Saturday Male Beauty

Daddy Dobson Retiring!

Speaking of someone obsessed with sex - especially gay sex - and pornography, James Dobson has announced his retirement from the board of directors Focus on the Family ("FOF"). In my view, Dobson is perhaps the leading promoter of anti-gay hate in the USA today and his "Love Won Out" program is a leading promoter of the "choice myth" which is cynically used to sway legislators that being gay is a "choice" and hence gays deserve no legal protections. In addition, FOF rakes in money from the program which is a parasite that preys on parents of gays and religiously brainwashed gays. Moreover, here in Virginia, the FOF affiliate, The Family Foundation, is a constant source of anti-gay poison. Therefore, hearing that Dobson is retiring from the board of directors of FOF can only be a good thing in my opinion even if he will still be peddling lies and bogus science via his radio show. The man is a menace and is the Dick Cheney counterpart of the Christian Right. Here are some highlights from the San Francisco Chronicle:

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Conservative evangelical leader James Dobson has resigned as chairman of Focus on the Family but will continue to play a prominent role at the organization he founded more than three decades ago. . . . Dobson notified the board of his decision Wednesday, and the 950 employees of the Colorado Springs, Colo.-based ministry were informed Friday morning, said Jim Daly, the group's president and chief executive officer. Dobson, 72, will continue to host Focus on the Family's flagship radio program, write a monthly newsletter and speak out on moral issues, Daly said.

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Gay-rights and liberal groups issued statements Friday warning that Dobson is not leaving the scene. Americans United for Separation of Church and State portrayed the move as Focus on the Family "merely rearranging the deck chairs on its big, intolerant ship."

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D. Michael Lindsay, a Rice University sociologist who studies evangelicals and politics, said that although Dobson will continue to be Focus on the Family's public face, his board resignation is significant because "he no longer has his hands on the levers of power" there. Observers have questioned whether Dobson's organization can remain a key player once its founder steps away.

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Daly said there is no timetable for Dobson to leave the radio program, and the group will "look for the next voice for the next generation" while Dobson remains on the air. That will likely mean not one person behind the microphone but several speaking on their respective areas of expertise, Daly said. The organization, anticipating a post-Dobson era, for several years has tried out different voices on the broadcast and in giving media interviews on hot-button social issues.

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At the same time, Focus officials have acknowledged difficulties in raising money from younger families critical to its future. The economy also has hurt. Last fall Focus on the Family eliminated more than 200 staff positions, its largest employee cutbacks ever.

Porn in the USA: Conservatives are Biggest Consumers

When I happened across this story on New Scientist it reminded me of my teenage years - among my friends who had the biggest problems with consuming too much alcohol, they always seemed to be the ones from families where drinking was forbidden. A case of the forbidden fruit being always more attractive than what is allowed in moderation. It seems that the same applies as well to online pornography. The states that are the most religiously and politically conservative are the ones where there is the highest per capita consumption on line porn (Utah, home of the Mormons has the highest per capita consumption). It parallels the fact that evangelicals talk the most about applying the Bible literally, yet they have the highest divorce rate of any religious denomination. Why does the word HYPOCRITE spring to mind? I'm not trying to be mean, but give me a break. Publicly these folks obsess about sex being bad, but apparently in private cannot get enough of it. Here are are some story highlights:

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Those states that do consume the most porn tend to be more conservative and religious than states with lower levels of consumption, the study finds. "Some of the people who are most outraged turn out to be consumers of the very things they claimed to be outraged by," Edelman says.

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The biggest consumer, Utah, averaged 5.47 adult content subscriptions per 1000 home broadband users; Montana bought the least with 1.92 per 1000. "The differences here are not so stark," Edelman says. Number 10 on the list was West Virginia at 2.94 subscriptions per 1000, while number 41, Michigan, averaged 2.32.

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Residents of 27 states that passed laws banning gay marriages boasted 11% more porn subscribers than states that don't explicitly restrict gay marriage. . . . States where a majority of residents agreed with the statement "I have old-fashioned values about family and marriage," bought 3.6 more subscriptions per thousand people than states where a majority disagreed. A similar difference emerged for the statement "AIDS might be God's punishment for immoral sexual behaviour."

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Eight of the top 10 pornography consuming states gave their electoral votes to John McCain in last year's presidential election – Florida and Hawaii were the exceptions. While six out of the lowest 10 favoured Barack Obama.

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"One natural hypothesis is something like repression: if you're told you can't have this, then you want it more," Edelman says.

Friday Male Beauty

Why Virginia Must Elect a Democrat Governor

The Washington Blade has a lengthy article that looks at the race for governor of Virginia this year. Among the three contenders for the Democrat nomination, it's not clear that there is any front runner to date. My fear is that in the process of seeking the nomination, the three contenders - Terry McAuliffe, Brian Moran, and Creigh Deeds - may damage one another and allow the nightmare scenario of Bob "Taliban Bob" McDonnell being elected. Among the three Democrats, Deeds carries the baggage of having supported Virginia's draconian "Marriage Amendment" that made LGBT Virginians third class citizens. Moran has the most pro-gay voting record in the Virginia General Assembly of the three Democrats. Nonetheless, any of the three would be preferable to McDonnell who shares the anti-gay views of Pat Robertson (who likely will give McDonnell a nice big contribution) and James Dobson. Dobson's Virginia affiliate, The Family Foundation, more or less controls the Republican Party of Virginia. Here are some story highlights on the Democrat contenders:

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As candidates seeking to become the next governor of Virginia vie for the gay vote, the race’s Democratic contenders met for the first time with a gay group to answer questions and hear concerns before the primary.The three candidates seeking the Democratic nomination reached out Feb. 21 to the Virginia Partisans, a statewide gay Democratic group, during the organization’s board retreat in Arlington.

