The Next Step for Gay Pride

Hampton Roads Pridefest take place today in downtown Norfolk at Town Point Park.  Very large crowds are anticipated and the event is now Norfolk's largest festival event after Harbor Fest.  Sponsors include not only the City of Norfolk which not too many years ago treated the LGBT community as if it was radioactive, and Newport News Shipbuilding, currently Virginia's largest employer and the company that builds America's nuclear aircraft carriers.  

The event was preceded by events around the area virtually every day this past week - more events are tomorrow in Virginia Beach - including the "Block Party" held the last number of years in Scope, Norfolk's sports and concert arena.  Having attended and closed down the party, it was packed, with the area floor completely filled with hundreds, if not thousands dancing while and even larger number socializing.  The Block Party alone is far larger than Pridefest was for many, many years and the crowd covered a wide gamut of ages and every ethnic group was there, white, Black, Asian, Hispanic, Pacific Islander. Trump supporters would have thoroughly hated seeing such a multi-racial crowd getting along and having fun together.  Things have come a long way since I came out going on 18 years ago.  

Yet much remains to be done - both here here in Virginia where, if the Democrats take control of the General Assembly in the November 2019 elections, LGBT Virginians will finally have non-discrimination protections - and in many parts of America where bigots and Christofascists hold sway, encouraged in their message of hate by the Trump/Pence regime, the Republican Party, and, of course, scamvangelists lining their pockets with money as they pervert the Gospel message.   To accomplish these needed changes, perhaps a new model is needed.  Self-proclaimed LGBT activist groups like the Human Rights Campaign ("HRC") and Equality Virginia ("EV") increasingly seem most focused on raising money to support ever higher salaries to their leadership and larger staffs.  Actually getting things done to benefit the wider array of the LGBT community has faded in importance despite lip service to the contrary. 

In a piece in New York Magazine, gay conservative Andrew Sullivan looks at where the LGBT community finds itself today both in terms of positive improvement and criticism of some gay activists and organizations like HRC and EV that have lost their way.  Some of what Sullivan says is on point, and some of it is out in the weeds due to his failure to let go of some aspects of conservatism and religion.   Here are excerpts:

There has never been a better time or place in the history of the world to be gay than in 2019 and in the West.

I think it’s worth repeating that — especially in front of the younger generation — because it gives us critical perspective on where we are now and where we are headed. If you glance at media aimed at gays, lesbians, and transgender people, you might imagine we are living in a state of siege. Gay students arriving in college in 2019 will be told instantly that they are oppressed in countless ways, and trans students will be told that they can be oppressed by gay people, as well. Check out the website for the biggest gay lobbying group, the Human Rights Campaign, and you will find that gays and lesbians and transgender people “have been under constant attack” since Trump became president.

And, yes, there has been some blowback, as one might expect after an astonishing decade of faster progress than in any civil-rights movement in history. The impulsively renewed ban on transgender service members makes no sense, was enacted by presidential whim (a tweet, no less), defended with arguments that collapse upon scrutiny, and opposed by much of the military brass. With luck, law, and lobbying, it will fall. There has also been executive action to defend the religious freedom of those fundamentalist Christians who make up a core of the Trump base. But it says a huge amount that Christianists are this panicked. They keep losing both secular and theological arguments — along with many members, especially among the young.

And look at what remains: marriage equality, even in Alabama; corporate America competing to brand itself as pro-gay (sometimes to an excruciating degree); full integration of gay service members; a lesbian mayor of Chicago and, in Corey Johnson, a future gay mayor of New York; a married gay man among the main contenders for the Democratic presidential nomination; a cornucopia of media-affirming gay and trans equality; openly gay and lesbian figures in almost every sphere of American life; a preventative pill for HIV and a pill to all but eradicate it from the living; and explicit legal protection from discrimination for half of the gay people in the country.
 I’m not saying there isn’t more to be done — laws against discrimination in employment and public accommodations in those states that don’t yet have those protections, for example . . . 
 It is, I know, sometimes hard to take “yes” for an answer. It is also prudent, given human history, to be vigilant in defending the gains. But this level of openness and equality was unimaginable only a decade ago. Compared with the 1950s, when “sodomy” was illegal in every state, when the government hounded gay men and women in public service out of their jobs and demonized them as inherently treasonous, when gay people were barred from entering the country, and when psychiatrists believed them to be mentally ill, this is close to utopia. Compared with the 1980s and early 1990s, when gay men found themselves circling the drain of their own extinction, and witnessed horrors and pain and stigma as never before, this is incredible.
 Because gay men and women are almost always brought up by straight parents, this history is hard to pass on. And so perspectives can be warped. Those whose livelihoods are built on defending victims have an interest in sustaining a victim paradigm for gay America, in which they are the saviors. And victim narratives are comfortable. They allow us to avoid responsibility for our own problems, while transferring it to others. . . . They actually provide status among today’s elites — and can help you advance your own career solely on the basis of your orientation if you want to go to college or get a job at a major corporation.

