More Saturday Male Beauty

Coming Out Isn't Enough

A new organization has launched called Tell3 with a goal of encouraging LGBT individuals to help explain their life stories to others with a goal of changing hearts and minds. As I have stated in numerous posts, our best weapon against those who seek to deny us equal rights and to depict us as abnormal, perverts, etc., is to live openly and honestly as who we are. By knowing us and learning how discrimination and prejudice has impacted us and often added difficulty to our lives, people are often forced to rethink their own prejudice. I encourage you to check out the website and to take some of the recommended/requested actions. We simply cannot sit around and wait for someone to hand us equality because if we do that, it will not happen. Here's part of why speaking up is important:

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[I]t's still really important to have these conversations with straight allies. Even supportive people may not fully understand just how much impact being LGBT has on our daily lives. While we were having our own conversations (we wouldn't ask you to do something we haven't done ourselves), many of us found that our supportive friends weren't particularly educated. One ally thought civil unions were available in all 50 states. Another was shocked that it's still legal in most states to fire someone for being LGBT. We even had one supporter swear to us that same-sex couples could get married in New York City!

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Your conversation could be the one that educates and inspires a supporter to take action. And to win equality, we're going to need as many straight allies taking action as possible. If they want to know how to help, send 'em to this website.

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You don't need to be political or know all the ins and outs of the latest gay rights legislation to make a difference. In fact, the best conversations aren't about politics at all. They're just one person talking to another person about how life changes (and doesn't change) when someone is lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender.

Oops: Steele's Campaign Spending Being Investigated

I suspect that the GOP thought they'd be crafty and elect Michael Steele as RNC chair so that they party could claim that it really not racist - even though it is (remember the lily white Republican National Convention last fall?). In any event, it looks like the strategy may end up backfiring now that it has come out that federal prosecutors are investigating Steele for misuse of campaign funds. So much for a different kind of GOP. Here are highlights from today's Washington Post:

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Michael S. Steele, the newly elected chairman of the Republican National Committee, arranged for his 2006 Senate campaign to pay a defunct company run by his sister for services that were never performed, his finance chairman from that campaign has told federal prosecutors. Federal agents in recent days contacted Steele's sister, a spokesman for Steele said yesterday. The claim about the payment, one of several allegations by Alan B. Fabian, is outlined in a confidential court document.

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Fabian's claims emerge as Steele begins his new role at the RNC, where he oversees the raising and spending of hundreds of millions of dollars in party money. The former Maryland lieutenant governor has faced questions about his handling of campaign money in prior elections and was twice fined for missing filing deadlines.

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In one of his allegations, Fabian points to a February 2007 payment by Steele's Senate campaign of more than $37,000 to Brown Sugar Unlimited, the company run by Steele's sister, Monica Turner. Campaign finance records list the expense as having been for "catering/web services." Turner filed papers to dissolve the company 11 months before the payment was received.

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Over the years, money trouble has been a persistent problem for Steele. His first race for public office, a 1998 bid for the Republican nomination for state comptroller, ended nearly $35,000 in debt, much of it to his sister. He was fined twice by state officials for missing deadlines to file campaign finance reports and was in debt and had faced foreclosure in 2001, the year before he was selected as Ehrlich's running mate. The state party threw Steele a financial lifeline, awarding him an unusual $30,000 consulting contract.

Catholic Church Opposes Maryland Statute of Limitations Bill

Having proven itself incapable of doing its own house cleaning of predatory priests and those in the hierarchy who enabled them and/or covered up their sexual abuse of minors, the Roman Catholic Church continues to oppose efforts of civil authorities to make sure that crimes sex against minors do not go unpunished. A case in point is legislation introduced by Maryland Sen. Delores Kelley, D-Baltimore County, which would change the statute of limitations for filing civil lawsuits against alleged abusers from 25 years of age to 50, and create a two-year window for retroactive claims previously barred by the current limit. Among those condemning the bill is Archbishop Edwin O'Brien, of the Baltimore archdiocese (pictured at left), who whines that the bill would allow frivolous lawsuits against the Church. I do not buy his crocodile tears given that if all the suits against the Church were frivolous, why has the Church paid out over $2 Billion in the USA alone? Here are some highlights from the Baltimore Sun:

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Al Chesley was sexually abused when he was 13, but the former NFL linebacker couldn't tell his horrible story for decades. Chesley, now 50, was abused by a Washington, D.C., police officer. "I wasn't able to talk about this to my mom, or my dad, who was a police officer," he said to state lawmakers Thursday after flying from California to Annapolis. "I couldn't tell him that it was one of his friends doing this to me," he said, his voice rising as he lost control of his emotions, as he described how it takes years before victims can seek justice.

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State Sen. Delores Kelley, D-Baltimore County, is proposing the statute of limitations for filing civil lawsuits against alleged abusers increase from 25 years of age to 50, and create a two-year window for retroactive claims previously barred by the current limit. "Victims don't wait around in silence, so they can file frivolous lawsuits, ... but live in fear of being named the guilty party and having their family torn apart," Kelley told the Senate Judiciary Committee.

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"The Maryland legislation ... is part of a coordinated national lobbying campaign aimed at making it easier for trial lawyers to bring monetary lawsuits ... against the Catholic Church and other private institutions," said Archbishop Edwin O'Brien, of the Baltimore archdiocese, in a letter he wrote Thursday in the Catholic Review.

