Does Marco Rubio Have a Secret Gay Past?

A piece by journalist Wayne Madsen has begun widely circulating on Facebook that looks into Marco Rubio's alleged gay past.  Madsen has a controversial past in the field of journalism and some will likely dismiss the article.  Right wing hit piece or not, the article does raise some questions about Rubio's questionable past associations.  At least some LGBT blogger friends with South Florida ties believe the allegations could be true and will be seeking to verify the claims. From an e-mail exchange, Mr. Madsen has given me permission to quote from his piece which can be found here.   Interestingly, he knew about my involvement with outing former Congressman Ed Schrock.   

Given the long list of closeted Republicans who have been outed or arrested for gay sex solicitation (and the recent Grindr catch of a Virginia Republican), Rubio hiding a secret past is not outside the realm of the possible.  If the stories are true, one has to wonder how Rubio expected to keep his past a secret, especially were he to win the GOP nomination.  Also, if the stories are true, it would explain the stridency of Rubio's anti-gay rhetoric.  stridency.  The closet cases always seem to think that being  loudly anti-gay somehow will keep the truth from catching up with them.  

Towleroad is also reporting on the piece.  Here are highlights:

The post, by columnist Wayne Madsen published at Public Intelligence Blog, claims that “Marco Rubio was, as a high school and college student, known to be a very extroverted homosexual in both South Beach in Miami, a popular gay area, and at college in Gainesville, Florida.”

The piece contains an alleged photo of Rubio (at top) in 1989 “dancing and singing in a South Miami troupe that combined the Chippendales with The Village People.”

There is one piece of Madsen’s story that is accurate: “In 1989, a year before Rubio was arrested with his friend Angel Barrios and another unidentified male friend in Alice Wainwright Park in south Miami, ostensibly for drinking beer in a car after closing time in a park known as a pickup locale for gays.”

The Miami New Times wrote about this incident last week, though Barrios, who was linked to Miami’s most infamous gay porn case, denies that both he and Rubio are gay:

Decades after his legal run-in with Rubio, Barrios was associated with perhaps the most notorious gay porn ring in Miami history, an Edgewater house full of models with names like “Khali Kreme” and “Sincere Luv” who had sex all day in front of dozens of webcams. Couple that with the fact that the park where Rubio was arrested was a well-known gay cruising spot and lurid rumors — with no basis in documented fact — have blown up all this week on the internet, eagerly stoked by Donald Trump supporters casting Rubio as a closeted homosexual. 

Right-wing conspiracy monger Alex Jones devoted a five-minute segment to the allegations yesterday, while posts on the claims have been heavily upvoted on a Reddit page for Trump supporters.

“I have nothing against gay people, but this is just so far from the truth,” says Barrios, who laughs out loud at the idea of having had a sexual relationship with Rubio. “I have kids, and now they’re reading all this garbage online. It’s insane.”

In any case, it appears that the right has gone full throttle behind-the-scenes on bringing down Rubio as a closeted gay, with more than just cha-cha heels.

I love the statement that having children makes one somehow assuredly straight.  The number of married men in heterosexual marriages on Craigslist or Grindr looking for gay sex is huge.   

Bob McDonnell Is Now Living With Catholic Priest Busted For Public Gay Sex

The night time soap opera aspects of the Bob and Maureen McDonnell criminal corruption trial just continue to go off the charts.  That McDonnell was ever seen as a rising star in the Republican Party shows just how bankrupt that party has become.  Now, on top of everything else, we find out that Bob "Taliban Bob" McDonnell has moved out of the family home and is living with a Catholic priest who was busted in Norfolk for public gay sex.  Seriously, it would be hard to make up stuff this good!  As Joe Jervis notes, one of McDonnell's first actions as Governor was to strip LGBT people of protection under a statewide anti-discrimination executive order, declaring that there is no evidence of such discrimination.  The Contributor has more details on this soap opera:

The following story most definitely falls into the "you can't make this shit up" category. Former Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell, now on trial for corruption as governor (and busy throwing his wife under the bus while rolling back and forth over her a few times, proving he's a complete cad as well as a sleazeball), has moved out of his home with Maureen and moved in with a priest: Rev. Wayne Ball of St. Patrick's Catholic Church in Richmond. Well, how about we meet the good Reverend (note: thanks to Ben "Not Larry Sabato" Tribbett for the tip on this one).

Yeah, it's this same guy.

The Rev. Wayne L. Ball, a Norfolk priest who pleaded guilty late last year to a misdemeanor sex offense, has been reassigned to St. John's Catholic Church in Highland Springs, according to The Catholic Virginian, a biweekly diocesan newspaper. The move is effective June 2.

Ball, 42, has served as pastor of Norfolk's Holy Trinity Catholic Church since 2000. The current pastor at St. John's, the Rev. David V. McGuire, will replace Ball at Holy Trinity.