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Charley Conrad, president of the Virginia Partisans, said in a statement Monday that the meeting was historic for gay Virginians.“There was a time not very long ago in Virginia when no politician wanted to even say the word ‘gay,’” he said, “and now we have all three Democratic candidates for the top elected office coming to us for an endorsement.”Conrad said Virginia Partisans would endorse a candidate in April. The Democratic primary is set for June 9.

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Moran never voted contrary to how Equality Virginia, a statewide gay activist group, asked lawmakers to vote on legislation in the General Assembly. Pro-gay legislation that he’s supported includes a hospital-visitation rights bill in 2007 and legislation in 2008 that set up the medical registry. Moran voted in 2005 against legislation that would have prohibited adoption by gays.When the Marshall-Newman Amendment came to the House floor in 2005 and 2006, Moran was one of three delegates to speak out against it. The measure, which made a prohibition on same-sex marriage and civil unions part of the state constitution, became law in 2006. In addition to voting against the amendment twice, Moran campaigned against the amendment by fundraising for the Commonwealth Coalition and attending “Vote No” events.

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All the Democratic candidates committed to renewing the executive order barring job discrimination based on sexual orientation in the state workforce. Former Gov. Mark Warner initially issued the order during his tenure as governor and Gov. Tim Kaine renewed it.But the candidates were reluctant to pledge to expand the order to include explicit protections for gender identity.

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What is not clear is what the Democratic candidates would do to better protect gay Virginians since the Virginia Attorney General's office is currently challenging the power of the governor to grant protections by way of Executive Order. As for Bob McDonnell, the story states in part as follows:

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McDonnell has a history of taking anti-gay actions as a public official — starting in 2006 as attorney general and before that as a lawmaker in the Virginia House. In 2006, McDonnell issued an opinion that concluded Kaine’s executive order prohibiting discrimination against gays in the state workforce was unconstitutional.

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McDonnell voted in favor of the bill that would have prohibited adoption by gay Virginians. In 2004 and 2005, he voted against bills that would have allowed insurance companies to provide coverage to the partners of their gay customers. And in 2005, McDonnell voted in favor of the Marshall-Newman Amendment. His campaign also donated $1,000 in support of the effort to pass the Marshall-Newman Amendment.

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McDonnell as attorney general issued an opinion stating that the Marshall-Newman Amendment wouldn’t interfere with contracts, wills, medical directives and other agreements, and that it wouldn’t modify the “enforcement of Virginia’s domestic violence laws.”The opinion enabled municipalities in Northern Virginia to issue directives requiring officials to treat domestic violence calls for gay couples the same way they’d treat such calls for straight couples.

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Candidly, McDonnell's opinion on the Marriage Amendment was issued in an effort to avoid a challenge to the Amendment under the federal constitution and should not be taken as a gay friendly step on McDonnell's part.

More Thursday Male Beauty

A Right Winger Bemoans the Dumbing Down of the GOP

John Derbyshire is a contributing editor of National Review and the majority of the time I disagree with everything he writes. He's generally reactionary, bigoted and not what one would call LGBT friendly. On rare occasions, however, he shocks and comes out with something most observant. In a column in The American Conservative he has a great column that looks at the dumbing down of the GOP and conservatism by those like Rush Limbaugh the of which he describes as "carny barkers." The article is worth a read and it describes one of the reasons I left the GOP - not to mention its inability to recognize the separation of church and state. Increasingly, one either must become a Democrat or get a lobotomy to remain a Republican. Here are some highlights:
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Now the loudest Republican voice belongs to Rush Limbaugh.” Upon discovering that Limbaugh had anointed himself the successor to William F. Buckley Jr., WFB’s son Christopher retorted, “Rush, I knew William F. Buckley, Jr. William F. Buckley, Jr. was a father of mine. Rush, you’re no William F. Buckley, Jr.” The more po-faced conservative intellectuals have long winced at Limbaugh’s quips, parodies, slogans, and impatience with the starched-collar respectability of the official Right.

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Now the airwaves are full of conservative chat. Talkers magazine’s list of the top ten radio talk shows by number of weekly listeners also features Sean Hannity, Michael Savage, Glenn Beck, Laura Ingraham, and Mark Levin.

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Did the Limbaughs, Hannitys, Savages, and Ingrahams lead us to this sorry state of affairs? They surely did. At the very least, by yoking themselves to the clueless George W. Bush and his free-spending administration, they helped create the great debt bubble that has now burst so spectacularly. The big names, too, were all uncritical of the decade-long (at least) efforts to “build democracy” in no-account nations with politically primitive populations. Sean Hannity called the Iraq War a “massive success,” and in January 2008 deemed the U.S. economy “phenomenal.”

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Much as their blind loyalty discredited the Right, perhaps the worst effect of Limbaugh et al. has been their draining away of political energy from what might have been a much more worthwhile project: the fostering of a middlebrow conservatism. There is nothing wrong with lowbrow conservatism. It’s energizing and fun. What’s wrong is the impression fixed in the minds of too many Americans that conservatism is always lowbrow, an impression our enemies gleefully reinforce when the opportunity arises.

