Reminder - Out in the Park is Tomorrow

Just a reminder that HR Pride's "Out in the Park" event is tomorrow from Noon to 6:00 PM at Chesapeake City Park. The boyfriend and I will be there part of the day covering the HRBOR table. Last year's event drew more than 7,000 people. Hope to see you there!!

More Saturday Male Beauty

CNN's "Gay in America" Cause Wingnuts to Flip Out

Regardless of whether one approves of the way in which CNN is proceeding with it's "Gay in America" story line, the positive is that it is placing gays in the limelight in a way that seeks to show that we are human like everyone else be we black or white. This, of course, flies directly in the face of what the homo-hating professional Christian set seeks to accomplish, namely depicting gays as perverts, would be predators of children, and sub-human in general and, therefore, worthy of discriminatory treatment. All because we refuse to live our lives according to the toxic Christianist version of Christianity. One such professional leech, I mean Christian, is Tony Perkins from the always dishonest Family Research Council (which was co-founded by George "rentboy" Rekers. Perkins, who has cuddled up to the Klan in the past and who in my view is totally incapable of telling the truth not to mention a likely closet case, has a rant on FRC's website that is all to typical of the dehumanization efforts of FRC and similar false Christian organizations. Here's some of Perkins' drivel:
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CNN gave homosexual activists the gift of a free hour-long infomercial last night--in the form of a primetime special about homosexual parents called "Gary and Tony Have a Baby." Actually, it should have been called "Gary and Tony Buy a Baby." As viewers learned, the two homosexual men first purchase human eggs from an egg donor; use the sperm of one of them for in vitro fertilization; and finally rent the womb of a surrogate to bear the baby. The total cost runs a cool $160,000. The closest that host Soledad O'Brien came to raising an ethical question was to ask why the couple didn't adopt instead.
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It was obvious throughout the that these men are political activists for the homosexual cause (even using the newborn as a prop at a same-sex "marriage" rally). Meanwhile, the only reference to people who oppose same-sex "marriage" . . . , was to express fear that one of them would physically harm the baby.
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CNN seems content to tug at the heartstrings rather than report the news. They imply that the "love" or affection that these men feel for each other and for the baby that they've manufactured is enough.
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Given the huge number of dysfunctional heterosexual households where children are sometimes not even wanted, one would think that Perkins would not act as if married heterosexual parents wasn't the be and end all. But not Tony! He can rant and malign others as much as he wants and act as a modern day Pharisee, but I suspect that if there is a God, then it's Tony's and not gay parents that has a reserved seat n Hell.

Vatican Hissy Fits Continue After Belgium Police Raids

My, my! Knowingly engage in conduct which, if done by anyone else, would quickly land one behind bars yet feign shock and rage over the treatment that is all too deserved. It is truly perverse to see the criminals within the Catholic Church hierarchy act as if they are the victims rather than the hundreds of thousands of molested children and youths worldwide. I sincerely hope that the police raids on of senior Catholic prelates' offices and residences in Belgium begins a trend. It is truly the only way the filth and moral decay at the heart of the Church will ever be excised. To counter the disingenuous crocodile tears and feigned outrage from the Vatican, prosecutors will have to highlight any documents and evidence against wrong doing to shut up the whining and belly aching coming from Rome. Needless to say, turning up a "smoking gun" involving Rome would be too sweet! The BBC and NPR look at the bullshit being disseminated by the Nazi Pope's henchmen. Here are some highlights:
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The Vatican has stepped up its criticism of raids by Belgian police investigating alleged child sex abuse, calling the detention of priests "serious and unbelievable". Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican Secretary of State, said "there are no precedents, not even under the old communist regimes". . . . Bishops holding a meeting there were barred from leaving the premises for several hours.
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Police in Leuven seized nearly 500 files and a computer from the offices of a Church commission investigating allegations of sex abuse. They also searched the Church's headquarters, the Brussels archdiocese in Mechelen, north of the Belgian capital. Prosecutors have said the raids were over alleged "abuse of minors committed by a certain number of Church figures".
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"Does such an assault not assume a symbolic meaning, is it not the sign of a desire to attack the Church in its entirety?" the newspaper [Avvenire, the newspaper of the Italian Bishops' Conference] said in a front-page editorial Saturday. It said the raid "smacks of a settling of the score" with the church by a secular country.

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The Church has proven itself utterly unwilling to punish the bishops, cardinals - and yes, Popes - who enabled and covered up for predator priests. If the Church refuses to act, then the civil authorities need to move in. Kudos to the police in Belgium.

Gay Marriage Bans Lead to Lack of Health Insurance

A week or so ago I mentioned that Optima Health, one of the large local health insurance carriers, doesn't allow domestic partners to be added to one's coverage under its small business group plans - a category that likely covers thousands of local business - even though Virginia law belatedly now allows such coverage. It's yet another example of this country's f*cked up health care system. It is also another example of the consequences of religious based bigotry against LGBT Americans both by the government and private corporations like Optima Health and its parent company Sentara Health Care Systems. If I had a sham marriage with a woman, I'd have not problem giving her coverage. In the case of a same sex couple, with Optima Health you're SOL. My experience is not unique as demonstrated by a new study of Californians by Lambda Legal and the Department of Health Services at UCLA. Here are highlights of the findings via 365gay.com and Health Affairs:
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Central to the debate on benefit equality are factors affecting who has access to dependent employer-sponsored health insurance. Employees who are legally and heterosexually married have an advantage over those in registered or nonregistered domestic partnerships, in civil unions, or legally married to a same-sex spouse in obtaining insurance from employers that covers dependents. This happens in two ways.
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Advantages For The Legally, Heterosexually Married First, many employers do not offer coverage for an employee’s unmarried domestic partner, civil-union spouse, or legal same-sex spouse, regardless of state laws calling for equal insurance treatment of same-sex partners. And when employers do offer same-sex partner/spousal coverage, there are often unequal eligibility rules, such as requiring cohabitation of varying duration and proof of financial entwinement. Heterosexual married couples do not face such scrutiny and are free to live in separate households should career or other needs require it.
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Second, in contrast to benefits acquired through heterosexual marriage, the federal and most state governments treat dependent benefits for domestic partners, civil-union spouses, and same-sex spouses as taxable earned income. This means that dependent coverage for same-sex partners is not equivalent in price to insurance provided for heterosexual married partners. Even in states with equal marriage laws or civil union/domestic partner protection, the Defense of Marriage Act (DoMA) of 1996 keeps the federal government from recognizing same-sex couples’ marriages. Thus, all same-sex couples face a federal income tax burden on dependent employer-sponsored health coverage, and sometimes a state income tax burden as well, regardless of their marital or partnership status under state law.
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The research shows that the exclusion of same-sex couples from civil marriages and the lack of insurance equity in domestic partnerships “contribute to unequal access to health coverage, with the probable result that more health spending is pushed onto these individuals and onto the public.”
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When an employer’s insurance plan does not cover the employee’s same-sex partner, that partner is often left uninsured. In these cases, the partners are dependent on public insurance options, shifting the cost of their insurance to taxpayers.
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“The data from over 100,000 Californians is the first to quantify dependent coverage disparities by sexual orientation,” said Professor Ninez A. Ponce, the principal UCLA co-author. “By not allowing lesbian and gay couples to marry, and not respecting their status when they are married, government invites the private sector to pass the costs of discrimination onto families and communities.”
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I guess the only silver lining is the fact that the Christianists who oppose same sex marriage are too stupid to figure out that they are unknowingly causing themselves to have to indirectly pay for health care costs of uninsured gays. Obviously, it serves the bastards right.