In December, Ball pleaded guilty in Norfolk General District Court to the misdemeanor charge of frequenting a bawdy place. Norfolk police arrested Ball and a 41-year-old Richmond man on the night before Thanksgiving in a parked car in a Norfolk park. The judge continued Ball's case until July 8 and will dismiss the charge if the priest has no further criminal problems and completes 80 hours of community service by June 3. The man in the car with Ball received a similar deal.

Anyway, this is the priest - Wayne Ball - who "Homophobe Bob" McDonnell is now living with in a rectory in Richmond. Just when you thought this trial couldn't get any more soap opera-ish or bizarre...

P.S. Again, let me just emphasize that I don't have any problem whatsoever with Rev. Ball being gay. I do have a problem with Bob McDonnell spending his career telling everybody what's right and wrong sexually as well as who they can and can't marry; voting for anti-gay legislation; and generally being a homophobic jerk; and then moving in with a gay priest after moving out with his wife Maureen.

Glenn Beck - Hillary Will Have Gay Sex in White House

Glenn Beck - foul asshole

Glenn Beck in my estimation is a pretty foul individual.  When even Fox News fires you, you know that you are truly living in a nasty La La land.  Yet Beck remains a darling of the Christofascist/Tea Party thereby indicating the moral sickness that plagues that demographic.  Now Beck seems to be trying to out do himself given his recent comments about Hillary Clinton and gays in general.   The New Civil Rights Movement reports on Beck's batshitery.  Here are highlights:

Glenn Beck accused several politicians, but especially Hillary Clinton, of hypocrisy on issues like same-sex marriage during his radio show today. The former Fox News host who now makes an estimated $90 million a year, according to Forbes, chastised Hillary Clinton for not supporting same-sex marriage when it wasn’t “popular” to do so.

Rather than recognizing that people can change their minds, Beck called those who came to support same-sex marriage later in the game, “despicable” and “disgusting.”

Beck also joked that Hillary Clinton “came out last year,” suggesting she is a lesbian, after one of his colleagues said she had “come out” in favor of marriage equality.
And then, he uttered this:

“I’m telling you, I’m telling you, Hillary Clinton will be having sex with a woman on the, on the White House desk if it becomes popular. She will be. She’ll be like, ‘Look, the arc of history wasn’t ready for a president to be a lesbian and have sex on the desk.’”

He also said LGBT groups “are becoming nothing but a terrorist organization.”

And last fall, Glenn Beck strongly suggested to parents they should physically bully their kids so they know rights come from God.

The Christian Fundamentalists' Obsession with Sex

As noted in a post over the weekend, the real reason the fundamentalist Christians hate gays so thoroughly is because we have the potential to cause doubt about their ultimately very fragile, house of cards like belief system.  And psychologically, these people cannot handle doubt.  Similarly, the thought of having to think and make moral judgments on their own without a check off the box guideline to follow is utterly terrifying to such emotionally and psychologically crippled individuals.  Andrew Sullivan sums it up well, especially the obsession the Christofascists have with all things sexual:

Again, as Christian doctrine, this is bonkers. There are obvious levels of sinfulness; the smallest white lie is not the same as a rape, and committing one does not mean committing them all. But you can hear the rhythms of the terrified fundamentalist psyche behind all these words. It is not enough for sins to occur (because that would make our time no different than any other); it is always the case that we are confronting a crisis of sinfulness, and that crisis is always spinning out of control into apocalyptic scenarios. So you give in to the gays, you give in to everything evil, because “if you break one sin you may as well break them all.” And if you break them all, America ceases to exist.

To recap: fundamentalism is not the same as Christianity. It has certain psychological tropes. The first is to see sexual sin as far the worst of them and the root of all of them. The second is to see gays – whose very being represents sexual sin – as an enemy class within a society bringing about its destruction if they are not stopped or converted (see: Jews, Europe, circa 1300 – 1945). The third is to see these gays as opening the door to every other sin and evil. The fourth is to “lose our country.”

 Sullivan is 100% on point in comparing the modern day obsession with gays as a threat with the past obsession with Jews.  We all know where the latter led.  In my view, fundamentalist Christians suffer from a form of mental illness, just as Sullivan suggests.
 

Pakistan: HomophobiscYet Addicted to Gay Sex and Pornography

Just as in the homophobic and supposedly "family values" Bible Belt where Internet porn use is off the charts, so too in Islamic Pakistan it seems that gay sex and pornography are likewise rampant.  The hypocrisy in both instances is, of course, exquisite.   The lesson is that the more a social or faith group feigns religiosity and would be piety, the  more likely it is that it's all a crock of bullshit when one sees what happens behind closed doors.  The Atlantic looks at the gay sex that some claim is rampant in Pakistan.  Here are story excerpts:

Pakistan is one of the most homophobic countries in the world. Yet gay sex is apparently prevalent in the country, which is home to 183 million people, some 97% of whom are Muslim. 