I think it’s time to shuck off this narrative, because it is a crude simplification of the gay experience, because it is profoundly out of date, and because it focuses us on other people we cannot always change while ignoring things closer to home that we can. What we need now, I think, is a narrative more productive and constructive, less about the harm the world can do to us, and more about the good we can give back to the world.

It will mean earning a living, raising kids in some cases, pursuing careers, sustaining marriages, and everything every straight person does without thinking twice about it. Being gay is not a political act; it is about deeper things than politics: love, above all, but sex and relationships as well. . . . We seek, in this sense, a kind of irrelevance for our sexual orientation — a world in which the hetero and homo categories define none of us, straight or gay, and the category of human includes us all.

But there’s more to the souls of gay folk than just this kind of normalcy, it seems to me. Unlike straights, we remain a specific minority, with life experiences that do shape us differently, and a way of life that will always, in some ways, be a subculture, as well as a counterculture. Equality and virtual normalcy need not be seen as ends, but as platforms for something larger, just as they are for other enfranchised minorities. Integration is not the same as assimilation.

This does indeed require pride in what we have that is distinct, a pride that is worth celebrating once a year. We have as gay people, it seems to me, a gift in our sometimes hidden sexual and emotional difference, a gift that teaches us at quite a young age not to judge a book by its dust-jacket, or to dismiss the different because they make us, at first, uncomfortable. The suffering that will always accompany gay and lesbian teens — the suffering that is a function of being so different at such a crucial age — can be deployed as adults, if we so choose, to see and alleviate the suffering of others.
 [G]ay people’s lopsided contribution to the arts, fashion, design, and aesthetics are ways in which we can reflect society back to itself with greater depth and beauty.
 These gay gifts can be shared. They always have been, of course, but under acute duress, and often silenced or unknown. What I’m emphasizing here is embracing these roles more explicitly as our charism, defining ourselves more clearly as human society’s indispensable regenerators, pillars, and buttresses. Gay male friendships can inform straight male ones — and surely for the better. Gay teachers can be a special boon to kids whose own family may not be engaged or supportive. We can be gay uncles and aunts, an often invaluable resource — financially and otherwise — for our siblings’ kids. 

Gay scholars and aesthetes can protect and preserve our common inheritance. Gay entrepreneurs can invigorate decaying neighborhoods and innovate new ways of living. Gay writers can become, as they often are, the strongest champions of free speech — because, for so long, it was the only right we had, the indispensable resource to let each other know that we existed.

As the long night of persecution gives way to the dawning of integration, let’s take a moment both to remember the legions of human souls who knew nothing but darkness, to acknowledge the vast numbers of gay people around the world for whom such freedom still doesn’t exist — but also to recognize this unique and pivotal chance for renewal and reinvention in the West. We should indeed have pride in our past, our selves, and our lives as survivors. But as we peer into the future, and to what we can still bring to the world, let us also know joy.

One of the most powerful forms of activism is simply living one's life openly and proudly. Yes, if one lives in rural areas of red states, that can be difficult and perhaps life threatening.  But the more of us that do this and demonstrate our normalcy to the straight world, the more positive change there will be.  Demonstrate daily that we are not the "other" to be feared but rather friends, neighbors and positive participants in our communities.  Yes, it can be scary, especially for those of older generations who grew up living in fear, but it is the way forward.  It is something the husband and I try to do every day be it at work, social gatherings, participating in a sailing regatta, . . . the list goes on and on.

Why Americans’ Views Flipped on Gay Rights

June is Pride month - although Der Trumpenführer has banned embassies from flying the rainbow flag and ended important HIV research in deference to his knuckle dragging Christofascist base - and this year marks the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall riots in New York City which many view as the beginning of the struggle for gay rights in America.  Despite the efforts of the Trump/Pence regime and its Christofascist supporters to role back LGBT rights and re-stigmatize, the majority of Americans are not buying into the effort, especially the younger generations who are walking away form religion in no small part because the anti-gay agenda and daily hypocrisy of evangelical Christians and right wing Catholics.  A lengthy piece in the Washington Post looks at the rapid change in attitudes towards LGBT individuals and suggests that the fact that gays cross every demographic and region of the country and that sexual orientation is not immediately discernible may have been a driving factor in the speed of change.  The piece also points out the glaring lack of non-discrimination protections in many states (if Democrats win control of the Virginia General Assembly in November, this may finally change in Virginia) and that "conservative" - think hate-filled - religion remains at toxic evil - which hopefully will ease as older generations literally die off.  Here are article highlights:

Steve and Teri Augustine met, fell in love and got married in a conservative evangelical Christian community. They grew up believing homosexuality was a sin, and that the “gay agenda” was an attack on their values.

Then, six years ago, their son Peter — their youngest child who loved theater and his church youth group — returned home to Ellicott City, Md., from his freshman year of college and came out to his family as gay.

Teri asked her son not to tell anyone else, and drove herself to a mall parking lot to cry. Steve questioned his son’s faith, reciting Bible passages from Corinthians. The Augustines decided to put their son through a year of conversion therapy, determined to “set him straight.”