Saturday Male Beauty

Afghanistan: A Disaster That Cannot be Won

While Barack Obama has removed General McChrystal after his latest episode of diarrhea of the mouth, the move does nothing to solve the disaster that is Afghanistan. As Michael Hastings and others have noted, too little real reporting is coming out of Afghanistan - and Iraq too for that matter - because too many journalists fear that telling the truth will end their "access" to top military brass who continue to push the myth that Afghanistan is a winnable situation. Something that I have been saying from the get go and which the USA should have known after watching the former Soviet Union's 10 year debacle in that country. The sad truth is that since the time of Alexander the Great, no foreign power has been able to successfully control the wilds of Afghanistan. And even Alexander maintained ostensible control by retaining local satraps who swore loyalty to him after merciless assaults by Alexander's army. But unfortunately, the USA never seems to learn from experience and its military leaders seem to always think that they can somehow prevail where no one else ever has. The result? Needlessly lost American lives and squandered billions of dollars. On the reporting issue, Huffington Post has a piece where Hastings sums up what has been lost in today's American mainstream news media:
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Look, I went into journalism to do journalism, not advertising. My views are critical but that shouldn't be mistaken for hostile - I'm just not a stenographer. There is a body of work that shows how I view these issues but that was hard-earned through experience, not something I learned going to a cocktail party on fucking K Street. That's what reporters are supposed to do, report the story.
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As for what is really happening in Afghanistan, The Economist has a lengthy article that looks at the ongoing debacle (note how one has to read a foreign news source to get the sad truth rather than the spin the military is feeding to American reporters). Here are some highlights:
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Mr Obama once described the fighting in Afghanistan as “a war of necessity”. The president must now put necessity aside and pose two fundamental questions. Can the American-led coalition still win in Afghanistan? And if so, how?
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In June Afghanistan surpassed Vietnam to become, by some measures, the longest campaign in America’s history. More than 1,000 of its men and women have been killed and almost 6,000 injured. Yet the Taliban are rampant, assassinating tribal leaders and intimidating their people. A survey in 120 districts racked by insurgency, a third of Afghanistan’s total, found little popular support for Mr Karzai. Over a third of their inhabitants backed the insurgents.
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The real test will come in Kandahar. Worryingly, one of General McChrystal’s last acts was to postpone the operation there until the autumn, amid signs that local people were not yet ready to back it. Even so, Mr Obama owes it to the West and to the Afghan people to determine whether COIN can in fact succeed under his best general. The Afghan war may yet end in an ignominious retreat. But nobody should welcome such an outcome.
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As for the dishonesty of America's leadership on the issue of Afghanistan, Bob Herbert has a column in today's New York Times that calls a spade a spade. Here are highlights:
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No one in official Washington is leveling with the public about what is really going on. We hear a lot about counterinsurgency, the latest hot cocktail-hour topic among the BlackBerry-thumbing crowd. But there is no evidence at all that counterinsurgency will work in Afghanistan. It’s not working now. And even if we managed to put all the proper pieces together, the fiercest counterinsurgency advocates in the military will tell you that something on the order of 10 to 15 years of hard effort would be required for this strategy to bear significant fruit.
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We’ve been in Afghanistan for nearly a decade already. It’s one of the most corrupt places on the planet and the epicenter of global opium production. Our ostensible ally, President Hamid Karzai, is convinced that the U.S. cannot prevail in the war and is in hot pursuit of his own deal with the enemy Taliban.
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Those who are so fascinated with counterinsurgency, from its chief advocate, Gen. David Petraeus, all the way down to the cocktail-hour kibitzers inside the Beltway, seem to have lost sight of a fundamental aspect of warfare: You don’t go to war half-stepping. You go to war to crush the enemy. You do this ferociously and as quickly as possible. If you don’t want to do it, if you have qualms about it, or don’t know how to do it, don’t go to war.
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We’re like a compulsive gambler plunging ever more deeply into debt in order to wager on a rigged game. There is no victory to be had in Afghanistan, only grief. We’re bulldozing Detroit while at the same time trying to establish model metropolises in Kabul and Kandahar. We’re spending endless billions on this wretched war but can’t extend the unemployment benefits of Americans suffering from the wretched economy here at home. The difference between this and a nightmare is that when you wake up from a nightmare it’s over. This is all too tragically real.

The Foul Fruits of Homophobia and DADT

This past week I have found myself and my sexual orientation much more in the public eye than I'm accustomed to. First, there was a news article in the local paper, the Daily Press, about a meeting between City of Hampton economic development personnel and members of HRBOR, the area affiliate of the NGLCC. The article was positive on the issue, even though some of the reader comments would make one cringe given their venom and ignorance. That was followed by a opinion column that again was positive and which basically lambasted the local Neanderthals. I was quoted in both articles. The crowning event was when one of the local TV channels did a story on the matter last evening and yours truly was on the evening news. I have been totally out for some time now, but it's nonetheless unnerving at times living in this area to be really, really out so to speak. I believe most of my clients know I am gay and don't give a flip, but this week pushed me back towards having moments of fear of the consequences. As I recently told a young reader, the coming out process in some ways never ever stops.

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Where am I going with all of this? The experience has made me think again about the damage done by homophobia and - particularly in this area - DADT.