As the BBC's Mobeen Azhar reports in a fascinating investigation, the combination of the prevalence of gay mobile apps like Grindr and Scruff, plus the onus of arranged marriage, has made the Pakistani city of Karachi — the nation's biggest city, at nearly 24 million people — a hotbed of gay sex, even if actually maintaining a gay lifestyle is still incredibly difficult.

"[S]ome say the country is a great place to be gay — even describing the port city of Karachi as 'a gay man's paradise," Azhar writes.

Gay rights don't exist there, being openly gay is still looked down upon, gay relationships are hard to come by, and Karachi pretty much fails on every metric of gay life except for one: man-on-man sex. Karachi is home to a lot of it. 

Like any other country in the world (despite Iran's claims to the contrary), Pakistan has a homosexual population. Earlier this summer, for example, the Pew Research Center found that Pakistan was simultaneously one of the most intolerant countries in the world for gay people while at the same time being one of the world leaders in searching for gay porn. "As of this writing, Pakistan is by volume the world leader for Google searches of the terms 'shemale sex,' 'teen anal sex,' and 'man fucking man,'" Mother Jones's Alex Park wrote.

But despite all this gay sex, life for gay people is still pretty awful in Karachi. That's because gay people, like straight people, crave relationships. And that's still not possible in Pakistan. Many of the men engaging in gay sex acts, Azhar explains, are married. "Sex between men will be overlooked as long as no-one feels that tradition or religion are being challenged. At the end of it all, everyone gets married to a member of the opposite sex and nothing is spoken about," a local told Azhar. 

So gay relationships become an anomaly. Azhar uses the word "occasional." And its led to plots like what's currently going in China—gay men and lesbians "marrying" each other out of convenience.

Actually, Karachi doesn't sound too different from the Hampton Roads area of Virginia.  Go on craigslist or any gay hook up site and you will find countless married men looking for quick nearly anonymous gay sex. 

bishop in charge of cleaning up Vatican finances 'Got Stuck in Elevator with a Rent Boy; Lived with Gay Lover in Uruguay

Absolutely nothing surprises me any more when it comes to the hypocrisy and number of gays in the Catholic Church hierarchy.  As more and more bizarre stories come out, one is left feeling that one could not write stuff as crazy and over the top of the reality within the Vatican and the Church hierarchy.  The latest story involves Monsignor Battista Ricca was recently appointed as Pope Francis's new point man charged with cleaning up the beleaguered Vatican Bank.  It seems that in addition to living with a gay lover in the past, Fr. Ricca was trapped in an elevator with a rent boy.  As I said, you can't make up shit this good.  Absent a complete house cleaning of the hierarchy to purge (i) child rapist enablers and protectors and (ii) hypocrites like Ricca, Pope Francis will only bring more of the same old sickness to Roman Catholicism.   The Daily Mail has coverage.  Here are highlights:

The man appointed by Pope Francis to clean up the Vatican's scandal-hit bank allegedly had a gay affair with a Swiss soldier and had to be rescued after getting stuck in a lift with a rent boy.

Monsignor Battista Ricca was recently appointed as Francis's new prelate with responsibility for the Vatican bank, the Institute for Religious Works which has been hit by years of financial scandal.

But according to an expose by weekly Italian news magazine L'Espresso, Monsignor Ricca's own record is less than spotless.

The publication has claimed that Monsignor Ricca only got the position as IoR prelate after the supposedly powerful 'gay lobby' in the Vatican airbrushed his CV.

According to the claims, Ricca took a Vatican diplomatic post in Uruguay in 1999 and caused shockwaves within the church when moved his Swiss army captain lover, Patrick Haari, in.

The publication claims that the allegations have been confirmed by a number of bishops, priests and laity in Uruguay.  Ricca was eventually moved to Trinidad and Tobago and then recalled to Rome in 2002.

The same year, he allegedly found himself in more hot water when he was attacked at a notorious cruising ground.  Soon afterward, Ricca had to be rescued by firemen when he got trapped in a lift.   He was reportedly found inside with a youth who was known to local police.

As well as his role as primate of the IoR, Ricca is also in charge of the Pope's residential quarters at the Vatican.

The allegations come a month after Pope Francis acknowledged the existence of a 'gay lobby' inside the Vatican's secretive administration for the first time.

The Vatican is no stranger to gay sex scandals.  In 2010, it was reported that one of Pope Benedict's ceremonial ushers and a member of the Vatican choir were involved in a gay prostitution ring.

The Vatican's problems would be laughable but for the harm that the sex obsessed bitter old men continue to do to gays  - especially gay youth - and women by portraying women and gays as inherently disordered sinners and temptresses, respectively.  If anyone is disordered, it's these bitter old queens in dresses.    With every passing day, I become increasingly amazed that anyone truly moral listens to these foul men much less gives them undeserved deference.