But after the therapy failed, something changed. Steve and Teri Augustine started meeting Peter’s friends and inviting other gay Christians to dinner. Two summers after Peter came out, the family stood on the sidelines of the Capital Pride parade wearing rainbow beads and shirts with the words “I’m sorry.” Teri now hosts a support group for Christian moms of LGBTQ children.

The transformation in the Augustine family parallels a shift in public opinion that social scientists say is unlike any other of our time.

As recently as 2004, polls showed that the majority of Americans — 60 percent — opposed same-sex marriage, while only 31 percent were in favor, according to the Pew Research Center. Today, those numbers are reversed : 61 percent support same-sex marriage, while 31 percent oppose it.

“You can’t find another issue where attitudes have shifted so rapidly,” said Don Haider-Markel, a political science professor at the University of Kansas who has studied public opinion of LGBT rights over the years.

What’s perhaps most surprising is that support for same-sex marriage has increased among nearly all demographic groups, across different generations, partisan lines and religious faiths. Even among the most resistant religious group, white evangelical Protestants like the Augustine family, support for same-sex marriage has grown from 11 percent in 2004 to 29 percent in 2019, according to Pew.

But while it’s clear that the gay rights movement managed to change people’s minds faster than any other civil rights movement in memory, it’s less clear why. How, in 15 years, did Americans’ views flip on such a charged social issue? And why haven’t other groups that have also publicly fought discrimination managed to change public opinion as quickly? The answer lies in human behavior and demographic realities, as well as a winning strategy by gay rights activists that capitalized on both.

In a study published earlier this year, Mahzarin Banaji, a psychology professor at Harvard University, investigated patterns of long-term changes in attitudes toward six social groups — the elderly, the disabled, the overweight, black people, people with darker skin tones and gay people — over a decade. . . . Between 2007 and 2016, Banaji found that explicit attitudes toward all groups became less biased. But implicit attitudes toward some groups stayed the same — including bias toward people with disabilities and the elderly. Implicit bias against people who are overweight actually became worse. Respondents became less biased in their attitudes toward race and skin tone.

But of all of the groups, implicit attitudes toward sexuality changed, by far, the fastest. . . . This relatively recent acceleration came after decades of struggle.

In 1978, almost a decade after Stonewall, gay rights activist Harvey Milk gave an impassioned plea: “Every gay person must come out.” In the decades that followed, more and more Americans started coming out to their loved ones, some galvanized by the pain of the AIDS epidemic.

Then, in the late 1990s and early 2000s, the growing visibility of gay people in popular culture began to trigger a major shift in attitudes, social scientists said. By then, comedian Ellen DeGeneres had come out as gay, the NBC sitcom “Will & Grace” had taken off and Americans started seeing more examples of gay people in popular culture. Most of these characters and the most visible leaders at the helm of the movement were white people with the power and privilege to help LGBT rights reach the mainstream.

But there was something different about the gay and lesbian community, compared with other minority groups. They were in every socioeconomic and racial group, every generation, in small towns and big cities. Unlike other demographics, “sexuality is a dimension that is everywhere,” Banaji said. “It is not segregated.”

The more connections Americans made with gay or lesbian people, the more positive their attitudes toward them became — a trend social scientists call “the contact hypothesis.”

And families like the Augustines were forced to resolve an internal dilemma that social scientists call “cognitive dissonance.”

“When two beliefs come into conflict in our minds, our brains are not good at just holding the conflict. We have to resolve the conflict,” Banaji said. “You can disown your child or you can change your attitudes toward gay people.”

 After conversion therapy failed to change their son’s sexuality, Teri and Steve Augustine resolved to understand it. Teri asked her children to invite gay Christians they knew to their home.  Her daughter Bethany invited a gay colleague to come to dinner with his partner. Teri learned about the pain he endured when his church rejected him.

Then, during Peter’s junior year of college, his parents went to a Gay Christian Network conference, where they worshiped alongside hundreds of gay, lesbian and transgender Christians. “I grew up with a concept that those two words were mutually exclusive,” he said. He had already begun to believe that Peter could be both gay and Christian, “but Peter is only one person. I saw it in 1,500 people. . . . That was the closest thing I had to a lightbulb.”

What might be different about the gay community, Banaji speculated, is that even before a person came out, “love was in place.” A parent or a co-worker already knows and loves a gay person, and then discovers a person’s sexuality, which is often not obvious right away. “That, I think, is very different from something like age, or race, or body weight that just presents itself immediately upon seeing a person for the first time.”

But for much of the United States, the tipping point in the gay rights movement was something more obvious: marriage equality itself.

Before the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that bans on same-sex marriage were unconstitutional, several states had already begun legally recognizing same-sex marriages. A 2015 study found that residents of states with a same-sex marriage policy had the greatest reduction of anti-gay attitudes, when compared with residents of states where same-sex marriage was illegal.

The institution of marriage put a stamp of legitimacy on same-sex couples that allowed straight ones to see them as a family unit, just like theirs, said Andrew Flores of American University, a co-author of the study.