Saturday Male Beauty

More Proof of Mormon/Utah Double Speak?

I have posted previously about the way in which the Mormon Church - which more or less controls much of what happens in Utah - in the wake of Proposition 8 gave lip service to not being anti-gay and even contended that its goal in Proposition 8 was solely to "protect marriage." Seeking to put these statements to the test, Equality Utah sought to have its "Common Ground" legislative package introduced into the state legislature in order to endeavor to provide some legal protections to LGBT citizens in Utah. So far, the Mormon Church has not made good on its statements that it did not oppose such pro-gay measures and one of the Common Ground bills has already been killed in committee. Now a second bill has fallen, this time by being pulled by its sponsor who fears for the other bills still pending. Here are some highlights from the Salt Lake Tribune:

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Another Common Ground gay-rights bill has died. But this one wasn't killed by opposing state lawmakers - it was done in by the sponsor herself. Rep. Jackie Biskupski, D-Salt Lake City, pulled a measure Friday that would have sought voter approval to repeal a portion of Utah's gay-marriage ban (known as Amendment 3) to avoid confusion about which protections are the legal equivalent of marriage. It's not that Biskupski has changed her mind about the amendment's language being "misconstrued" to deny legal protections to gay and transgender Utahns. It's that she believes the Common Ground Initiative stands a better chance of success without it.

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"By dumping that bill," said Mike Thompson, executive director of Equality Utah, "we are bringing attention to the most important items on our legislative agenda." Those items include a bill sponsored by Rep. Christine Johnson, D-Salt Lake City, to make it illegal to fire or evict someone for being gay or transgender and another by Rep. Jennifer Seelig, D-Salt Lake City, to expand legal protections for same-sex couples to visit a partner in the hospital, inherit property and make medical decisions.

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A recent Salt Lake Tribune poll found 56 percent of Utahns support broader legal rights for same-sex couples, specifically on matters of inheritance, hospital visitation and employment discrimination.

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The LDS Church has taken no formal position on the Common Ground Initiative. But backers of the bills continue to cite church statements that the church would not object to expanded legal protections for gay and transgender Utahns "so long as these do not infringe on the integrity of the traditional family or the constitutional rights of churches."

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NOTE: Should the employment and housing bill somehow pass in Utah (I'm not holding my breath), Utah would provide its LGBT citizens more protections than we have in Virginia on these issues.

Growing Lunacy in the GOP Base

There has been much conjecture as to whether or not newly elected RNC chair, Michael S. Steele (pictured at left), can lead the Republican Party back from lunacy and potentially irrelevance down the road if the party remains on its current delusional course. A recent Newsweek article looks at this precise issue. The author of that piece concludes in part as follows:

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[A] political party can only run in a different direction than the country for so long. And America was changing, not only in its demographics—which were increasingly ethnic and "minority"—but in its attitudes, which were increasingly inclusive. . . . For Americans to regain faith in the party of Lincoln will require more than cosmetic change at the top. And it is not clear that Steele represents anything more than that. . . . But even if Steele were inclined to try to reinvent the party, it's not clear the party would let him.

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Many Republicans like it pretty much the way it is. A new Rasmussen Reports survey found little appetite among Republicans for ideological moderation. . . . the problem is not just the Republican selling job. . . . It's the Republican reality. And unless Steele recognizes that and is empowered to act on that knowledge, it's hard to see how his smiling face will make much difference.

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For a glimpse of the true Republican reality, one need only look at a recent gathering in Oklahoma attend by homo-hater, Sally Kern, who was a speaker. As a former member of the GOP some years back, I am increasing shocked at just how unhinged the GOP base has become. Sadly, I believe that the Republican Party of Virginia is largely on the same page as the folks in Oklahoma - making it critical that Bob McDonnell NOT be elected governor this coming November. Here are some highlights from a Right Wing Watch piece that show just how scary the GOP has become:

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The crowd in the banquet hall at the Character Conference Center, housed in an old Holiday Inn in downtown Oklahoma City, sat packed, rapt with attention as Oklahoma state Rep. Sally Kern, R-Oklahoma City, told them she’d found it: the gay agenda.

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Kern said the agenda is in a book called “After the Ball,” by Marshall Kirk and Hunter Madsen, a book named after a musical adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s “Lady Windermere’s Fan.” She recounted the bullet points of a secret public relations campaign to have gays accepted by the general public — step by step — with the final goal being not just acceptance of gays by heterosexuals, but eventual triumph of homosexuality as a superior lifestyle.

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“This theme of equality and freedom is the approach that the homosexuals are using today — totally perverting the true intention of what our Constitution meant. … The homosexuals get it — it’s a struggle between our religious freedoms and their right to do what they want to do.”

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Around the banquet hall, Kern’s speech met with applause and calls of “Amen!” from a crowd stoked in a crucible of conspiracy and intrigue. For the whole day, the “Clouds Over America” conference, run and organized by the John Birch Society, held lecture after lecture Jan. 23 and 24 dedicated to explaining their various conspiracy-laden tenets. Here’s one — that a godless secret society, the Illuminati, has been battling against the founding of the United States of America and decent citizens to live in peaceful, worshipful freedom.

