

*
He has made judges dependent on his will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
*

He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.
*

He has kept among us, in times of peace, standing armies without the consent of our legislature.
*

He has affected to render the military independent of and superior to civil power.
*

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his assent to their acts of pretended legislation:
*

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
*

For protecting them, by mock trial, from punishment for any murders which they should commit on the inhabitants of these states:
*

For cutting off our trade with all parts of the world:
*

For imposing taxes on us without our consent:
*

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of trial by jury:
*

For transporting us beyond seas to be tried for pretended offenses:

*

For abolishing the free system of English laws in a neighboring province, establishing therein an arbitrary government, and enlarging its boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule in these colonies:
*

For taking away our charters, abolishing our most valuable laws, and altering fundamentally the forms of our governments:
*

For suspending our own legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
*

He has abdicated government here, by declaring us out of his protection and waging war against us.
*

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burned our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
*

He is at this time transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries to complete the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the head of a civilized nation.
*

He has constrained our fellow citizens taken captive on the high seas to bear arms against their country, to become the executioners of their friends and brethren, or to fall themselves by their hands.
*

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian savages, whose known rule of warfare, is undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
*

In every stage of these oppressions we have petitioned for redress in the most humble terms: our repeated petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have we been wanting in attention to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, enemies in war, in peace friends.

*
We, therefore, the representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress, assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the name, and by the authority of the good people of these colonies, solemnly publish and declare, that these united colonies are, and of right ought to be free and independent states; that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the state of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as free and independent states, they have full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and to do all other acts and things which independent states may of right do. And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor.

Friday Male Beauty

Bob McDonnell and "No Tax" GOP Behind Traffic Woes

Yesterday this area experienced a major clusterf*ck traffic wise because a simple pump failure in the west bound tube of the Hampton Roads Bridge Tunnel - one of the two main connectors between south side Hampton Roads and the Peninsula and Richmond to the west. Virginia increasingly needs major injections of transportation spending to improve its overburdened interstate highways and other main routes. Unfortunately, the GOP and its standard bearer Bob "Taliban Bob" McDonnell chant only one mantra: no tax increases. Highways do not build themselves without funding and a poor transportation system will ultimately strangle economic growth. But then, the Virginia GOP still has a 19th century mindset both in terms of social values - i.e., blacks and women new their place and gays were closeted or prosecuted for "crimes against nature" - and taxation. Here are some highlights from the Virginian Pilot:

*

A broken water pump inside the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel set off a chain reaction of congestion. On the surface, the broken pump seemed like a tiny cog in the area’s complex interstate bridge and tunnel system, but what happened next was more than anyone had bargained for.

*

While Virginia Department of Transportation crews pumped water out of the tunnel, detouring vehicles spilled onto alternate routes. Traffic at the Monitor Merrimac Memorial Bridge-Tunnel backed up more than 20 miles into Chesapeake. The Midtown and Downtown tunnel traffic was stacked up three to four miles into Norfolk, clogging city thoroughfares. The closures of some downtown streets for Harborfest compounded the fiasco.

*

Local leaders and others expressed outrage over the way VDOT handled the crisis and called the gridlock a harbinger of what could happen during a major evacuation. They cited Thursday’s events as an example of a limited highway system and inadequate harbor crossings. “The entire region shut down for most of the day because of one pump,” Norfolk Mayor Paul Fraim said .

*

Transportation, city and business leaders have pushed since the 1990s for transportation improvements to provide additional access to the region and better hurricane evacuation routes. Those projects include another crossing of the Hampton Roads harbor, expanding the Midtown Tunnel and upgrading U.S. 460 to interstate quality.

*
But they will cost billions of dollars that current funding sources cannot cover. The General Assembly repeatedly has rejected proposals to raise taxes and fees for transportation funding. “We have listened to the members of the General Assembly long enough,” Fraim said. “The consequences of what has occurred is a direct result of their inaction to provide adequate funding for transportation.

*

Fraim said the incident was reminiscent of Hurricane Isabel in September 2003, when the Midtown Tunnel flooded because of malfunctioning floodgates. “Had this occurred during an evacuation caused by an impending hurricane or major storm, I shudder to think of the consequences,” Fraim said.

*

Virginia does not need the antiquated thinking of Bob McDonnell and the Virginia Republican Party. He and the other GOP candidates must be defeated in the November elections.

Separate But Unequal Means Gay Apartheid

Many of us continue to be angry at the Obama administration and many Congressional Democrats who seek out our money and our votes at election time yet seem to utterly forget about us - or suddenly develop amnesia - once they are elected. True, Obama had a soiree for A-List gays on Monday and made a pretty speech, but other than serving as a damage control stunt for the LGBT community, the event seems likely to make no difference in the ongoing avoidance of taking meaningful action on LGBT related legislation. David Mixner has a great column on his blog that looks at the reality this behavior means for LGBT Americans who are still treated as less than full citizens. Here are some column highlights:

*

Yesterday [Monday, June 29, 2009], I listened with hope to the President Barack Obama's words at the historic White House celebration of Gay Pride. Instead, when he was done, I found myself very depressed.