Despite the rapid progress of the gay rights movement, members of the LGBTQ community continue to be targets of violence and hate crimes. The Trump administration has rolled back a number of transgender protections at the federal level and emboldened a conservative base pushing for religious liberty — a backlash that Haider-Markel says parallels the rise of anti-gay movements in the 1970s, such as singer Anita Bryant’s anti-gay “Save Our Children” campaign in Florida, and the Briggs Initiative, a ballot measure in California that would have mandated the firing of any teacher who was gay or pro-gay rights.

“Look at the fact that in many states, if a gay or lesbian couple gets married and has their marriage in the local newspaper, they might lose their jobs,” Haider-Markel said. “That’s not trivial.”

And attitudes about same-sex marriage have remained mostly frozen since 2017. “The positions are hardened,” Haider-Markel said. Statistically, once support for an issue reaches a majority like this one, movement toward 100 percent becomes much more difficult . . . In conservative evangelical circles like the Augustines’, the work of changing minds happens even more slowly.

As for the Augustines, the family left their old church, a conservative evangelical megachurch, for Emmanuel United Methodist Church in Laurel, Md., which calls itself “an affirming community of faith.”

After the service, Teri met with a group of about 10 mothers of LGBT children. Fanning themselves while sitting on floral-printed couches, they went around sharing their stories to a newcomer.

There was the mother whose father, grandfather and uncles were all conservative pastors, and whose daughter recently came out as gay, though none of the extended relatives know. There was the mother of a transgender son who lost touch with her parents after they told her, “If you don’t disown your child, we’ll disown you.”

 As I said, "conservative" religions remain a toxic evil that sow hate and division.

Recommendations Wanted- London Gay Pride 2016

The husband and I are looking to book a trip to London the week of London Gay Pride.  We'd love recommendations on what parts of the city to stay in and nay recommended hotels that are reasonably priced.  I am leaning towards the Kennsington and Chelsea area, but am open to suggestions.  Please drop me your thoughts and comments.  Thank you!!

Poll: Gay Pride Rising Even as Sense of Community Decreases

While gays are increasingly "mainstream" - the husband and I are yacht club members, frequent guests at a country club and even in Hampton Roads, Virginia, law firms are now happy to hire attorneys who are openly gay - much anti-gay discrimination continues to exist, especially in red states and backwaters like Southwest Virginia.  A recent poll, however, suggests that some gays are feeling a lost sense of community as society becomes more gay friendly. Personally, I have not felt this phenomenon, perhaps because the husband and I are so active in LGBT organizations such as Equality Virginia, HRBOR, the local gay and gay friendly chamber of commerce, HR Pride and other community organizations.  Nonetheless, as the Washington Post reports, while a sense of "gay pride" seems to be occurring, some poll respondents feel a loss of a sense of community as more gays go mainstream.  Here are article highlights:

In an illuminating and strikingly different survey, Logo — the Viacom Media network aimed at gay audiences — polled 1,061 gay men between ages 18 and 49, asking them how they saw themselves and their communities and following up with smaller groups in a number of cities. The survey is the first in a series of surveys of different LGBT communities that Logo plans to conduct. And it provides a fascinating look at how a rising generation of gay men feels about gay history, the role of the Internet and some of the biggest internal challenges facing gay communities. (An early look at the survey results was provided to The Washington Post.)

No matter its findings, the Logo study is unusual simply in that it exists at all. . . . . it’s only recently that LGBT people have been asked about how they see themselves and the society they live in more generally.

While this first Logo study doesn’t capture the range of experiences of other members of the LGBT community, like lesbians, bisexuals and transgender people, the researchers behind it were able to delve more broadly into the way gay men see themselves and their communities — with some surprising results.

The survey results reflect high and intense levels of pride among the respondents. Sixty-one percent of gay men between ages 20 and 29 told researchers that being gay was either extremely or very important to their identity (those numbers declined somewhat with age). Seventy-five percent of respondents of all ages agreed with the statement “Being gay makes me feel different in a good way.” Three-quarters also said that their sexual orientation had a positive effect on their lives, and 67 percent said that their lives were more interesting because they were gay. And 83 percent said that they found something distinct and important in their friendships with other gay men.
 
 “But at the same time we started to hear expressions of nostalgia from the younger end of the community, that they felt that the gay community of today didn’t feel as united or close-knit as they imagined it once was.”

While younger gay men have no desire to return to eras defined by persecution, police violence and indifference from public officials, and while they benefit from much greater access to one another through the Internet and through smartphones, the survey results did suggest a real longing for gay institutions. Sixty-four percent of the respondents in their 20s and 30s told researchers that “As gay people become more integrated into the mainstream, we have fewer places we can call our own,” and 85 percent of the overall respondents agreed with the statement “It’s sad to see gay neighborhoods and bars disappear,” and also with the idea that even as more Americans become open and accepting to gay people, it’s important to maintain gay-only spaces.

One of the ways these generational differences manifest is in the very process of figuring out how to be gay and what it means to be gay. Sixty-five percent of the survey respondents in their 20s and 30s agreed with the statement “Today the big struggle is no longer coming out but figuring out what kind of gay man do I want to be.”