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To get the full grasp of just how much these people need a mental heath care intervention, read the full story at the Oklahoma Gazette. These people are batshit crazy. Perhaps the most frightening revelation was that attendance at the event this year was up four fold from last year.

More Friday Male Beauty

Army official: Suicides in January 'Terrifying'

In yet another example of the cluster fuck left to the nation by the Chimperator and Emperor Palpatine Cheney, the U.S. Army has announced more dreadful news about the soaring suicide rate among our servicemen. Knowing men - and women - who have been deployed over and over again, often witnessing horrifying carnage, it really should be no surprise that this phenomenon is occurring. Especially in light of the fact that often quality mental health care is not provided to service members. The Bush/Cheney regime talked alot about "supporting the troops," but in reality, they might just as well have told our armed services members to "go fuck themselves." Talk is cheap and that's all these evil men put out. Here are some highlights from CNN:
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One week after the U.S. Army announced record suicide rates among its soldiers last year, the service is worried about a spike in possible suicides in the new year. The Army said 24 soldiers are believed to have committed suicide in January alone -- six times as many as killed themselves in January 2008, according to statistics released Thursday.

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If those prove true, more soldiers will have killed themselves than died in combat last month. According to Pentagon statistics, there were 16 U.S. combat deaths in Afghanistan and Iraq in January. "This is terrifying," an Army official said. "We do not know what is going on."

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Col. Kathy Platoni, chief clinical psychologist for the Army Reserve and National Guard, said that the long, cold months of winter could be a major contributor to the January spike. . . . But Platoni said she sees the multiple deployments, stigma associated with seeking treatment and the excessive use of anti-depressants as ongoing concerns for mental-health professionals who work with soldiers. Those who are seeking mental-health care often have their treatment disrupted by deployments. Deployed soldiers also have to deal with the stress of separations from families.

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Platoni also said that while the military has made a lot of headway in training leaders on how to deal with soldiers who may be suffering from depression or post-traumatic stress disorder, "there is still a huge problem with leadership who shame them when they seek treatment." The anti-depressants prescribed to soldiers can have side effects that include suicidal thoughts. Those side effects reportedly are more common in people 18 to 24.

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The 2008 numbers were the highest annual level of suicides among soldiers since the Pentagon began tracking the rate 28 years ago. The Army said 128 soldiers were confirmed to have committed suicide in 2008, and an additional 15 were suspected of having killed themselves. The statistics cover active-duty soldiers and activated National Guard and reserves. . . . Suicides for Marines were also up in 2008. There were 41 in 2008, up from 33 in 2007 and 25 in 2006, according to a Marines report.

Friday Male Beauty

Calling a Spade a Spade

UPDATED: Don, thanks. the typo has been corrected.

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Most voices in the Catholic Church universe mindlessly follow the dictates of the bitter old men in dresses at the Vatican or quietly ignore their blather in typical cafeteria Catholic fashion. Neither action helps to push the Catholic Church toward much needed reform and/or a thorough house cleaning of the petrified old self-hating closet cases in Rome. Lunatic Catholics like Bill Donohue of the Catholic League hyperventilate and spray spittle at any criticism of the Church when in fact sometimes being a critic IS the most faithful thing one can offer - just as the "America, love it or leave it" crowd in my view are not true patriots. Thus, it was a refreshing surprise to see an article in America (a U.S. Catholic weekly) that basically reamed the Vatican a new one over some of its hateful actions of late. Here are some highlights:

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To mark the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights this past December, the European Union delegation to the United Nations, led by France, introduced a declaration condemning the criminalization of same-sex relations. Homosexual activity is illegal in over 80 countries, concentrated in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia, with punishments ranging from imprisonment to torture, and in at least six countries, execution. Before this non-binding legislation was submitted, the Vatican officially objected, claiming that the declaration could harm traditional marriage by eventually being interpreted in a way that would call for the decriminalization of same-sex unions.

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With this latest proclamation from the Vatican, it seems that gay and lesbian people are becoming ever more marginalized, and many of them feel that they are being pushed out of the Catholic Church. During the past few years, some church leaders have used gay men as a scapegoat for the priest sex abuse scandal; claimed that humanity needed to be saved from homosexuality in the same way that the rainforest must be saved from destruction; spent millions of dollars to rescind civil marriage rights; and have tried to ally the church with Russia, China, Iran, and other infamous human-rights abusers by objecting to the anti-discrimination measure that may save lives.

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There are millions of gay and lesbian Catholics in this country and around the world, and rather than seeing the church as a spiritual sanctuary, they often see the church instead as emblematic of the hostility that they face each day in their lives. Imagine the powerful message of Christ’s love for all people that would have been manifested had the Catholic representative to the UN supported the EU declaration. Imagine if instead of pouring millions of dollars into the fight against same-sex marriage, Catholics had spent that money to care for gay and lesbian teens made homeless by non-accepting families. The church is consistently a tireless advocate for human rights, unless, it now appears, those rights are to be extended to this increasingly marginalized group of people.

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Obviously, I agree with these sentiments completely. Unfortunately, I do not see the Catholic Church as capable of changing - at least not in my life time. Hence, like so many other gay Catholics I left the Church and found a spiritual home in a denomination that does not treat gays as if we were human garbage. As I have said before, if you belong to a church that hates gays - despite fleeting lip service to the contrary - the best thing one can do is to walk away.

