ABBA Members Make Rare Appearance

Perhaps I am dating myself, maybe it is because I love to dance - a dancing queen if you will - or perhaps it was an early sign that I was gay (that I was slow to pick up on), but I have always liked ABBA and its music. In any event, the group appeared together with the lead cast members of the new movie "Mamma Mia!" at the movie's at the Swedish premiere. I have no idea whether the movie will be any good, but with 22 ABBA hits throughout it, the movie sound track will be good. Here are a few highlights from Reuters:

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STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - All four members of supergroup ABBA appeared together on Friday at the Swedish premiere of the film "Mamma Mia!", delighting fans with their first public showing for years. Benny Andersson, Bjorn Ulvaeus, Anni-Frid Lyngstad -- known as Frida -- and Agnetha Faltskog walked down the red carpet at a Stockholm movie theatre to the cheers of several thousand fans.

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The movie follows "Mamma Mia!" the musical, which toured worldwide and features 22 ABBA songs, including "Dancing Queen," "Take a Chance on Me" and "The Winner Takes It All". The foursome, who shot to fame when they won the 1974 Eurovision Song Contest, last performed together in public in 1986, although there were reports they sang together at a private birthday party for a friend in 1999. They were once reported to have been offered $1 billion to reunite for a concert tour.

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At the film premiere, Agnetha and Frida embraced with actress Meryl Streep, posing for pictures before the three did a dance together. Moments later, all four band members appeared on the theatre balcony. They stood together with Streep, Pierce Brosnan, Colin Firth and other members of the Mamma Mia! cast.

Saturday Male Beauty

A Candid Look at the Presidential Election and the Christian Right.

My friend Wayne Besen (who I got to know back in 2003 in our joint effort to expose national ex-gay and former Jerry Fallwell puppet, Michael Johnston as a total fraud-I am featured in a video on Wayne's Truth Wins Out website) has a column that looks at the dynamics of the 2008 presidential election and the role the Christianists of the far right will potentially play in the contest. I think Wayne's analysis is on point and it illustrates the way in which John McCain is selling his soul in order to pander to the intolerant, hate merchant demagogues. Candidly, I lose more respect for McCain who I met back in 2000 with every passing day and find it increasingly difficult to understand how some of my LGBT friends can say that they paln to vote for him. I hope that as McCain continues his shameless pandering more moderates and independents will abandon him. On a different note, as I indicated in a prior post, I believe that Obama's faith-based initiative proposal is a very bad idea as believe Wayne's assessment is accurate on that score. Here are some highlights from Wayne's column:

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For a brief moment, it looked as if the GLBT community might escape gratuitous gay baiting in the 2008 presidential campaign. Unlike the past few election cycles where the strategy was to secure the base at all costs, McCain and Obama were vigorously vying for moderate and Independent swing voters.

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Unfortunately, McCain made a strategic decision last week that he could not win without securing the party’s right wing base. My guess is that the campaign’s internal polling suggested that Obama – aided by his bloated bank account - was winning too many Independents, so McCain had no choice but to make peace with social conservatives. . . . Leaders from the Religious Right were reinforcing this reality by making it clear that if McCain did not grovel, they wouldn’t help get out the vote.

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With his divisive new strategy in place, McCain met with prominent social conservatives in Ohio and all but licked their boots. At the meeting, he announced his support for an initiative in California to ban same-sex marriage. In his speech he said that Californians ought to "recognize marriage as a unique institution between a man and a woman, just as we did in my home state of Arizona. I do not believe judges should be making these decisions." (Despite McCain’s anti-gay campaigning, the Arizona amendment failed)

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Obama, for his part, is going after religious voters who are dissatisfied with McCain. He met last month with Rev. Franklin Graham, the son of Billy Graham, and endorsed a sweeping faith based initiative. In my view, the faith-based initiative is a nightmare in practice, if not principle. These programs are useless, a waste of taxpayer money and are nothing more than pork barrel prayer and thinly disguised preacher payoffs. The Obama campaign should lose voters over this stunt, but it won’t, as McCain’s flirtation with the fringe no longer leaves him as a viable option.

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This past week will be remembered for McCain abandoning his efforts to win GLBT votes, but it will also mark the moment the GLBT community lost much of its leverage over the Obama campaign. The only way Obama could now lose significant GLBT support is by selecting an anti-gay Vice Presidential candidate, such as Sam Nunn. A presidential race with the religious right on the sidelines was fun while it lasted, but too good to be true. Now, comes the ugly phase of the campaign, where the GOP lies about our lives and our families become fodder to rile up conservatives in an effort to save John McCain’s sluggish campaign.