“One of the interesting things about that is they felt like it was harder for them to take advice from older members of the community because they felt like the experiences they were having today, and the fact that they grew up in such a different environment sort of meant that the advice they had received from their older counterparts wasn’t going to be directly relevant,” Cohen says of the the 79 percent of all respondents who said that younger gay men were creating new rules and ways of gayness . . . .

[T]he process of identity formation is broadly disruptive, political scientist Kenneth Sherrill argues, because despite a profusion of cultural archetypes and the fact that more people are out of the closet, the assumption is still that most children will be heterosexual. When young people realize that they are gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender, it raises many other questions as well. Sherrill’s research, for example, has found that LGBT children of Republican parents switch party identification at exceptionally high rates. “That shock to the system has political and social consequences,” Sherrill explains. “It puts your identity on the table for reconsideration the moment you consider you’re not the person you thought you were going to be growing up. And when that happens, our research leads us to believe that it puts all aspects of identity on the table for reconsideration.

Eighty percent of respondents described the gay community as very judgmental, and 81 percent called it clique-y. Sixty-five percent of respondents agreed with the statement “Within the gay community, I often feel the pressure to look or act a certain way.” In particular, that judgment can manifest as racism against men of color, heavier or older men or men who don’t present themselves as hyper-masculine.

Cohen and Hillhouse emphasized repeatedly that gay men and the LGBT community at large still face substantial material obstacles to equality. But their research suggests that the wave of attitudinal change that shows up in their survey is just beginning to crest.

I came out in late 2001 and began living as a gay man (although closeted at work) in August, 2002.   Since then, I have seen a decline in the number of local gay clubs and those that have survived tend to market to an increasingly mixed clientele of gays and straights.  That said - at least in larger metropolitan areas - opportunities exist to build a sense of community through LGBT organizations.  In addition, most colleges and universities have active LGBT organiztions. Like many things, finding a sense of community requires effort on one's part to get involved and get to know people.  While more effort may be required today, in my view, it still beatds the "old days" where gays felt compelled to congregate at gay bars and clubs simply because they had nowhere else they could go.

On a last note, I definitely agree with the statement of survey respondents that “Being gay makes me feel different in a good way.”  I did not always feel this way, especially in the early days of my coming out journey, but now I truly feel that being gay is a gift.  A gift that I am thankful for.

Israeli Leadership Targets "Jewish Terrorism"

In the wake of the tragedy at the Jerusalem Pride event that left a young woman dead and others wounded, Israeli authorities are belatedly saying that they will focus on halting "Jewish terrorism" perpetrated by orthodox extremists.  It's a move America needs to emulate even if it means targeting a significant portion of the GOP base.  For far too long authorities in both countries have turned a blind eye towards the evil of far right religious fundamentalists.  The reality is that both the Jewish extremists and American Christofascists see themselves as above the law. The Washington Post looks at the long overdue development.  Here are highlights:

Israeli leaders proposed harsh new measures Sunday to curb “Jewish terrorism,” following a wave of extremist violence that left Israeli and Palestinian children dead in knife and arson attacks.

An Israeli teenager, described by her parents as a sweet and magical child, succumbed to her wounds Sunday after being stabbed by a Jewish extremist at a gay pride parade last week.

Hours earlier, thousands of Israelis held anti-violence rallies across the country protesting attacks by Israeli assailants against gays and Palestinians.

Israelis were reeling from the fast-moving violence of recent days that included Jewish settlers clashing with government forces at a West Bank settlement, the knife attack at the gay pride parade in Jerusalem, and a lethal arson attack in a Palestinian village that resulted in a toddler being burned to death.

Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon said on Sunday that Israeli authorities should be allowed to employ the same heavy-handed measures against Israeli terrorism suspects as the state uses against Palestinian suspects in the occupied West Bank, freeing the military to seek “administrative detention” against suspects, which would enable them to hold detainees for months, and sometimes years, in prison without presenting charges.

After speaking out against attacks by Jewish extremists and saying he felt shame that the violence had come “from my own people,” Israeli President Reuven Rivlin was deluged with threats on social media, leading his security detail to file a complaint with Israeli police because of fears that the leader’s life was in danger.

During a period of similar tumult two decades ago, a right-wing Jewish extremist shot and killed Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in 1995 as he departed a Tel Aviv peace rally attended by more than 100,000.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the government will have “zero tolerance” for Jewish extremists, vowing that Israel is committed to fight “hate, fanaticism and terrorism from whatever side.”

The spiral of violence began Wednesday when Israeli soldiers and police clashed with Jewish settlers at the West Bank community of Beit El.

The Israeli authorities were attempting to demolish two illegal structures at the Jewish settlement on the outskirts of Ramallah that were built without permits on private Palestinian land.

On Thursday, Israel’s gay community came under attack as a Jewish extremist stabbed six people at the annual gay pride parade in Jerusalem.

On Friday, arsonists set fire to two homes in the Palestinian village of Duma in the West Bank, burning a toddler alive and injuring three others. The investigation is under a gag order but it appeared that no arrests had been made.