Butching Up Figure Skating

Having a daughter who was a competitive figure skater for about seven years and having spent a great deal of time at ice rinks waiting for her events to come up, I've seen many a male figure skater not to mention those seen on televised events. Thus I found it ironic and perhaps even a little sad that Skate Canada plans on unveiling a campaign to combat the "gay stereotype" of male figure skaters in the hope of attracting more male skaters. The truth is that high level figure skating is very physically challenging and takes amazing strength and coordination - far more indeed than many other sports. Grace and style should be applauded, not called "gay." Not to mention the fact that most male figure skaters are Einsteins compared to many of the borderline morons one finds in say football. Here are some highlights from Out Sports:

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Figure skating has long been the butt of gay jokes. An organization in Canada is now saying it’s likely one of the reasons that young male skaters in Canada have turned more and more to hockey instead of figure skating; Few boys want to be the targets of gay jokes. From the CBC now comes a report that Skate Canada will unveil a campaign to combat the stereotype. “Tough” is aimed to show how strong and masculine male figure skaters are.

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The report talks to Canadian ice dancer Andrew Poje (that’s him above. . . ), who told the CBC that gay rumors have “always been something I’ve been teased about.” . . . You don’t know how hard it is physically. If I can compare what a long program feels like, it’s like running a 1500 meter hurdle with a smile on your face. So you go out and try that and come talk to me.

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But the best question to ask may be, Will it work? Will showing guys tossing women into the air and catching them while skating backward transform how teenagers view a gay sport?

More Thursday Male Beauty

Colorado Bill Calls Gop/Christianist Bluff

Just as I described how gay rights activists in Utah are calling the bluff of the Mormon Church which has issued disingenuous statements that it is not against civil rights for LGBT citizens, so too are some politicians in the Colorado Legislature who have introduced a bill which would make it easier for unwed couples - including same sex couples - to plan their estates and share benefits in times of tragedy. The disingenuous GOP members of the legislature who claim to not be anti-gay and homophobic are now back peddling mightily from past statements alleging that they believed certain basic protections should be afforded LGBT couples? Why? Because (1) their Christianist masters are demanding it to "protect the sanctity of marriage" and (2) I suspect that they never thought that they'd be confronted with having to vote on the issue. Life's a bitch when your held to statements you did not really mean. Here are some highlights from the Denver Post:

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A bill that would make it easier for unwed couples to plan their estates and share benefits in times of tragedy is certain to touch off a gay-rights debate at the Capitol. Unwed couples can already designate each other as emergency decision makers, ensure that property goes to their partners if they die and list each other as health insurance beneficiaries. But the process for sharing these and other benefits is a costly and complicated series of contracts, said bill sponsor Rep. Mark Ferrandino, D-Denver.

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His bill, to be filed later this week, would give couples the option of dropping by their local county clerk's office and filling out a check-off form stating which rights they want their partners to have. It's a benefit to same-sex couples, and Ferrandino expects a fight, but he said others would benefit as well.

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In 2006, socially conservative lawmakers like Sen. Shawn Mitchell, R-Broomfield, proposed similar legislation allowing so-called "designated beneficiary agreements." At the time, a ballot battle loomed over Referendum I, an initiative to legalize domestic partnerships and confer spousal rights on committed, same-sex couples.

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The bill was seen by critics as a way to undercut the initiative and by proponents as a common-sense way to grant atypical households some basic rights. The bill and the referendum failed. This time around, Mitchell says the fact that the agreements would be open to heterosexual couples amounts to "marriage light or shacking up heavy." Either way, he's opposed, he said. The intent of his 2006 bill was "not to compete with or dilute marriage," Mitchell said. "It's a step in the wrong direction."

9th Circuit Decisions Hit DOMA

Two decisions out of the 9th Circuit - one of the more liberal in the country as opposed to say the 4th Circuit which includes Virginia, North and South Carolina, Maryland and West Virginia which is one of the most conservative - have struck at the validity of the federal Defense of Marriage Act ("Doma") which was passed to prevent the recognition of gay marriage. One ruling, in fact held that DOMA was unconstitutional. DOMA is loved by the Christianists because it seeks to undo the normal full faith and credit given to the laws of one state by the other states in the USA - e.g., recognition of a Massachusetts same sex marriage in other states. It basically turns the normal state to state recognition of marriages on its head and worse yet is based on an improper intertwining of religion with the civil laws. Here are some story highlights:

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[A] ruling by Judge Stephen Reinhardt of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals says the Defense of Marriage Act unconstitutionally denies benefits to gay federal employees' spouses. That ruling on behalf of an L.A. federal public defender, and another by Chief Judge Alex Kozinski involving claims by a 9th Circuit staff attorney, raises questions about the act.

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"The denial of federal benefits to same-sex spouses cannot be justified simply by a distaste for or disapproval of same-sex marriage or a desire to deprive same-sex spouses benefits available to other spouses in order to discourage exercising a legal right afforded them by the state," Reinhardt wrote in his Feb. 2 order....

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Both orders are internal employee grievance decisions. Both found in favor of the gay employees, directing court administrators to give health insurance benefits to their spouses. The orders also represent direct challenges to DOMA, the 1996 act that forbids the federal government from treating same-sex relationships as marriages for any purpose.