Fundie Preachers Caught in Sex Sting

Pam Spaulding beat me to the punch concerning two more "Godly Christian" preachers who got arrested in sweeps to pick up men soliciting for gay sex. In this day and age with the Internet and numerous ways to meet other guys if you are looking for sex, I CANNOT understand why anyone would solicit in a public place. In the wake of Lawrence v. Texas, the cops cannot bust you if you are in a private residence - well, unless you are in Raleigh, North Carolina, that is. Thus, are these preachers and those who look for sex in public places complete idiots or do they subconsciously want to get caught? It is also noteworthy that both men are members of notoriously anti-gay denominations. Why someone will remain active in a denomination that openly and consistently condemns gays is mind boggling. When I was coming out, one of the first things I did was leave the Roman Catholic Church.

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In the case of 48-year-old Jerome Pitchford, he is a long-time deacon of Milwaukee's Holy Redeemer Church of God in Christ. As for James L. Walls, Jr., who is also Mayor of District Heights, Maryland, he is the former Assistant Pastor of Greater Light Missionary Baptist Church and currently serves as the Associate Pastor of Forestville New Redeemer Baptist Church in Forestville, Maryland. I wonder how that pompous anti-gay windbag, Richard Land, of the SBC will try to sweep this incident under the rug?

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For the record, I feel sorry for the families of these men. Having a family member come out can be difficult enough, but having it happen in this manner with media headlines has got to be a nightmare. I truly long for the day when sexual orientation will be understood to an inherent part of a person and gays can just be who God made them to be. Here are some highlights on Deacon Pitchford from WISN 12 News (note how his neighbor thinks "a little therapy" might help):

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MILWAUKEE -- Police have been targeting Estabrook Park for years trying to stop men from soliciting sex from other men there. The latest suspect is 48-year-old Jerome Pitchford, long-time deacon of Milwaukee's Holy Redeemer Church of God in Christ. Police said Pitchford apparently does not practice what he teaches in Sunday School. Police say after church at the Holy Redeemer Church of God in Christ on Sunday afternoon, he was arrested and charged with lewd and lascivious behavior at Milwaukee's Estabrook Park. The criminal complaint says he was looking for sex with another man. He exposed himself, to what turned out to be an undercover police officer.

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“I just couldn't believe it and I was still wondering was it true, because I couldn't believe it cause he's such … a gentleman," said Bernice Sykes, Pitchford’s neighbor. He’s not only a gentleman, but a deacon, a youth counselor and mentor, says one parishioner who wanted to he heard but not seen. "I'm so speechless, i can't believe that," the parishioner said. "I can't believe it, but I hope that he will get … a little therapy and get himself straightened out,” Sykes said.

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As for Mayor Walls, who surprisingly is a Democrat as opposed to the usual GOP politico that gets picked up in these stings, the Washington Post has a story today. Here are some highlights on Mayor Walls' incredibly stupid conduct:

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The mayor of District Heights was arrested early yesterday in the District after allegedly offering an undercover male police officer $40 for sex in a known prostitution area, authorities said. James L. Walls Jr., 30, was arrested at 12:30 a.m. at Sixth and F streets NW, near Verizon Center. He was charged with solicitation for lewd and immoral purposes, police said. He was issued a citation and released.

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Walls, who is single, was known as a rising star among young Democrats in Prince George's County. He was the youngest person elected mayor of District Heights -- a community inside the Beltway with a population of about 6,000. He was elected mayor in May 2006; his term runs until 2010. He also serves as an associate minister at the Forestville New Redeemer Baptist Church and works for Fairmount Heights as town administrator, according to the District Heights Web site.

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The Rev. Nathaniel Thomas, pastor of Forestville New Redeemer Baptist Church, said he was stunned by the news. "I'm very, very shocked," Thomas said. "But we are praying for him. "I hope he will put a call to me so we can pray together. . . . I'm not passing judgment. We are innocent until proven guilty," Thomas said. He's been a delight," the pastor said, referring to the community work Walls has done with senior citizens. "I know this is going to be a shocker to the congregation."

Mature Male Beauty

A number of readers wanted some more mature male beauty photos. Here's one I found.