 Again and again we see hate and violence as the chief fruits of religion.

Religious Extremeist Injures Six at Jerusalem Gay Pride

UPDATED:17 year old Shira Banki (pictured above) has died from the wounds inflicted on her by right wing orthodox extremist Yishai Schlissel.  Take a good look.  Death, hate and bigotry are the fruits of fundamentalist religion.  Personally, I would like to see Schlissel drawn and quartered.  Yes, it is a barbaric punishment, but a message needs to be sent to members of fundamentalist religions of all faiths that modern societies will not tolerate their hate and poison and that they will be dealt with in the most brutal and forceful ways possible.  Fundamentalism of every stripe is a poison that needs to be eradicated from the face of the earth.

American Christofascists do not have a monopoly on anti-gay hate and animus.  This week at Jerusalem's gay pride event, Yishai Schlissel, a knife wielding ultra-Orthodox Jew, stab six people leaving a sixteen year old girl still in critical condition.  The photos above via Huffington Post show some of the carnage and Schlissel in custody.  Take a good look.  This is the true face of conservative religion.  Hate and violence, and often death.   Conservative, fundamentalist religion, be it Christian, Jewish or Muslim, is a pestilence that deserves no respect or deference in the modern world.   Here are more details from Huffington Post:

An anti-gay ultra-Orthodox extremist suspected of stabbing revelers at Jerusalem's Gay Pride Parade appeared in court on Friday and the judge ordered that he remain in custody.

The suspected attacker, Yishai Schlissel, was arrested at the pride parade the previous day, after he brandished a knife and stabbed six people. The court extended his arrest by 12 days as the investigation against him continues, police spokeswoman Luba Samri said.

Schlissel was convicted of a similar attack that wounded several people at a gay pride parade in Jerusalem in 2005. Schlissel had been released from prison just three weeks ago after serving his sentence. 

Israeli hospital officials said Friday that a 16-year-old girl remained in critical condition after the attack, with wounds to her chest and shoulder. Three others are in hospital but their conditions are not life threatening, while the remaining two have been discharged, hospital officials said.

The Gay Pride Parade was proceeding as planned with party music, Israeli flags and rainbow-clad marchers wending their way through central Jerusalem's barricaded streets, under a heavy police presence, when the attacker entered the throng of people. Within seconds he raised a knife and began stabbing people in the back.

Police pounced on him and arrested him. The crowd's carefree cheers suddenly gave way to screams.

A world without fundamentalist religion - perhaps without religion entirely - would be a far better world.  It's telling that everyone of the death threats I have receive via comments on this blog (I never publish their venom) have come from "godly Christians."

Anti-Gay Pastor Killed in Bahamas Plane Crash

While some media outlets are describing the death of "Dr" Myles Munroe, and his wife Ruth Munroe, in a plane crash this weekend as the loss of a prominent faith leader, the ugly reality is that Munroe and his Bahamas Faith Ministries were major forces supporting homophobia and violence against Gays in the Bahamas, a nation I've visited a number of times and which deserves far better than the ignorance and bigotry which are the stock in trade of the "godly folk" like Munroe.  I don't mean to speak ill of the dead, but in reporting on Munroe's "ministry," lets at least be honest about what the man was really all about.   The Washington Blade has details on the death of these homophobes (Note the pandering - dare we call it self-prostitution - of government officials to this merchant of bigotry):

A prominent anti-gay Bahamian pastor is among the nine people who died in a plane crash on the island of Grand Bahama on Sunday.

The Nassau Guardian reported that Rev. Myles Munroe, president of Bahamas Faith Ministries International, and his wife, Ruth Munroe, were among the passengers on a private jet that crashed into a crane at a shipyard as it approached Grand Bahama International Airport in Freeport. The newspaper said two other pastors with Munroe’s organization were also on the flight.

The Nassau Guardian reported that Munroe, his wife and the other passengers were traveling from Lynden Pindling International Airport in Nassau, the Bahamian capital, to Grand Bahama for a leadership forum that opened on Monday.

“It is utterly impossible to measure the magnitude of Dr. Munroe’s loss to the Bahamas and to the world,” said Prime Minister Perry Christie in a statement to the Nassau Guardian. “He was a towering force who earned the respect and administration not only of Christian adherents but of secular leaders both here at home and around the world.”

Rev. Donnie McClurkin, a U.S. gospel singer who claims God delivered him from the “sin” of homosexuality, is among those who also mourned Munroe’s death.

As Right Wing Watch has reported, a gay pride event scheduled for this past weekend at a private resort in the Bahamas was cut short in response to a homophobic backlash that reportedly included death threats and vitriol on local talk shows.  Munroe was one fanning the flames of bigotry:

Among those who slammed the pride event and the LGBT movement in general was Dr. Myles Munroe, who heads Bahamas Faith Ministries International. Munroe has hosted shows on TBN in the past and been a guest on some of the network’s major shows. Over the weekend he put out a six-page statement attacking the LGBT rights movement and saying it has “hijacked” and “raped” the civil rights movement.