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Reason has been overwhelmed by propaganda, ideas by slogans.” Talk radio has contributed mightily to this development. It does so by routinely descending into the ad hominem—Feminazis instead of feminism—and catering to reflex rather than thought. Where once conservatism had been about individualism, talk radio now rallies the mob. . . . In place of the permanent things, we get Happy Meal conservatism: cheap, childish, familiar. Gone are the internal tensions, the thought-provoking paradoxes, the ideological uneasiness that marked the early Right.

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[I]n fact liberals are very successful at talk radio. They are just no good at the lowbrow sort. The “Rush Limbaugh Show” may be first in those current Talkers magazine rankings, but second and third are National Public Radio’s “Morning Edition” and “All Things Considered,” with 13 million weekly listeners each. It is easy to mock the studied gentility, affectless voices, and reflexive liberalism of NPR, but these are very successful radio programs.

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I repeat: There is nothing wrong with lowbrow conservatism. Ideas must be marketed, and right-wing talk radio captures a big and useful market segment. However, if there is no thoughtful, rigorous presentation of conservative ideas, then conservatism by default becomes the raucous parochialism of Limbaugh, Savage, Hannity, and company. . . . Conservatives have never had, and never should have, a problem with elitism. Why have we allowed carny barkers to run away with the Right?

The Increasingly Visible Insanity of the Far Right

I guess the far right elements in this country have long been playing without a full deck as they say, but it seems that in the last few months since the 2008 elections the loonies have been truly outdoing themselves. Between the anti-gay Christianists, the conspiracy theory lovers and the simply paranoid, and the crowd of nutcases assembled at Conservative Political Action Conference ("CPAC") in Washington, D.C., it has become a bit scary that some of these folks are on the loose. Here's a sampling of some of the lunacy among the the GOP base (seriously, you could not make up some of this stuff if you tried):

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First there is the unhinged lunacy among some Catholics in San Diego - perhaps not a surprising phenomenon given who we have as the current Pope - that is more than a bit troubling. Johnatan Turley reports as follows:

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San Diego Catholics are protesting a decision by San Diego Bishop Robert Brom to ask Pastor Richard Perozich to tone it down after he ran a rabid article entitled “100 Days or End of Days?” in the parish bulletin of St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Escondido. Fr. Perozich appears to believe that Obama will be unleashing such things as “homogenital sex.” Fr. Perozich believes that with Obama “evil has acceded to power.” Fr. Perozich has previously written columns that caused controversy, such one, “The Wages of Sin is Death” which was a diatribe against homosexuality and tied directly to the payment of damages to victims of sexual abuse.

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Equally insane is the Creation Studies Institute and its "Operation Salt" which seeks expose the "deception, brainwashing and censorship" of evolution. Frankly, if anyone knows about brainwashing, it's this organization which brainwashes the mentally feeble who accept its half baked theories. Here's an example:

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90% of Dating Results Point to a Young Earth! It is the clear testimony of the Bible that “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth,” Gen. 1:1. The only account of the origin of the universe and life on planet earth is the written record of the first book of the Bible. All else concerning the creation of the universe and all living organisms is clearly delineated in the Genesis account. The evidence we see all around us is confirmed in the biblical record. . . . the veracity of the Bible is constantly being tested and vindicated by the discoveries of true science and not the pseudo-science known today as the Theory of Evolution.

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Then we have the loons at CPAC who still are obsessing over the false claims that that Barack Obama was not born in the USA - Hawaii doesn't count apparently - and is not eliligible to be president. Here's a sampling from Think Progress:

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Earlier this afternoon, Cliff Kincaid, head of a conservative group Accuracy in Media, introduced Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN). Kincaid suggested that President Obama is a communist, then suggested Obama was not born in the United States — to which the crowd cheered wildly. . . . Despite the fact that it has been thoroughly and repeatedly debunked, radical conservatives continue to peddle the ridiculous myth.

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Also at CPAC we have Matt Staver of Liberty Counsel and Dean of Liberty University School of Law - Jerry Falwell's parting booby prize to Virginia - expounding on what same-sex marriage would do to the family, namely produce a generation of violent criminals. Here's a summary from Right Wing Watch:

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The Liberty Counsel's Mat Staver explains to the CPAC audience that "same-sex marriage sets forth a fatherless policy" and says that you don't need a bunch of scientific data to know that that is bad. After all, kids without fathers tend to fare poorly ... and if you need proof, all you have to do is take a look at the prison population. Thus, the logic seems to go, letting two women get married will lead to a whole generation of fatherless children who will inevitably become violent criminals:

Thursday Male Beauty

Bruno di Angelis

Homophobia Kills

Yes, homophobia kills literally. Yet, our Christianist enemies continue to disseminate lies and hate directed towards gays and pat themselves on the back as they knowing create an atmosphere where gays - or those perceived to be gay - take their own lives through suicide or end up the victims of deadly violence. Pam Spaulding has a post that looks at just how vile and hate inducing this poisonous rhetoric can be and recent murder cases demonstrate that there are those in society who believe this message gives them a license to kill. Pam correctly notes that:

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Now it's time to stop pussyfooting about what Renfroe and professional "Christian" outfits like Focus on Your Family and WND are doing by incessantly quoting Leviticus as justification for discrimination. Ye shall not lie with a man as one lies with a female. It is an abomination," he read. "If there is a man who lies with a male as those who lie with a woman, both of them have committed a detestable act, and they shall surely be put to death. If they believe that the Bible is the literal word of God, then they do believe gays must die. You can't pick and choose (though we all know these literalists do so all the time). I assume, then, that adulterers should be stoned for their sins.