Chimperator Presides Over Citizenship Ceremony Monticello

In yet another disingenuous act aimed more at a photo op than anything else, George W. Bush, a/k/a on this blog as the Chimperator, disruptted Charlottesville, Virginia, for a citizenship ceremony at Monticello, the home of Thomas Jefferson. Somehow I suspect Thomas Jefferson would despise the Chimperator and Jefferson was probably turning over in his tomb on the Monticello grounds at the Chimperator's presence at his much loved home. Not only is the Chimperator a veritable cretin compared to Jefferson's intellectual brilliance, but I doubt Jefferson would have anything good to say about Bush's damaging citizens' constitutional rights and his pandering to wingnut Christianists who seek to overturn freedom of religion for all citizens. Speaking to my mother who lives very near to Monticello, the local residents had the pleasure of closed streets and swarms of secuity personnel. She said the main entrance to her own neighborhood was blocked for a couple hours with Secret Service cars and personnel. Charlottesville being the progressive, thinking city that it is, despite security efforts to revove all potential protesters, the Chimperator got called out by some folks in the crowd. It is also interesting that one new citizen is from Iraq. What would Bush's Christianist friends say about letting a non-evangelical Christian become a U.S. citizen? Here are highlights from the Daily Progress:

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Bush is the fourth sitting president to attend Monticello’s July 4 ceremony, after Gerald Ford (1976), Harry S. Truman (1947) and Franklin D. Roosevelt (1936). The visit to Monticello was the first of his presidency. “The Fourth of July will be a part of your Independence Day, and I will be honored to call you a fellow American,” Bush said.

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Naturally, Bush’s presence and remarks did not come without some hostility. Within seconds of the president stepping in front of the podium, cries of “Impeach Bush” and “That man is a fascist” resonated among the crowd. But the president responded to his critics by citing a simple constitutional right. “To my fellow citizens to be, we believe in freedom of speech in the United States of America,” he said amid the crowd’s boos. One protester, Gael Murphy, held up a banner that read “Impeach: It’s Patriotic” and yelled, “Defend the Constitution. Impeach Bush.” “Bush should not go unchallenged wherever he goes,” she said.

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Hataw Saadi Taha, who fled the northern region of Iraq 11 years ago, said she wanted to become an American citizen because the United States was the first country that accepted her after leaving the rule of Saddam Hussein. “I am very proud of my new country,” Taha said. “Especially on the Fourth of July.” Taha told Bush that she wants to see an end to the violence in her homeland. “Mr. President, I need peace to my country.”

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Security was tight for the presidential visit. Every attending person had to go through metal detectors and military commandos patrolled on ATVs. Two police officers surveyed the crowd through binoculars from Monticello’s roof.

Random Thoughts

My 4th of July has been low key so far - some yard work and then an outing to the beach in Ocean View (there were no good waves for surfing) where I ran into some friends on the beach and proceeded to have a pleasant time, including trying a "Georgia martini" comprised of lime juice, vodka, peach schnapps and the juice of a fresh peach. One of the things that we discovered as we chatted for several hours is that one of my friends in the straight phase of her life was a friend of my youngest sister. Moreover, her children and my niece and nephew were friends through middle school. At one point we had a scare when the beach patrol came by and I thought that either (1) they suspected the "martinis" were not Gatorade or (2) that me wearing a speedo on the beach - which I can do again after losing a some weight - constituted public indecency (it probably would in Virginia Beach where it's like a police state in the resort area). Luckily, they were just handing out information sheets to beach goers.

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The rest of my holiday weekend will be relatively low key as well. I have a birthday party to attend tomorrow night (the same hosts as where I went to another one recently for a fellow HRBOR board member) , brunch with my youngest daughter on Sunday and then a pool party at the gorgeous home of a gay couple which backs up to a scenic lake and has a beautiful pool. My tan will definitely be a bit darker by the end of the weekend. In addition, I suspect at some point either tonight or tomorrow night I will go to The Wave for some aerobic exercise, a/k/a dancing.

Still More Friday Male Beauty

Former Senator Jesse Helms is Dead at 86

I know it is not nice to speak ill of the dead, but Jesse Helms, former U. S. Senator from North Carolina, was in many ways NOT a nice man. Among other things he was a racist and a homophobe who did all he could to subvert gay rights and reduce funding for HIV/AIDS. He clearly was of a Christianist mindset and cared nothing for the religious freedom rights of those who held counter religious views. As is all too typical, many of the stories now running on Helms ignore the ugly underbelly of what Helms was all really about - and what conservatism in its current form is all about as well. America Blog has a good post that reminds us of what the true Jesse Helms was all about. It is not a nice picture. Here are highlights:

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Can't even begin to think of anything nice to say about this guy -- but a lot of other people will start praising Helms as if none of the hateful stuff matters. The hateful stuff matters. Let's reminisce on the life of one of America's biggest bigots who ruined the lives of so many.