If there is a God, I suspect that both Munroes - his wife was also a leader of his "ministry" - are being called to account for the hate and evil they disseminated.  What's truly sad is that the Munroes prospered financially by treating others as unworthy of God's love.

The Evolving World of Gay Travel

Image by Tim O'Brien

Even before the Great Recession marketing to gay travelers was a growing niche in the tourism industry.  Now, with 19 states allowing full same sex marriage and perhaps 11 others on the way to that status within the next year to year and a half, more and more in the travel industries have awakened to the reality that the LGBT community is one that one wants to court.  When we travel, statistically we stay longer and spend more money.  Among the husband and my circle of friends, we DO travel a good deal (in September, we are going to Venice and then will take a cruise to the Greek Islands) and are not going to go to destinations that are not gay friendly - hence why New York City, Key West and Washington, DC, are favored domestic destinations.  A piece in the New York Times looks at the changing travel scene and one has to wonder when cities in Hampton Roads - especially Virginia Beach - are going to wake up to the fact that they are missing the boat an a significant travel niche.  Obviously, not all in the LGBT community are wealthy - the exact opposite is often the case - but I think we are more discerning of what we want and expect when we travel. Here are article excerpts:

In the 1970s gay tours took men rafting in the Grand Canyon and to Rio de Janeiro for Carnival. Gay hotels began opening in Key West, Fla. And destinations like Provincetown, Mass., were creating some of the first marketing to gay and lesbian travelers.

Today, there are tours spanning the globe not only for gay men, but also for lesbian, bisexual and transgender travelers and their children. Major hotel chains like Hilton and Marriott have dedicated L.G.B.T. microsites and vacation packages. And same-sex marriage laws are transforming cities into travel destinations, with tourism boards and hotels sponsoring L.G.B.T. events and funding advertising campaigns with taglines like Las Vegas’s “Everyone’s welcome. Even straight people.” 

“Having gay marriage passed in so many states has made a big difference,” said Robert Adams, editorial director of Passport magazine, which has an audience of mostly affluent gay male travelers. “People feel they can go someplace and be themselves.” 

The number of places where L.G.B.T. travelers can be themselves has grown exponentially from the pre-Stonewall refuges. Sure, there are plenty of cruises and tours that specifically cater to gay travelers. But the gay vacation that once existed out of necessity is now often simply a vacation — be it a routine family getaway, a destination wedding or a romantic weekend.

[M]edium-size cities like St. Louis, Rochester and, in Florida, St. Petersburg are emerging as regional destinations. Countries in Latin America such as Argentina and Uruguay are opening up thanks to new gay-rights laws. 

“Now you’re seeing competition from all-size destinations and hotel groups wanting a piece of the pie. L.G.B.T. travelers have more options now than just the big urban centers.”Certainly, to define any traveler by his or her sexuality is to view that person through a narrow lens. Countless factors shape travel interests including, but hardly limited to, age, gender, race, socioeconomic status and, of course, personal taste.

[T]he quest for the so-called “pink dollar” has accelerated — pleasing some industry veterans and putting off others — amid reports about how potentially lucrative gay travel is and could be.

Just how lucrative is difficult to quantify. Community Marketing has estimated that the annual economic impact of L.G.B.T. travelers is already about $70 billion a year in the United States.

“This is such a high-traveling, high-spending population,” said Andrew Flack, vice president for product marketing and customer insights of Hilton Worldwide, adding that in the United States a higher percentage of L.G.B.T. travelers have passports than the general travel population.

One boost to gay tourism, travel industry experts say, is same-sex marriage. In New York City alone, the economic impact of the first year of gay marriage was $259.5 million plus $16.5 million in local tax and fee revenues, according to NYC & Company, the city’s marketing and tourism organization. 

And the marriage and honeymoon business is still in its infancy. . . . Nonetheless, hotels are preparing for an influx of same-sex ceremonies.

When it comes to hotels, some boutique brands, like Kimpton, have already established themselves in the L.G.B.T. market. Now major hotel groups are working to do the same. Over the last few years Marriott and Hilton have created advertisements with gay and lesbian travelers in mind.  . . . . Sophisticated brands and locations are evolving beyond images of rainbow flags and shirtless men, Mr. Adams said, creating ads that, while showing same-sex couples, look like the rest of the brand’s advertising. “It’s great to see a couple together or a family together,” he said. “Don’t throw in every logo.”

Hilton . . .  is expanding its “Stay Hilton. Go Out” L.G.B.T. vacation campaign, which it introduced in 2012. The campaign includes a vacation package (with high-speed Internet and a one-year digital subscription to Out magazine) at more than 460 Hilton Hotels & Resorts and Hilton Grand Vacations properties around the world. The Go Out program also has a landing page on Hilton.com with information about travel and promotions.

[I]ndustry professionals say there continues to be interest in gay-related tours and events, particularly among older travelers who grew up in a time of widespread discrimination.

“I think there’s always going to be a demand for that,” said Ms. Johns, “even though we are seeing progress in equal rights legislation.” That is especially true for people who take only one or two big trips a year or who live in places that are not welcoming.