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In terms of homophobia I have one young friend - who I love dearly - whose life has never been what it might have been because he was more or less cut off from his family members. Simply put, they would not accept his being gay. He doesn't talk about it often, but like so many others that I have known who have suffered this form of family rejection, the scars never totally go away. I was lucky in that my extended family more or less came to terms with my coming out after years of marriage even though some family members might not have understood it or given their druthers would have had me remain "straight." As I have noted many times, I cannot understand what kind of parent rejects their child because they are LGBT. Worse yet, the rejection always boils down to religious based bigotry. Yet again proving to me that religion is often a force of evil in the world, not a benefit.

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On DADT, we recently lost a friend who died way before his time. We are having a group of us get together for a sort of memorial service at our home tomorrow evening. He was retired Navy, and before his retirement lived for many years under the constant threat of DADT. Between the anti-gay message of DADT and family non-acceptance, I believe it took a huge toll on his life and may well have led to his early death. Equally sad is the fact that like MANY gays in the military, he entered into a marriage of convenience which gave him "cover" with the military and gave his wife military benefits. Beyond that, there was no real marriage. Yet the legal system recognized it even while legitimate same sex unions are treated as non-existent. As I stated, this marriage of convenience phenomenon is VERY common in this area and truly underscores how deeply DADT causes LGBT service members to live a lie. All so that faux professional Christians like Elaine Donnelly, Tony Perkins, and similar societal leeches can make a nice buck and appease their own warped sensibilities.

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All of this, of course demonstrates that freedom of religion remains a farce in the USA. And sadly, our President continues to allow this travesty to continue due to lack of will or indifference.

Friday Male Beauty

The Neanderthals' Effort to Marginalize Same Sex Relationships

Tamara Dietrich at the Daily Press did a follow up opinion column on the City of Hampton's meeting with representatives of Hampton Roads Business OutReach which, like the earlier Daily Press article, was positive and supportive of the City's endeavor and listed all the reasons that courting the gay community makes sound economic good sense. The comments on both articles are split and what's amazing/disturbing is that all of the critics of the City focused on one of two things: Bible beating religious beliefs and/or marginalizing gay relationships to a physical sex act. While my experience with educated residents of Hampton has been very positive, there obviously remain many knuckle draggers within the city's population base. In summarizing, Ms. Dietrich noted as follows:
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Facing backward attitudes like this, it takes intrepid entrepreneurs, indeed, to want to invest the money, time and talent it takes to terraform urban cultural wastelands. And no small amount of chutzpah for city officials to enlist the help of "deviants" upon whom — if times were flush — they likely wouldn't risk their political capital.
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Professor Florida says the three Ts of economic development are technology, talent and tolerance. And all three are necessary to attract creative people, generate innovation and stimulate economic growth. Others can provide the technology and the talent, but only if residents contribute the tolerance first.
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The level of bigotry of some of the comments was stunning. And I would ask why are same sex relationships limited to a focus on mere physical sex acts when heterosexual relationships get no similar treatment? I believe that the haters need to dehumanize us so that their treatment of us as less than thinking, feeling, fully rounded humans can be rationalized in their own disturbed minds. When I look at the boyfriend, I see one of the sweetest most wonderful individuals that I have ever known - something his clients (both male and female) recognize and why many seem to nearly worship him. Our relationship involves far more than just physical contact - as does any legitimate soul to soul relationship. Those who would marginalize it and denigrate it demonstrate their own perverse sickness, not ours. Indeed, together with my children, I deem the boyfriend among the most precious gifts that life has given to me.
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I cannot stop the haters from making their sick and disgusting remarks. I can, however, live with dignity and prove them wrong on a daily basis. Living out and proud is the best defense to such religious based and warped psychological hate and marginalization efforts.

Republican Party Suicide

Perhaps the main thing that will save Obama's sorry ass and that of many Congressional Democrats is the Republican Party's apparent death wish as it continues to take positions that will alienate the demographically changing population of the USA. The GOP is obsessed with courting a shrinking element of the population - i.e., older white voters who hate gays, blacks, Hispanics and pretty much everyone else - with the possible result that no matter how incompetent the Democrats are, they may nonetheless cling to power. Politics used to be about fielding candidates that had a chance of winning in the general election, yet the GOP base is more concerned about "litmus test" purity than whether the nominee is sane and electable. Harry Reid is no doubt thanking the GOP for the loon that has been nominated to oppose him come November. For LGBT Americans the down side is that Democrats figure that they can jerk us around and throw us under the bus and still get elected. Here are highlights from a piece from FiveThirtyEight thal looks at a paper by the Center for American Politics' Ruy Teixeira (While perhaps a little too optimistic about the GOP's demise, the paper hits on what seem to be valid points):
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"The Democratic Party will become even more dominated by the emerging constituencies that gave Barack Obama his historic 2008 victory, while the Republican Party will be forced to move toward the center to compete for these constituencies. As a result, modern conservatism is likely to lose its dominant place in the GOP," he writes, adding that "the Republican Party as currently constituted is in need of serious and substantial changes in approach."
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Specifically, he recommends that the GOP do some or all of the following (taken verbatim from the report):
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Move to the center on social issues. The culture wars may have worked for a while, but shifting demographics make them a loser for the party today and going forward. A more moderate approach would help with Millennials, where the party must close a yawning gap, and with white college graduates, who still lean Republican but just barely. The party also needs to make a breakthrough with Hispanics, and that won’t happen unless it shifts its image toward social tolerance, especially on immigration.
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Pay attention to whites with some college education and to young white working-class voters in general. The GOP’s hold on the white working class is not secure, and if that slips, the party doesn’t have much to build on to form a successful new coalition. That probably also means offering these voters something more than culture war nostrums and antitax jeremiads.
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Another demographic target should be white college graduates, especially those with a four-year degree only. The party has to stop the bleeding in America’s large metropolitan areas, especially in dynamic, growing suburbs. Keeping and extending GOP support among this demographic is key to taking back the suburbs. White college graduates increasingly see the party as too extreme and out of touch.
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What's interesting to me about most of Teixeira's suggested changes is that the GOP is either not doing them, or doing something close to the opposite. If anything, the opposite is happening. Indeed, the single biggest storyline of the past year for conservatives and the Republican Party is the rise of the tea party protest movement.
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There seems to be less Republican focus on hot-button issues like evolution/creationism or global warming--which presumably turn off many college-educated whites by dint of their anti-empirical and anti-intellectual content--but that is a matter of salience and decibel level rather than a transformation in the party's issue positions or platforms.
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The nature of the GOP's demographic-electoral problem is three-fold. First, the challenge of trying to evolve and adapt is itself limited by demographics because the GOP's older and whiter residual white minority coalition is simply less amenable to the sort of changes it would take to modernize the party. Second, so many of the figures within the party who might be able to lead a center-right revival have been beaten in recent cycles, with the old Ford/Dole/Rockefeller wing decimated by the 2006 and 2008 cycles. (Relatedly, it doesn't help when people like Frum are cast out from their intellectual circles.) Finally, it is simply not in the nature of conservatism to foment change or be out in front of demographic and social changes: Conservatism works best as a reaction to--not necessarily reactionary, but a reaction nonetheless--to oncoming, rapid changes.