Woman Faces Prison Time After Beating Gay Son

I have long believed that raising a child in a far right Christian home is a form of child abuse.  While adults are free to believe and live their lives as they desire, I have a real problem with children being forced to embrace a form of religion that has at its core a message of embracing ignorance, hate, fear and bigotry.  The children of such homes - and I would most definitely include far right Catholic homes - come out emotionally and psychologically damaged.  My own Catholic upbringing, despite the best intentions of my parents left scars that it took years of therapy to overcome and escape.  A woman in Texas has demonstrated that far right Christianist beliefs can carry physical harm for children as well, especially gay children.  Here are excerpts from a piece in LGBTQ Nation:

FOREST HILL, Texas — A Texas woman is facing felony charges for badly beating her 15-year-old son after she caught him receiving oral sex from a male cousin last December.  Police in Forest Hill have charged Erica Moore with assault with bodily injury to a family member and felony child abuse after she admitted to beating her son with with an electrical cord.

Moore said it is a form of discipline she was taught, and that she “doesn’t believe in homosexuality.”  “My cousin at the time, he was 18. My son, he was 15, and I had walked in the room on [my cousin] giving oral sex to my son and I started whooping my son, and I’m the one who got in trouble as a result of me whooping him,” Moore told KTVT-TV.

“The police department told me that it was consensual, but they was committing a homosexual act in my house and we are totally against that. So I whooped my son, and about three or four months later they came and arrested me for abuse,” she said.

A spokesperson for the Forest Hill Police department said that the incident was brought to their attention after the boy’s grandmother had taken him to a local hospital.  The staff there alerted Texas Child Protective Services who launched an investigation.

Police officials said that Moore’s actions went beyond legally acceptable standards of discipline as she caused bleeding and leaving marks on the boy’s thighs, forearms, hands, torso and back.

[A] spokesperson for Child Protective Services said, “If you are leaving the child with severe injuries or bruises, then obviously we might be talking about abuse.”  A spokesperson for the Tarrant County District Attorney’s Office declined to comment saying that there is still an active investigation into the matter, but did acknowledge that Moore faces prison time if convicted.

Frankly, I hope Moore does prison time.  Beating one's child to the point of hospitalization all because of a belief in the rantings of uneducated nomadic herders of 2,500 years ago.  There is no excuse and it is far past time that the Bible be recognized as a very toxic work that deserves little respect in the modern world.

Santorum Promise War on Pornography If Elected

My, my. Rick "Frothy Mix" Santorum has apparently missed the studies that show the biggest users of Internet porn are those among his Christianist base - especially in the Bible Belt. Otherwise, why would he be promising a "war on pornography" if elected to the White House. Doesn't he realize that the "godly Christian" set loves to meddle in the sex lives of others but truly loves to watch Internet porn. Maybe it's how they bring excitement to their outwardly prudish, Puritan like unhappy lives. But I digress. This declaration will only serve to underscore Santorum's religious extremist image and ought to signal to voters outside the Kool-Aid drinking crowd that Santorum's own subliminal obsession with sex - especially gay sex - will push him to try to control their sex lives as well. Huffington Post looks at this latest batshitery from the (in my view) mentally disturbed Santorum:

Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum has promised to initiate a war on porn if elected. “America is suffering a pandemic of harm from pornography. It contributes to misogyny and violence against women. It is a contributing factor to prostitution and sex trafficking,” the former Pennsylvania senator wrote in a statement posted on his campaign website.

Santorum has chosen the porn industry as his latest target in his effort to be viewed as the most conservative candidate in the GOP primary, ahead of opponent Mitt Romney. He believes that current obscenity laws should be more stringently enforced.

The statement also took the opportunity to slam the Obama administration and its handling of the issue so far, stating that the president has “refused to enforce obscenity laws” and that the Department of Justice "seems to favor pornographers over children and families."

Not everyone agrees with Santorum's analysis of how the industry affects Americans. Steve Chapman, a writer for the Chicago Tribune took issue with Santorum's claims, which he describes as "just wrong."

"Santorum doesn't seem to notice that as porn has become ever-more available via the Internet, the prevalence of rape has plunged. Since 1991, the national rate has fallen by 86 percent -- compared to a decline in overall violent crime of 65 percent," Chapman wrote.

The porn industry is a billion-dollar-a-year business nationwide, and with the rise of the internet and technology it has become one of highest-grossing industries in the world.

The cited Chicago Tribune piece goes on to look at just how off base some of Frothy Mix's claims are in fact. Not that Santorum lives in a reality based world where hard facts and data matter. For Ricky, it's all about his Catholic upbringing induced bizarre views of sex (I know of what I speak - it took me years of therapy to undo the damage done by the priests and nuns). Here are some column highlights:

I can understand if Rick Santorum wants to prosecute pornographers on the grounds that explicit fare encourages non-marital sex, promotes the use of birth control or saps vital fluids. I would think he's off-base, but he'd at least have a plausible case.

When he claims that pornography "contributes to misogyny and violence against women," though, he's just wrong. All of the evidence argues the opposite.

Santorum doesn't seem to notice that as porn has become ever-more available via the Internet, the prevalence of rape has plunged. Since 1991, the national rate has fallen by 86 percent -- compared to a decline in overall violent crime of 65 percent.