To be considered L.G.B.T.-friendly, a destination usually has a local gay community with which visitors can connect, businesses with nondiscrimination polices and diversity training, and an overall welcoming feel.

As I said, the cities of Hampton Roads are missing out.  For years now I have been telling the City of Hampton that is tourism office needs to join the International Gay and Lesbian Travel Association.  To date my advice has been ignored.

Thanksgiving Reflections of the Mother of a Gay Son

When I finally came out to my parents, my late mother's sole concern was that being openly gay would make my life more difficult and she worried about what I might face.  Her reaction was what I think should be the reaction of every truly loving mother.  Sadly, far too many parents fail their children as they either cling to religious brainwashing or a form of self-centered narcissism that makes them worry more about their own possible personal embarrassment at having a gay child rather than the life and happiness of their child.  One mother that clearly falls in the mode of my mother is "Amelia" who has a young gay son and who frequently writes about their saga.  A piece in Huffington Post looks at her thankfulness for Democrat victories on November 6th and for those who have worked to make society a safer place for her son.  Here are some highlights:

I was a little tense before the election. OK, maybe "a little tense" aren't the right words. Maybe "really could have used an IV of Xanax" is more accurate. As the mother of a young gay son (and as a human being in general), I have loudly applauded the progress our country has made toward LGBT equality in the last four years. I wanted -- no, needed -- to see that progress continue. On Nov. 6, as the evening went on and results started flooding in, I was stunned and happy. President Obama was elected to his second term in office. Marriage equality won, discrimination lost and Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) became the first out LGBT person ever elected to the U.S. Senate.  Weeks afterwards, the joy and shock have not worn off completely.

I am complete sucker for Thanksgiving, and this year I am feeling especially thankful, not just for the progress shown in this last election, and the progress I can see coming just over the horizon, but for the many people all over this country who have fought or are fighting to make it possible.

I am thankful for the patrons of the Stonewall Inn in New York City, who, on Saturday, June 28, 1969, decided they would no longer tolerate police harassment and fought back. They stood up, got loud and clearly showed everyone that they were not going to take it anymore. In doing so, they launched the modern LGBT rights movement.

I am thankful for Harvey Milk, our country's first openly gay elected official. .  .  .  .  . He was tragically shot and killed the year after he took office, but his message of hope and openness lives on to this day.

I am thankful to the courageous moms who marched in New York City's 1974 Pride Day Parade. These mothers put conventional wisdom to the side and put their children's needs above their concerns about what the neighbors would think or do. When I look at their picture, I can't help but be in awe of the sheer gall it must have taken for them to do what they needed to do for their children, their families and themselves.

And those are really only the tip of the iceberg. In the last 50 years hundreds and thousands of people have fought for equal rights, and I am thankful to them all. I know that all their hard work, sacrifice and struggle brought us here, to a place where my little boy can know who he is and tell me without shame -- and be unaware that shame could even be a factor.

But they deserve more than my thanks. They deserve to honored. That's a task that I take seriously and to heart. I will honor them by teaching my son his history, a history he probably (and unfortunately) won't learn in school. From me he will learn of people who came before him. He will learn of the triumphs and defeats along the way. I will impress upon him the importance of appreciating and remembering that the path to equality is and was never easy but is always worthy and important. Without all those people, we wouldn't be standing where we are today. And I like today.

I agree completely with Amelia.  We need to honor those who have done so much by continuing to push for an end to religious based bigotry and for a future where all of us enjoy full, equal civil rights.

Take Part in Hampton Roads Pride Week

Click on image to enlarge

As a member of the Board of Directors of Hampton Roads Pride I will be a nervous wreck until 7:00PM on Saturday, August 18, 2012, when the 2012 Out in the Park Comes to a close.  So far the weather forecast appears to be cooperating, but I'm still holding my breath.  The image above lays out some details.  Full details of the day's events can be found here.

But this year, there are more events that provide a kick off/lead into Saturday's main Out in the Park event.  Here are some of these events:

HRBOR 3rd Thursday - Featured non-profit is HR Pride:

 When: 16 Aug 2012

• 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM
• Location:  Night of the Iguana Hampton Blvd + 37th Street, Norfolk

Pride 22nd St. Block Party:

When:  17 Aug 2012

• 6:00 PM - 10:00 PM
• Location
  Palace Station Shops at 22nd Street in Norfolk
  NOTE:  Kristine W and Matt Zarley, the featured entertainers for Out In The Park, will be at this event!

Out In the Park - 2012:

   When:  18 Aug 2012  

• 12:00 PM - 7:00 PM
• Location
  Town Point Park, downtown Norfolk

Click on image to enlarge

Last year roughly 17,000 individuals attended.  This year, with great entertainment, over 90 vendors, beer, wine and vodka company sponsors, and the nation's only gay pride boat parade, we hope even more will attend.  I will be wearing multiple hats for my law firm, HR Pride, HRBOR and the ODU Gay Cultural Studies initiative, but I hope readers who attend will make a point of saying hello.