Obama Is Missing in Action on Gay Rights

The other day David Mixner slammed President Obama for "not getting it" when it comes to gay rights - a view that I agree with 100%. Now in a Wall Street Journal op-ed piece Richard Socarides - a former Clinton administration member - piles on and further lambastes Obama for his failure to address the big issues in the gay rights struggle - i.e., the things he promised to address during his campaign. Indeed, Obama has made the term "fierce advocate" into nothing more than an insulting joke when it comes to full civil equality for LGBT Americans who in the majority of the states in the nation are second and third class citizens and open targets for religious based discrimination and mistreatment. I may be harsher than some critics, but I have come to view Obama as little more than a cynical liar when it comes to LGBT issues. Oh yes, he is willing to scatter a few crumbs here and there in order to keep "Gay,Inc." functioning as the equivalent of paid apologists, but the rest of us are left twisting on a rope. Here are a few column highlights:
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President Obama celebrated Gay Pride Month earlier this week by telling guests at a White House reception that he still favors full equality for gays and lesbians. But despite a steady trickle of small steps Mr. Obama has taken to promote gay rights, on the big issues he is a disappointment.
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First and most obviously, Mr. Obama has not made good on his campaign promise to repeal Don't Ask Don't Tell, allowing the military to continue stalling. Despite his earlier assertion that leadership was the only thing required to abolish this long-discredited policy, the administration's efforts have been lackluster.
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Earlier this year, the president's staff indicated privately that they would prefer to wait until after the midterm elections to move forward. Only after it became clear that Congress was going to act without him-and after he was heckled twice at fund raisers by the activist group GetEQUAL-did Mr. Obama step in, and then with a Pentagon-inspired "compromise."
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Another of Mr. Obama's core campaign promises was that he would put an end to workplace discrimination, a key issue for gay Americans. To date, White House efforts to pass federal employment nondiscrimination legislation (known as the Employment Non-Discrimination Act) have been virtually nonexistent. The administration sent the acting chairman of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to testify in support of the bill at a House hearing and called it a major accomplishment.
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In a telling development, the most significant and aggressive legal effort to promote gay equality today is being led by a conservative, former U.S. Solicitor General Ted Olson. In federal court in San Francisco, together with co-counsel David Boies, he is prosecuting the most comprehensive and sophisticated legal attack on antigay marriage laws in history.
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When conservatives like Ted Olson are way out in front of the LGBT communities alleged "fierce advocate" it is painfully clear how f*cked up the scenario has become. Personally, nothing that Obama has done to date has helped me or LGBT Virginians who continue to find ourselves subject to firing at will and facing discrimination under available health insurance options. And folks wonder why some of us threaten to sit out the mid-term elections? Perhaps we are simply tired of being played for suckers.

More Thursday Male Beauty

Belgian Catholic Offices Raided in Sex Abuse Probe - U.S. Church Hiding Assets

In a lesson that needs to be learned by police departments across the USA, in Belgium, police have raided and locked down the palace of the archbishop of Mechelen-Brussels and also raided the home of retired Archbishop Godfried Danneels in connection with the investigation of sex abuse allegations against a number of Catholic Church officials. Meanwhile, it has come out that Dan Rather will be hosting a story that looks at coordinated effort by the U.S. Catholic Church to hide and protect Church assets from the claims of abuse victims - even as Pope Benedict XVI disingenuously makes statements that the Church wants to do right by abuse victims. As I have said before, I believe that members of organized crime families have more integrity than many of the "princes" of the Catholic Church who continue to prove themselves to be morally bankrupt. Even as they continue their anti-gay jihad and pronounce that gays are "inherently disordered." First, some highlights from the BBC on events in Belgium:
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Belgian authorities have raided the headquarters of the Belgian Catholic Church during an investigation into child sex abuse claims. A spokesman for the Brussels prosecutors' office confirmed that the palace of the archbishop of Mechelen-Brussels had been sealed off. Police also raided the home of retired Archbishop Godfried Danneels.
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Brussels prosecutors were looking for material relating to allegations of sex abuse, a spokesman for the prosecutors' office said. "This is a case that the Brussels prosecutors' office received recently, containing a statement of facts in relation to alleged sexual abuse of minors by a number of people within the Church," said Jean-Marc Meilleur.
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Separately, the offices of an independent commission set up to look into cases of sexual abuse were also raided. An inquiry into child sex abuse in the Catholic Church in Belgium has been running for several years. In April, the then-bishop of the city of Bruges, Roger Vangheluwe, resigned after admitting that he had sexually abused a boy earlier in his career.
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Pope Benedict XVI himself has been accused of being part of a culture of secrecy, and of not taking strong enough steps against abusers when he had that responsibility as a cardinal in Rome.
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My, my!! At last someone is treating high clergy as the criminal conspirators that they are. What a refreshing concept. Back here in the USA, Dan Rather is about to blow the lid off of more sleazy behavior by the Catholic Church. Rather's report, entitled "Spiritually Bankrupt" premieres on HDNet, Tuesday, June 29 at 8:00 p.m. ET with an encore at 11:00 p.m. ET. It will focus on the deliberate actions of the Church in hiding assets and seeking to avoid accountability for decades of criminal conduct against children and youths. Here are some highlights from PRNewswire:
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Next week, "Dan Rather Reports" investigates how the Roman Catholic Church has been hiding and shielding assets from victims of priest abuse. Some say the Church is behaving more like a big corporation than a sacred institution.
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From the Vatican on down, the church has vowed to make peace with hundreds of victims of a decades-long epidemic of sex abuse by its priests. But "Dan Rather Reports" found evidence that the church has done just the opposite: Wealthy U.S. Dioceses from California to Delaware have claimed to be broke and have filed for bankruptcy to avoid paying damages; Bishops have exploited arcane corporate laws to shield church assets from liability; and, in San Diego, parish priests have been caught literally hiding money in safes, according to court records.
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"If you or I did what the Diocese of San Diego did in that bankruptcy, we'd be charged with bankruptcy fraud, and we'd probably be in prison," said attorney John Manly, who has represented dozens of priest abuse victims in lawsuits across the country. "Dan Rather Reports" found evidence that some high in the church hierarchy have provided guidance.
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"One of the comments that came from one of the bankruptcy attorneys is that, 'These guys make Enron look like altar boys.' Pardon the pun," said Don McLean, who was abused as a 10-year-old altar boy, and sought damages from the San Diego diocese.