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Am I [and Pam] too tough on the Christianists? I don't believe so. Murders of gays and those thought to be gay have shown that there ARE those who take this "Christian" message literally and as a result people die. One recent case is that of the December killing of an Ecuadorean immigrant in Brooklyn, New York, who was beaten with a bottle and a baseball bat by men who yelled anti-gay and anti-Hispanic slurs at him. In point of fact, the victim wasn't even gay but had been seen holding the arm of his brother as they walked home from a party. As the New York Times is reporting, now an arrest has been made in that case. Here are some highlights:

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The attack occurred about 3:30 a.m. on Dec. 7 when Mr. Sucuzhanay was walking arm in arm with his brother, Romel Sucuzhanay, along Bushwick Avenue and Kossuth Place, in the Bushwick neighborhood, after attending a church party. About a half-block from Mr. Sucuzhanay’s home, Mr. Scott and Mr. Phoenix appeared in a sport utility vehicle and, believing the brothers were gay, shouted what witnesses described as vulgarisms against Hispanics and gay men, officials said.

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Mr. Scott approached Jose Sucuzhanay and smashed a beer bottle over the back of his head, the police said, and then chased Romel Sucuzhanay. Mr. Phoenix then took an aluminum baseball bat from the rear of the vehicle and struck Jose repeatedly on his shoulder, ribs and back until he fell, the police said. “At that point Phoenix struck Jose several more times, full force, with crushing blows to his head,” said Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly, . . .

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“The sad part of this case for me is that these two brothers were apparently caressing each other because they were cold on the way home and the cretins that were charged with the attack mistook them for gay people,”

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And yet despite such fruits of their tirades of hate, the professional Christians continue to issue a never ending stream of anti-gay lies and hatred - even in the halls of state legislatures - and go unrebuked by and large. They certainly are never challenged by the mainstream media as the should be. Another sad case, this time from the UK shows that the Christianist induced violence is not limited to the USA. In this case, Michael Causer, an 18-year-old hairdresser, was battered to death while he slept upstairs at a party. The teenager accused of his homophobic murder has has been acquitted and belatedly sparked a campaign in Liverpool for justice. Here are some highlights from the Independent:

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Michael Causer had never even considered concealing his sexuality: he was proud to be gay. He grew up in a tight-knit family in a working-class suburb of Liverpool, and friends would describe the trainee hairdresser as a “little sweetheart”. He was a gentle young man on the cusp of adulthood who “wouldn’t hurt a fly”; someone who loved his many friends and adored life.

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But last July, as the 18-year-old lay in an upstairs bedroom at an after-pub party, sleeping off the effects of a night’s drinking, he was viciously assaulted and his bleeding body dumped outside in the street. The attack took place at the home of a friend’s grandmother, in the Liverpool suburb of Huyton.

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On Friday however, Mr Causer’s family and friends who had packed into the public gallery at Liverpool Crown Court to hear a jury decide on Gavin Alker, a 19-year-old man accused of carrying out his homophobic murder, were left in tears as the defendant was acquitted at the end of a three-week trial. Last Sunday, 100 friends and relatives returned to the court precincts to express their sense of shock and outrage at the verdict and to demonstrate for what they see as justice in the case. They said they are now hoping to launch a private prosecution.

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According to evidence put before the jury, the trigger-point for the violence came when sexually explicit images of the trainee hairdresser were found on his mobile phone, prompting a “sustained and brutal” attack on his naked sleeping form and leaving him with a fractured skull and a swollen brain. . . . It was alleged that Mr Alker, who had never met Mr Causer, screamed “You little queer faggot” adding, “He’s a little queer, he deserves it.” During the trial it was also claimed that a cigarette lighter was used to burn the hair on Mr Causer’s legs, and that threats were made to rip out his body piercings with a knife. But the jury accepted Mr Alker’s evidence that he had been acting in self-defence after he denied making homophobic comments, blaming the attack on O’Connor.

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When will society - including our weak kneed president and gutless Congressional Democrats - say enough is enough and enact strong non-discrimination laws to protect LGBT citizens from brutality based upon religious discrimination? Will I live long enough to see i happen?

Can Blogging Make You Happier?

I have on occasions said that this blog is a form of therapy for me and that through it I have developed a cyberspace support network that has helped me get through some very dark days. My online circle of friends has likely saved my life, in fact, during times that I was most beaten down by the anti-gay bias and homophobia I experienced in my divorce case (which sadly, continues to be an issue and which at times makes taking a bottle of pills look like an attractive option). Now a new study on bloggers seems to confirm that I am not the only one who derives positive emotional benefits from blogging. While the study involved college students, I believe that the benefits are not limited to those in that age bracket. Here are some highlights from PsychCentral:

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Can blogging make you happier? According to researchers in Taiwan, the answer is “Yes.” The researchers (Ko & Kuo, 2009) administered a 43-item self-report survey to 596 college students who were mostly between ages 16 and 22 . . . . The college students were young adults who had blogging experience, and specifically with blogging for the purpose of keeping a personal journal.

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The researchers found support for deeper self-disclosure from bloggers resulting in a range of better social connections. These included things such as a sense of greater social integration, which is how connected we feel to society and our own community of friends and others; an increase in social bonding (our tightly knit, intimate relationships); and social bridging — increasing our connectedness with people who might be from outside of our typical social network.

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They also hypothesized and found support from their data that when these kinds of social connections increase or grow deeper through blogging, a person will also feel a greater subjective sense of well-being or happiness.