Thursday Male Beauty

Further Reflections on Stable Gay Relationships

Last evening I had yet another opportunity to experience another situation that demonstrates the base lies put out by the enemies of LGBT equality such as Peter LaBarbera and Matt Barber. Namely, that gays are incapable of maintaining long term, stable, committed relationships. The occasion was dinner at the home of one of the boyfriend's long time friends and mentors and his partner. One of the boyfriend's always elegant and wonderful friends/clients also joined us.

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The boyfriend's friend is a quintessential Southern gentleman in the best sense - not to mention a wonderful story teller - and between his activities as a retailer, collector and estate appraiser he has assembled a wonderful collection of antiques and art in a comfortable, beautiful "lived in museum" like setting. He and his partner have been together for many years and as was the case in the commitment ceremony anniversary events over the past weekend, the love and affection of this couple is palpable. That relationships like this couples and the ones witnessed over the weekend are equated with incest, etc., by the likes of Rick Warren is a travesty and it demonstrates just how evil and mean spirited our enemies truly can be.

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Our strongest weapon against our foes is to live openly and honestly because it shows the lies disseminated by those who hate us - yes, they do hate us despite the bogus claims of "hate the sine and love the sinner."

California Supreme Court to Hear Prop. 8 Arguments

The California Supreme Court has announced that it will hear oral arguments on the challenge to the validity of the passage of Proposition 8 on March 5, 2009. Amazingly, forty-three (43) groups representing civil rights activists, legal scholars, labor unions, bar associations, state legislators and religious organizations have filed written arguments asking that Proposition 8 be overturned. In opposition are twenty briefs filed by a who's who of the loony bin far right, including many of the "professional Christian" organizations which use the opposition of gay rights as a major money raising tool. Personally, I cannot imagine making a living by constantly maligning and trying to stigmatize others - not exactly very Christian in my view. A full listing of the briefs filed by both sides can be found here. The Los Angeles Times provides more details and highlights are as follows:

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Reporting from San Francisco -- The California Supreme Court announced Tuesday that it would hear arguments March 5 over the constitutionality of Proposition 8, the November ballot measure that reinstated a ban on same-sex marriage. The court's decision in the case will come within 90 days of the three-hour hearing, which will be held in San Francisco and broadcast live on the California Channel. In addition to hearing challenges to Proposition 8, the court will consider the fate of 18,000 same-sex marriages that occurred before the November election.

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Gay rights lawyers and the city of San Francisco contend that the ballot measure was an illegal revision of the state Constitution. It is a novel argument that required the attorneys to try to distinguish Proposition 8 from other cases in which the court rejected revision challenges.California Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown also asked the court to overturn the proposition, but on other grounds. He argued that "inalienable rights" cannot be eliminated without compelling reasons, an argument that, if accepted by the court, would make major new law in California.

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Even if Proposition 8 is upheld, the court could rule that existing same-sex marriages remain valid. Legal scholars say gay rights lawyers have more ammunition for preserving the marriages than for overturning the ban.

More Wednesday Male Beauty

Ich Bin Ein Big Stoopid

Mike Tidmus had this on his blog and it was just too good to pass up. Enjoy!!

Roman Catholic Church: A Study in How Absolute Power Corrupts

Just when you think that things cannot get any messier for the Nazi Pope, new information explodes about the late Rev. Marcial Maciel Degollado, the founder of the Legionaries of Christ, who despite many reports of abuse of young men was protected by the less than saintly John Paul II and up until 2006 by Benedict XVI as well. Marceil was finally barred from public ministry by Benedict XVI in 2006 because the dirt was just getting too hard to cover up. Now it seems, based on a Boston Globe story, that Marceil also had at least one child with a woman with whom he was having a relationship. Marceil personifies the problem within the Church in terms of sexually dysfunctional clergy - caused by an unholy obsession with demonizing sex - and the resulting sexual abuse of minors:

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Most psychiatrists and psychologists, however, say that sexual abuse against minors is not so much an indication of sexual orientation--whether homosexual or heterosexual--as much as it indicates a stunted or malformed sexuality overall.

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What does this mean on a bigger picture scale? It means that due to the dictatorship weilded by the last two Popes within the Church, needed discussions and honest evaluations simply have not and do not occur and that the absolute power these two failable and unsaintly men have exercised is a recipe for long term disaster. Andrew Sullivan has a very insightful post that examines this destructive phenomenon. Here are some highlights:

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There is, it seems to me, a connecting thread between all the various depressing bits of Catholic news this past week, beginning with the clueless, insular outreach to reactionary SSPX anti-Semites and culminating in the latest revelations about the serial child rapist protected by John Paul II, Father Maciel. That thread is not sex or anti-Semitism. It is the abuse of absolute clerical power.

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In their panicked reaction to the reforms of the Second Vatican Council and its expansion of lay and episcopal power within a more inclusive church, the last two Popes relied on raw papal power to get their way. They did not persuade many on, say women priests or contraception or the "objective disorder" of homosexuals. But it became pretty clear after a while that persuasion was never the point. When the Pope simply declared certain topics undiscussable - and when he enforced that silence within the Church by policing dissent and appointing generations of docile flunkies as bishops and cardinals - he was telling us that he was restoring hierarchy.