A state-by-state study by economist Todd Kendall of Clemson University found that "the arrival of the Internet was associated with a reduction in rape incidence. However, growth in Internet usage had no apparent effect on other crimes." He concluded, that "in contrast to previous theories to the contrary, liberalization of pornography access may lead to declines in sexual victimization of women."

Santorum, however, is one of those people who just knows pornography has bad effects, because he finds it morally offensive. But when reality contradicts your ideology and religious assumptions, it's wise to reconsider them.

Of course, another explanation could be that Santorum wants to eliminate temptation for himself. If there's no gay porn, then he can't be day dreaming about watching it.

Santorum launches C.U.M - WTF Was He Thinking?

Proving once again that he's not only a bigoted homphobe but also a complete idiot, Rick Santorum has launched a fundraising effort called Conservatives Unite Moneybomb, a/k/a CUM. Given his Google search problems and his associated nickname of "Frothy Mix", you would think that someone on Santorum's staff might have thought through the consequences of this new acronym. But apparently that would be expecting to much who wants to be the leader of the world's leading super power. Needless to say, may in the LGBT blogosphere are laughing their asses off. Here's a sampling from my blogger friend Pam Spaulding:

This comes from the land of “you can’t make this sh*t up.” GOP Clown Car occupant, ace homophobe and bearer of a redefined surname that has become a giant political problem for him on Google, Rick Santorum is not doing himself any more favors by launching the Conservatives United Moneybomb, or C.U.M. for shorthand. Hat tip to Daily Kos front-pager Scott Wooledge on Twitter.

Admittedly, we already knew that Santorum is obsessed with gay sex, but this is over the top.

Is the Navy Making Owen Honors Its Fall Guy?

I and many outlets have previously addressed the story of former U.S.S. Enterprise executive officer Owen Honors and his production of sleazy videos that were played aboard the Enterprise during various deployments. For those new to the story, the videos included sexual jokes, subordinates parading in drag, anti-gay slurs, and sailors pretending to masturbate, shower together and perform rectal exams. When the story first broke, it seemed hard to believe that Honors' superiors were not aware of his video productions. Now, Honors - who was relieved of command of his ship - has submitted a statement that his superiors- including two admirals - knew of the videos and had even encouraged their production. True to form, the members of the higher brass are claiming to have had no knowledge of the videos and it looks like Honors is being slated to take the fall as the Navy true to form plays damage control. One thing one learns quickly living in this region is that the Navy never takes responsibility for misdeeds and/or mistakes and will look for an individual to fall on their sword instead. Honors doesn't seem to want to fall on his sword alone. Here are highlights from the Virginian Pilot:
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In a statement to investigators, Capt. Owen Honors said he had "affirmative and tacit approval of senior Navy leadership" when he made and broadcast a series of videos to the crew of the carrier Enterprise in 2006 and 2007.
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The former Enterprise commander said in his 15-page statement to Fleet Forces Command that the ship's two commanding officers, two strike group admirals and "myriad other senior military and civilian distinguished visitors" were aware of the videos, the Navy Times reported on its website Sunday.
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David Brown, managing editor of the Navy Times, said Honors' statement includes two points - that senior leadership encouraged the videos by discussing them weekly and that Honors was never told to stop making them - that contradict what the Navy has reported.
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"After personally reviewing the videos Capt. Honors created while serving as executive officer, I have lost confidence in his ability to lead effectively," Adm. John C. Harvey Jr., the four-star head of the Navy's Fleet Forces Command, said during a news conference Jan. 4. "He is being held accountable for the poor judgment and inappropriate actions repeatedly demonstrated in those videos."

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Honors may be a boorish idiot, but somehow I suspect that he's telling the truth about his superiors knowing about what was going on and that they likely just laughed it off.

Anti-Gay Mega Church Pastor Accused of Sexual Coersion

UPDATED: CNN has coverage of yet a third law suit beingfiled against Pastor Long:

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Another civil suit has been filed against Atlanta-based megachurch pastor Eddie Long, alleging coercion, negligence and fraud that involved a sexual relationship with a third young male. Wednesday's lawsuit, filed in DeKalb County, Georgia, State Court, was brought on behalf of Jamal Parris, now 23, who was a teenager at the time he joined Long's church. The suit, which claims Long encouraged Parris to call him "Daddy," also names the church and a youth academy as defendants.