*

As our elected officials search for new words, new institutions and new arrangements to avoid giving us full equality, it is important for people to remember that right now all we have amounts to basically a system of separate but unequal. We have a set of laws at the national, state and local levels that separates LGBT folks from the rest of America. Let's call it what it is - Gay Apartheid.

*

I have chosen the word very carefully and deliberately. Apartheid is when a group of citizens of a nation is by law separated from all other citizens and the rights, benefits and protections all others are granted. Having DOMA and "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" as laws of the land are apartheid laws. They set us apart from all other American citizens. State after state has singled us out in their Constitutions to create a separate body of law for LGBT citizens.

*

So lets be honest about this as we see an enormous number of laws on the books specially denying LGBT Americans the rights, benefits, privileges and protections granted to all other Americans: we have created and are continuing to expand on a system of Gay Apartheid. There is no other way to look at it.

*

Despite the President's warm words and the lovely trappings at the White House, he continues to buy into this system and allows it to continue. In fact, it was a carefully worded warm, fuzzy speech that failed to answer many questions. . . . . We did not hear the answer to the most important question: When?

*

The only thing important to me now is when! That is the question. When will these oppressive and horrendous apartheid laws be overturned? When will the President show the powerful leadership shown by President Kennedy and President Johnson in the 1960's? When will he insist Congress take up and immediately repeal "Don't Ask, Don't Tell?" When will the President address the nation in a powerful speech saying that the time of inequality, injustice and yes, apartheid against the American LGBT community must come to an end. Mr. President, the only question we have for you is when?

*

First Lady Michelle Obama wouldn't tolerate living under the laws of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" for two days and he expects us to live under them until maybe into his second term? Hell, no. Not acceptable, Mr. President.

*

Mixner sums up my feelings and thoughts eloquently. President Obama, when will you make good on your campaign promises and prove that you were not merely a cynical liar.

More Thursday Male Beauty

Iran election: Faces of the Dead and Detained

I continue to hope that with time the Islamic fundamentalist dictatorship in Iran will be overthrow. Not only is the current regime the enemy of democracy, but it is also the enemy of LGBT individuals worldwide and is responsible for the execution of countless gays in Iran. Meanwhile, the stories of brutality and inhumanity on the part of the ruling dictatorship and its thugs continue to trickle out to the world. The UK's Guardian is endeavoring to bring forth the stories of those killed and detained through an interactive page. As the Guardian notes:

*

We want to put a face to each of those hundreds - possibly thousands - killed or arrested since the Iranian election.

*

On its website, the Guardian is working to identify the victims of the regime's brutality and is posting photos where available of the dead and detained and biographical information if known. it is very moving and it sickens me to see the faces of young, vibrant Iranians who gave their lives and appear to be the exact opposite of what the Bush/Cheney regime and their Christianist allies would have the public believe.

*

All of us need to keep alive the stories of these brave individuals who risked their lives - and lost them in many cases - so that change could occur.

India Decriminalises Gay Sex

I have never been to India but have a number of clients of Indian descent a few of who are gay. While the ruling of the Delhi High Court will not alone end homophobia in India or among the Indian diaspora, the fact that same sex relations no longer carry a potential prison term cannot help but subconsciously begin to undermine some of the historic and societal bigotry against gays and lesbians. The Court's full 105 page opinion can be found here. Another aspect of the Court's ruling is that it brings India more in line with other modern secular nations and should help the forces of modernity. (NOTE: This step towards modernity happened only in 2003 in Virginia with the Lawrence v. Texas Supreme Court decision). Here are some highlights from the Times of India:
*

NEW DELHI: India took a giant, albeit belated, step towards globalisation on Thursday when the Delhi high court delivered a historic judgement to amend 149-year-old colonial-era law — Section 377 of the IPC — and decriminalise private consensual sex between adults of the same sex. It is the biggest victory yet for gays rights and a major milestone in the country's social evolution. India becomes the 127th country to take the guilt out of homosexuality.

*

In a judgment that has aroused strong reactions from religious and political groups, the court declared that Section 377 IPC, where it ``criminalized consensual sexual acts of adults in private'', violated fundamental rights to personal liberty (Article 21 of the Constitution) and equality (Article 14) and prohibition of discrimination (Article 15).

*

In a courtroom tense with anticipation, the bench invoked Jawaharlal Nehru's stirring words to the Constituent Assembly, while linking the issue of homosexuality with the politically resonant theme of inclusiveness. ``If there is one constitutional tenet that can be said to be (the) underlying theme of the Indian Constitution, it is that of inclusiveness.'' As a corollary, it added that ``those perceived by the majority as `deviants' or `different' are not on that score excluded or ostracized.''

*

"There is almost unanimous medical and psychiatric opinion that homosexuality is not a disease or a disorder and is just another expression of human sexuality,'' the court observed.

*

The verdict triggered protests from religious leaders across the spectrum who invoked the ``will of God'' to claim that the ruling would lead to the ``ruination'' of society and family values. Social workers and psychologists, however, welcomed the order, describing it as ``scientific and humane.''

*

I cannot help but note that as in America, it is the forces of ignorance and bigotry that hide behind religion who condemned the Court's ruling. It's interesting that the Court's references to the Indian Constitution could be instructive to the U.S. Supreme Court insofar as it notes that the majority does not have the right to exclude or ostracize disliked minorities.