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And so Holocaust-deniers slip through the cracks because the Pope sees them first of all as his ideological and theological allies, and does not subject them to the same scrutiny as his opponents within the Church. And a monster like Marcial Maciel can be protected by Wojtila and Ratzinger for years and years, even as the evidence of his corruption and rank abuse of power is overwhelming.

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The authoritarian, unaccountable, reactionary hierarchy that the last two Popes have constructed is beginning to collapse in on itself. It has solved no core questions; it has advanced no deeper, lasting ideas; it has led to the implosion of the Church in Western Europe and forced many American Catholics into a provisional relationship with their own church authorities. Maciel and Williamson are symptoms of this disease. But John Paul II and Benedict XVI are its enablers.

Wednesday Male Beauty

More Double Speak from the Ex-Gay Crowd

All of the media circus surrounding Ted Haggard and perhaps in an effort to counter the bad image of "ex-gay ministries" arising from Prayers for Bobby, the ex-gay industry is once again trying to repackage a deceptive and false product. Rather than admit - as all legitimate medical and mental health associations concede - that sexual orientation is not changeable and that being gay is normal for a percentage of the population, Exodus International is going through all kinds of contortions to justify its poisonous programs. Exodus spokesman Randy Thomas changing song and dance are examined in a new piece on Ex-gay Watch. Here are some highlights:

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Because “ex-gay” organizations like Exodus International (of which Randy is the Vice President) have been closely publicly scrutinized in the last few years, their public facade has changed considerably. For one thing, they no longer loudly tout the idea of changing from homosexual to heterosexual. Since it has been revealed both by their own studies and by ex-gay program survivors that people can’t just flip a sexual switch through years (sometimes decades) of prayer and therapy, the complexities of sexuality have been grudgingly acknowledged to justify the notion of “change” in program leaders.

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The stubborn persistence of same-sex attraction in Exodus’ leaders and participants has even been acknowledged, largely shifting the focus from altering innate attractions to making it about the “journey of obedience to God.” The innateness of attraction has even been somewhat acknowledged, blaming its existence on the “fall of man” - saying we’re all sinners fighting temptation; be it adultery, slandering others, lying, or becoming romantically involved with members of the same sex.

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Randy rejects the term “lifestyle” but defends the validity of his own definition . . . I don’t have to “change” my sexual attractions in order to be reconciled and obedient (not act on those attractions) to God. I also don’t need to force myself into a self-imposed restriction of what God may bring into my life.

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If only people like Randy could embody this statement by taking an apolitical, “live and let live” attitude instead of trying to force others to adhere to his “false dissonance” of forcing people to either be “with” the Exodus ideology or “against” it.

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Sadly, until Thomas and other Christianists come to grasp the fact that the Bible is NOT inerrant and admit that the early Biblical writers were wholly ignorant of what we now know about sexual orientation, Exodus and similar groups will continue to sell their repackaged snake oil and leave a trail of emotional and psychological damage in their wake -pocketing the money all along the way.

Haggard's Latest Accuser Tells All

UPDATED: An audio clip of the Grant Haas interview is available here.

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Last week I wrote about the appearance of Ted Haggard and his wife on Larry King Live and concluded that I felt both of them were being less than honest and were no doubt posturing to keep the option open for Haggard to do a book or other deal in order to turn his fall into a money making opportunity. Some readers called me too harsh while others said they felt sorry for Haggard's inability to admit reality due to his religious indoctrination. Now, Haggard's second accuser, Grant Haas, has gone on the Mike Signorile Show on Sirius 109 and on XM 98and spilled all the dirt. If anything, I believe that perhaps I was too easy of Haggard. It appears that his drug use and sexual kinkiness went far, far beyond discrete gay sex by someone struggling with the damage done by years of religious brainwashing. Pam Spaulding has many of the nasty details and I ask you to judge for yourself. Here are some highlights:

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Haas was asked by Haggard about the young man's sexual preferences in the bedroom -- bondage, toys, groups, bathhouses, top, bottom, versatile, drugs. Ted told Haas that "since I preferred to be in a "top" position that it would be easy to become straight because "an asshole is similar to a vagina." And eventually Ted started ask about oral, anal, rimming, porn, etc. and explained a "party formula" involving taking crystal-meth, poppers, Viagra, renting pornography and jerking off alone or with others. Haggard also told Hass that he knew a lot of people who were into this type of activity and found it very enjoyable.

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After going on and on in detail about same-sex action, Haggard would then back off and tell Haas that he needed to find a good woman to marry. And listen to this: Haggard offered up his daughter as a dating/marriage prospect for Haas! Knowingly offering to guide his own daughter into a relationship with a closeted man!

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New Life Church had this program called 24-7. It was a program for young men (18-23) who were troubled and trying to get their lives together. They memorized scripture and such, but one feature of the program was the boot camp, that involved intense physical work outs, shaving their heads, etc. So all these cut and hot young men were watched closely by Ted and another church member Christopher Beard, who ran the program. Both went to the gym with these young men, and regularly watched them shower and change clothes. Beard told Haas that "he had the best job in the world" watching the guys in the locker room.

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Haas said that Gayle Haggard knew a whole lot more about what kind of kinky gay Ted activity was going on than she publicly admits to. When Haas asked about her knowledge of these things, Ted told him "yes, she's a freak too", they went to sex toy stores and even molded a dildo together (calling it "Ted Two"), and put it into him. Oy! She also knew that he had had prior same-sex encounters while he was pastor at the church.