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What is maddening to me is that even as more and more evidence mounts that the Church hierarchy is for the most part utterly unscrupulous and morally bankrupt, members of the Catholic laity continue to grovel to these criminals and worse yet, continue to give them money.

Teen Books with Gay Themes Are Taking Off - Slew of Recent Books Make Young LGBT's Feel Less Alone

This headline will no doubt cause angst and conniptions among the Christianist and professional Christian set who if they had their way would make gays invisible as was so often the case decades ago. The fact that more and more movies and television shows have gay characters has got to be driving the wingnuts crazy. While still successful in censoring gay themed books in schools, the anti-gay forces have far less success in seeking to censor public libraries. For someone my age, it is a sea change from when I was growing up - no school library and few public libraries carried any books with a gay theme, much less gay romance. This is a huge plus for younger gays - and even older gays who spent their teen years deep in the closet. I will admit that I have enjoyed The Geography Club and Alex Sanchez's Rainbow Boys trilogy that allowed me to vicariously relive my high school days when I was doing my absolute best to convince myself that I wasn't really gay. Thank goodness that the newest generations have more outlets to learn that they are not weird freaks - no matter what gay hating religious denominations try to tell them otherwise. Here are highlights from an MSNBC story:

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At his Kentucky elementary school, kids taunted Brent on the playground about being gay, whatever that was. By eighth grade, he realized what they meant and came out to a friend — and vice versa.
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She was an avid writer, he a voracious reader. They headed to their school library in search of stories that spoke to their lives: gay, gay in the South, gay and fearing stereotypes like "disgusting" and "worthless."
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So they went to their public library, where they discovered plenty of romantic gay steam between covers — for adults. "We weren't complaining," said Brent, who asked that his last name and hometown not be used. Turning next to bookstores, they finally found what they'd been looking for — a recent explosion in the publishing world of reads that speak to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning teens.
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[U]ntil now few LGBT titles became blockbusters. That changed with two boys named Will Grayson and a very large, very GLEE-ful linebacker named Tiny. "Will Grayson, Will Grayson," by Levithan and John Green, debuted on the New York Times children's best-seller list and stayed there for three weeks after its April release. It's a first for a young adult novel with major gay themes and has delighted hungry teen readers — fanboys and fangirls who were the likely reason the book became a trending topic on Twitter. Penguin has 60,000 copies in print.
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"Landing as high on the New York Times list as we did with 'Will Grayson, Will Grayson' made a big statement to the children's publishing world that gay characters are not a commercial liability," Green said. "This is an important statement to make." As gay-straight alliances spread in schools and kids reared by gay parents have kids of their own, books remain important survival tools for all young people trying to figure out who they are, said Lynn Evarts, a high school librarian in the farm country of Sauk Prairie, Wisconsin.

U.S. Supreme Court Slams Washington State R-71 Christianist 8 to 1

While in my legal opinion all of the legal reasoning and ideals of transparency and basic principles of democracy argued for a ruling against the Christian Taliban organization, Protect Marriage Washington, given some of the conservatives on the Supreme Court, I nonetheless worried about the outcome in Doe v. Reed. Fortunately, my fears were unfounded and eight out of the nine justices ruled against the secrecy and conspiracy sought by Protect Marriage Washington. Leave it to Christianist tool Clarence Thomas, whose own marriage would still be illegal if his Christianist "friends" had their way, to be the lone dissenting opinion. Obviously, this ruling is a major blow to the anti-gay religious fanatics who want to take away the civil rights of those who fail to conform to their hate centered religious beliefs - all the while remaining safely anonymous. Just like Klan members hidden under their white robes and masks. The Seattle Post-Inteligencer has coverage on this very positive ruling. Here are some highlights:
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The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that the names of people who signed petitions in an attempt to overturn a new gay rights law in Washington could be made public, a victory for state officials who said the case was a test of open government laws.
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Justices ruled 8-1 in a case called Doe V. Reed. Only Justice Clarence Thomas dissented. They heard oral arguments in Washington, D.C., April 28. The ruling dealt broadly with claims by foes of the new gay rights law that disclosing their names would violate their First Amendment rights.
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Washington state officials praised the decision. "This is a good day for transparency and accountability in elections--not just in Washington but across our country," Washington Attorney General Rob McKenna said. "We're pleased the Supreme Court ruled in favor of disclosure, upholding the public's right to double-check the work of signature gatherers and government -- and giving them the ability to learn which voters are directing the state to hold an election on a new law. Citizen legislating is too important to be conducted in secret."
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Protect Marriage Washington asked justices to shield the names of the 138,000 people who signed R-71 petitions in hopes of overturning the "everything but marriage" same-sex domestic partner law. In November Washington voters upheld the new statute. Gay rights groups have said they'll post the petition signers' names online, and some fear harassment or threats if their names are revealed.
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State officials had said there are laws in place to protect people who might be threatened. When people sign petitions or referendums they are acting as legislators, McKenna said, because they are trying to enact or change laws.*
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Writing for the majority, Chief Justice John Roberts said it is vitally important that states be able to ensure that signatures on referendum petitions are authentic.

"Public disclosure thus helps ensure that the only signatures counted are those that should be, and that the only referenda placed on the ballot are those that garner enough valid signatures," Roberts said. "Public disclosure also promotes transparency and accountability in the electoral process to an extent other measures cannot."
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In addition to the positive ruling, the case also has the side benefit of diverting funds that might otherwise be spent disseminating anti-gay hatred to attorneys fees.