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Obviously, it will be a while before the truth is known, but if the allegations against Atlanta mega church pastor Eddie Long contained in two lawsuits filed in DeKalb County prove true, Long will be another in a long line of homophobes that indulge in the very sex acts they condemn from the pulpit while shaking their sheeple down for money. Increasingly, there seems to be a correlation between one's outward homophobia and anti-gay hysteria and those secretly engaging in gay sex and/or predatory sex. Ted Haggard and numerous outed GOP politicians spring readily to mind. Here are highlights from the Atlanta Constitution on the allegations against Long:
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Two Georgia men have filed a lawsuit claiming that prominent Atlanta, Georgia, pastor Eddie Long coerced them into sex. The suits, filed Tuesday in DeKalb County, Georgia, allege that Long used his position as a spiritual authority and bishop to coerce young male members and employees of his New Birth Missionary Baptist Church into sex.
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"Defendant Long has a pattern and practice of singling out a select group of young male church members and using his authority as Bishop over them to ultimately bring them to a point of engaging in a sexual relationship," the suits allege. Long is considered one of the nation's top black preachers. His church has more 25,000 members, . . .
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The pastor took one plaintiff, Anthony Flagg, 21, on overnight trips to a half-dozen American cities in recent years, Flagg's suit alleges. "Long shared a bedroom and engaged in intimate sexual contact with plaintiff Flagg including kissing, massaging, masturbating of plaintiff Flagg by defendant Long and oral sexual contact," the suit says.
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Long took the other plaintiff, Maurice Murray Robinson, 20, to Auckland, New Zealand, in October 2008 for his 18th birthday and engaged in oral sex with him, Robinson's suit alleges. "Following the New Zealand Trip, Defendant Long regularly engaged in sexual touching, and other sexual acts with Plaintiff Robinson," Robinson's suit alleges.
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Long frequently denounces homosexual behavior. A 2007 article in the Southern Poverty Law Center's magazine called him "one of the most virulently homophobic black leaders in the religiously based anti-gay movement."
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Both plaintiffs said the pastor, his church and church employees gave them cash and lavish gifts that ranged from cars to college tuition. The suits also said that Long framed the sexual relationships as religious in nature.
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The suits allege that various staff members working for Long, his church and the Longfellows Academy -- which the suit describes as an offshoot ministry of New Birth -- "knew of Defendant Long's sexually inappropriate conduct and did nothing to warn or protect [the plaintiffs]."

Priestly Celibacy and Afghanistan's "Dancing Boys"

Having been raised Roman Catholic I grew up well versed in the Church's obsession with all things sexual and the sometimes less than subtle message that women were temptresses looking to corrupt men and/or dirty. After all, Eve was and is depicted as responsible for mankind's fall in the Garden of Eden. Add in the celibacy requirement for priests who are banned from marrying women and the typical older parish priest's lack of access to women who were relegated to being house keepers at the rectory and and members of the altar guild who washed altar clothes, etc, and it makes for a psychologically bizarre reality. In the wake of the Church's worldwide sex abuse scandal where the majority of victims have been boys and youths, the Church hierarchy and Catholics with an Opus Dei mindset have sought to blame the sex abuse scandal on gays within the priesthood. Indeed, these folks have sought to blame the church wide problem on modernity, Vatican II's liberalization of the Church - anything that places the blame on something other than the Church's own insane rules and sexual hang ups toward women in particular.

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A look at Afghanistan and the wide spread societal phenomenon of "dancing boys" and "boy players" would seem to demonstrate that crazy religious taboos and harsh demeaning treatment of women can indeed set the stage for widespread homosexual conduct even among those who view themselves as heterosexual. A story in the San Francisco Chronicle documents this long standing societal practice in Afghanistan which in some ways mirrors the Church hierarchy's approach of turning a blind eye toward sexual abuse by priests. Here are some highlights:
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Western forces fighting in southern Afghanistan had a problem. Too often, soldiers on patrol passed an older man walking hand-in-hand with a pretty young boy.
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For centuries, Afghan men have taken boys, roughly 9 to 15 years old, as lovers. Some research suggests that half the Pashtun tribal members in Kandahar and other southern towns are bacha baz, the term for an older man with a boy lover. Literally it means "boy player." The men like to boast about it. "Having a boy has become a custom for us," Enayatullah, a 42-year-old in Baghlan province, told a Reuters reporter. "Whoever wants to show off should have a boy."
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In Kandahar, population about 500,000, and other towns, dance parties are a popular, often weekly, pastime. Young boys dress up as girls, wearing makeup and bells on their feet, and dance for a dozen or more leering middle-aged men who throw money at them and then take them home. A recent State Department report called "dancing boys" a "widespread, culturally sanctioned form of male rape."
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Sociologists and anthropologists say the problem results from perverse interpretation of Islamic law. Women are simply unapproachable. Afghan men cannot talk to an unrelated woman until after proposing marriage. Before then, they can't even look at a woman, except perhaps her feet. Otherwise she is covered, head to ankle. "How can you fall in love if you can't see her face," 29-year-old Mohammed Daud told reporters. "We can see the boys, so we can tell which are beautiful."
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Even after marriage, many men keep their boys, suggesting a loveless life at home. A favored Afghan expression goes: "Women are for children, boys are for pleasure." Fundamentalist imams, exaggerating a biblical passage on menstruation, teach that women are "unclean" and therefore distasteful.
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That helps explain why women are hidden away - and stoned to death if they are perceived to have misbehaved. Islamic law also forbids homosexuality. But the pedophiles explain that away. It's not homosexuality, they aver, because they aren't in love with their boys.
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As one boy, in tow of a man he called "my lord," told the Reuters reporter: "Once I grow up, I will be an owner, and I will have my own boys."