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It looks to me as if both Ted and Gayle need to come clean and stop playing the role of "saved sinner" and martyred wife, respectively. Their disingenuous behavior will do nothing but harm honest closeted gays and lesbians who are seeking to deal with the religious brainwashing and self-hate that they have had inflicted on them.

Final Tuesday Male Beauty

Iceland Swears in Gay Prime Minister

I mentioned the other day that Iceland looked to be on the verge of electing the world's first out lesbian prime minister. That possibility has now become a reality with the swearing in of Johanna Sigurdardottir (at left). She will be an interim prime minister at least for now pending elections later in the spring. What is most remarkable - at least from this country where one can just imagine the conniption fits that would erupt if an out gay or lesbian were selected as president - is that the fact that Sigurdardottir's sexual orientation is a non-story in Iceland. Here are highlights from the New York Times:

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The new prime minister, Johanna Sigurdardottir, 66, will lead a caretaker coalition government of Iceland’s Social Democrats and its Left-Green Movement for three months until a new election, expected on April 25. A political veteran who has served for long periods as social affairs minister, she also appears to be the modern world’s first openly gay head of government.

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Last week, the government collapsed with the resignation of Prime Minister Geir Haarde, whose Independence Party, a conservative group, had enjoyed wide popularity on the back of the prosperity generated by a boom in financial services that saw Iceland’s once-conservative banks emerge as edgy, risk-taking players in international markets. The boom owed much to laissez-faire regulatory policies of the government and the central bank, led by another former prime minister, David Oddsson. Many Icelanders now blame Mr. Oddsson and Mr. Haarde for their plight.

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Ms. Sigurdardottir comes to the prime minister’s job with a formidable reputation. As social affairs minister in several governments since 1987, she is credited with pushing through policies that widened housing opportunities for Iceland’s poor and strengthened the social welfare system. She has said she will use her powers as prime minister to push for debt relief for the most vulnerable Icelanders.

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She began her political career as a union organizer with the national airline, now known as Icelandair, where she had worked more than 30 years ago as a flight attendant. She has two sons with her former husband, a banker, and six grandchildren. Ms. Sigurdardottir established a civil partnership in 2002 with Jonina Leosdottir, 54, an author, playwright and journalist. She, too, is a divorced mother.

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Although Ms. Sigurdardottir’s rise has drawn widespread attention on Web sites for gay men and lesbians outside Iceland, her relationship is considered unremarkable at home. In 1940, while still a dependency of Denmark, Iceland decriminalized gay sex. It approved civil partnerships for gay and lesbian couples in 1996, one of the first countries to do so.

Anti-Gay Virginia Attorney General Resigns to Run for Governor

Today Bob "Taliban Bob" McDonnell resigned as Virginia's Attorney General in order that he can devote 100% of his efforts to his campaign to become Virginia's governor in the election this coming November. As long as McDonnell doesn't win in November, the resignation is obviously good for LGBT Virginians inasmuch as it is unlikely that which ever Deputy Attorney General moves up to fill the vacancy will be a homophobic and married to the Christianist far right as McDonnell has been. While I have known McDonnell since 1994, he has become increasingly extreme and beholden to the Christian Right and Daddy Dobson's Virginia affiliate, The Family Foundation. As the campaign moves forward, it will be interesting to see whether McDonnell is asked about his covering up for former Congressman Ed Schrock - McDonnell was told about Schrock's "extra curricular activities" by yours truly roughly eight months before Mike Rogers "outed" Schrock on BlogActive.com. Here are some highlights from the Virginian Pilot:

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Attorney General Bob McDonnell is resigning as attorney general to focus on his gubernatorial campaign. McDonnell, a former House of Delegates member from Virginia Beach, announced his plan in an e-mail sent to employees in the state Attorney General's Office shortly before 8 a.m. today.

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In stepping down, McDonnell is continuing a tradition observed by past Republican and Democratic Virginia attorneys general who have left office in the final year of their term to run for governor. The most recent example is former Attorney General Jerry Kilgore, who left office in 2005 to concentrate on his gubernatorial bid.

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McDonnell, 54, is running unopposed for the Republican nomination and is the party's presumptive nominee for governor. A social and fiscal conservative, McDonnell is a U.S. Army veteran with roots in Northern Virginia and South Hampton Roads. Before being elected attorney general in 2005, he served 14 years in the House of Delegates. . . . . He received his law degree from Regent University. . . .

More Tuesday Male Beauty

Follow the Money: The Web of Anti-Gay Funding

The anti-gay Christianist crowd regularly sheds crocodile tears about the big, bag, wealth gay activist lobby, yet in reality the collective financial horsepower of our enemies drwarfs the resources of all gay rights organizations combined. 365gay.com has a good article that looks at the anti-gay funding net work and also has coverage on the newly released donor information coming out of California about Proposition 8. One of the queens of the anti-gay set is Elsa Prince Broekhuizen (pictured at left), the mother of Erik Prince, the founder and CEO of the mercenary entity, Blackwater USA. Sadly, Prince Broekhuizen is but one of many individuals who use their immense wealth to back discrimination against LGBT citizens. Another evil force in addition to the Mormon Church is the simpering Knights of Columbus which will kiss the ass of any bishop or cardinal - or Pope - no matter how much they helped cover up the sexual abuse of children. Here are some story highlights:

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Social networkers searching Facebook may not find “Elsa Prince Broekhuizen,” but Prince Broekhuizen is part of an influential network, a friends-and-family association of wealthy, powerful people allied to push anti-gay initiatives in a number of states and at the national level.