Thursday Male Beauty

Obama [and Congressional Democrats] and the LGBT Community

David Mixner has an excellent post on his blog that looks at the state of the advancement of gay rights under Barack Obama's administration and the current Democrat controlled Congress. He rightfully looks at some of the improvements that have been ushered in via administration policies - which unfortunately could be rolled back by a future president - and the only significant legislation enacted to date: the Hate Crimes legislation. Mixner is correct that Obama's record can be viewed in two ways - a long list of policy changes versus epic battles that cry for presidential leadership. We truly have seen none of the latter whatsoever from this president or this Congress despite all of the pretty speeches and broken campaign promises. The reality is that most of the improvements received to date have zero effect on the every day lives of most LGBT Americans who still can be fired at will, have difficulty insuring loved ones, cannot serve openly in the military and remain in many ways second class citizens. Here are some highlights from Mixner's continued call to activism with which I totally agree:
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[W]e would be making a major mistake in assuming that just a couple of steps at a time is adequate in an epic great struggle. Changing of regulations is absolutely welcomed but should not be confused with the bold leadership we need for full equality. Also we must never fall into the trap of "Well he is a lot better than the alternative." Just because I am not being beaten doesn't mean I am free.
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Freedom is absolute; there is no such thing as partial freedom. We are involved in daily struggle for full equality and freedom. The President must be judged on not incremental steps but on concrete actions that clearly show he is on the right side of history in this battle. Overall, the President doesn't seem to 'get it.' His failure to lead on so many fronts illustrates that he still believes we are a constituency group to be placated or just another long list of issues that is in front of him. There is no indication that he is yet willing to show the courage of a President Kennedy or President Johnson and take major, decisive and historic action. In actuality we have mostly seen timid and tepid responses to the major issues and at times downright hostility.
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The record of this President and this Congress on DOMA, DADT and ENDA is dismal. The DADT 'compromise' promises us nothing but a promise that maybe it will be dealt with next year. There is no 'stop-loss' order, no mandate, no timeline and no criteria for implementation of the repeal. And even this compromise has yet to pass the United States Senate. We still don't know if we are included in the immigration legislation to allow our partners to stay in America. The LGBT community's issues were stripped from the healthcare legislation. While I appreciate the Attorney General's lovely Gay Pride speech, the record of opposing us every step of the way in the courts with inflamed language is appalling. Their failure to side with us in the courts on Proposition 8 is unforgivable. The failure to speak out in opposing the initiative in Maine was a cowardly political decision.
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Progress with rules and regulations is greatly appreciated but at this rate I will be free man at the age of 100.
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However, we no longer are in the 1990's. Our movement has grown far beyond those actions. Our patience has been stretched thin. One step at a time just doesn't work for a people yearning to be free in their lifetime. So out of the over 1000 protections, benefits and rights granted to all other Americans who can get married, we apparently have about 990 to go with this kind of incremental approach.

Witch Hunts Continue Against Iraqi Gays

The USA has spent billions and billions of dollars and squandered thousands of American lives on the Chimperator's fools errand in Iraq. This "investment" was supposed to remove Saddam Hussein and create a democracy in Iraq where freedom would extend to all. Except apparently if one is gay. Gays continue to be hunted down and killed by both Islamic extremists and by government forces - and American tax payers are funding this travesty. True, the Christianists likely support the extermination of gays, but I suspect most Americans do not want to be bankrolling murder and torture of civilians. The photo at right is that of a gay victim of Iraqi police torture - take a good look: that's American tax money at work in Iraq. And of course, "fierce advocate" Obama remains silent. UK Gay News has the details. Here are some highlights:
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LONDON, June 22, 2010 – There is growing concern that the Iraqi government is stepping up a witch-hunt against gays and lesbians in the country after a police raid on a Karbala safe house, the London-based Iraqi LGBT said at the weekend.
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Last week, twelve police officers are reported to have burst into the safe house, and then violently beat up, and blindfolded the six occupants sheltering there before bundling them off in three vans. According to a source who witnessed the raid, the police also confiscated computer equipment before burning down the house, the London group said in a statement.
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According to reports reaching London, one of the arrested people has turned up in hospital. However, nothing is known about the whereabouts of the other five individuals, which include two gay men, one lesbian and two transgender people. It is feared they may have been taken to the Interior Ministry in Baghdad, where, it is reported, many gay people have been tortured and executed in the last two years.
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Government forces have previously sized people particularly at roadblocks and handed them to militias who have then tortured them and their bodies have later been found.
None of the previous occupying powers have taken any action or delivered any criticism for these atrocities.
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“Since the fall of Saddam, militias loyal to Shi’a clerics Grand Ayatollah al Sistani and Muqtada al Sadr, both of whom have called for homosexuals to be put to death, have been only too keen to carry out their leaders’ wishes,” the group says.
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“Over 720 LGBT people have disappeared or been murdered, many of whom have been tortured to death. “There is strong evidence that the government is colluding with these militia groups, by rounding up known homosexual and transgender people.”

Austrian Catholics Demanding Church Reform; Others Leaving Church in Record Numbers

While far too many U.S. Catholics continue to act like docile sheep and continue to obsequiously grovel to the morally bankrupt Catholic Church hierarchy, it seems Austrian Catholics are increasingly saying "Enough!" Between officially leaving membership in the Church and/or demanding systemic changes these thinking individuals are over the dictatorship of the self-absorbed and morally challenged Church leadership. As I have said before, the only thing that the Vatican understands and cares about are money and membership numbers. If both begin to plummet sufficiently, rest assured suddenly "the Holy Spirit" will enlighten the leadership with a new revelation for change. Throughout history loss of money and membership are the only things that will bring change. Here are some highlights from Google News on the Catholic Church unrest in Austria:
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What is particularly troubling for Rome is that Austria — which in past centuries was famous for being a bulwark against the Protestant Reformation — is losing worshippers in record numbers as calls for reform grow stronger.
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Tens of thousands of Austrian Catholics — many of whom still consider themselves devout believers — are leaving the church each year, disgusted by the priestly sex abuse scandal and frustrated by what they see as the Catholic hierarchy's outdated ways.
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Earlier this week, the head of the Vienna archdiocese's church tax office estimated that up to 80,000 of Austria's roughly 5.5 million Catholics could leave the church this year — a new record. Last year alone, 53,216 people formally had their names removed from church registries, a 31 percent increase compared to 40,654 in 2008.
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In May, the Priest Initiative — a group of critical clerics — adopted a strongly worded resolution that criticized the "absolutist" church structure and urged both bishops and ordinary believers to take a stand. The Vatican has had no comment on the turmoil in the Austrian Church.
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Amid increasing calls for change, Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn — the country's top churchman and a papal confidant seen as a possible successor to Benedict XVI — has stepped into the fray more forcefully in the past few months.
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Experts say Austria's unusually rebellious streak these days stems from a series of conservative Vatican appointments — including Groer's — following the retirement of the liberal and outspoken Cardinal Franz Koenig, a much beloved figure, in 1985.
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"The church took a new turn after Koenig and that, coupled with the Groer pedophilia story, sparked dissatisfaction," said theologian Paul Zulehner. "Austria is a special case caused by Rome."
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"The abuse scandal has shown that apparently the church's leadership is no longer primarily focused on Jesus' message but rather on its own interests," said Hans Peter Hurka, who heads We are Church, an influential Vienna-based lay organization active across Europe.