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Can blogging help you feel more connected with others and, in turn, increase your own sense of well-being and happiness? Apparently so, at least amongst college students. And even if the results don’t generalize quite so strongly to others, the data indicate a trend that suggests there continues to be benefits of journaling — whether public or private. Public journaling — blogging — however, results in the addition of these improvements in social connectedness, something you just can’t get from a private diary.

Principal Allows 'Rent' After Gay Content Uproar

I recently wrote about the decision of the principal of Corona del Mar High School in Newport Beach, California to cancel a student production of the play "Rent" due to its gay characters and content. Soon after the story broke all Hell broke loose and the school became the focus of numerous media stories not to mention the subject of commentary shooting all across the blogosphere. Now, the principal has relented and the production of the show will be allowed. I am glad that censorship did not prevail and that one more apparent attempt by some to pretend that gays do not exist if they are merely not mentioned failed. Would that I had had some representations of gays being normal people when I was in high school. Here are somehighlights from the Orange County Register:

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NEWPORT BEACH – A high school production of "Rent," whose cancelation triggered complaints of discrimination and homophobia, will be allowed to proceed, district officials announced today. Corona del Mar High School drama instructor Ron Martin two weeks ago accused his principal of killing the production because of its "homosexual content" – the play features gay characters and a drag queen.

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Martin ultimately obtained a rush copy of the script, presented it to Asrani and asked for a written thumbs-up or thumbs-down to settle the matter and remove any doubts about her position. "I never had a problem with the play selected by Mr. Martin," Asrani said in a statement today. "The selection of our drama productions is his call. I just requested the opportunity to review the script before it was final.

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District Superintendent Jeffrey Hubbard blasted coverage of the controversy, saying it cast Corona del Mar High School in an unfair light. "I have been extraordinarily disappointed that some media outlets chose to react to rumor as opposed to fact regarding both the production of the play, "Rent," and the reputation of Corona del Mar High School," Hubbard said in a statement.

More Wednesday Male Beauty

Pundits Give Jindal a Beating

I did a post earlier today concerning Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal and his response to Barack Obama. While I slammed Jindal for his Christianist extremist views, apparently many conservatives were likewise less than thrilled by Jindal's performance and many thought his views reflected poorly om the GOP. Here is David Brooks' reaction:

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DAVID BROOKS: You know, I think Bobby Jindal is a very promising politician, and I oppose the stimulus because I thought it was poorly drafted. But to come up at this moment in history with a stale "government is the problem," "we can't trust the federal government" - it's just a disaster for the Republican Party. The country is in a panic right now. . . . In a moment when only the federal government is actually big enough to do stuff, to just ignore all that and just say "government is the problem, corruption, earmarks, wasteful spending," it's just a form of nihilism. It's just not where the country is, it's not where the future of the country is. . . . Some people say they [the GOP] got too weird or too conservative. He [Jindal] thinks they got too moderate, and so he's making that case. I think it's insane, and I just think it's a disaster for the party. I just think it's unfortunate right now.

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And Politico has these quotes from the Fox News panelists:

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BRIT HUME: “The speech read a lot better than it sounded. This was not Bobby Jindal’s greatest oratorical moment.”

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NINA EASTON: “The delivery was not exactly terrific.”

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CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER: “Jindal didn’t have a chance. He follows Obama, who in making speeches, is in a league of his own. He’s in a Reagan-esque league. … [Jindal] tried the best he could.”

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JUAN WILLIAMS: “It came off as amateurish, and even the tempo in which he spoke was sing-songy. He was telling stories that seemed very simplistic and almost childish.”

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As I have said before, until the GOP rids itself of the Christian Right - and that includes the creationism and exorcism believing Jindal - and once again embraces education, intelligence and reason, it will be an uphill battle for the GOP to regain the support of moderates and those who are not Bible beating know nothings at the national level.

More Ex-Gay Extremism

In the recent battles to pass pro-gay legislation through various state legislatures - Utah, Colorado, Virginia, etc. - one of the repeated mantras utilized by the opponents of gay equality under the civil laws is that being gay is a "choice" and, therefore, gays are entitled to no legal protections. After all, we could all be straight if we but wanted to. One of the organizations that consistently aids our opponents in keeping the "choice myth" alive is Exodus International which works in tandem with other Christianist organizations such as Daddy Dobson's Focus on the Family. Unfortunately, the mainstream media never (1) confronts these groups with the fact that legitimate experts condemn their "cure" programs or (2) reveals just how whacked out these Kool-Aid drinkers at Exodus and similar organizations really are. Jim Burroway at Box Turtle Bulletin has a post entitled "Exodus Board Member Joins Nazi Revisionist At Uganda Conference" that does a great job at exposing just how whacked out the "ex-gay" leadership can be, in this instance in the form of Exodus International board member, Don Schmierer, and the ever delusional Scott Lively. Here are some highlights that unfortunately will likely never be seen on network news:

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A Uganda-based anti-gay group has announced that American Nazi revisionist and anti-gay extremist Scott Lively will appear at a three day conference in Kampala, Uganda beginning on March 5th. Joining him will be Exodus International board member Don Schmierer. He heads a group called His Servants, and is the author of five books related to ex-gay counseling.

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Scott Lively is co-founder of the international anti-gay extremist group, Watchmen On the Walls, which has been designated by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a hate group. He is also the author of The Pink Swastika: Homosexuality in the Nazi Party, in which he writes that “the Nazi Party was entirely controlled by militaristic male homosexuals throughout its short history.” In other words, it was gay people who brought World War II to Europe, built the gas chambers, and sent as many as twelve million people to their deaths.