Does The Gay Media Have A Sex Addiction?

I did not comment on it at the time, but a few weeks ago a major debate erupted on The Bilerico Project as a result of a post that editor-in-chief Bil Browning put up that discussed a website featuring Mormon guys masturbating. That post in turn caused Bilerico contributor David Badash to announce that he was bailing from Bilerico. Since I am a contributor to Bilerico myself, I tried to stay neutral. Now, Mediaite has a piece bearing the caption of this post that looks at the Bilerico snafu as well as the larger issue of sexual context on LGBT blogs and I left a comment with my perspective on the issue which is relevant to this blog as well as many others. I would like to hear readers' thoughts on the topic. Here are some highlights from the Mediaite column:
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For David Badash, a Bilerico Project post about a website featuring Mormon guys masturbating was the final straw. The New York blogger at the The New Civil Rights Movement announced quite publicly recently that he was no longer going to write for the brainy, activist blog that is the Huffington Post of the LGBT blog world.The back and forth between Bilerico’s founder Bil Browning and Badash has unearthed one of the dirty secrets about the LGBT (old and new) media world: sex sells and sex is interesting.
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Sexuality isn’t a dirty word for many LGBT media consumers and glorifying–even objectifying–sexuality isn’t problematic. In responding to Badash’s concerns, Browning conceded “[s]exy pictures always bring in viewers. I’m not ashamed of using that mentality to continue to bring new readers to one of the smartest, sharpest and controversial LGBT websites where you can talk openly about anything remotely queer.”
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Browning called the correlation between sexy posts, increased page views, and advertising impressions that lead to more income a “win-win” and that the content of the site was not lessened by a few posts that have a sexual content that appeal to gay men. Browning’s site is not all “boys in underwear” and porn links; far from it. With a large number of lesbian and transgender columnists, it reads more like a queer studies lecture than a porn-script.
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Andy Towle, the founder of the very successful Towleroad site, says that he includes sexy pictures because they are among the interesting things he finds online but that he isn’t intentionally posting boys in underwear just to get hits. “I’ve never used sexy pictures and posts as a device to drive traffic,” Towle told Mediaite.
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“I’ve had to abide by stricter rules as my site has become more successful because top advertisers have different expectations,” Towle said. Mainstream advertisers are wary of adult content and links to adult websites, Towle explained, meaning that he has to be conscious of what he puts on his site to avoid offending ad networks even if similar content on a non-gay website wouldn’t raise eyebrows.
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So what are my thoughts on the issue? Obviously, I continue to post the "male beauty" photos. At the same time, I endeavor to keep the photos non-X-rated for the very reason cited by Andy Towle: I do not want the blog to be marked as an adult site with warning disclaimers before one can enter. Here is the comment I left on the Mediaite story:
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I can understand each side of the argument, but in the final analysis believe that as a blogger, one is trying to attract multiple audiences. Thus, I am not offended by some beefcake if it is tasteful and PG-rated. In fact, on my own blog, Michael-in-Norfolk, I intermix some tasteful, artistic male beauty (many are fashion model shots) with a daily series of posts on topics that can cover advocacy, politics, religion, gay rights, world and local events and other topics. Most readers focus on the serious posts, yet also enjoy the “eye candy.”

Having now achieved some reputation for the serious pieces, I still have not eliminated the male beauty on my blog. Why? Because both my gay male readers and my straight women readers like them (I actually have a number of them). Indeed, I once put up a poll on whether or not to delete the male beauty and 70% of respondents said to keep the male beauty. I don’t fault Bil Browning for “mixing it up” with the Mormon boy post . If nothing else, by doing so he’s secured publicity for The Bilerico Project on websites like this one. Oh, I almost forgot – I really like the “Huffington Post of the LGBT blog world” comment!

Delhi High Court: Homosexuality is Not a Disease

The court battle in India over the repeal of Section 377 which criminalizes gay sex has been interesting to follow since the Court continues to rebuff the government's attempts and arguments to retain the penal code provision based on religious and non-legal justifications. Since the Court role is to adjudicate civil legal matters - not religious doctrine or beliefs - the Court is doing its job. Would that the government would do its job and cease acting as a de facto representative for religious factions. Here are some highlights from the Times of India:

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NEW DELHI: Irritated by the government's contradictory and unscientific stand on the issue of homosexuality, the Delhi High Court on Monday told the government that the homosexual trait in a human being cannot be termed as a "disease" and objected to the contention that if legalised, homosexuality would bring "devastation" to society. "Show us one report which says that it is a disease. A WHO [World Health Organization] paper says that it is not a disease but you are describing it as a disease."