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Jesse Helms on "negroes": As an aide to the 1950 Senate campaign of North Carolina Republican candidate Willis Smith, Helms reportedly helped create attack ads against Smith's opponent, including one which read: "White people, wake up before it is too late. Do you want Negroes working beside you, your wife and your daughters, in your mills and factories? Frank Graham favors mingling of the races." Another ad featured photographs Helms himself had doctored to illustrate the allegation that Graham's wife had danced with a black man. (The News and Observer, 8/26/01; The New Republic, 6/19/95; The Observer, 5/5/96; Hard Right: The Rise of Jesse Helms, by Ernest B. Furgurson, Norton, 1986)

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The University of North Carolina was "the University of Negroes and Communists." (Capital Times, 11/22/94) Black civil rights activists were "Communists and sex perverts." (Copley News Service, 8/23/01)

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Of civil rights protests Helms wrote, "The Negro cannot count forever on the kind of restraint that's thus far left him free to clog the streets, disrupt traffic, and interfere with other men's rights." (WRAL-TV commentary, 1963) He also wrote, "Crime rates and irresponsibility among Negroes are a fact of life which must be faced." (New York Times, 2/8/81)

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Helms on "degenerate, weak, sick homosexuals": Over the years Helms has declared homosexuality "degenerate," and homosexuals "weak, morally sick wretches." (Newsweek, 12/5/94) In a tirade highlighting his routine opposition to AIDS research funding, Helms lashed out at the Kennedy-Hatch AIDS bill in 1988: "There is not one single case of AIDS in this country that cannot be traced in origin to sodomy." (States News Service, 5/17/88)

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Helms being a racist: And the man ABC News now describes as a "conservative icon" (8/22/01) in 1993 sang "Dixie" in an elevator to Carol Moseley-Braun, the first African-American woman elected to the Senate, bragging, "I'm going to make her cry. I'm going to sing Dixie until she cries." (Chicago Sun-Times, 8/5/93)

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On cutting AIDS funding: Sen. Jesse Helms says the government should spend less money on people with AIDS because they got sick as a result of "deliberate, disgusting, revolting conduct," The New York Times reported Wednesday...."We've got to have some common sense about a disease transmitted by people deliberately engaging in unnatural acts," Helms told the Times.

Florida (Closeted) Governor Crist to Marry Woman

Based on all the past rumors and statements by those who have seen Charlie Crist in gay bars, etc., this announcement looks politically motivated to me (those taking a Sun-Sentinnel poll thought likewise). I mean, the guy's been unmarried fro three decades after a less than one year marriage and now he suddenly is in love and getting married? I hope Carole Rome knows what she is getting into. But then, being Florida's first lady and with a hope of being the Vice President's wife, maybe she is getting what she wants. While Crist probably believes that getting married will end some of the gay rumors and enhance his prospects to be picked as McCain's running mate, Ms. Rome is not exactly a Christianist's dream pick: she's Jewish and is divorced and - Heaven forbid - owns a Halloween costume manufacturing company. The fact that she has two daughters will give Crist an insant family for photo ops. Crist will definitely need to make sure to distance himself from young male campaign aids. Here are some highlights from St. Petersburg Times:

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Gov. Charlie Crist, single for nearly three decades, on Thursday morning became engaged to his girlfriend of nine months, Carole Rome. . . . No date has been set for the wedding, but Crist, 51, said it would be in St. Petersburg, where he is a member of First United Methodist Church. There probably also will be a reception in Tallahassee.

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Rome is a 1991 honors graduate of Georgetown University who became president of her family's 100-year-old Halloween costume business in 2000 when her father died. She has two daughters, ages 11 and 9, with former husband Todd Rome of New York, CEO of Blue Star Jets. She moved to Fisher Island in Miami in 2006.

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And his engagement is likely to reverberate well beyond Florida because the popular governor is widely viewed as a contender to be likely Republican presidential candidate John McCain's running mate. Not since Franklin Pierce picked William King to be his running mate in 1852 has America had a bachelor vice president.