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Lively contends that “civilization and homosexuals” are engaged in a full-blown war, which is part of the Devil’s design to destroy civilizations: There is a war that is going on in the world. There is a war that is waging across the entire face of the globe. It’s been waging in the United States for decades, and it’s been waging in Europe for decades. It’s a war between Christians and homosexuals. … Now, the homosexual movement has been winning this war in the United States, and it has been winning this war in Europe. And we’re looking at the future collapse of Western civilization.

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This conference will be taking place on very dangerous ground for LGBT citizens and residents of Uganda. Martin Ssempa, the influential evangelical pastor at Makerere Community Church, has called for open season on LGBT people: August 2007, Ssempa led hundreds of his followers through the streets of Kampala to demand that the government mete out harsh punishments against gays. “Arrest all homos,” read placards. And: “A man cannot marry a man.” Ssempa continued his crusade online, publishing the names of Ugandan gay rights activists on a website he created, along with photos and home addresses. “Homosexual promoters,” he called them, suggesting they intended to seduce Uganda’s children into their lifestyle. Soon afterwards, two of President Yoweri Museveni’s top officials demanded the arrest of the gay activists named by Ssempa. Terrified, the activists immediately into hiding.

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This is no idle threat. Homosexuality is officially illegal in Uganda. Conviction can lead to a maximum penalty of life imprisonment, while sodomy carries a penalty of fourteen years to life.

No H8 Campaign

http://www.noh8campaign.com/ (Adam Bouska self-portrait)

Galaxy May Be Full of "Earths" and Alien Life

Some years back I had an e-mail debate with a faculty member at Pat Robertson's Regent University in response to something idiotic he had said in a local newspaper article. In the course of the debate we got around the issue of whether or not the Christianist view that the literal interpretation of the Bible with all its human frailties and cultural and historical limitations applied to the entire universe or whether perhaps instead adjustments might be required to account for life on other planets, etc. This supposed academic was adamant that the Bible applied literally everywhere and at all times. I can only imagine how this man and similar flat earth Neanderthals will react to news being reported by CNN that scientists suggests there could be hundreds, even thousands, of intelligent civilizations in the Milky Way galaxy. Personally, I do not put the concept of God in a small box and, therefore, do not see where the basic Christian message of the Gospels - love of God and love of neighbor - is irreconcilable with intelligent life on other planets. Biblical literalism on the other hand simple falls apart and is irreconcilable. No doubt the extreme Christianists will label such scientific claims as the "work of the devil." Here are some story highlights:

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As NASA prepares to hunt for Earth-like planets in our corner of the Milky Way galaxy, there's new buzz that "Star Trek's" vision of a universe full of life may not be that far-fetched. . . . scientists are offering fresh insights into the possible existence of inhabited worlds and intelligent civilizations in space.

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There may be 100 billion Earth-like planets in the Milky Way, or one for every sun-type star in the galaxy, said Alan Boss, an astronomer with the Carnegie Institution . . . Other scientists are taking another approach: an analysis that suggests there could be hundreds, even thousands, of intelligent civilizations in the Milky Way Galaxy.

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NASA is hoping to find much more habitable worlds with the help of the upcoming Kepler mission. The spacecraft, set to be launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida next week, will search for Earth-size planets in our part of the galaxy.

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Finding intelligent life is a very different matter. For all the speculation about the possibility of other civilizations in the universe, the question remains: If the rise of life on Earth isn't unique and aliens are common, why haven't they shown up or contacted us? The contradiction was famously summed up by the physicist Enrico Fermi in 1950 in what became known as the Fermi paradox: "Where is everybody?" The answer may be the vastness of time and space, scientists explained.

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Even if intelligent civilizations did exist at the same time, they probably would be be separated by tens of thousands of light years, Forgan said. If aliens have just switched on their transmitter to communicate, it could take us hundreds of centuries to receive their message, he added. As for interstellar travel, the huge distances virtually rule out any extraterrestrial visitors.

Wednesday Male Beauty

The Jindal Menance

As always, Barack Obama was eloquent in his speech last night which was generally well received by the public based on available polls. The true issue will be whether or not the stimulus package begins to take effect and whether or not irresponsible banks can be reigned in and caused to start making loans again to get the economy moving. The Republican response was delivered by Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, who if one will bother to do their homework is in reality a far right religious extremist. Sadly, the Washington Post is carrying a boot licking column entitled "The Jindal Phenomenon" today that utterly disregards the extreme nature of Jindal's views. This lack of balanced reporting and lasiness on the part of reporters is precisely how the nation has been sold poor political leaders, not to mention the Iraq War. One would almost believe that the column's author, Michael Gerson, was a paid propagandist for Jindal. The real Bobby Jindal is far different than what Gerson depicts. Here are some samplings of the real Jindal, first from the Guardian:

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He was born and raised a Hindu, but converted to Catholicism and also has links to Protestant churches. Unusually for a Rhodes scholar, he believes in creationism, a viewpoint that increases his appeal to Christian evangelicals. Jindal's politics are firmly on the Republican right: he is opposed to abortion, embryonic stem cell research, gay marriage and the moratorium on offshore oil and gas drilling. One of the most controversial incidents from his past was a claim to have witnessed an exorcism, though he has since partly rowed back on that.

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One Louisiana blogger has complied 37 reasons to vote against Bobby Jindal, including:

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Bobby Jindal voted with President Bush 90% of the time and with the Republican Party 97% of the time, according to Congressional Quarterly.