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The Court was hearing a bunch of petitions filed by gay rights activists seeking decriminalisation of gay sex among consenting adults which, at present, is an offence. Section 377 of Indian Penal Code provides a punishment upto life imprisonment for indulging in gay sex. Continuing with its opposition the government described homosexuality as "a most indecent behaviour" in society, pointing out that homosexuals comprise just 0.3% of the population and the interest of rest 99.7% population "cannot be compromised" just to accommodate their rights.

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The Court, however, instructed him to "stick" to legal issues involved in the case and not raise political ones. Earlier, gay rights activists had contended that the government, by not decriminalising homosexuality, was infringing upon their fundamental right to equality on grounds of morality.

McCain Returns Homo Cash

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Gay Sex and Lots and Lots of Videotape

Yet another "family values" Republican has turned out to have an almost unquenchable thirst for gay sex. Bruce Barclay, a Republican commissioner of Cumberland County, Pennsylvania (pictured at left with Karl Rove), was initially accused of rape -- of a man, no less -- and police, investigating the allegation of rape of the 20-year old found videotapes of hundreds of sexual encounters with men that Barclay had filmed on high-tech surveillance cameras. I'm not sure of the precise number of men he had sex with but the encounters are said to number between 100 and 500. The word hypocrite seems far too inadequate to describe someone like Barclay who is active in a political party that has the denigration and marginalization of gays as a party platform plank yet he's out having more gay sex than is imaginable by most gay guys. Here are some highlights:

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Barclay's lawyer issued a strong denial ("This accusation of rape is ludicrous It will be defended forever and is wrong."). But it was clear things were looking pretty dicey. Until... vindication! Well, sort of.

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On March 31st, police, investigating the allegation of rape by the 20-year old Marshall McCurdy, obtained a warrant to search Barclay's home. They didn't find evidence of rape. But they did find videotapes of hundreds of sexual encounters with men that Barclay had filmed on high-tech surveillance cameras. The cameras were hidden inside AM/FM radios, motion detectors and intercom speaker systems, among other places. There was also one at his business office.

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None of the subjects were aware they were being filmed and no permission had been obtained, Barclay admitted. According to a second warrant issued on April 9th, Barclay also admitted to hiring prostitutes on a weekly basis from the now-defunct website harrisburgfratboys.com.

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As so accurately noted by Blogernista:

It has been clear for a long time that Republicans are far more obsessed with gay sex than any of us card carrying militant homosexuals. In the light of day Republicans foam at the mouth about The Gay Agenda to destroy marriage and Western Civilization while behind closed doors they are engaging in amounts of gay sex that most of us don’t even dream of.

CNN: 'Pressured' resignation in another GOP gay scandal

I am glad that the mainstream media has picked up on this story nationally(CNN's Situation Room, covered it yesterday). It can only help to continue to depict the GOP and many of its "family values" legislators as hypocrites, since the sex scandals just keep on coming. Better yet, maybe the "sheeple" to use Pam Spaulding's term, will begin to wake up and realize they have been played and manipulated by by the GOP and its members who parrot the family values rhetoric. Here are highlights:

Washington State lawmaker Richard Curtis resigned his office tonight after a man he allegedly paid for sex spoke to the media about the encounter. Curtis is the third conservative lawmaker in just as many months to resign amid allegations of soliciting gay sex. CNN noted similarities between the seemingly 'pressured' resignations in this and other Republican scandals involving homosexuality.

While I have not yet been able to confirm it - since Curtis has wiped his former legislative web page clean - there are some search results that suggest that Curtis was previously awarded as GOP legislator of the year. If anyone can confirm this, I'd appreciate it.

Washington State Rep. Richard Curtis, R-La Center-I'm Not Gay

Yet another family values Republican apparently has become involved with a male prostitute. Truly, we are approaching at least one new situation a week it seems with either GOP elected officials or conservative Christian ministers. Highlights from this article from the Washington State newspaper, The Columbian, (http://www.columbian.com/news/localNews/2007/10/10292007_Curtis-denies-wrongdoing-says-he-is-not-gay.cfm) seem to suggest something went on despite Mr. Curtis' denials:

State Rep. Richard Curtis, R-La Center, caught up in a statewide media frenzy over an ongoing extortion investigation in Spokane, said Monday that he is not gay. "I committed no crime," Curtis said Monday afternoon. "I did not solicit sex. I was trying to help somebody out." Curtis, 48, has been besieged by phone calls since news broke about the two-term lawmaker being the alleged victim of an extortion attempt.

The Spokesman-Review newspaper reported Monday that the alleged extortionist is a reputed male prostitute. DeRuwe would not confim that report and said that prostitution did not appear to be involved in the case. A Spokane TV station, KREM, reported on its Web site that Curtis and the man had a sexual encounter and were seen together at various spots around the city.

Police spokeswoman DeRuwe said she could not discuss how the case came to attention of Spokane police, nor could she provide details about Curtis' relationship with the alleged extortionist because the police investigation is ongoing."Obviously there is some sort of relationship between the two of them," she said. "Obviously one of them is a suspect and one is the victim."