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Would that more Catholics worldwide would stand up to a Pope who views himself as a Roman emperor of old and who has proven to be just as morally challenged as many a past Roman emperor.

More Wednesday Male Beauty

Obama Properly Relieves McChrystal of Command

The talking heads are in overdrive on the issue of Barack Obama's removal of General Stanley McCrystal from command of the Afghanistan theater. As I have noted before, McChrystal is but one of the members of the senior military brass who seem to have forgotten that the CIVILIAN commanders are in ultimate charge, not the pompous and egomaniac elements at the Joint Chiefs and the immediate subordinates. Those senior brass challenging the repeal of Don't Ask Don't Tell will now hopefully think twice before shooting off their mouths challenging the President and/or Congress. The following letter to General Douglas MacArthur - who is revered as a near demi-god in this area where he is buried in the majestic MacArthur Memorial in Norfolk - signed by President Harry Truman reminds all of us of this critical basis for democracy in the USA which has escaped military dictatorship for over 230 years:

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click image to enlarge

Here are some highlights from MSNBC on Obama's decision to remove McChrystal which, again, I fully support, because McChrystal brought this all upon himself by his own hubris and insubordination:
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WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama sacked his loose-lipped Afghanistan commander Wednesday, a seismic shift for the U.S. military order in wartime, and chose the familiar, admired — and tightly disciplined — Gen. David Petraeus to replace him. Petraeus, architect of the Iraq war turnaround, was once again to take hands-on leadership of a troubled war effort.
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Obama said bluntly that Gen. Stanley McChrystal's scornful remarks about administration officials represent conduct that "undermines the civilian control of the military that is at the core of our democratic system."
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Obama hit several grace notes about McChrystal and his service after their Oval Office meeting, saying that he made the decision to sack him "with considerable regret." And yet, he said the job in Afghanistan cannot be done now under McChrystal's leadership, asserting that the critical remarks from the general and his inner circle in the Rolling Stone magazine article displayed conduct that doesn't live up to the standards for a command-level officer.
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Obama seemed to suggest that McChrystal's military career is over, saying the nation should be grateful "for his remarkable career in uniform" as if that has drawn to a close.
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With Washington abuzz, there had been a complete lockdown on information about the morning's developments until just before Obama spoke. By pairing the decision on McChrystal's departure with the name of his replacement, Obama is seeking to move on as quickly as possible from the firestorm.
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If not insubordination, the remarks — as well as even sharper commentary about Obama and his White House from several in McChrystal's inner circle — were at the least an extraordinary challenge from a military leader. The capital had not seen a similar public contretemps between a president and a top wartime commander since Harry Truman stripped Gen. Douglas MacArthur of his command more than a half-century ago after disagreements over Korean war strategy.
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Notably, neither McChrystal nor his team questioned the accuracy of the story or the quotes in it. McChrystal issued an apology.
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Living in an area with a large number of senior military brass, my impression is that they have huge egos, think that they defecate chocolate, and believe that they are answerable to no one. I sincerely hope that McChrystal's dismissal will send a strong wake up call.

Antigay Lutheran Pastor "Outed"

As a member of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America ("ELCA") I have not bitten my tongue when it comes to homophobic Lutheran parishes voting to leave the ELCA because the national church has voted to accept partnered gay clergy and recognize same sex relationships albeit not granting them the title of "marriage." As so often is the case, the movement to leave the ELCA has been spearheaded by individual pastors who seem just a wee bit too hysterical over the issue of homosexuality. Indeed, these pastors are reminiscent of Robert Knight and Peter LaBarbera, doyennes of the closeted professional Christian set. Reverend Tom Brock (pictured at above left), up until now the Associate Pastor at Hope Lutheran Church in North Minneapolis, is a case in point. While busy denouncing gays and spearheading his parish's move to leave the ELCA, the good Mr. Brock turns out to be a closet case. Fortunately, he has been outed by Lavender Magazine and has now been placed on leave by his parish. The hypocrisy of individuals like Brock who transfer their own self-loathing to the rest of the gay community is what makes me almost rejoice when they are exposed for frauds. Yes, it may seem cruel on my part, but when one factors in the number of gay lives people like Brock may damage, it is Divine justice when they go down in flames. Here are some story highlights based on an under cover reporter's experiences:
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[I]n a free society of consenting adult citizens, “live and let live” should remain the common baseline. I may not like what you do or believe, but as long as you’re not hurting anyone, destroying common property, or infringing on the rights or life of others, including myself, then it’s no problem. As the New Testament holds: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”
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Unfortunately, petty demagogues of various religious faiths will claim that it’s their way to heaven, or the highway to hell—black and white, with no gray. If you disagree, you’re deemed to be a moral relativist who at the very least will be trivialized. At worst, like Joan of Arc in the Middle Ages, you’ll be burned at the stake by the Catholic Church as a crossdressing heretic. Or, in 21st-Century Iran, you’ll be hanged for being a gay teen under Islamic law.
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Of course, these are extreme examples, but they caution that zealotry, too long unchecked, can be disastrous. They’re reminders that two of the world’s largest religions have barbaric cruelty in their legacies
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As cantankerous and varied as GLBT activism is, virtually everyone holds privacy sacred. The exception is if someone in a public position of political, social, or theological influence engages in homosexual or transgender activity while at the same time denouncing the basic civil rights of GLBT citizens.
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[I]t’s a universal consensus among GLBT individuals and straight allies that to bash GLBT persons physically and/or sociopolitically—but then turn around, and be homosexually active oneself—is hypocrisy.
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Reverend Tom Brock is the Associate Pastor at Hope Lutheran Church in North Minneapolis. He is known for his denunciations of homosexuality and GLBT rights on his daily KKMS AM 980 radio program, The Pastor’s Study. His video series lambastes with outrage the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) for progressive attitudes toward women’s reproductive rights, racial equality, ecological stewardship—and, worst of all in his view, openly gay or lesbian pastors having the right to minister if they are in a committed monogamous relationship with a member of the same sex.
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In stunning contrast to all this homophobic vitriol, I observed firsthand that the words spoken by the 49-year-old, unmarried Brock from his ivory bully pulpits do not match his actions.
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My first encounter with Brock was at a confidential meeting of gay men “struggling with chastity” at St. Charles Borromeo Catholic Church in St. Anthony, a suburb northeast of Minneapolis. It’s not a Lutheran church, but rather a Catholic one. This group is sponsored by Faith in Action (FIA), Minnesota’s official arm of the global Catholic gay-chastity-maintenance organization called Courage. It models itself after the Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous.
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Once this opening ritual concludes, the next phase commences, as each person directly shares how well or not he fared during the previous week, or since the last meeting he attended, in his struggle to maintain homosexual chastity. He reports any homosexual fantasies or feelings; any resistance or nonresistance to masturbation; any homosexual contact or activity experienced; and/or any encounter with homoerotic or arousal-inducing images of men.
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Brock recounted that it had been “a good week.” He had been on a trip to the East Coast, and had kept his mind off men. . . . Brock observed that he sometimes “feels effeminate” because he has no interest in the sports page, and that he feels deficient because he finds society’s mass interest in sports to be a bore.
On the other hand, most of the men, including Brock, expressed a deep love for opera and classical music. He related that he was especially fond of a Ralph Vaughan Williams composition.
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When it was Brock’s turn to share, he related that he recently had been on “a preaching mission to Slovakia,” where he met with other clergy. Then, Brock admitted, “I fell into temptation. I was weak. That place has this really, really weird, demonic energy. I just got weak, and I had been so good for a long time. Things had been going so well for a long time.
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One thing I noticed is that all FIA participants held a sweepingly generalized caricature view of how they thought gay men interacted and lived in general. The myth of the so-called “gay agenda,” along with a basic ignorance of myriad differences between gay men, was intrinsic. In his video series, seething with disgust, Brock stirs his viewers to leave ELCA because of its inclusion of gay and lesbian pastors in committed relationships. He exhorts his flock: “Game over!”
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ELCA’s loving moral courage and serious efforts toward restoring compassion, as well as a concept maligned a lot lately by reactionary rhetoric—“justice”—serve to rescue Christianity from the pre-Enlightenment crowd. It’s cause for optimism.