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On August 29, 2005, Bobby Jindal called FEMA’s coordination with the State “tremendous” during an interview on CNN.

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Bobby Jindal opposed Emergency Appropriations for Louisiana hurricane recovery (HR 1591, Vote 186, March 23, 2007).

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Bobby Jindal believes in teaching creationism and/or “intelligent design” in the classroom.

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Bobby Jindal supports Social Security privatization.

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Bobby Jindal voted to cut $70 billion in taxes for the wealthiest Americans (HR 4297, Vote 135, May 10, 2006).

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Bobby Jindal voted against allowing Medicare to negotiate on prescription drug prices (HR 4, Vote 23, January 12, 2007).

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Bobby Jindal’s multi-pointed “health care plan” fails to address the elderly or the physically disabled. Despite the fact that the elderly and the disabled account for the bulk of Louisiana Medicaid spending, Jindal supports Medicaid privatization (without any consideration for those most in need).

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And on gay rights, Jindal is clearly an enemy of gay equality and received a zero (0) rating from the Human Rights Campaign. A detailed rundown of Jindal's position on issues can be found here at On the Issues. Truth be told, Jindal is not some new kind of Republican. Rather, he represents the same poisonous GOP policies, just clothed in a different ethnic package. It is sad that the Washington Post cannot do a better job of doing its homework.

Democrat Cold Feet on DADT

While ever enthusiastic to accept LGBT votes and better yet money, the Democrats still demonstrate little true concern for LGBT issues - at least not when it comes to really doing something to make LGBT Americans full citizens. A case in point is the reticence of the Democrats to tackle anti-gay policies like Don't Ask, Don't Tell ("DADT"). At a time when felons, non-citizens and other low quality recruits are being accepted into the military, Congressional Democrats continue to lack the balls to move forward and end DADT. This sad state of affairs was highlighted in an NPR story that quotes Senator Carl Levin as basically absolutely unconcerned about the continued witch hunts and mistreatment of LGBT Americans in the military. Apparently, Levin's attitude is that gays have nowhere else to run politically and, therefore, fu*k em if they don't like what he and his fellow Democrats are doing. As for the comments about the top military brass not supporting the repeal of DADT, their counterparts did not accept the the integration of the military under Harry Truman either, but Truman had the guts and courage to push for what was right - a trait all too lacking in today's Democrat Party. There are truly days where I wonder whether I will live long enough to be an equal citizen in this country. Here are some highlights from the NPR story:

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For those anxious for the Clinton-era law that prohibits openly gay people from serving in the military to be repealed, the wait may be longer than expected. . . . Obama can't simply sign an executive order to overturn the law — he has to persuade Congress to change it. And Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI), who chairs the Armed Services Committee, says he does not expect the issue to be an early priority for lawmakers.

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"I'm going to be working with colleagues to see how much support there is for it," Levin says. "And where along the process we can take that issue up. I just don't think we can give that a high priority, given the situation that we face," like the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the economic meltdown.

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Another question is whether military leaders are ready to see the law repealed. Since it was passed in 1993, more than two dozen retired admirals and generals have come forward to say it should be repealed, including John Shalikashvili, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Colin Powell, also a former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, argues that attitudes have evolved since his days on active duty. And Defense Secretary Robert Gates says there's no question the armed forces will follow the lead of Congress and their commander in chief. " 'Don't ask, don't tell' is law — it is a political decision," Gates says. "And if the law changes, we will comply with the law."

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The view that the current policy is working is still widely held among both Republican and Democratic lawmakers. They make the argument that with wars ongoing in Afghanistan and Iraq, now is not the best time to reignite a controversial, possibly disruptive debate within the military. But Aubrey Sarvis, director of the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, who is fighting to overturn the law, says it's doable this year. Sarvis says he's talking regularly with Obama's staff and encouraging them to keep their word.

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And [Rep. Ellen Tauscher (D-CA)] Tauscher says the argument about igniting a controversial debate is nonsense. "I would only say that it is always the right time to right a wrong," she says. "And this has been a very big wrong." The congresswoman calls repealing the law "the last big piece of civil rights legislation left." Tauscher plans to introduce the legislation, but she's still waiting to see when the Obama White House will start fighting to allow gays to serve openly in the U.S. armed forces.

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It looks to me like the LGBT community needs to start inundating their representatives and Senators in Congress to make it clear that gutless hand ringing will equate in loss votes and a decline in monetary contributions.

Homophobia - What Really Drives It?

I have often noted that some of the worst gay-hating homophobes among the professional Christian set strike me as a tad too hysterical over gays and gay sex. Yes, there are some Christianists who are solely motivated by power and the money they can rake in via anti-gay propaganda. James Dobson and Tony Perkins strike me as falling in this latter category. But the former group is much larger and includes for example Robert Knight, Peter LaBarbera, Matt Staver, Matt Barber, etc., These guys are almost downright deranged when it comes to the level of their homophobia. Why? Because in my view they are either self-hating closet case or have severe insecurities about their own masculinity and sexual orientation. Why else be so afraid? A column by a therapist with over 30 years experience in the Sonoma Valley Sun seems to support my conclusions. Here are some highlights:

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With the passage of Proposition 8 last year, we must confront the reality that, in spite of tremendous progress, we still live in society with widespread homophobia. Gay people face a level of discrimination, prejudice and anger unlike any other group. They still face a public debate as to whether their very existence is acceptable. Could anybody get significant media time making the argument that any other race, creed or religion was inherently inferior or cursed by God?