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And her social network of friends and associates would include Howard Ahmanson Jr., John Templeton Jr., Maggie Gallagher, Richard DeVos, James and Shirley Dobson, Phyllis Schlafly, Donald Wildmon, Gary Bauer and Tony Perkins. Some in this network get headlines and column inches. Some advise presidents. Some run campaigns. And some, somewhat quietly, organize behind the scenes and write the checks that finance anti-gay ballot measures.

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The earliest reports broadly identified the largest funder as the Church of Jesus Christ Latter-Day Saints, which has heavily financed the anti-gay marriage fight for more than a decade. The church and its members provided an estimated 70 percent of the Prop 8 money. Closer scrutiny revealed another big funder — the Knights of Columbus headquarters in New Haven, Conn., and its California chapter donated $1.4 million to the Proposition 8 campaign.

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Other sizeable donations to the Prop 8 campaign included $500,000 from the American Family Association of Tupelo, Miss., $409,000 from Concerned Women for America of Washington, D.C., $200,000 from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops of Washington, D.C., and $160,000 from the Vineyard Group of Mesa, Ariz.

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Prince Broekhuizen’s late husband Edgar Price helped start the Family Research Council, and, either independently or through the Edgar and Elsa Prince Foundation, Prince Broekhuizen has supported the Alliance Defense Fund, Focus on the Family, the Promise Keepers, the Eagle Forum, Concerned Women for America and the Council for National Policy.

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On a related note, here’s what many of us been waiting for - a full list of those who gave money to support Prop 8. I encourage readers to look over the lists of contributors and then make sure you do not give your hard earned dollars to these folks and/or their companies. Better yet, if you find someone on the list and move your business elsewhere, make a point of telling them why they have lost your business. Many, many Christianists worship the almighty dollar more than they worship God and can perhaps be educated as to why they should shun anti-gay initiatives in the future.

Rehabilitation of Holocaust Denier Fall Out Continues

The fall out from the Nazi Pope's rehabilitation of Holocaust denier Bishop Richard Williamson just keeps on exploding. Particularly in Papa Ratzi's home country of Germany where he is under fire both from senior Catholic clerics and German Chancellor Angela Merkel. It is almost entertaining to see Benedict XVI - who is all to accustomed to sycophants kissing his ass and groveling to him - find himself with the political equivalent of shrapnel exploding all around him. One theologian is even calling on Benedict to step down as the head of the Roman Catholic Church - certainly something I would applaud. Breitbart.com has stories on both the reactions within the German Church hierarchy and Merkel's calls for Benedict to clear up his position on the Holocaust. Here are highlights from Merkel's demands:

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BERLIN (AP) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel called on Pope Benedict XVI to make a "very clear" rejection of Holocaust denials after a former bishop was rehabilitated by the Vatican. Her rare and public demand came amid increasing outrage among Germany's Roman Catholic leaders over the pope's decision to lift the excommunication of British-born Richard Williamson, who questioned whether 6 million Jews were gassed during the Nazi Holocaust.

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Merkel said she "does not believe" there has been adequate clarification of the Vatican's position on the Holocaust amid the firestorm of controversy that broke out after Williamson's rehabilitation by the German-born pope. . . . The issue is particularly sensitive in Germany, where denial of the Holocaust is a crime and Roman Catholic leaders have worked hard to restore relations with the Jewish community. As a young man in Germany, Benedict, then called Joseph Ratzinger, served briefly in the Hitler Youth corps.

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As for the growing firestorm within the Church in Germany over the rehabilitation of Richard Williamson, here are some additional highlights from Breitbart:

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Attacks on Pope Benedict XVI's decision to lift the excommunication of a Holocaust denier escalated Monday, with one theologian calling on him to step down as the head of the Roman Catholic Church. Criticism following the pope's January 24 announcement has been particularly cutting in Germany, where denying the Holocaust is a crime punishable with a jail sentence.

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"If the pope wants to do some good for the Church, he should leave his job," eminent liberal Catholic theologian Hermann Haering told the German daily Tageszeitung. "That would not be a scandal, a bishop has to relinquish his position at 75 years, a cardinal loses his rights at 80 years," he said. Pope Benedict is 81.

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[I]n Germany, high-ranking Catholic officials said the pope risked losing vital support. "There is obviously a loss of confidence" in the pope and "rehabilitating a denier is always a bad idea," the bishop of Hamburg, Werner Thissen, told the daily Hamburger Abendblatt on Monday. The bishop of Rottenburg-Stuttgart, Gebhard Furst, meanwhile spoke of his "uncertainty, incomprehension and deception" in the national Bild.

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In Austria, where Pope Benedict last week named a controversial ultra-conservative priest as auxiliary bishop in Linz, criticism also came from within the Church. Vienna's cardinal and archbishop, Christoph Schoenborn, on Sunday lashed out at the decision to bring Williamson back into the fold, saying that "he who denies the Holocaust cannot be rehabilitated within the Church."

Tuesday Male Beauty