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Personally, I have found the ELCA to be a welcome change from the hypocrisy and moral bankruptcy of the Roman Catholic Church in which I was raised. I sincerely hope that more anti-gay hypocrites like Rev. Brock get exposed so that the resistance to the national church's efforts to truly preach the Gospel messages is not impeded by individuals like Brock

Blogger Issues - Posts to Resume Latter Today

I am not sure what the issue was, but this morning when I normally put up morning posts, Blogger - the platform I use for this blog - was apparently not working and I could not access the blog or other blogger platform blogs. The problem seems to be fixed and normal posting will resume latter today. For now, here's a Wednesday Male Beauty photo to hold folks over.

Daily Press Coverage of HRBOR/City of Hampton Meeting

I previously reported on the very positive meeting that representatives of Hampton Roads Business OutReach ("HRBOR") had on June 6, 2010 with representatives of the City of Hampton Department of Economic Development concerning investment opportunities in connection with the revitalization of the Phoebus area of the City of Hampton (the main street is pictured at left). My post can be found here on this blog and here on The Bilerico Project. Yesterday, the local paper, the Daily Press, ran an overall positive story about the meeting, citing Richard Florida's work on the "creative class' and referencing other cities/neighborhoods where LGBT businesses and residents have sparked a gentrification and economic blossoming. Unfortunately, the story - which referenced me by name - has set off a firestorm among Christo-fascists and the truly ignorant and prejudiced who apparently would prefer to live in a seedy economic backwater than have more upscale, legitimate LGBT owned businesses move into the area. The irony, of course, is that some are already in the area but the Neanderthals apparently don't realize it.

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The running commentary on the article can be found here and I would encourage readers to create a simple log-in and leave supportive statements to counter balance those posted by knuckle draggers. Comments can be posted here. So far, City personnel have remained steadfast in their support of the HRBOR/DED meeting. Obviously views other than those posted by Pat Robertson's Kool-Aid drinker crowd would be most appreciated.

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As I explained to a Daily Press columnist, overall my experience with Hampton has been most positive - particularly among the educated, well to do, and professional class. The nasty comments posted to the Daily Press article obviously do not appear to be from the better elements of Hampton's population. Instead, they appear to represent the ignorant, Bible beating segment of the population which would drag the city and the nation back to the Dark Ages if given the opportunity.

More Tuesday Male Beauty

McChrystal Is Not the Only General In Need of Reprimand and/or Resignation

The airwaves are alive tonight with coverage of the debacle Gen. Stanley McChrystal created for himself through his comments in Rolling Stone article. McChrystal's cardinal sin: violation of a central tenant of U.S. democracy: civilian control over the military. McChrystal's contempt spoken for President Obama, Vice President Biden and other civilian authorities indeed would appear to possibly violated the Uniform Code of Military Justice and, if so, warrant his forced resignation if not court martial. Keith Olbermann had an interesting take on why Obama should take McChrystal's resignation and table it for the time being. Whatever Obama decides, McChrystal is not the only senior military officer who has publicly challenged the civil control of the U.S. Military. In the context of the repeal of DADT, members of the Joint Chiefs are not far behind McChrystal in terms of their insubordination. It is imperative that Obama reassert who is in charge and who reports to whom. Whether or not Obama has the spine to do so is the big question. Here are highlights from Jonathan Alter's piece in Newsweek arguing for McChrystal's forced resignation and retirement from the U.S. military:
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The most important issue at hand in the furor over Gen. Stanley McChrystal's acerbic comments in Rolling Stone is the central one in a democracy: civilian control over the military.
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As upset as certain military officers have been with the Obama White House—as much as they like McChrystal's can-do spirit—this was a seriously can't-do moment. No one can quite believe that McChyrstal would be so stupid as to give this interview, which McChrystal himself this morning conceded in a statement was "bad judgment." One retired but informed military source I reached speculates that McChrystal will offer his resignation and President Obama is likely to accept it.
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The reason McChrystal must go is that this isn't his first time in trouble for talking out of school in a way that can fairly be described as insubordinate.Last fall, McChrystal gave a speech in London and afterward was asked if he could support the Biden Plan: fewer troops for Afghanistan, with a stepped-up use of Predator drones. He said "no." In other words, the commanding general in the region was saying that if the president sided with the vice president, he couldn't support the policy. Many in the White House last year viewed this as insubordination.
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Having been burned once by Stanley McChrystal, the president probably will not allow himself to be burned again. The military code—and American democratic traditions—all but demand that he accept the general's resignation of his command.
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Regardless of how Obama handles McChrystal, one can only hope this whole episode will be a wake up call to all of the senior military brass who need to start following White House and Congressional control or resign NOW. That includes all those speaking out against the repeal of DADT.