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The archeological and sociological record indicates that homosexuality exists in every society throughout history. While penalties as severe as death have driven gay behavior underground at times, it appears to exist everywhere in roughly the same percentage of people. This constancy of both persistence and level are the strongest evidence that sexual orientation is simply a normal part of the human genetic equation.

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Yet since it provokes so much fear, it must be perceived as a threat. What is the threat that homosexuality holds for heterosexuals? . . . If we were all straight, then same sex groups would be instantly free of sexual tension. More than some nonsense about being from different planets, this is why men and women tend to congregate with their own gender. No sexual preening behavior is needed. While a man or woman is instantly identifiable, not so for a gay person.

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What if they’re not the only one? What if you felt attracted to them before you found out? What if they want you? Better to chase them out of the group while firmly establishing yourself as straight, perhaps by attacking them. Ridicule, marginalization, and persecution have been used throughout history to purge the group of that which is different. But as has always been the case, it is the oppressor who is really afraid, and the fear of confronting what it is in themselves, that causes them to persecute another. It is their fear of what is within that drives them.

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More to the point is a column entitled "Homophobic? Then You're Probably Gay" by Johann Hari at Huffington Post that contains some gems of information concerning the severely homophobic. Here are a few highlights:

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Professor Henry Adams at the University of Georgia conducted a major study in the 1990s, where he took several groups of men who identified as heterosexual and expressed hostility to gays, and wired them up so the blood flow to their penises could be monitored. He then showed them gay porn -- and some 80 percent became aroused. He concluded that since "most homophobes demonstrate significant sexual arousal to homosexual erotic stimuli", anti-gay hatred is probably "a form of latent homosexuality."

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But we know from decades of sexual research that almost everyone -- especially as a teenager -- has a period when they have omnivorous sexual urges, with attraction to the 'wrong' gender cropping up for a while. . . . . The question is: how do you deal with them? If you see this as an interesting, natural part of human experience, they will soon fade from your mind. If you see them as shameful or immoral, they will fester -- and you will subconsciously project them outwards, onto the demonic, disgusting fags, who should be punished for tempting you.

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How do we break through this? It has to start with honesty. Homosexuality is not some unnatural intrusion, wrought by demonic perverts, as the pre-modern religious texts so absurdly assert. It is an inevitable part of nature -- birds do it, bees do it -- and it is, fleetingly, part of the sexual development of most teenagers. If you are full of hate for homosexuals, the evidence suggests you have a psychological problem, based on denying part of yourself.

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If only the Christianist gay-haters would go and get some much needed mental health care, the world would certainly be a far better place.

More Tuesday Male Beauty

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Utah Govenor Huntsman's Change of Heart on Gay Rights

Politico has a wide ranging interview with Utah Governor John Huntsman online and it is an interesting read in a number of ways. First, Huntsman has some less than kind words for Congressional Republicans and he seems to realize that more of the same narrow minded, theocratic and divisive rhetoric from the GOP will not win back moderates or minorities who recognize that they are increasingly unwelcome by the Kool-Aid drinking party base. Secondly, he has done a major about face on gay rights and has advocated for the passage of many of the Common Ground initiative legislative package. In fact, in the interview, he sounds like he even understands that re-packaging the GOP message is not enough. The message needs to be changed significantly, not just re-wrapped. Here are some highlights:

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Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman may be the fastest-rising Republican star you have never heard of. . . . POLITICO met with Huntsman at the winter meeting of the National Governors Association, where he discussed the process of economic recovery and stressed the need for his party to catch up with the younger generation on issues ranging from the environment and gay rights. Here are some excerpts of the conversation.

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Q: Are you saying that congressional Republicans are irrelevant? A: Well, I’m saying, to a lot of states like ours, there isn’t much guidance coming out of Congress that necessarily impacts anything we do. But I’ll tell you this about the overall debate: we will be irrelevant as a party until we become the party of solutions and until we become the party of preeminence.

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Q: You’ve changed your position on gay rights. What prompted that? A: Well, I’ve always been in favor of greater equality. My first year in office I ran a…reciprocal beneficiary rights piece of legislation. It failed, but my first year in office I wanted to see if we could do more in the name of individual rights. And I’ve always thought that we were a little bit behind in terms of equality for people born under the same constitution.

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Q: In December you talked about people 40 and under having a very different view on the environment. Is there a similar generational gap on gay rights? A: You hit on the two issues that I think carry more of a generational component than anything else. And I would liken it a bit to the transformation of the Tory Party in the UK…They went two or three election cycles without recognizing the issues that the younger citizens in the UK really felt strongly about. They were a very narrow party of angry people. And they started branching out through, maybe, taking a second look at the issues of the day, much like we’re going to have to do for the Republican Party, to reconnect with the youth, to reconnect with people of color, to reconnect with different geographies that we have lost.

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Q: It sounds like what you’re saying is that Republicans need to win the educated class of America. A: Absolutely. The country, I do believe, is a centrist-right country, for the most part, when you look closely at the demographics…I’m not sure that we have connected fully, meaningfully and in any complete way on the issues of the day. . . . I think whoever emerges as the standard-bearer for the Republican cause in four or eight years will have to first prove that they can be a person who delivers results in the incubator or laboratory of democracy, as opposed to someone engaging in gratuitous rhetoric.

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Of course for the GOP to regain the educated elements of society, it will be a prerequisite that the GOP not be controlled by the flat earth, Kool-Aid drinking elements of the Christian Right. I do not know if Huntsman or anyone else in the GOP has the nerve and ability to stop the party's growing embrace of the ignorant, selfish and intolerant.